Production of the Hornet

The new Dodge Hornet that was just shown the other day in Geneva needs to be produced. There is a whole slew of small vehicles that are coming to our shores and Dodge or DCX should get a piece of that pie.

To name a few of the sub-compacts:

But if you look at any of the above sub-compacts, non of them have any character or attitude. This is what the Hornet will bring this this particular class of vehicles. The same goes for the Dodge Nitro in the compact SUV segment. It is exterior styling that is selling the 300 and the same will happen for the Nitro and for the Hornet if it is produced. Young males who want a starter car will come in droves for the Hornet.

The market for cheaper economical cars will continue to grow over the years and small will not equal cheap in the minds of North American consumers. The success of the Audi A3 will help BMW bring over their 1-series and maybe Benz will bring in their B-class to America (which is already being sold in Canada).

When gas prices shot up to 3 dollars a gallon in the summer, SUV sales sank (which they still haven’t fully recovered from), and cars sales relative to the SUV sales began to rise in North America for the first time in a decade. Gas prices have fallen since the summer, now they are roughly $2.50 a gallon, and that may seem cheap relative to the summer prices but they are still up roughly 30% over this time last year prices.

The global sales of sub-compacts in 2001 stood at 9.8 million units and it is projected to hit 14.1 million units in 2009 which is an increase of 44%. If Dodge wants a piece of that pie and to make headway into Europe…the Dodge Hornet is the vehicle that will accomplish these goals.

Allpar update

Busy days… Dodge has introduced the Hornet concept, which looks like a reworked Polo with a Mini Cooper S engine (which was developed by Chrysler and Rover and is closely related to the Neon engine). That should be good for Chrysler, since BMW is reportedly moving to a different engine supplier - probably PSA - and there’s a lot of action in the entry level once again. Some of the company’s best-sellers were entry-level: early Plymouths, the Valiant and Duster, the Omni/Horizon, Reliant, and, for a time, the much-loved and much-hated Neon. Having a great gaping void in that area doesn’t help, and selling thinly disguised Hyundais doesn’t match Dodge’s attempt at making a brand image based off its Ram trucks. (The old Dodge branding - equivalent to Pontiac or Oldsmobile - is long gone.) Those of us who really resent the idea of having Polos foisted on us, or even Mitsubishi Colts, with Dodge logos slapped on and few other changes, are encouraged at least a little by the Hornet.

The Road Runner trademark has fortunately been dropped. Without Plymouth, there should be no Road Runner. Not to mention that it would probably have ended up like the current Super Bee and Daytona - mainly a stripe package, perhaps with a few extra horses thrown in.

At the site, we are looking at installing the new Fusion Registry system “soon,” which is to say “in February” rather than “next year.” Our attempt at having a registry custom programmed died on the vine. Oh, well. Fusion Registry looks good so far - we hope it works well. We hate hanging things onto Invision forums…every time they close a security hole in IPB they demand we reinstall 90% of the files, which destroys any add-ons or skins.

Whenever I’ve had spare time I’ve tried to go through all the corrections and comments that have been sent in, with continuous changes being implemented. Please understand that some things will slip but we are working steadily on the backlog!