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Dodge Hornet buzzes for partners; narrows it down to three
by Erin Mays on May 9th 2006 at 7:03AM 
DaimlerChrysler is on the lookout for companies to serve as a joint partner in making the Dodge Hornet, a sub-compact vehicle to be priced below the $13,995 sticker price of the Dodge Caliber. At this point, it looks like three automakers are on the short list -- Volkswagen and two others. Chrysler COO Eric Ridenour says that the contenders are European and Asian manufacturers.
The butch little car was shown in concept form at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year.
[Source: Automotive News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
amp 7:33AM (5/09/2006)
This car would be the ying to the Yaris's yang. Let's hope they don't muck it up if/when they bring it to production. Although DCX has a pretty good history of replicating their concepts in production form.
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tony belligerent 7:47AM (5/09/2006)
One word: TURBODIESEL.
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Glenn A. 8:02AM (5/09/2006)
Question: Why would ANY other automobile manufacturer trust DCX after seeing how DCX has acted towards Mitsubishi and Hyundai, which it owned part of?
Mitsubishi: As soon as Mitsu hit the skids and was in trouble, DCX ditched them. Funny how the German side of the biz bitched and complained when the US side of the biz was in trouble, but stuck with them - good thing - now the US side of the biz has helped carry the German side. The powers-that-be at DCX didn't obviously think Mitsubishi warranted any such consideration.
Hyundai: DCX bought a decent sized chunk and planned collaboration (in fact, the Dundee, Michigan engine plant is a joint DCX-Mitsu-Hyundai deal) but Hyundai politely asked DCX to obtain their own partners in China; DCX went ahead behind Hyundai's back and latched on to the partner Hyundai had been using.
Again. Why would ANY other car manufacturer trust DCX in a partnership?
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Padmini 8:07AM (5/09/2006)
i want to know more disadvantages of palm oil as bio-diesel and also effects of jatropha as bio-diesel.
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Puff Chippy 8:33AM (5/09/2006)
Let's hope it's not VW with their sorry reliability problems. You'd hope that if you were looking for a partner you'd try to find someone who knows how to build cars _better_ than you, not worse.
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Raj 8:36AM (5/09/2006)
This is first very good looking/style small American vehicle. This has potential to take on sub-compacts from Toyota/Honda and win. I would buy one of this in place of Yaris (good one), Chevy Aveo (really bad) or Honda Fit (ugly looking). Keeping my fingers crossed that production version of Hornet will be the same (at least 90%) as concept.
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Howard Kerr 9:01AM (5/09/2006)
Re Glenn A.
I don't know the car biz as well as you do, but I always thought that DCX jettisoned Mitsubishi as an act of "tough love". Mitsubishi had/has a lot of problems, problems they were hiding from customers, stockholders, and the Japanese government. At the same time, DCX itself was under fire from it's stockholders because of the problems at smart. Smart has since seen it's model range chopped almost in half and the on again/off again entry of smart into the U.S. appears to be off, yet again.
Perhaps DCX figured (apparently correctly) that with the large Mitsubishi conglomerate to throw it a lifeline, there was no good reason to keep throwing good money at Mitsubishi. By the way, DCX still does business with Mitsubishi, it's no longer a partner/joint venture agreement. Not to mention the fact that the pre-DCX Chrysler had a joint venture with Mitsubishi that dated to the early '70s...many marriages don't last 30 years.
As far as Hyundai and DCX, again, I don't know as much as you do. But I always figured Hyundai came into the picture on Mitsubishi's "coattails". Mitsubishi owned a part of Hyundai (I'm not sure they still do) and as a consequence, Hyundai was included in joint ventures as an ALMOST silent partner (much like a joint venture with FoMoCo would include perhaps Lincoln or Mercury?).
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Dr. Woo 9:36AM (5/09/2006)
"Let's hope it's not VW with their sorry reliability problems. You'd hope that if you were looking for a partner you'd try to find someone who knows how to build cars _better_ than you, not worse."
It took four entries for a VW-bash to come out? C'mon, readers, you're slipping. I expect nonsensical, ignorant flames at VW's expense in the first comment, not fourth.
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Mike 9:38AM (5/09/2006)
Chances are we are looking at VW.
VW is using the next gen caravan platform for their microbus, DCX wants a small car from VW.
Keep in mind, however, that DCX ONLY wants the plaform... which will be built at a DCX plant... with DCX tooling...
so look for a subcompact hatch entry from DCX, most likely off the Polo platform, in exchange for the microbus.
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Cameron 9:40AM (5/09/2006)
The design is really starting to grow on me. It's fugly, but I kinda like it.
I agree with Tony Belligerent. Put a turbo diesel in it, and I'm all over it. I've decided that my next car purchase will be diesel.
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Tim UF 10:05AM (5/09/2006)
what happened to doing your own development work? seems to me like the big car companies are becoming just overfat design firms (if you read the posts on the G% yesterday, you could argue perhaps that they arent even good at that)... sure they own the plants, but the plants are just integration centers, where they assmble vehicles from parts from around the world..
i would think that the delphi and visteon issues would tend to make car companies less likely to outsource, its easier to control product flow when its all in house. then again, im an engineer that dislikes jumping through the hoops of getting an outsourced part certified, not an economist that knows why it was done in the first place.
