Enter Nissan, another of Japan's economy-car experts and whose CEO Carlos Ghosn is usually open to doing deals. The first with Chrysler involved supplying Versas for sale in South America under the Chrysler or Dodge label. That led to further talks and the more ambitious idea of a product swap for North America. Nissan would handle the 2010 Dodge Hornet, while Chrysler would return the favor by designing and building a new large pickup truck to replace the slow-selling Nissan Titan. Presto! Each company lends its special expertise to erase a competitive deficit at the other, and both save big bucks to boot. But will either of these products be a winner? That's the billion-dollar question.

The one other question about the 2010 Dodge Hornet is how much it will look like the well-received 2006 concept. After all, the showcar styling was done with no specific platform in mind, but must now be retailored to fit Nissan Versa bones. That suggests the production Hornet will add some 2.6 inches to wheelbase and a whopping 16 inches to overall length versus the concept. Otherwise, the Nissan architecture is a good choice. The hatchback Versa is a close match for the Hornet concept in width and height, and both are boxy 4-doors with short overhangs front and rear. Despite its greater length, we expect the showroom Hornet to be usefully lighter than the porky concept at under 2,700 lb versus 3,100, a benefit of the Versa's weight-watcher engineering.