Motoring Middle East: Car news, Reviews and Buying guides

We’re the first journos in the Middle East to drive the Dart

By Shahzad Sheikh

A few weeks ago, we’d spotted a couple of Dodge Darts in the Rashidiya Service centre in Dubai (read here). These cars are far from officially going on sale here – Chrysler Middle East hasn’t even made a firm decision on it yet – and the all-new compact saloons only went on sale in States earlier this summer.

Yet here they were two cars sitting there, a base spec 1.4-litre four-cylinder Turbo ‘MultAir’ and a 2.0 top spec. These turned out to be development cars that have since been pounding the roads of the region building up mega miles and being stripped of data after each run.

Sometime after we managed to infiltrate the engineering wing of Chrysler Middle East on some ruse and ingratiated ourselves with the good, if slightly gullible, people within. Openly and loudly pondering what the Dart would be like to drive, they succumbed to the obvious pride they felt in their new baby and threw us the keys.

Before they could reconsider or even realise what they had done, we were out of there. To get as much time as possible with the car, after grabbing a couple of pictures with the Burj Khalifa, we headed straight out of the city limits and towards the Northern Emirates. Well, putting mileage on these test vehicles is after all, what they needed.

Engineers and testers run these cars almost flat out, not fearing problems and mechanical failure, but wanting and hoping for them – they’d rather learn about issues now, than when the cars get into customers’ hands. And in our very unique, and extreme, environment that which might not have been noticeable in America and Europe might became patently obvious here – particularly overheating and air-conditioning issues, as well as intrusion and damage caused by sand.

Europe? Did I say Europe? Yes. The Dart is based on a compact car platform from Fiat, essentially the same used by the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. However in this guise it has been widened by nearly four centimetres and lengthened by nearly 10.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is just a rebadging exercise, there is little or no hint whatsoever of its Alfa Romeo genome in the interior or exterior styling, and 18 months and a billion dollars have been spent to develop the Dart specifically.

Plus of course they’re still working on it for our market. As we paused to take a picture near the big wheel in Qanat Al Qasba in Sharjah, and now being well out of reach of the Chrylser guys, we took some time to marvel at the brilliant instrument display – a 7-inch TFT display integrated between the traditional dials which performs an entrancing start-up routine and is amazingly configurable to suit the driver’s mood and requirements.

This works alongside the now familiar big 8.4-inch central screen seen in the new Chrysler 300C and Dodge Charger featuring excellent Garmin navigation and controls for the great stereo and climate control.

There were a few glitches of course, but these had been pointed out to us by the engineers, and is the reason why this story is NOT a review of this car. To assess something still under development, as we do a road test car, would be unfair.

Having said that its compact size, and easy controls were proving a boon as we avoided the highways and stuck to the city routes to filter into Ajman pulling onto a beach for some by-the-sea shots.

Silhouetted against the bright blue sky, the black paint did the car less justice than a bright cheery hue would we reckon, but it’s a handsome and sleek car with some very taught yet fluid lines giving it much needed character in this often drab sector – think new Civic, actually do yourself a favour, don’t.

The Dodge grille gives it bullish confidence but the most distinctive features are the full-width rear LEDs that have been borrowed from big bro Charger, which would give this the most recognisable rear in the compact car segment. Would, but those on our car had been disconnected!

Proving adept at managing traffic, it didn’t seem to succumb to any deficiency when it came to the dual carriageway run into Ras Al Khaimah, where we stopped to check out the beached-whale of an old Russian plane that has now become something of a land mark in that Emirate.

And it was only after we left Umm Al Qwain’s Ice Land Water Park (not so icy in the summer heat) where a rather surprised looking imitation baby whale (or is it a penguin?) checked out the little Dodge, that we wondered if we’d made the wrong engine choice.

1.4-litres might not sound like much, but it has the same horsepower rating and considerably more torque, compared to the meatier-sounding 2.0. It’s impossible to assess performance based on this development car, but it would be interesting to try the 1.4. We’d also love to sample an manual – we were driving an auto.

We headed into Fujairah by the old road and stopped for a bite to eat at the new mall there. After which I handed over driving duties to Imthishan. Not because I was fatigue in anyway whatsoever, even after five hours behind the wheel and getting out to take pictures along the way, but because he wanted to have a drive too.

Cruising back on the new road into Sharjah I settled down and pondered how the Dart might do if they did decide to bring it to the region – which I wholeheartedly hope they do. It’s comfy, refined, capable and a very well appointed little saloon that could easily take on the VW Jetta and Toyota Corolla by dint of its personality and style alone. It could even carry on where they old Honda Civic left off.

There’s a few concerns that we relayed back to Dodge, and they may or may not be valid, because as we must reiterate, this was not full GCC-spec production car, but a development mule, so any assessment is subject to the fact that the car is still being finished. Other than that, it will all be down to pricing and equipment. Get it right and Dodge could have a sales hit on their hands.