AMC Hornet - Hornet By Dodge

Hornet By Dodge

A mini-sized front-wheel-drive, concept car called Hornet was designed and developed by Dodge in 2006 for possible production in 2008 as the brand was entering European markets and attract younger customers. As the price of fuel increased, Chrysler continued work to launch the Hornet in 2010 in Europe, the United States and other markets. This Hornet project may have been cancelled as part of Fiat's partnership with Chrysler; but it was also rumored that the Hornet nameplate would instead be applied to a small Dodge sedan slated for introduction in 2012 based on the same "C-Evo" platform as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

In October 2011, Chrysler trademarked four names: Hornet, Dart, Duster, and Camber. One month later, the head of the Dodge brand, Reid Biglund, stated that Hornet will not be used for the new car. The automaker "surprised industry pundits and insiders" with an announcement that the small sedan for 2013 will be called the Dodge Dart. For a long time, both company insiders and industry experts "had insisted that the compact Dodge would be called the Dodge Hornet, in homage not only to the well-received 2006 concept car that carried the name but also to an ancestry of vehicles stretching back 60 years to the original Hudson Hornet."