Zander Drives Cars

2022 has been a weird year for Dodge. First, they announced that their next muscle car would be electric. Second, they announced the discontinuation of the Challenger and Charger. Third, and most recently, they revealed their first car in over a decade: The Hornet. To say this reveal was controversial would be an understatement. Not to generalize, but a majority of Dodge customers aren’t fans of small-engined, practical CUVs taking the spot of a high-liter V8. And I agree to a point. I think it is a very weird step for Dodge to go so far out of its comfort zone. Based on the Alfa Romeo Tonale, the Hornet shares its name with a muscle car from the 60s-70s, but aside from the name itself, these cars could not be more different if they tried. Regardless if it is different or not, the point is to find out if it is actually any good. So, I went to go find out.

The Hornet shares a similar shape and body language with its sister car, the Tonale. I find the Tonale to be an attractive car and I think no differently of this. It is a small, cutesy little CUV with some Dodge aggression pieces thrown onto it out of necessity. There were two Tonale GTs at the show. One was blue and the other was black with a red stripe, so naturally I chose the more exciting-looking one to take pictures of. I’ll be honest: in this color scheme, the Hornet looks cool as hell. One strange thing, though: on the trunk it had this strange vinyl sticker that said “direct connection.” I don’t know what that means or why it is there, but I’m sure it serves some purpose. Cute bee, by the way.

Like the exterior, the interior looks marginally the same as the Tonale albeit with some slightly cheaper materials. Most of the leather has been replaced with soft-touch plastic, which for Dodge is absolutely fantastic. The seats are a cool suede/Alcantara material with a fun black and red color scheme, with some more red stitching on the upper dash near the screen. Material-wise, the car feels pretty solid and there wasn’t anything too abhorrent I came across. Stuff like the air vents, steering wheel, and center console all come straight out of an Alfa Romeo, so take that as you will. I think they look fine and feel fine, but I know some Dodge purists won’t like any Italian flare in their burgers, so I assume that may be a point of conflict for some buyers.

Technology in this car is more advanced than anything currently wearing a Dodge badge, and there is a hell of a lot more as well. Radar active cruise control, lane keep assist, multi-function display, USB and USB-C ports everywhere, Bluetooth and CarPlay… this is a technological masterpiece for Detroit! All joking aside, there does seem to be an air of actual care put into what went in this car, and while I assume most of it was done by the Italians, I’ll give Dodge a participation trophy as well. I am just elated that we have new infotainment. The systems on Alfa Romeo, while not perfect, are miles ahead of Dodge, so that will be the main thing I look forward to playing with when this car finally hits dealerships. You get plenty of physical buttons for your climate controls as well as an array of steering wheel controls for many different functions, including sport mode, which is handy.

The 2023 Dodge Hornet GT gets the same 2.0l 4-cyl as the Alfa Romeo Tonale. It makes 288hp, and 383lb of torque and is mated to an automatic transmission driving either the front or all four wheels. This is thanks to the small (15.5kwh) electric motor the 4-cyl is paired with. Because of this, you can get 30 miles of pure EV range with this car, which isn’t too bad compares to others in its class. Now, at some point during the specs read out, someone at Dodge thought this was too boring, so, to compensate for that, Dodge brought out their dictionary. Powershot is a feature that will give you all the power, whenever you want, for a short period of time. It’s launch control. I have nothing wrong with calling it “Powershot,” in fact I think it’s hysterical, but Dodge just needs to call it how it is. Dodge also announced they will bring out a GLH model as a special edition. For those of you who don’t remember the GHL from the Dodge Omni, it means “Goes Like Hell.” The regular GT model will go from 0-60 in roughly 6 seconds according to Dodge, so if the GLH model does happen, expect that to go down a couple points.

As for price, the GT will start at $30,000 before markup, so the real-world price will be around $40,000. Honestly, I don’t think the price is bad at all for what the car is. It looks cooler than most of its rivals and certainly has more power than them as well.

So, there we have it. Dodge’s first car in over ten years, their first hybrid powertrain, their first CUV. The more feathers it ruffles the better. Well done, Dodge.