ORIGINAL: Albeeno
The best advice I've received is to wait it out one year after the initial launch. By then, all the madness will have started to die down and you will be more apt to get your Challenger at MSRP or below.
I do have a question though - how long would it take (roughly) from the time you order one at the dealership until you physically take delivery? Anyone care to gaze into their crystal ball and help The Beener out here?
If you're going to wait a year and, as you say, the madness has died down, I wouldn't think ordering an SE or R/T would be any different than special ordering any other Dodge. When I ordered my Dakota (in Spring of '01, kinda the off-season) I had it in six weeks. And it had my name on the sticker, so I know they didn't just find it on some other lot.
Of course, for the SRT things will probably be different. Then I guess there's allocation to consider, maybe a waiting list, etc.
Which brings up a question I had. I saw the post a few days ago about the percentage breakdown of the '09s. Some were saying that the percentage for the SRTs was too low. How do you suppose they came up with that number? Is that how many SRTs Dodge thinks they can sell, is it the most they want to make to maintain the SRTs "exclusivity", or is it based on how many they can safely sell without damaging their CAFE? Any thoughts?