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.
