Wow a convertible in 2009!

Dodge Challenger is the hot new muscle car

Chris Vander Doelen
Windsor Star


Wednesday, December 05, 2007



CREDIT:
The 2006 Dodge Challenger Concept made its world debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Judging by the positive response from journalists and Joe Public alike, the Challenger stands a good chance of becoming a production car.

Chrysler LLC took more than 6,000 orders for the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 it will start building in Brampton, Ont. in April, the company said Wednesday.

The company announced Monday they would start taking orders for the 425-horsepower, high-performance version of the coupe, and collected more than 4,500 deposits from customers on the first day.

Orders were still pouring in this afternoon as the company issued a press release saying it had already sold 6,000 of the cars. "This is unprecedented," said Mark Mallie, Challenger Brand Manager - Dodge Marketing.

"There's a lot of people anxious for it . . . Customers were actually coming to us and pushing us, so we thought this was a good time to take pre-sale orders."

More than half of the buyers specified they wanted the "Hemi Orange" paint job on their muscle cars. The SRT8 version of the coupes come only in black, silver or orange.

The $37,995 car is an almost line-for-line recreation of a muscle car Chrysler stopped building nearly 35 years ago.

The Challenger will be the fourth vehicle built on the LX platform underneath the extremely successful Chrysler 300, the Dodge Charger, and the recently-axed Dodge Magnum.

But for technical reasons the company is referring to the Challenger platform as the LY. A convertible version will follow in 2009.

Production at Brampton Assembly is scheduled to begin in the spring, with early summer deliveries of the 6.1-litre SRT8. Other models will have a 5.7-litre engine expected to produce 350-horsepower, and a 3.5-litre engine producing about 250 horsepower.

The Canadian sticker price for the cars havn't been set yet, and the company isn't taking Canadian orders for the SRT8 yet.

"We will have a different vehicle allocation process than the U.S.," said Stuart Schorr, senior manager of communications for Chrysler Canada Inc.

Chrysler Canada will announce Challenger pricing "closer to its spring launch date," he said. Until then, Canadian dealers are being encouraged to "work with" potential buyers of the car, who may want to "get their name on that dealer's list for Challengers," Schorr said.

The two-door sports coupe is expected to be a low-volume niche product for Dodge selling under 50,000 units per years, analysts say.

 

Jeremiah, just a few days ago you were pretty certain about the convertibles:

"All I can tell you is I have heard that from a fairly reliable source there will not be a convertible and Allpar says there will.

We will have to wait and see. Sorry to give you bad news even though is not official. "

Allpar 1, Jeremiah 0

 

More than half in Hemi Orange. Let's say 55%. I bet 35% black and 10% silver. Silver will be the "rare" one. Especially one without the options. 6000 orders. I thought they were only making 5000. Were those orders for dealer stock or does each one have a specific buyer? Good info, but so many questions. That's what makes these new car intoductions so much fun. Expect 10K ADM to be the norm the first three months.

 

pinkpanther54494......that haven't even built any cars yet and you are already boasting.

You are a funny man.

 

Hmm, I found an article on allpar that mentioned a convertible,posted it here, and some nay-sayers said allpar was unreliable.

"FYI - we are not always fond of Alllpar's reliability but that is our opinion.

As for the convertible, I will believe that when I see it." -Jeremiah

Now Jeremiah believes in the convertible Challenger, now if he only believed in Allpar. . . .

 

Just because a Canadian reporter prints it doesn't make it the truth. I only believe half of what I see and none of what I read.

That is a funny post too.

 

Way to go Jeremiah... now I have that Motown song in my head. Heard it through the grapevine... not much longer will you be mine. I'll be humming that all day now

 

If you guys don't stop beating on Jeremiah like this I will show you examples of how allpar has been wrong in the past and believe me there are plenty of examples. Jeremiah was doing the best to point out that before this there had not been any real confirmation about them having one. In fact, many sources had denied they would have one. He was trying to prevent you from getting your hopes up just to be disappointed. At this point it does not appear that this came out of the mouth of Chrysler, but the newpaper is mentioning rumors. It is not necessarily proven just yet. Maybe they are right, maybe they are wrong. There are lots of rumors that comes out of many press outlets.

Heck C&D said that the Charger would never come in an SRT trim and it did. It is still a rumor at this point. Now I hope they are right that a convertible comes out but at this point there is not solid evidence. There are no physically made concept cars of a Challenger convertible at this point, when there are convertible concept cars of a physical Camaro. Now which is solid evidence? A newspaper who probably got that from Allpar as many articles tend to do, or the fact that there is no solid evidence of this at this point.