It's no secret that, aside from the Fiat Group-sourced 168bhp 1.4-liter turbocharged MultiAir engine, the new 2013 Dodge Dart compact sedan continues to use two powerplants from Chrysler's past.
You see, while the Detroit maker is marketing its 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter four-cylinder units under the new "Tigershark" moniker, both have their roots in the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) family of engines.
To explain, GEMA was a joint venture of the Chrysler Group, Mitsubishi Motors, and Hyundai Motor Company for the development of a line of shared four-cylinder gasoline engines. In 2009, Chrysler bought out the shares of Mitsubishi and Hyundai and continued GEMA on its own.
And here's where Hyundai comes into the picture. Citing unnamed sources, Car&Driver is reporting that the 2013 Dodge Dart's Tigershark engines are fitted with a Hyundai-supplied 6-speed automatic transmission.
Speculation has it that Chrysler wanted a quick solution to replace the GEMA engine's obsolete four-speed automatic with a modern transmission so it came to an agreement with Hyundai that uses a six-speed auto on its 2.0-liter Turbo and 2.4-liter naturally aspirated Theta engines, both of which evolved from the GEMA program.
The magazine says that Chrysler won't confirm the agreement for the supply of the 6-speed auto while Hyundai hasn't offered any specifics on which transmission it will sell to the Detroit company – this also leads us to believe that C&D's sources may have come from within or a company related to Hyundai.
C&D also wrote that the same sources say Chrysler is having some difficulties with the final calibrations of the Hyundai gearbox.
We still don't know if Hyundai's gearbox was used on the model that Dodge says achieved an unadjusted combined rating of 40 mpg (which is not the same as the EPA ratings) and which gave Fiat the right to acquire an additional 5% stake in Chrysler.
But even so, since we're lacking any official information, the alleged calibration problems with the transmission may not have affected the car's economy.
Chrysler has confirmed that it is already working on a new 9-speed automatic transmission currently being developed by the ZF Group that will be added to the Dart's range in 2013.
13 Comments:
Well at least they're using a good tranny then.
Maybe that's why the car looks so good.
You're pretty funny.
WAT? Automakers sharing parts with other automakers?!
Good god, what next?! Women with voting rights?!
Working on a new 9-speed automatic transmission??
Do we really need more than 5-6 speeds?? At this rate we'll be in double digits in no time. Non-sense...
if it gives me better gas milage then i would drive a 12 speed auto
I have my doubts about whether the third-rate engineers that Chrysler hires can actually make it work seamlessly. If they follow their usual modus operandi, they'll throw in some cheap two dollar part somewhere in the connection between the engine and transmission in order to overcome the compatibility issue, instead of doing it right. Then they'll farm out the manufacture of that two dollar part to someone who'll created for $.30, so somebody can skim the preponderance of the cost and pocket that money. Then that $2.00 part (which actually cost $.30) will continually fail, forcing Dart owners to continually return their cars to have the part replaced over and over again. And no doubt Chrysler will still be farming that $.30 parts manufacturer out of the same company, but the cost will still appear as $2 on the books, and the same people will be skimming the money and pocketing of profit, like perpetual royalties from a book that never stopped selling. Of course Dart owners will never know any of this, they'll just have to wait all day while the transmission is removed from the engine to a new $.30 part can be slipped in only to fail again 20,000 mile down the road. That's what Chrysler usually does in these situations, let's hope somebody at Fiat prevents this kind of SOP from continuing.
And if true, I have no doubt that after the engine has failed completely - around 2016 with only 120,000 miles on them - that Hyundai transmission will still be working perfectly. And when the cars are finally junked, the most valuable part on them - those Hyundai transmissions - will be removed before they are crushed. We shall see. :)
I think they would use thier existing 6 spd transaxle rather than source from Hyundai...
Best looking Dodge after the Viper.
blablablablablablabla bsbb
It's probably way more transmission than the 4 cyl engines need.
I doubt its only the Transmission that Hyundai has lent.
It was attached to a 3.3lL and a 3.8L with roughly the same torque as the "new 4cyl" and is a fairly compact transaxle. I will wait for the ZF 9-speed transaxle if i was going to purchase the Dart. I still can't understand why anyone would want the 2.0L or 2.4L when you could have the 1.4L multiair turbo with close to the same horsepower and more torque as the 2.0L.
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