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The Dodge Neon is alive!

"Holy crap! It's a new Dodge Neon! Like a new new one." Oddly, no one else on the Cancun resort shuttle seemed to notice. Or care. Ogling Mexican-market compact sedans is apparently something exclusive to automotive journalists on vacation. Yet there it was, fittingly on Dio de los Muertos, in all its resurrected glory. With a margarita in hand and an ocean in front of me, ignored, I turned my attention to my phone to get to the bottom of Neon version 3.0. Introduced for 2016, today's Dodge Neon is based upon and built alongside the Fiat Tipo/Egea, a C segment compact sedan co-developed by Fiat and Turkish industrial outfit Koc Holding. More than 125,000 were sold last year in Europe, with another 47,000 in Turkey. It's also sold in the Middle East and Africa, with Mexico alone getting the Neon version. Exterior styling is really the only difference, and then, only the crosshair grille manages to identify it as a Dodge. Then again, the same could be said for the not-so-dearly departed Dart, which belonged to the same segment. It was much bigger, though, with an extra 6 inches of overall length and 3 inches of wheelbase (which, as I just discovered, is "distancia entre ejes" en espanol). The Neon interior, not surprisingly, is pretty much the same as its Fiat siblings. The dash has two variations. A bigger, upgrade touchscreen resides in a dash-mounted, tablet-style infotainment pod, but the standard stereo head unit or 5-inch touchscreen upgrade fits into a binnacle shared with the instrument panel. It's a bit more like the Challenger, Charger, and yes, Dart in this regard, but in total, the Neon's cabin design is also less blocky and more organic in appearance. The switchgear is pure Fiat, but the steering wheel has the same control layout as Dodges, Jeeps and Chryslers. Power comes from the Challenger Scat Pack's 6.4-liter Hemi V8. No, it doesn't, I totally got you. The standard engine, dubbed FIRE, is a 1.4-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder good for 95 horsepower and 94 pound-feet of torque. So, less than the Scat Pack. The optional engine, dubbed E.TorQ, which is in no way related to the Ram's eTorque mild hybrid system and not especially eTorquey, is a 1.6-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder good for 110 hp and 112 lb-ft. Sadly, the Neon color selection is in no way neon, which probably doesn't matter since virtually every car on the Yucatan peninsula is painted white.

2020 Dodge Charger Widebody Daytona wrecked with 296 miles on the clock

The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition can do 0-60 faster than you can say its name, and one new owner appears to have proven that it can all go wrong just as quickly. This one-of-501 sedan currently resting on a Copart lot in California has already met its end.  Dodge named the model after NASCAR's season-opening venue. The Daytona 500 gets the numerical part of its name from the length of the race — 500 miles. This poor White Knuckle example didn't even live long enough to put that much distance behind it; it shows just 296 miles on its odometer, says Motor1.com, who spotted the wreck on Copart.  This poor Widebody suffered a front-end accident severe enough to pop the airbags, which is never a good sign. Both front fenders took a beating, and the passenger-side panel was ripped off completely. The hood was badly buckled in several places, and the bumper covers appear pretty badly thrashed. It's difficult to tell from these photos whether the front crash structure was badly mangled, but we suspect it didn't come out unscathed. The passenger-side front suspension clearly took a beating, as the tire on that side was de-beaded from the wheel.  On the bright side, multiple images show that the car's electrical system is intact; whether it starts and runs is another matter.  The Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition package is, fundamentally at least, little more than a plaque, a sticker package, and a re-rated 717 peak horsepower. What you really get for your money is exclusivity, and thanks to this little "oops," there's more of that to be had. Only 501 were built (to commemorate the number of production units required to homologate the original Charger Daytona for NASCAR racing); just 451 went to U.S. dealers, and the other 50 were reserved for the Great White North where it's built. These models are so scarce that some dealers were already tacking on tens of thousands of dollars in additional markup. Back in December, at least one dealer had slapped a $25,000 market adjustment on a Daytona model (in the same "White Knuckle" finish as the wrecked car here), and others were being spotted with similar tacked-on premiums.  Related Video:    

Speedkore roaring into SEMA with twin-turbo AWD Charger Hellcat Widebody

Speedkore Performance is nowhere near finished with the Dodge Charger. At last year's SEMA show, the Wisconsin-based tuner showed a 1970 Charger Evolution with carbon and aluminum body panels, and a 996-horsepower Hellcat engine yoked to a six-speed transmission. This year the company teased a profile rendering of a 2020 Charger Hellcat Widebody on Facebook with the line, "All we're going to say is this all-wheel drive, twin-turbo, widebody Charger is going to be unveiled at the Magnaflow booth." Mopar Insiders extracted a tad more information, the first being that we're in for another tuned version of the 6.2-liter Demon Hemi V8 that's swapped its supercharger for twin turbos, and produces more than 1,000 horsepower. Last year, alongside that 1970 Charger, Speedkore unveiled a twin-turbo Hellcat-powered Demon making almost 1,400 horsepower. We don't know yet if this year's Charger will match that output — or exceed it — but we have a benchmark. An all-wheel-drive powertrain divides those horses so the tires have a chance of conquering them. Speedkore's mum on the mechanicals; the firm could have swiped a Grand Cherokee Trackhawk AWD unit and beefed it up, or created its own system.  Some of the steel body panels get carbon fiber replacements, and see those two holes in he front wheel arch? Those are exhaust outlets. MagnaFlow created a custom exhaust with a driver-selectable switch to port gases out the front, say at the track when decibels don't matter, or to send waste through MagnaFlow mufflers and out the rear pipes when silence is required.  The reveal happens at the Magnaflow booth in SEMA's Central Hall on November 5. Those that can't make the show can watch the reveal on MagnaFlowÂ’s Facebook page.