Hey, I will give the new ride a chance, but just don't call it a Dart. Call it a Neon. I had the first gen 1995 Neon mopar performance ACR after my first F- body. It wasn't tough looking but spanked a friends 1996 GT Mustang time and time again in the zero to 80 run ( at 80 the mustang would crawl on by). It seems the designers at mopar have a blind eye to certain key things on the past from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Call it ignorance, call it way too much schooling on marketing, risk assessments worry, lawyers, politicians, who knows? I'll hopefully get one of these new Darts as a rental car when I get out of the office. Nothing drives like a rental, so they say.
But we come back to the name attachment and marketing.
I like the Neon. I really do. I don't think the Neons get their fair shake. Pop's got one. '97, stripped out base model. The car is nimble. Much like you, he has a story about whipping a Mustang, not in an all out speed show, though, but on a nice winding road. The kid in the Mustang was riding his ass when the road was straight, but once they hit the curves that's when Pop decided to have a little fun. The Mustang couldn't keep up.
But Neons are still on the road. Unless they're granny driven most are in the hands of teenage boys with a ricer complex or teenage girls who never check their oil, let alone give 'em a bath. Here in the Northeast, most are rotted out to the glass, blowing smoke, and generally on their last leg. People think Neon and that image comes to mind.
Then you have the buying public's perceptions. Seems like everyone knows someone who's owned one. Tails of blown head gaskets in the first gen are rampant. That problem was cleared up later on with the tri-metal gaskets, but the reputation still remains.
Actually, in my experience, the biggest issue wasn't with the head gaskets anyway, which took on more of an urban legend status, it was with rods liking to go egg shaped. I've done more cranks and rods in 'em than I ever had head gaskets.
The 2.4 is a different story. The head dowels like to crack and let the head shift, yet for all the 2.4's out there in minivans, Stratus's, PT Cruisers, etc, the 2.4 never gained the reputation a gasket grenade.
Take a look at Ford and the use of the name Taurus. For some reason the Taurus got a reputation as being a good car. No one could ever tell me why considering there is hardly one out there before '04 that's still on the trans it made it out of the factory with. The 3.0's had a wrist pin knock from day one. The 3.8's were expensive to maintain, with water pumps that sat too close to the frame rail, necessitating another hour on the books to R&R one, cam sensors that almost always fail, rust issues galore.
Yet a certain car gains a certain reputation, good or bad, earned or not. It's what people think, the emotional response they get when they hear a certain name.
In this case, when folks are having a fit about the use of the Dart name on the new car, they should be flattered, really. It means for the market survey as to what to name the car, most people associated the name Dart with Dodge, associated the name Dart with quality. They linked the name to a good car, with a good reputation. It's not an insult to the originals, no matter what body style, no matter what era, but the sincerest form of flattery. People recognize the name Dart with something good! And Dart owners can puff out their chests and know that the general public thinks their cars are great.
