Jeremiah 29:11

What does "limited number in North America" mean?

Challenger dodges rest of planet

10:04AM Tuesday September 04, 2007



Dodge's new Challenger will not make it outside of the US, except as private LHD imports.

It's been reported that the new Dodge Challenger, a re-creation of the classic seventies muscle car which would rival the successful Ford Mustang, will not be sold outside the US as originally planned.

Dodge's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, has apparently made the decision to sell a limited number in North America only, overturning the Chrysler Group's previous plans.

It is still possible though, that a few left hand drive examples would be imported by a third party, should there be demand.

A concept version of the car has already been showcased and the production version is expected to make its debut at the Chicago Auto show next year.

- REUTERS

73Cuda340

Me thinks - It simply means my friend, Low volume - HIGH PRICE
I question whether is is looking good for the working man's wages?

-Phil

Axel

This is the second article on here that is stating that. Has me really worried. If the new owners are going to be like that about this car then they can take it and shove it up their butt. I know Ford and Chevy will have nothing to worry about because there won't be any competition. It will be more like a competition between Viper, Corvette and whatever Ford has in their upper class sports cars in the Shelby department. Sad that they are going to take this route if it's true. Would give yet more reason as to why they have done no advertising. If it does stay true then I can tell you that I'm not really excited to see this car anymore, more of a dissapointment to see it.

RLSH700

Remind me that if I ever get extremely rich and have money to waste to screw up CerB.eruS. for this. These people are just as moronic as Daimler. Thank you so very much Bob Eaton and Lee Iacocca for letting it come to this. Lee just couldn't put his personal dislike for Bob Lutz aside, now this is beginning to happen again. Chrysler needs to expand, not get smaller. They need be more internationally active again.

Jeremiah 29:11

Cerberus sounds like a brain condition or a large intestinal block.

But seriously, I will just be patient till the end and see what happens.

RLSH700

Good advice, sorry for losing it. I'm under some stress right now, plus I'm neverious by some of the decisions I'm seeing right now.

davecpa

my assumption is that the major cost of a car is the designing, testing, and setting up the factory.. with that said... the marginal cost of building one more automobile must be realitively cheap.. thus that is how toyota is such a powerhouse.. sheer numbers of units sold. Thus, were there is demand for the challenger there will be one built. But then again i don't own the company.[sm=gears.gif]

zman

I hold no loyalty to no one automaker, not ever since I started driving, almost 30 years ago now. My money will go to who ever builds a car that really turns me on for the money I will want to spend, so if they overprice the Challenger[sm=badidea.gif], your right they can stick where the sun don't shine. It will will be the biggest mistake in Chryler history not to market this car to the average working stiff. I'll just hand my money over to GM for a ragtop Camaro, a very close second for me. Jeri your right though,I havn't given up yet, I will just wait it out also.

Cuda340

Maybe the nonexistant marketing campaign for the Challenger is about to gear up.

Toyota's top North American executive, Jim Press, has been named vice chairman and president of Chrysler's sales, marketing, and product strategy.

He is described by the Center for atomotive reserarch as "the "an industry icon that gets people's attention."

Tom LaSorda will stay on as co-vice chairman and president of manufacturing and purchasing.

Jim Press will come on board when the company is in the midst of a restructuring and expects to shed 13,000 hourly and salaried jobs by 2009.

BootCamp

I believe the 13,000 positions referred to is based on the elimination of MOPAR and the UAW agreement recently ratified and soon to be implemented. Since Jim Press won't be head of Sales & Marketing until September 15th, 2007, and his department is not directly involved in Production, the "work force" numbers / reductions mentioned are inconsequential to his position. That would be more in the realm of LaSorda and Cerberus' business plan.

The Reuters report is wide open to interpretation. Unless we had DCX's prior marketing and production plan for the Challenger to compare to Cerberus' (which we also don't have), we have no idea how much the intended production has been "scaled back". DCX may have intended to produce far more units originally than anyone predicted. In comparison, Cerberus may be planning to produce far more units than what any of us think of as a "limited production run". Obviously, they're looking at recovering their R & D and production investment, and make a profit as well. Issuing the Challenger on a limited run, low production and high markup basis at this point would be an ill-advised gamble for a company trying to get back into the black. They know they have a potential winner here that can help them achieve that if they play their hand properly.
There are a lot of changes taking place at LLC and they "look" like they're intended to go in the right direction for the best interest of the company. As the company gets stronger, the consumer benefits in a myriad of ways.
I'm not going to jump to conclusions anytime soon. Like changing a Presidential Administration, it takes time for the new leadership's plan to be formed, put in place, impact the economy (company's financial condition), and recover losses from previous administrations/mis-management. Chrysler didn't get into a bind overnight - the solution won't happen that way either.
As for the Challenger, I'm sure LLC see this as just one tool in a fairly large tool-box to repair damage done over many years. And tools don't help you if you don't use them properly. Having Jim Press on board will almost guarantee that the Challenger will be produced and marketed to LLC's greatest benefit. Hopefully, it will be to ours as well.