Stellantis is slinging Hash. For those of you who don't know the family tree of the CDJR brands, American Motors (AMC) was bought out by the old Chrysler Corporation to get the Jeep brand. This happened in the 1980's. AMC was created by the merger of Nash and Hudson in 1954. The Hudson company went down in a blaze of glory with their stepdown Hornet, which ruled stock car racing when the cars actually were stock. Immediately after the merger, the Hudson operations were shut down in Detroit and production was to transferred to the AMC lines in Kenosha, WI. The Hudsons built in Kenosha were nicknamed "Hash" a contraction of the names Hudson and Nash. The Hudson brand products were simply badge engineered Nash cars at this point.The last Hudson Hornet was a 1957 model, it was simply Hudson front grill, hood and fenders slapped onto a Nash. The stylists also tweaked the interior bits and tail lights to keep the Hudson motif consistent in the vehicle. It was all a failure, both the Hudson and Nash brands were dropped and in 1958 everything was AMC Rambler. The company rode to success during the severe recession of the late 1950's with the Rambler lineup.
OK, sometimes I'm slow to catch on. The Dodge Hornet was named after the 1957 model year Hudson Hornet. It isn't named after the NASCAR champion from earlier in that decade, or even from the 1970's AMC Hornet. The name is perfect for somebody else's car with a Dodge front clip slapped on it, which is what the last Hudson became with the Nash situation.
I don't see the Dodge Hornet as being lipstick on a pig. It is more like some gorgeous Italian woman wearing a pig mask.
The Dodge brand lost their marketplace momentum when the Neon was dropped. The Caliber was flawed by Daimler's dictates and the Dart was ruched into production just as sedans fell out of favor. The Caliber never received the FCA updates that its platform mates received as crossovers started taking off in the market. Dodge hasn't caught up since.
Yeah snout .... not as good is it. Interior not as good. Now that being said over 7000+ were sold to only 700+ of its more lovely SIster. But that math is fuzzy when you consider there is over 2075 more CDJR dealers to the small 125 Alfas and many of them a small parts of a Luxury brand group. So Alfa is selling nearly twice as many per store.
I cross shopped and even though the dealer is 1.5 hour away made the Decision to buy the ALfa. The deals were nearly identical, but the Hornet is just not as nice. Local dealer only had 3 Hornets, the Alfa dealer had over dozen, would not move on the Hornets at all. AT ALL.
Its like they took the Alfa and changed just enough stuff to call it a Dodge. Hood, Front Clip, Tail lamps of course NOT the historic 4 leaf clover wheels that everyone loves, Not the 3-coat metal flake green, no the same dash, but the same wheel and setup for on wheel start button made a menu button..... just a lot of awkward decisions.
But that doesn't make it a Pig just sister the grew up in Jersey(Detriot) instead of Milan....
It strength was never that is was a baby Charger.... it that sweet little PHEV that you can keep up with big boys but buy gas once a month and get 75mpg average minus power cost.. Yes over that last 2 months I am averaging 75mpg. All the luxury of our Summit in a everyday driver package.
The PIG is the marketing. It started out good, to get people's attention but never sold people on what its strengths were.
My local dealer only had 3.... and has never had more that 3 at a time. That what dealers are averaging so where the heck is all these sitting on lot cars at? Bigger metros?
