We’re making a final, valiant push to finish our Dodge Dart Rallye’s 40,000-mile stay roughly on schedule. Aside from its new engine, the Dart remains merely a decent choice among a gaggle of excellent compact cars. Even though the Dart served us well as a commuter car, it didn’t excel at any one thing except swallowing real-size humans in the back seat. Also, despite packing 24 more horsepower, the 2.4-liter produces 13 fewer lb-ft of torque, meaning that, according to our test equipment, a similarly equipped, manual-transmission Dart is 0.2 second slower to 60 mph.īut pedal-to-the-metal numbers don’t tell the whole story, and here it’s the flexibility, improved throttle tip-in, and crisper part-throttle response of the 2.4-liter in everyday driving that counts, although we’d still prefer the more fun-to-drive Ford Focus or delightful Mazda 3 as a daily driver.
2013 DODGE DART MANUAL
Demerits are lower fuel-economy estimates versus the turbo’s-22 mpg city and 35 highway instead of 27/39 mpg for manual models-and the same disconnected-feeling clutch action we felt in our Dart. The 184-hp, 2.4-liter four makes a huge difference, being smoother and more linear than the pesky, peaky 1.4-liter four. A manual is standard in the SXT and GT, and a six-speed automatic is optional ( it soon will be replaced by a nine-speed ZF unit) the Limited gets the automatic standard. The 1.4-liter turbo comes only in the Dart Aero with a six-speed manual or dual-clutch automatic the rest of the lineup-the SXT, the GT, and the Limited-gets a naturally aspirated 2.4-liter four. Previously, it was in the SE, SXT, Rallye (that is now an option group, not a trim level), and Limited. For 2014, Dodge has relegated the Dart’s standard 160-hp, 2.0-liter four to the base SE trim level. Given the 1.4T’s nearly total elimination, it’s worth pointing out what engines buyers can now get in the Dart-osphere.
(The three other services cost $59, $80, and $157.) Our only non-maintenance-related expenses were $449 for a new windshield and $638 to repair the front-right fender after a ladder fell from a van and struck the parked Dart. Scheduled maintenance costs started out reasonably, but a $408 30,000-mile service bill turned that table over, thanks to the Dart’s crazy-expensive proprietary spark plugs. However, we experienced only two electronic snafus, both around 20,000 miles, that were fixed under warranty. A few of us even found that butts could sink through the seat foam before settling on hard structural members.īeing the offspring of a still-bouncing-back Chrysler and Italian Fiat, the Dart’s reliability was our biggest pretest concern.
2013 DODGE DART DRIVERS
We did wish for a temperature knob for the HVAC system, instead of tap-up and tap-down buttons, and some drivers found the driving position cumbersome. Chrysler’s ubiquitous Uconnect touch-screen infotainment system was universally praised for its ease of use.
Visible wear and tear in our Dodge’s cabin were almost nonexistent, thanks to the mostly black-colored interior. Its highway acumen helped keep our average fuel economy to a high 29 mpg over the duration of our test, as it visited locales as exotic as Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and New Jersey. On the freeway, the Dart hums along quietly, with a decent sense of straight-ahead and a comfortable ride. Whereas the Dart’s balky low-speed response created frustration driving in town, the car’s peachy highway demeanor made it a frequent road-trip companion. Typically, our well-broken-in 40,000-mile long-termers manage the sprints to 60 mph and through the quarter-mile slightly quicker than when they first entered our fleet.Ĭruisin’ the (East and Middle-ish) U.S.A. Freakishly snowy conditions in our Michigan environs prevented us from performing our usual raft of end-of-40,000 instrumented testing before the car was whisked away, but the Dart made it to 60 mph in a ho-hum eight seconds when new.