I can not see a way forward without new product that pushes the envelope. First it was the Avenger and then the Fiat 500 that brought gas engines back in a face saving effort by Stellantis to acknowledge that their 2030 plan is a bust. Arrogance and hubris might infect the corporate elite, but the result of their excess and foolishness is being inflicted on 400 plus engineers at headquarters in North America. What a shame. Time to eat crow and bring the stuff people want and will buy. Lots full of electric paper weights is all the proof these guys should need. Dodge needs gas powered performance compacts and a next generation Challenger. Get going Dodge.
It would have been cool to get the original Scat Pack back together with the Dart, the Charger and the Coronet. The Coronet could have been the Sedan while the Charger would have been the coupe and having a Dart as a Mustang destroyer. But then again, (personally) I don't see any real point in paying the Mustang any attention when the Pony cars honestly a dying breed. I think (just my opinion), if Dodge does this right with this upcoming Charger, they can really hurt the mustang's sales even with this car not being a direct competitor. Simply versatility alone wins over the Mustang being that the car is usable and it can be driven in all four seasons without issue. The real thing here is to make this car as customizable from the factory as possible. Direct connection, jailbreak, special packages, etc. all need to be available for this vehicle for EVERY TRIM LEVEL! Both the ICE coupe and sedan need to have Standard output and High Output options and there needs to be an entry level model with the 375hp 2.0L Hybrid powertrain setup with AWD and all of the performance bells and whistles available for it as well. We're already seeing that Dodge basically took the Cat-1 Hurricane and called it the S/0 for the six pack and the Cat-2 Hurricane 550hp and put that in as the Hurricane H/O which potentially means that the Cat-X Hurricane could come as an ICE-variant SRT powertrain which would really be interesting as that variant is slated for 1,000+ hp. Granted I don't think that Dodge is going to have it at that kind of power in street tune, but taking that powertrain and having it in an 850hp Street tune put that above the 840hp Demon and something like that with AWD would definitely make it one of the fastest Street Mopars on the planet. A Direct Connection package that could allow that motor to reach it's full 1,000+hp rating with a factory set of drag radials and wheel, a weight reduction package, a parachute and some other SRT Demon/CD170-style goodies would definitely push this car past the CD170 as the most powerful and fastest production car on the planet. Now add a hybrid electric transmission behind that and you really have something insane! While the full EV Chargers and Ram Trucks may have been a way for Stellantis to save itself momentarily with the EPA and all of that stuff, electrification (not full EV) could seriously be a game changer in the way of performance for Mopar with that new ZF hybrid 8-Speed. I've mentioned elsewhere before that this new transmission technology is essentially a power adder itself and used in conjunction with the Hurricane engines, Dodge, and all of Mopar could really see a huge jump in performance over the now-gone Hemi powertrains, even more so that what is already here. Jeep just introduced the Hurricane-500 4Xe in a Wrangler, which would be a naturally successor to the Wrangler-392. Throw that in a Grand Cherokee and a Gladiator and you've got a great powertrain setup right there. I believe the Ram RHO (Rebel High Output) will probably get the High Output Hurricane engine with 550hp so taking some variant of a high output 3.0L Hurricane and a hybrid ZF transmission and Ram could easily produce a 740hp TRX to stomp the new Raptor into the mud, sand or rocks, whichever it prefers. Same thing with a new Durango, Cherokee, Recon and a new STLA: Large pickup truck.
Honestly though, IF Dodge were to bring out a smaller performance vehicle, a Dart on the STLA Medium platform might not be the worst idea. While the Hornet is a bit awkward, the GLH idea was actually quite sound. Let's just say Stellantis were to revisit the 285hp 2.4L SRT engine from the Caliber SRT4 modernize it and tweak it to a solid 300hp and put a slightly beefed up 9-speed next to it and mount it transversely and then put a 180hp EDM at the rear of the car, Give it a power shot option, alot of SRT parts, Give it four doors, a hatch, some Domestic sport compact styling inside and out and bring us the reincarnation of the SRT4 Dart Demon and have that go after the Mustang, then I could see that being a bit more logical. A bunch of different drive modes and all of that kind of stuff would give the Dart alot of purpose and it would absolutely devour the Mustang in sales being that it's a useable car that can beat it on the drag strip, on the track and everywhere else while being way more fuel efficient than even the ecoboost mustang, holds four adults comfortably with actual seating for five, more cargo space, AWD capability and Retro 70's Dart Demon styling. Offer a GTS version with a smaller EDM pushing about 100hp, just to keep it more powerful than the Ecoboost, a non-hybrid 300hp conventional AWD GT base variant and if need be an all electric variant. Offer a bunch of Direct Connection and Jailbreak upgrades for that vehicle as well and the Mustang is history!
