The new Dodge Hornet will soon be flying to dealerships around the country and in preparation for the brand’s first small SUV in ages, a digital marketing campaign has been launched online. The compact SUV/crossover segment has become the hottest new car group in the U.S. market and with Dodge needing to offer a high volume, high efficiency vehicle, the Hornet is pretty important to the brand.
Since Dodge does things different from the majority of the other brands operating in the United States, they are taking a unique approach to the compact SUV. Rather than delivering a boring, low performance appliance that offers the lowest price point, the best possible fuel economy and a brutally boring driving experience, Dodge has infused the spirit of their high performance muscle cars into the small crossover – offering best in class performance and impressive fuel economy via the plug-in hybrid R/T model.
“As our first ever electrified performance vehicle to enter the market, the all-new Dodge Hornet signals that a new breed of electrified performance is here, and it is here to change the game,” said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge brand chief executive officer – Stellantis. “With looks, feel and performance that are pure Dodge, the Hornet offers the best driving dynamics, a full lineup of segment-exclusive performance features, the best standard technology, as well available Direct Connection factory-backed performance upgrades, the Dodge Hornet is uniquely positioned to shake up the mainstream compact-utility vehicle (CUV) segment.”
Since the Hornet is different from the other boring vehicles in the class, Dodge has come up with a spicier marketing campaign than you will find from its segment competitors. Dodge won’t show the Hornet picking up kids from soccer practice while they focus on fuel economy and affordability, instead showcasing the CUV’s fun-to-drive nature that is totally absent from every other vehicle in the segment.
We have included the first three Dodge Hornet advertisements, all of which are available on the brand’s YouTube channel. This program began with two short, 19-second videos followed by a 90-second spot that will air online while a 30-second version will run on television. You can watch the short intro videos and the 90-second commercial below.
Okay, so I’ve been doing a little bit more research on this Dodge Hornet thing. Obviously its based on the Alfa Tonale but that chassis also supports the Fiat 500X. Now, when I think of Fiat, I immediately think of that little black scorpion on the Abarth vehicles and I think about a quick little street legal Go Kart that may not be insanely powerful but they are amazingly agile and rambunctious. But beyond that, let’s look at the Hornet R/T specs for a sec, 285hp and 383lb-ft of torque. That’s 5.7L Hemi levels of torque and roughly 3.6L HP. Not for nothing, that’s fairly powerful in a lightweight vehicle and if the GLH produces more power than that, say even in the 330-340hp range and with torque probably near 400lb-ft, that would put it on par with the 06 Charger R/T Hemi which had about 340hp and 390lb-ft of torque. That’s truly formidable performance from something this small and light. The car is still weirdly shaped to me, however so that in itself makes it not work for me. but the performance potential is there.
The CEO’s called the Hornet a “Gateway” vehicle. I’ve been watching alot of enthusiasts’ channels lately on YouTube and trying to find as much info as I can on my beloved brand. As I was watching my favorite mopar YouTuber, something dawned on me again but I made a more “direct connection” so to speak of what the CEO’s meant by this being a gateway vehicle. FCA parent company Stellantis, is a very European oriented brand and their performance vehicles are a bit different than our vehicles. With the exception of AMG, alot of their cars have smaller displacement with their power being more focused on mid to high RPM ranges and their cars being more focused on balance rather than being all out torque monsters. Over the last few years, alot of the talk of the new Challenger/Charger chassis has been focused around the chassis that underpins the Alfa Romeo Guilia and Stelvio as well as the Maserati vehicles such as the Quattroporte and I think Levante as well. Although in a round about way I’ve said this before, what if the Hornet is the gateway vehicle to the shared technology and performance platforms that are coming soon from the brand? I know in one of the Stellantis presentations when they said about the SRT brand being dismantled and the technology being spread around, I wonder if this new car is the start of all of all of that. If the Charger is to go EV and the Durango is to move to the Frame platform, what will we see beyond 2024? While they wouldn’t be the same as the current charger and challenger or Durango, would a few new vehicles based of the Guilia, Stelvio, Tonale and Levante, powered by different versions of the Hurricane-4 and Hurricane-6 ICE & Hybrid power plants be enough to satisfy the performance gaps left by the legendary Dodge trio? What new names will we see the brands pull from the past? Could we see a nasty GLH Dodge Dart Javelin with an AMX package coming to our shores as a Dodge rebadged and reskinned Guilia Quadrifoglio GTA/GTA-M? Maybe the return of the Dodge Journey born from an updated 3-row variant of the Maserati Levante, destined to take the place of the current gen-Durango? a more engaging Dodge Nitro born from the bones of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio? Could this potentially be the gateway that was being talked about? Lighter, better balanced cars with over 500hp from a 3.0L inline-6 twin turbo engine at attractive and possibly attainable price points with Direct connection packages and goodies? One can only hope I guess.
