The 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger has shattered sales expectations. Dodge initially planned to build just 1,200 of the $60,000 supercharged monsters, but now over 5,000 orders have been taken, according to Allpar. The sales hike may have something to do with Dodge’s not so dealer friendly approach to choosing who gets to sell the Hellcat.
Hellcat sales are probably helped by Dodge’s plan to stop price gouging. Dodge won’t stop dealers adding a little extra on top of the Hellcat’s $60,990 MSRP, but if greedy dealers price the Hellcat so high that nobody buys it (a Los Angeles dealership listed a Camaro Z/28 at $30,000 over MSRP), that dealership will find the next truck carrying Hellcats passing them by next time. Hellcat allotments will be based on the amount of time the last Hellcats stayed on the lot. Dodge says this will mean more Hellcats on the streets and in enthusiast hands.
“If you want to market-adjust the car, that’s your right. But if your days-on-lot goes above what the other guys that are selling them at MSRP is, they will end up earning the allocation because their days-on-lot will be lower. They’re turning the inventory,” Dodge President and CEO Tim Kuniskis told Automotive News. “Some dealers are going to have heartburn with that.”
The Hellcat is a halo car, but unlike the Viper or the Lexus LF-A, Dodge doesn’t want it to be the sort of halo car that people only see on posters.
“I want this car out in the marketplace so that somebody is sharing it with 50 of their friends and elevating the brand,” Kuniskis said. “That’s what I want; not sitting in your showroom with a rope around it. I want people driving these cars, talking about them, revving the engine and having everybody go ‘I want one of those.’ That’s why you build a halo car.”
