Here's Why Dodge Discontinued The Dart...Twice

Dodge built its first car in 1914 and soon expanded its offerings to include a light truck line, including the nation's first 4WD pickup in 1946. Through the 1960s and '70s came V8-powered road-chompers like the Charger, Challenger, and Demon. But Dodge also has a reputation for retiring badges only to bring them back years later in a different form. The Challenger's second and third generations were separated by a quarter-century, and the Charger nameplate was dormant from 1988 until 2005. Another Dodge model that lived two separate lives was the Dart, which was introduced in 1960 as a full-sized model with the buyer's choice of two V8 engines or the 225 cubic inch version of the bulletproof slant six. 

Dodge shrank the Dart along with its other full-sized cars in 1962, keeping the original version alive through the 1976 model year, when it was replaced by the Aspen after a one-year overlap. By that point, the oil crisis had begun to push American buyers into smaller cars, and the product line offered by Dodge's parent company, Chrysler, was suffering from redundancy in both form and function.  Dart sales dropped sharply in the mid-'70s, and the badge stayed on the shelf through 2012, when the newly formed Fiat Chrysler built a new Dart on a 'compact wide' platform shared with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Its resurrection failed to keep the Dart off our list of models Dodge should have kept alive, a point reinforced by the Dart's disappointing second life.