It takes corporate spelunking to uncover the genealogy of the 2023 Dodge Hornet's name. And even more investigation to understand its convoluted engineering heritage and awkward marketing position within the Dodge brand. But past all that is a machine with the sublime moves of, well, an Alfa Romeo.
So, that’s good. Right?
Set the Wayback Machine for 1950 before I Love Lucy had begun production and the United Nations Security Council passed resolutions about unrest on the Korean Peninsula. There were no jet airliners, TV sets were huge but had tiny black-and-white cathode ray displays, and the new 1951 Hudson Hornet was the most modern car offered on the American market. Or any market.
The new Dodge Hornet doesn’t represent the sort of breakthrough that came with the “step down” Hudson Hornet so long ago. It is, at first, second or third glance, a rather conventional compact SUV-ish thing. This spring it will be offered initially only as a GT model powered by a 268-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged four and standard nine-speed automatic transmission feeding an all-wheel-drive system. Dodge claims that all that is good enough to make it the quickest, most powerful “compact utility” available for less than $30,000. That is $29,995 not counting the inevitable $1595 destination charge.
Dodge claims the GT will rip from a stop to 60 mph in 6.5-seconds. And that’s about how quick it felt during this initial press drive around Asheville, North Carolina.
Later this year the 2023 GT model will be joined by a 2024 R/T model using a 1.3-liter turbocharged four supplemented with a plug-in hybrid system for a total claimed output of 288 hp. That comes with a total of 383 lb-ft of torque—199 lb-ft delivered to the front wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission and 184-lb-ft at the rear wheels through the electric motor. The hybrid system’s 276-lb, lithium-ion battery is rated at 15.5 kilowatt-hours with 84 cells. Dodge is claiming a 0 to 60 time of 5.6-seconds—when using the “PowerShot” feature that adds 30 hp through the electric motor. Skip the PowerShot and the 0-60 time droops down 1.5-seconds to 7.1.
Interestingly, Dodge claims a 140 mph top speed for the 3715-lb GT and a 128 mph top end for the 4140-lb R/T. Those are top speeds are academic numbers in every day driving, but every single day isn’t every day.
Not counting concept cars like the Firearrows built by Ghia in the 1950s, the Hornet is also the first Italian made Dodge. In structure and general platform engineering, it’s essentially an Alfa Romeo Tonale with a Dodge face cap, an LED-laden Dodge butt and little Hornet badges on the front fenders. Inside many of the round shapes used on the Alfa are replaced by square ones in the Dodge, but the family resemblance is obvious. Not bad, just obvious.
The GT lacks paddle shifters, but its handling is spot on. Even, well, Alfa-like. On the Carolina secondary roads, the car takes an almost neutral set entering corners, then bites into the pavement on exit. Sustaining speed is easy. There’s a strut holding up each corner of the thing and those are all branded as Koni-made items. Larger Brembo-branded front disc brakes are an option on the GT and standard on the R/T.
The standard wheels and tires are smaller, but the car on hand wore a “Track Pack” with 20-inch wheels inside 235/40ZR20 Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season tires. That’s premium rubber.
There’s a “Sport” mode that can be enabled on the GT that is supposed to sharpen throttle response, give the transmission a more aggressive program, tighten steering feel, and tauten the struts. But it does those things only slightly; the feel is better but hardly razor sharp. One of the frustrations with the GT is that there’s so little character to the engine. There's no noticeable exhaust note and even in Sport, the throttle response is lazy. Maybe some of that throttle action would seem quicker with acclimation and learning to hover over the pedal, but that’s a maybe.
What’s undeniable is that this thing is sure-footed and responds like an eager calabrone (look it up) when asked to sting. It feels a lot like other Alfas, even if it’s a Dodge. And Alfas have a default driving mode of “great.”
It would be nice to have a manual transmission option, but that’s a lost cause. All the usual electronic stuff is aboard including a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster in front of the driver and a 10.25-inch digital display atop the center stack. The familiar Uconnect system has evolved to version 5 and does a decent job of wirelessly integrating with multiple cell phones simultaneously. Also available is semi-autonomous operation with radar speed control, traffic sign recognition, and all sorts of other gizmatics.
The R/T feels quicker, but that advantage only lasts so long. During spirited driving, it doesn’t take long to discharge the battery and then… it’s a 1.3-liter turbo engine hauling more than two tons of Italianate Dodge. On a full charge, there’s up to 30 miles of all-electric range, which means the R/T could be driven during many commutes without ever dipping into internal combustion.
Many drivers, it seems likely, will drive the $39,995 (plus, ugh, $1595 destination) R/T as a conventional hybrid and it works well at that. It’s even fun at times to use the aluminum shift paddles behind the steering wheel to grab a gear when clearing a speed bump at Target. In fact, those long paddles, permanently affixed like those in a Ferrari or Maserati, have a real performance feel and the transmission, though it only has six gears, reacts quickly to inputs.
The other noticeable difference between the GT and R/T is throttle response. The instant torque from the electric engine gives the Hornet some urgency it otherwise lacks. Really, the trick set up here would be to pair the hybrid system with the 2.0-liter turbo engine to produce something more in tune with Dodge’s current musclebound spirit.
Dodge has long deferred to partners when developing its small cars. The division’s first small car was the 1971 Colt that was built in Japan by Mitsubishi. The front-drive 1978 Omni was loosely based on Chrysler Europe design and originally relied on a Volkswagen four-cylinder engine. The last Dart, produced between the 2013 and 2016 model years, had a lot of Fiat in its DNA. So at least in that way, this small Dodge has returned to that tradition.
It isn’t, however, a rowdy machine that easily fits into the current Dodge lineup. There’s no Hellcat here; no anti-social vibe. With electrification barreling down upon the industry, Dodge must change its ways. Maybe this is enough to start that process. Maybe not.
But there's reason to believe that things are in motion. Dodge teased a GLH version of this car using Direct Connection and Mopar parts to celebrate the Shelby-ized Omni GLH and GLH-S of the 1980s. That may be exactly what Dodge needs.
John Pearley Huffman has been writing about cars since 1990 and is getting okay at it. Besides Car and Driver, his work has appeared in the New York Times and more than 100 automotive publications and websites. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, he still lives near that campus with his wife and two children. He owns a pair of Toyota Tundras and two Siberian huskies. He used to have a Nova and a Camaro.
