In addition to the Elantra and Civic listed before, compare to some of the other C-class competition (rough back of the hand calculations) Focus: 40mpg 3 Skyactiv: 43mpg Cruze: 39mpg Focus has 160hp, 3 has 155hp. How powerful is this 40mpg Dart? I'm not impressed yet. Matching 2 year old competition isn't good enough IMO. Dodge should be aiming to beat them, not match them.
Well, unfortunately they have to play catch-up considering their very recent past. Hp doesn't really mean much without Torque. This is what really matters for acceleration and fuel efficiency beyond epa testing methods. Gearing of course also helps. We'll see what happens after the unveil.
^ This. From the consumer point of view, the brand doesn't have a reputation for long term dependability or fuel efficiency. They're going to need a lot more than the usual pile of cash on the hood when their larger model sales drop off during the next gas price spike.
I've owned both Dodge and Fiat vehicles. They should really be concerned with producing a car that won't break in the first few years and will always start. Don't try to be the fuel miser champion just yet. The highest-volume Cruze model isn't exactly a marvel of efficiency. But it does many things well enough to be a success.
I dunno - whenever I drive Cruzes here at work, they are in the top tier of all my vehicles for FE - then again, I don't know how accurate the factory FCD is.
Hi All: As most know, Dodge is targeting 40 mpgUS highway when equipped with the 1.4L turbo. 2013 Dodge Dart It is not a breakout of course given everybody else’s offerings but as Ricardo mentioned, this is Chrysler’s first fuel efficient offering in forever with new features never before seen in the segment and in some cases in anything. Expect it to be a very desirable automobile. Wayne
Thank you... By margins unimaginable. 40mpg hwy and 184 ft-lb torque, 160 hp. This will be one fun frugal car!
The Dodge Dart configurator is online, note AC is not standard in the lowest cost model: http://www.dodge.com/en/2013/dart/
Herm, I "built" a Dart SXT. It's the lowest-priced Dart to get the efficient 1.4 turbo/manual trans. It was $21,000 "estimated" price. Of course , I added $1450 of unnecessary audio upgrades , but without that, it would be $21,000. There are far cheaper ways to get 40 mpg EPA highway. But I am glad to see them offer a lot of colors on even the cheapest models. I hope they do well , but the Civic/Elantra/Focus are tough to beat.
