Dodge may have found new life as a V8 brand once more, giving every model across the aging Durango lineup a V8 as standard for 2026 and reportedly investigating whether the Charger Sixpack’s inline-six can be replaced with a V8, too. But all’s not well for the brand’s bread-and-butter model. We’re not talking about the dismal demand for the electric Charger Daytona, but rather the compact Hornet SUV. Despite being a very different prospect for the brand compared to its ‘Brotherhood of Muscle’ image, the concept of an affordable, powerful crossover that could compete with the Toyota RAV4 was something that made financial sense for the brand at a time when the rest of its lineup was, for lack of a better term, archaic.
