The all-new Dodge Dart topped the list as the coolest car under $18,000. “The Dodge Dart’s enticing combination of style, performance, features and value have earned it the top spot in our 2012 coolest cars list,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com. “With exceptional interior space and loads of personalization potential, the all-new Dart will definitely make its presence felt in the ultra-competitive compact sedan segment.” With an available fun-to-drive 1.4-liter Multi Air Turbo engine, great ride and handling characteristics compliments of the Alfa Romeo-based chassis, innovative interior style featuring high-quality materials, splashes of color--like Ruby Red and Citrus Peel--and cool technology not found in the segment, like the available class-exclusive 8.4-inch Uconnect Touch Screen and 7-inch thin film transistor (TFT) customizable gauge cluster, as well as class-leading safety features, such as 10 standard air bags, and innovative style including available class-exclusive LED “racetrack” taillamps and integrated dual exhaust, the 2013 Dodge Dart sets a new standard in the compact car segment. “We are extremely proud that the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart was recognized as the coolest car under $18,000,” Reid Bigland, President and CEO – Dodge Brand said. “Kbb.com is one of the leading sites for consumers researching vehicles, so to have the Dart’s combination of style, value and the exhilarating driving experience recognized by the editors is a huge honor.”

300 offers “ridiculous” amount of content
Wall Street Journal writer Dan Neil declared that the Chrysler 300’s new Luxury Series model is “a ridiculous amount of car for the money.”
Titled, “Chrysler's Global Melange Yields True Luxury,” Neil’s review said “Chrysler might as well have called the Luxury Series the Content Provider.” Among the car's list of features are front heated/ventilated seats and rear heat-ed seats, heated wood-and-leather steering wheel, heated/cooled cup holders, 20-inch polished alloy wheels, LED interior lighting and “a huge pow-er sunroof borrowed from Cow-boys Stadium,” the Wall Street Journal said.
If you absolutely throw the book at it, “ordering the 300 Luxury Series with all-wheel drive, the Dr. Dre mega-audio system and the optional safety package, you still can't break $50,000,” he wrote.
The Journal said the redesigned 300 “dials back the goth froth in favor of a more practical, mature and aerodynamic design.” Yet the car retains “its from-a-mile-away profile: the big and bluff hood, the blingtastic grille, the pillbox roof, the chopped deck,” his Wall Street Journal piece said.
The car’s front and rear multi-link suspension have been revised “to provide better cornering, body control and, most important, isolation,” Neil wrote.
The result, Neil said, “is a deeply serene, seriously stable luxury car, with good sporting reflexes on country roads and excellent interstate manners.

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Dart named “Most Significant” of show
The 2013 Dodge Dart was honored by AutoWeek as the “Most Significant” new vehicle at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
“Dodge is reentering the crucial small-sedan market with a Fiat-based car that we think drills the target dead center,” declared AutoWeek Executive Editor Bob Gritz-inger.
Autoblog.com editors called Dart one of their “Top Five 2012 Detroit Auto Show De-buts.” The Chrysler Group was missing out by not having a strong player in the booming C segment, but that all changes with the addition of the 2013 Dart, Autoblog reported.
With Alfa Romeo DNA underneath, it could prove to be one of the better-driving com-pact sedans in the market, Autoblog said. Pricing will start just below $16,000, the web-site added.
Kelley Blue Book placed the new Dart on its “Top 10 Cars of the 2012 Detroit Auto Show,” saying that the “soft, roomy, high-tech cabin” of the Dart promises to be a strong selling point.

2013 Dodge Dart among top 10 cars of the 2012 Detroit auto show, Kelley Blue Book, Jan. 12
o Kelley Blue Book selected its top 10 cars that will be on display during the upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit and the 2013 Dodge Dart was among them. The first Chrysler Group car derived from a Fiat Group vehicle — the Alfa Romeo Giulietta — the 2013 Dodge Dart gets the automaker back into the compact sedan segment, Kelley Blue Book said. Whereas Dodge and Chrysler interiors were weak spots in recent years, the soft, roomy, high-tech cabin of the Dart promises to be a strong selling point, the article said.

 This is the small car that Dodge needs to succeed, Business Insider.com, Jan. 11
o The Fiat/Chrysler partnership is about to show more fruits in America - a bit more Italian flair with the Alfa Romeo-based Dodge Dart, Business Insider.com said. On paper and in person, it looks competitive: An aggressive front end recalls the old Neon, while the rear is a dead ringer for the current Dodge Charger, the article said. It strike a muscular profile for a small car and is definitely good looking, the article said. There's also a nine-speed automatic in the works for 2013 - that's a lot of gears, the article said.


Chrysler SRT8 is powerful performer

Chrysler’s new 300 SRT8® is a powerful performer that challenges the likes of BMW and ―assorted other instruments of awe,‖ Scripps Howard News reported.
Blessed with a 470-horsepower, HEMI® V-8 engine, the Chrysler 300 SRT8 is ―outlandishly strong‖ on free-way ramps and beyond, offering ―impressive luxury at a more affordable price,‖ Scripps Howard added.
Just listen to the music pouring from the 4-inch diameter exhaust pipes on the Chrysler SRT8, whose HEMI V-8, incidentally, was increased for 2012 to 6.4 liters, or roughly 392 cubic inches, said Terry Box of the Dallas Morning News.
More graceful, elongated headlamps flow into a bold new grille that looks terrific blacked out, Box declared.
As with every HEMI powered car, the motor shoved me into the seat right off idle, swelling in power through the mid-range and then getting hoarse and mean near its 6,400 rpm red line – sounding a bit like a 426, Box wrote in the Dallas Morning News.
The Dallas Morning News asked rhetorically, ―How in blazes do you justify a $55,000 Chrysler?‖ ―Easy – you com-pare its performance and style with those in a BMW 528 or Mercedes-Benz E350,‖ the newspaper concluded.