Sad that it has come to this.
The Mopar community is actually celebrating over the Dodge Hornet, as far as I can see. And why? Partly because it has an engine that has some Chrysler engineering, rather than being a pure Volkswagen.
So Chrysler has been lower in the mud in the past; there were days when Mitsubishi made every V6 (3.0), every small car, the optional four-cylinder (2.6), and the compact pickup (D50). Indeed, for a long time it seemed as though Chrysler would make the money-losing big cars and trucks, the money-making minivans, and the badges for the Mitsubishi sports cars (Stealth and Arrow GT), compact cars, and such. Those days seemed over for a little while in the 1990s, but now we’re right back where we started, with “world engines,” Nissan CVTs, Mercedes suspension designs and electronics, and, apparently, Volkswagens filling in the bottom.
Yes, I like the look of the Hornet, not to mention its performance, but with the New York Times suggesting that the 1.6 engine plant in Brazil will be sold to a Chinese company, which will no doubt study it carefully and learn from its systems to flood the US (eventually) with good, cheap, advanced engine designs, we’re probably looking at a Volkswagen engine in the Hornet to match the basic platform. I can hope that Chrysler will essentially use the Polo’s hard points and redesign everything else, but I don’t think that’s in the cards. I think it more likely Chrysler will sell Polos in the US as Volkswagen sells Caravans in Europe, and Chrysler-Volkswagen will pick up where Chrysler-Mitsubishi left off, except that there’s also a Mercedes in the mix now. (Not that it would have mattered in the 1970s or the 1980s, anyway, since Chrysler was busy being pushed so far into Plymouth’s turf that Plymouth ended up with nowhere to go, and Chrysler ended up selling entry-level, stripped-down minivans…a prospect that most Americans now don’t find puzzling or disturbing, I suspect, but when I grew up, Chrysler was still challenging Cadillac, Lincoln, and anyone who cared to import a luxury car; the Imperial went after the best Europe could offer, but with better reliabilty.)
I don’t have a real upbeat ending to this. The Hornet is a great little concept, and I hope the Caliber does so well that Stuttgart decides to let Chrysler both engineer and build the Hornet in its own labs and plants. However, the part of me that realizes how much Mercedes is in the LX tells me that it’s more likely we’ll be getting Polos with Chrysler sheet metal, made in a Volkswagen factory…just like the Eclipse-based Dodge Avenger, Dodge Stealth, Plymouth Laser, Eagle Talon, Chrysler Sebring Coupe, Dodge Stratus Coupe, Plymouth Arrow, Dodge/Plymouth Colt, Dodge D50, Chrysler Crossfire, and quite probably a few I’m missing.
