Dodge Dart was first introduced as a compact car in 1960.
In 1960, there were some major change in American Automobile industry. First of all, tail fins were smaller than previous year. And also Big 3 started selling compact cars such as Ford Falcon, Chevrolet Corvair and Dodge Dart…..
Dart was discontinued in 1976 and was replace by crappy Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare which totally ruined reputation of Chrysler.
It has been 36 years and new Dodge Dart arrived to market in 2012 as 2013 year model.
First of all….it does not look particularly anything…..Believe it or not….the platform is carried from Alfa Romeo Giulietta!!
Fiat helped Chrysler when they went bankrupt because they wanted to come back to American market again.
Then, they started selling Fiat 500 and rumor said Alfa Romeo was coming back to America too……Now what we have is this thing which is the first Alfa Romeo since they left North America in 1996.
I was wondering why they did not use Alfa Romeo brand?
When Mitsubishi started selling in North America, they were sold as Chrysler and that was how they failed to build up their own brand image and sales network.
Same thing could happen to Alfa Romeo too.
Today, average American people are not interested in cars. They just buy when they think are reasonable.
I don’t think lots of American people even don’t know this car is Alfa Romeo based.
Then, the service cost would be more expensive than average Americans or Japanese…..that is the end!!
They should have sold as “Alfa Romeo” from beginning if they are really thinking of coming back to the market.
Italian cars have never been good quality and if they come outside of Europe, the maintenance cost is the big problem. In that case, they should give up to sell as “basic cars”. They should sell as “Premium European Sporty Sedan”….actually that is the only way to sell outside or Europe.
Or….they just used Alfa Romeo platform to make up one compact car by easy way.
Also they are testing in American market now with this car…..
I don’t know what is the true story….maybe all true….
At least this car does not look particularly anything at this stage.
I am looking forward to see Alfa Romeo cars with their own brand in North America again not with Chrysler name.
Westcoast Auto Design Studio 
To be honest this looks a lot from this angle like FIAT Bravo, on whose platform Alfa Romeo Giulietta was built. There is a lot of talk about the upcoming Alfa Romeo Giulia which I think will be the first Alfa Romeo to be sold in the US together with the new 4C. There are a lot of mock photos and speculation about what it is going to look like but nothing official or any “leaked” photos so maybe things are still moving in Alfa Romeo trying to find the perfect balance between European and American tastes. In the meantime the new Spider is almost ready and it is going to be based on the new Miata and made in Japan. This is the one to look out and I have read that it will be launched with a remake of “The Graduate”. Alfa Romeo is back to the US, Hollywood style.
Perhaps, Alfa Romeo is now testing by this Dodge Dart in North American taste.
But if they do to much, they could end up with “Dull & Boring”.
When they target North America, always get too big and dull to drive.
Italians or French could keep their taste because they left North America long time ago.
I’d like Alfa the way they are in Europe. They should not be Americanized too much.
America is the market with American, Japanese, German & Korean…what’s a boring market….!
That is how we are expecting more exciting cars like Alfa.
Only thing they have to think about is…after service.
Europeans are designed to be serviced by dealers and that is the biggest problem when we own outside of Europe.