Tested: 2023 Dodge Hornet GT Is on a Muddled Mission

Car companies do their best not to air the dirty laundry behind any given car’s development, but sometimes it’s easy to see where the internal disagreements lie. In the case of the 2023 Dodge Hornet GT, it’s obvious that the engineers wanted a hot hatch in the vein of the Volkswagen GTI, while the product-planning decision makers wanted an inoffensive mainstream crossover that would sell one bazillion units per year. The final product ended up somewhere in between, an affordable crossover with a pulse but without clarity of purpose. The Hornet GT’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book on wheels—you could throw on some aftermarket parts and join the tuner crowd or leave it alone as an unassuming tall wagon that happens to hit 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. That’s what’s known around here as “a sleeper.”

Indeed, the 268-hp Hornet GT duplicates the Hornet R/T’s performance in essentially every metric—and, for 2024, the R/T is $10K more expensive. The two cars share that 5.5-second 60 mph time, 100-mph time (15.4 seconds), and 30-to-50-mph top-gear passing time (3.4 seconds). Their quarter-mile acceleration is almost identical, with the R/T tripping the lights in 14.2 seconds at 96 mph and the GT nearly alongside at 14.3 seconds at 96 mph. The two Hornets generate the same 0.87 g on the skidpad. The R/T marginally outbrakes the GT from 70 mph, 164 feet to 169 feet, perhaps thanks to the hybrid hardware giving it a more balanced front-to-rear weight distribution. The GT has a higher top speed because the R/T’s electric side taps out at triple digits—we flogged the R/T to 118 mph, but the GT pulled past 130 mph, which required 33.7 seconds, and will continue to 140 mph, Dodge claims.

Up to 100 mph, the Hornet GT basically equals the R/T’s performance (and that of its Italian cousin, the Alfa Romeo Tonale), which tracks given their on-paper similarities. The hybrid has the edge on power, with 288 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque compared to the GT’s 268 horses and 295 pound-feet, but the conventionally powered GT has 350 fewer pounds to haul around. The GT’s turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder is also hooked to a nine-speed automatic (the PHEV gets a six-speed) and its standard all-wheel-drive setup is quick to snuff out wheelspin.

In everyday driving, the GT actually feels quicker than the R/T, for an obvious reason—the R/T only unlocks peak output for 15 seconds at a time, when its PowerShot mode is activated. The GT may make nominally fewer horsepower, but its ponies are available at all times. If the R/T has an obvious advantage, it’s in fuel economy, where the PHEV’s overall 24 MPGe is leagues better than the trucklike 18 mpg we averaged with the GT. A less lead-footed crowd might get closer to the GT’s EPA ratings of 21 mpg city and 29 mpg highway, and in our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test the Hornet averaged 28 mpg.

Our Hornet included the $2995 Track pack, which brings driver-adjustable dual-mode dampers, black and red Alcantara-upholstered seats, four-piston fixed Brembo front brake calipers, and 20-inch Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 tires. Pushing the Sport button on the steering wheel sharpens the throttle response and firms the dampers, though the Hornet feels a little too tall and awkward for real back-road hustling. There’s brake-based torque vectoring, but the AWD usually operates with a front-axle bias, so a Hornet driven in anger will periodically bark a front tire off the line and remind you that this isn’t exactly a performance-first platform.

The interior, though, plays its part to convince the driver that this is a latter-day heir to the SRT-4 lineage (let’s say Neon rather than Caliber), with those nicely bolstered seats, a flat-bottomed steering wheel and a center stack angled toward the driver. It’s a handsome cabin, which may come as a surprise to anyone whose most recent small-Dodge frame of reference is of the Caliber or Nitro variety.

The GT Plus we tested included as standard the $495 Cold Weather Group package (heated seats and steering wheel, and remote start) that’s optional on the GT, meaning the Plus serves up a fairly well-equipped Hornet at $37,330 for starters. Our car had all the fixings, though, including the aforementioned Track pack, Blacktop package (blacked-out trim, mostly), Tech Pack (driver assist systems and 360-degree cameras), and Acapulco Gold paint, bringing the total to $44,160. A Hornet still solidly in the $30K range is an intriguing proposition, a car that’ll beat a Volkswagen GTI to 60 mph and brings all-wheel drive and the winter-weather creature comforts. But a Hornet GT that costs about as much as a higher-trim Toyota GR Corolla, a Honda Civic Type R or two Chevy Traxes is a much less compelling vehicle. We’re sure Dodge would love to sell a few $45,000 Hornets while ramping up production of the next Charger, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy one.

Hew to the base price, though, and there’s a lot to like: speed, interior style, and lots of standard equipment, including adaptive cruise control. There are some moderately silly Dodge-appropriate touches, like the functional hood vents. The exterior styling is a tinge goofy overall, thanks to the obvious mandate requiring the Hornet to cosplay as an SUV—its stock ride height looks like somebody installed a two-inch suspension lift and then forgot to complete the Safari build.

A solution to these aesthetic woes may be forthcoming, from the Hornet-as-hot-hatch factions within the company. At the Hornet’s media launch last year, Dodge displayed a pair of cars fitted with Direct Connection factory aftermarket parts—they were lowered, with bold “GLH” graphics that reference the “Goes Like Hell” turbocharged Omni of the 1980s. We’re still waiting for those parts to make it into the Direct Connection catalog, which in its latest form seems mostly devoted to creating 800-hp Challengers. Which, you know, is fine, but Dodge doesn’t make Challengers anymore. Eventually, Dodge might realize that its next performance car is already in the lineup, waiting for a nudge in the right direction.

Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.