Challenge for new Charger
 

I am not sure about our friends down under. I do not get it. What are they thinking?

Challenge for new Charger


Name game: the US-made two-door 300C-based Challenger could be rebranded as the Charger in Australia.

18 May 2007

Neil Dowling

A classic Chrysler could make a comeback Down Under, but not in its proper modern form. Chrysler's Australian arm has expressed a desire to bring the two-door 300C-based Challenger here and rename it the Charger. But that sits uneasily with Chrysler in the US, where the four-door Charger is sold alongside the Challenger.
The name switch is plausible and likely to receive greater attention here considering the four-door Charger is a no-goer for Australia.

This is Chrysler's brightest year in Australia for some time although its future has become uncertain with the split this week from the Daimler corporation.

Seven Chrysler Group products, from Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep, are to be launched here in total this year. The third model, the Chrysler Sebring, was launched last week and will be available in showrooms from next month.

But all of them would pale against the possibility of the return of the Charger.

The original Charger, which has a permanent place in the Australian lexicon with its "Hey, Charger" advertising campaign, was sold here between 1971 and 1978.

The most famous was the 1972 Bathurst supercar R/T E49 model

The Sebring will join the Jeep Compass SUV and Wrangler four-wheel-drive series, which was launched in March. Next on the list for Australia is the Dodge Nitro, which is based on the Jeep Cherokee but without a low-range gearbox. This will also arrive here in June and will fall in the mid to high $30,000 range.


It will be followed closely by the Sebring-based Dodge Avenger in July, which will carry a price tag just below the Sebring, which starts at $33,990.

In August, the more offroad-savvy Jeep Patriot will go on sale. It shares some similarities with the Compass, coming off this platform and also carrying a price tag around the same as the Compass, which ranges from $32,490 to $40,490.

The line-up will be rounded off by the Sebring folding-metal roofed convertible, in both soft-top and hard-top form. The cabrio will arrive in November or December and pricing will be released closer to the date.

It may also be available in a different engine to the current 2.4-litre in the Sebring sedan.

Chrysler Australia managing director, Gerry Jenkins says even though the vehicles fall into similar price ranges, it is trying to set the products up so the cars don't "cannibalise one another", offering different levels of specifications and pricing.

Early in 2008, the new Voyager people mover will make an appearance here, sporting a more muscular look and a 3.8-litre V6 and diesel engines.

The Sebring sedan will then have the option of a 2.7-litre V6 and a diesel.

The V6 may even come with a six-speed ZF automatic transmission.

Jenkins says that with all the new product, the company is aiming to increase its sales in Australia from the 9000 vehicles sold last year to about 13,000 vehicles this year. This will be a steady growth from the 6500 vehicles sold just two years ago.

He says the company is anticipating 2008 to be a much quieter year in product release, although he says there will still be some new offerings from these American brands.

RE: Challenge for new Charger
 

If they buy it mate,let em call it what they will. I really like the Australians. They have their own way of doing things and its usually quite unique. I think its cool they have a similar taste in cars as we Americans.

RE: Challenge for new Charger
 

I think what I need to understand is they didn't live the American Muscle car era like we did. Smells, sounds, images (cars), etc. conjure up memories to certain events in our lives or history of it.

Charger probably has more meaning to them for various reasons.

If you take just the raw name Charger(football player, a bull coming at you) which sounds like something being agressive.
Challenger sounds like somebody challenging the winner. So why not call the car a winner or something that sound like it ala Charger.

For Americans those names instantly bring up the muscle cars in our historical past.

So they would prefer to call their car a Charger which is a winner and not a Challenger who is not yet a winner.

I hope that was as clear as mud.

RE: Challenge for new Charger
 

Believe it or not they actually had some really cool Muscle Cars in Australia back in the day some of which I liked better then some of ours and I couldn't believe they sold them cooler versions of some American cars that we couldn't even buy here. For arguments sake they were basically combinations of American models that were sold here. The best example that I can think of and my favorite which I hate to admit cause it's a Ford but cooler then any Ford they sold here at the time was the 1972 Ford Falcon XB-GT which the Road Warrior drove.

RE: Challenge for new Charger
 

The car from Mad Max is just too cool. Falcon is one bad machine. I'll always remember that car, I was just a young lad when the movie was first released. Made Mel Gibson a household name. Great car and one to be remembered for sure.

RE: Challenge for new Charger
 

Yea, we actually have had some guys here post their cars from other countries that had been there since the '70's.

I was amazed they actually had Challenger in many other countries......I remember one of them was New Zealand.

RE: Challenge for new Charger
 

Actually Jeremiah, I would dare say that the Aussies are the muscle car kings of the world. The Aussies have had steady performance offerings all along. Just as ED1971PA was talking about the Ford Falcon, those are serious performers that make American versions of the big threes offerings look like a joke. Also the Aussies had more practical yet power "Hemi" engines that could have turned Chrysler around during the 70s. They were said to be able to rival 340 while getting much better fuel economy (rumored to be in the mid twenties before the day of overdrive transmissions, fuel injection, and other modern technology).

I think the Charger nameplate has a longer heritage than the Challenger in Australia so that would explain that. Really, I think if they wouldn't have called the Charger sedan a Charger in the first place, they could have called the 2008 Challenger a Charger with little dispute from us the performance crowd.