I think that you missed your calling, V.B; Jr.
lol. what would my calling be?
Haven’t figured it out yet but I’m working on it.
lol.
To me, I just look at it from the standpoint of this, If I were a Dodge CEO right now and had to deal with what is going on, I may not have done things completely different. Would I have made the Daytona Banshee thing??? Maybe not. I don’t dislike the car but I wouldn’t have done that to the Charger. The GLH trim package is cool but I would still have SRT as the top trim levels, somewhat like how we have R/T’s, Scat Packs and Daytona trim levels right now. Dodge has so many different levels of performance vehicles from the 60’s till now there are so many different angles they could have played from. With this straight-6 coming out, I’d be playing the Dart card like Crazy right now. Seeing that they want to start pulling out the AMC names as well, there would be the Dart GT, the Dart GTS, the GLH Dart Javelin and the Dart Demon SRT6 and it would take the place of the current Charger on the STLA Large platform and it would be based on the Guilia and it would basically be what the BMW 8-series is as a 2-door and 4-door coupe and roughly the same size with both being hatchback/fastback cars and I’d make sure that there were Direct Connection Stage kits for it along with wheel options, brake options, Jailbreak packages and all of that and they’d be RWD based AWD with the upgraded 8-speed ZF transmissions. I would be making a Hornet SRT4 above the GLH and really bringing back that original SRT formula of being crazy raw, powerful, loud and light. If crossovers are really going to be a thing, then why not bring back the Eagle SX/4, the original crossover? I would definitely have brought back the Neon in GLH and SRT4 trim to compete with the Civic Type R, the Integra, the AMG CLA45, the Corolla GR and the Golf R. The 2.0L 4Xe in a Jeep puts out 375hp and 470lb-ft of torque give or take. If they can figure that out for a hatchback, that would stomp all over the last hot hatch America put out being the Focus RS. Dare they take a page out of the book that the new Acura TLX type S got its AWD system from being that has a transverse engine with a rear-biased AWD system. I would be bringing back the Nitro (since they used the Ramcharger name for something else) as a Dodge vehicle to go after the Bronco Sport. If they do decide to move the Durango to the STLA:Frame platform, I’d be bringing back the Journey to compete with the Explorer as an STLA Large SUV with performance features from the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio and the Maserati Levante Trofeo. I would be looking to dominate the compact and subcompact market with a Ridgeline sized Dakota pickup. The Dakota would start off with the 2.0L Hurricane 4Xe 375hp/470hp setup and top off with the 510hp 3.0L High Output Hurricane I-6 Dakota SRT Rampage performance pickup. To be honest, minivans aren’t going anywhere either and I’d definitely be considering an GLH Grand Caravan to pay homage to the Turbo Caravan of the late 80’s (you know, the one that came with a turbo and a manual transmission). Dodge could easily cover the entire market with that lineup. Funny thing, in the 80’s Dodge had a car that was actually ranked with the BMW M5 of the time which was the Spirit R/T while the 300M was designed to compete with the BMW 5-series and the Audi A6. The Return of a 510hp 300M special may not outpace an M5 but it would compete more with the BMW M550, which has about 523hp. I would also be leaning heavy on the Jeep brand with the new Inline-6 for the Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited, a redesigned Gladiator (bringing back the Golden Eagle Packages), and the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT vehicles. The Jeep Brand is known for it’s inline-6 engines so to me, it would naturally make sense. To me, if I had to do the whole EV thing and the big wigs said to make the Charger an EV, it would make a bit more sense. Not to downplay the Dart but the Charger was a more premium vehicle in the lineup than the Dart and the more Iconic muscle machine. In that position though, I would be leaning on Jeep and Chrysler for the bulk of my EV vehicles. Pressing a top tier 300-series vehicle to compete with the Tesla Plaid and other ultra high performance electric luxury vehicles due to pricing and the nature of those vehicles and for the Racing history of the 300-series car. I would be bringing back names like the New Yorker, Fifth Avenue, Newport and Lebaron as premium crossovers and full-size luxury E-SUVs. I would definitely be bringing the Jeep Avenger to the US and turning all of the smaller jeeps into hybrids and EVs. If I were a CJDR CEO, that would be how I would position my lineup. But seeing that I’m just a parts guy, I can just throw comments out and do alot of wishful thinking that maybe someone up top might say “you know what, those aren’t bad ideas LOL!!!!
