Cars

2007 Dodge Demon concept was a thrilling little roadster

The handsome convertible sports car seen here was very nearly America's answer to the Mazda MX-5 Miata.

Chris Paukert

Following stints in TV news production and as a record company publicist, Chris spent most of his career in automotive publishing. Mentored by Automobile Magazine founder David E. Davis Jr., Paukert succeeded Davis as editor-in-chief of Winding Road, a pioneering e-mag, before serving as Autoblog's executive editor from 2008 to 2015. Chris is a Webby and Telly award-winning video producer and has served on the jury of the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards. He joined the CNET team in 2015, bringing a small cache of odd, underappreciated cars with him.

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Chris Paukert

April 2, 2020 1:00 a.m. PT

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This is the 2007 Dodge Demon concept.

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When it debuted to rave reviews at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, there was a lot of talk about a production version.

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The Demon would've lined up against small sports cars like the Mazda MX-5 Miata, Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky and Toyota MR2 Spyder.

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Powered by a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, the rear-drive sports car had 172 horsepower -- not a huge amount, but a fair bit compared to its presumptive rivals.

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With a manual transmission and a 2,600-pound curb weight, this thing looked like a hoot.

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The Demon concept even had appeared to have a production-ready interior.

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Dodge was so gung-ho on building the Demon, it even allowed journalists like our man Steven Ewing to drive the million-dollar concept car.

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So, why didn't this ever come to market? More than likely, bad timing.

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The Demon arrived just ahead of the failure of the DaimlerChrysler merger, not to mention the implosion of the US economic system, the latter which killed off all non-essential new-vehicle projects, as Chrysler had to take bailout money from the federal government.