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Tim UF 10:07AM (5/09/2006)
that said, if DCX can get this car to market, in close to concept form (their bread and butter: producing concept cars like the crossfire, viper, prowler, etc) it would prolly be a decent competitor to the versa/fit/yaris trio... though, i cant imagine how the aerodynamics of this car lend to fuel economy/driving efficiency
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Joel 10:47AM (5/09/2006)
Honda I think still sells a motorcycle in Europe called the Hornet. The name in the US is the 599. I wonder if you could have a car and motorcycle with the same name?
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Corey W. 11:01AM (5/09/2006)
I can't say I fully undersatnd this part of the industry. Why is DCX lookng for a partner to build the Hornet? Reduced costs for design and assembly? Doesn't this also mean reduced profits on the application? Will there also be a version for the partner company... (i.e. Eclipse/Talon, Vibe/Matrix)
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Optimus Prime 11:50AM (5/09/2006)
What the heck? They designed a concept vehicle. Did the market research. Put all the specs together. THEN, they put out a request-for-proposal to build the car from the spec sheet? Im guessing it will be a Chinese firm that wins the contract.
Is this the wave of the future for the big 2.5? Design cars in NA and have them built overseas?
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Mad Scientist Matt 11:51AM (5/09/2006)
Well, cars have had a substantial amount of their parts outsourced for quite a while. Back in the '60s, I know that Chrysler outsourced disc brakes (Kelsey-Hayes), carburetors (Carter and Holley), rear axles (Spicer and Dana), wheels (varios manufacturers), wheel bearings (Timken?), and power steering pumps (Saginaw, then a division of General Motors). I'm relatively sure they also outsourced such items as shock absorbers, other suspension components, transmission gears, most of the electronics, engine bearings, and pistons.
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rjl 12:27PM (5/09/2006)
Actually DCX likely still owns the name since Hornet was an AMC model.
I really dig the concept and I agree with earlier comments that it stays as true to the concept as possible.
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psych101 12:51PM (5/09/2006)
I am another big fan of this car. I love the size and I love that American automakers are willing to give it some horsepower. Turbodiesel option would make it a cinch for a win in my book. Although I do hope that DCX co-develops a more luxo Chrysler version of it...
I'm not too worried about outsourcing, just so long as they get it right.
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Glenn A. 3:12PM (5/09/2006)
Hi, Howard. Yeah, DCX bought up some portion of Hyundai in about 1999 (it was something around 10%) and Hyundai "asked" them to sell it back after the DCX people went behind their back about a year ago. DCX made a bigger profit on holding a portion of Hyundai for a few years than they did leaving it invested in DCX, I might add. Nothing like TV soap operas and people jumping in & out of bed, huh?
So DCX sold back the whole investment in Hyundai.
Yes, you're right, at one point, Mitsubishi did own a small portion of Hyundai - that ended years ago. Also, until about 2000 or so, much of Hyundai's engine were Mitusbishi technology, but since about that time they have done their own engines.
The major design work on the new "common" four cylinder engines built in Dundee, Michigan was Hyundai's. I spoke to a customer of mine, an engineer at Chrysler engine design, and asked about the engine and deal (about 2 years ago while it was still in the oven) and he was very, very defensive and claimed that he and his team had done a lot of work on the engine...
Be that as it may - I hope not (I didn't share that with him, though). I had a Neon commuter car and it was an absolute POS - there is no excuse for head gaskets going in 40,000 miles (these companies have been building internal combustion engines for 90-100 years, right?) The Neon was the absolute last straw for me - I only buy Hyundai or Toyota now. I may consider a Honda at some point in the future.
Question: if DCX can't be trusted to build a simple IC engine, WHY would I trust them to build a complex hybrid Dodge hybrid whatchamacallit that replaced the Neon? notachanceinhell.com
Only hybrids for me from now until they stick me in a box, unless something even better comes along. Hyundai's Accent hybrid is apparently coming out at about the same time the Honda Fit hybrid is (2007).
Many of the Chinese automobile manufacturers utilize old Mitsubishi engines (with or without proper licensing, I couldn't tell you which). Maybe one of those would be willing to build these things for DCX. The Chinese junk people buy at Wal-Mart for el-cheapo prices just proves that they apparently don't build stuff any worse than my 1999 Neon was, so "what the heck." It's getting so bad that even medium and moderaly high priced electronics are all made in China now. Soon, our GM, Ford and DCX cars, too?
Except that DCX has a bad habit of not sharing the money. My Neon was built in Mexico, didn't know it until I bought it. Still cost $14,000 new, same as 1998 Neons built in Belvedere, Illinois. With 60 cents per hour labor, the car should have cost like $9000. Chinese labor is maybe 15 cents an hour? So will the Dodge Hornet cost $5000? Yeah, dream on. It'll be $12,000 and DCX will pocket the $7 grand.
No, thanks. Not for me. The Chinese stuff I have bought doesn't seem to last more than about 1/2 the time Japanese stuff lasts (when I can find it).
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Jeff Bequette 10:13AM (5/22/2006)
2 Big Amens for a turbodiesel, small sorta American car!
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