The first Dodge to wear the Dart badge wasn’t a compact like the award-winning all-new 2013 Dodge Dart. It was a mid-sized sedan produced for just three model years—from 1960 through 1962.
With a four-inch shorter wheelbase than the standard, full-sized Dodge, the 1960 Dart was aimed straight at traditional Ford and Chevy buyers. But just like the big Dodge, the Dart employed Chrysler’s brand new unitized body/frame construction and advanced torsion-bar suspension. While V8 power was standard in the big Dodge, the Dart was also available with the popular 225 cubic-inch Slant Six to appeal to economy-minded drivers.
Three trim levels were offered on the Dart: the top of the line Phoenix, the base model Seneca, and the mid-range Pioneer pictured here. Available features included a transistorized radio, Child Guard powered safety door locks, and on the two-door hardtop models, swiveling bucket seats.
Though it was offered for only three years, the original Dart was highly successful—too successful for its own good, in fact. The Dart’s sales cut deeply not only into Ford and Chevrolet, but Dodge’s sister brand Plymouth as well. To make matters worse, the popular Dart also cannibalized sales from Dodge’s similarly styled big car line, too. That was the last straw.
For 1963, Dodge product planners discontinued the intermediate-sized Dart, and the name was applied to an all-new compact car platform where it continued in production until 1976. In 2013 the familiar Dart brand was reborn in the class-leading sedan that is now writing its own automotive history.
Source: Redline Dodge
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