EUREKA! I’ve got it! Dodge CEO. You know how I feel about L.T. anyway. I told you that I would think of something. Have a great night and I will warm up the corporate jet for you. B.T.W; It’s built by Honda.
In some ways I guess I feel a little old myself as I can remember the ford commercials “have you driven a Ford, Lately?” Or when Chevy went from being “The Heartbeat of America” to being “Like a Rock” or when everything about dodge was “Grab life by the horns!” I also remember Hannah Barbera cartoons and the great Al Bundy! I guess being born in the mid 1980’s puts me out of the target demographic as well lol
Dodge is trying to stay relevant right now by expanding out of the narrow market that they’re in and they’re trying to infuse the “dodge attitude” into every market possible. It’s not a bad thing. Another thing is, in another article we commented on the price tag of vehicles being super high. If the brand can do big things in the affordable performance market then that could be a win for the brand.
Good luck with that!
It’s you and me against the world, VB,Jr.
LOL I’m okay with that!
Thanks! You’re good ally. I just don’t appreciate being insulted and disrespected by strangers. Friends, no problem.
Did you watch those videos? I think they might be worthy of a few Emmy’s.
Thank you sir. I did watch the Dodge mini movies. I give the marketing team big props for their commercials. They’ve always had exciting commercials, like their older Pennzoil commercials.
I feel like the Hornet is really the new Direction that Dodge is going with. Yeah we have the hurricane engines and all but I really think the new Dodge performance cars are going to be more of the GLH/SRT4 type cars now and I think that they’re trying to prepare us for what’s coming.
Great to hear from you again, V.B; Jr. Not a fan of the new stuff. I much prefer the old “Dodge Boys” commercials that I grew up on in the 60’s and the silent cartoons that I watched every Saturday morning in the fifties. Anyway, I have much better things to do with my $$ than to drop $53+K on a loaded Hornet (Car and Driver, March ‘23. I much prefer the “real” Hudson Hornet that (kicked a**) on the beaches of Daytona, Fl. back in the late forties, early fifties. But then again, I know nothing about Dodge and/or modern cars in general. I have a really great picture of my grandfathers ‘49 HH in his driveway the day that he drove it home from the dealer. He never made it to Daytona but ran a couple of seasons at our local short track (Freeport Speedway L.I; N.Y.) Anyway, take care, have a great weekend and be safe.
wait, you have actually seen the Fabulous Hudson Hornet?!?!?! That’s fricking awesome!
Yes. When I was a little kid (mid-fifties) my grandfather had previously purchased a brand new 1949 HH. It was his daily driver and on the weekends he would take it to our very local short track. He ran it for a few years. Lot of fun sitting in the stands
with my dad (who got me into cars) when I was five years old. Also he and my dad worked for Grumman on L.I. for many years. They both helped build and repair bullet holes on the REAL DEAL O.G. Namesake Hellcat Fighters that were flown in WWII (the big one) as Archie Bunker used to say frequently on “All in the Family”. Google the plane; it’s really beautiful. Had great success in the air. Take care and have a great weekend!
I even sat in the front seat (no seat belts and metal dashboard) and took many rides with him. If I knew how to send a picture I would.