The only trouble with that argument is: The cost of operating a Wii isn't going up and up and up...

 

And Nintendo is cranking out 15 mil Wii's a month.
I think!

 

I agree with you on that, but it's all relative. Here's my logic...

I am lucky enough to have a work-from-home job now, but before I was commuting a pretty long way. I averaged almost 20K miles per year. At today's gas prices ($3.40/gal +/-) I'd be spending $270 a month on gas for my Challenger R/T. That's a lot. But if I had a Prius gas wouldn't be free. I'd still be paying maybe $135. And who wants a Prius?

Put another way, let's say I don't want the cost of ownership of a V8 Challenger. I want to be frugal for gasoline's sake. The May issue of C&D has a gas-miser comparison test of 8 cars subtitled "looking for the 35 MPG car," referring to the CAFE laboratory MPG numbers. Only two of the cars tested (Ford Focus and Toyota Carolla) actually got the 35 MPG in the real world tests, and that was highway only. The "winner" (VW Rabbit) got 22 city and 29 highway. Compare that to Challenger R/T's 16/23 and you can get an extra 6 MPG, which in my above example saves me $60 per month. That's great, but I'd have to drive a VW Rabbit!

The bottom line is everybody who enjoys driving and drives what they enjoy pays for the privilege. Some people pay $60 a month more in insurance to drive a sports car than they would if they drove a Rabbit, but they do it anyway because they don't want to drive a Rabbit. Yes, high gas prices are another nail in the coffin of our disposable income. But we all spend more than we have to on things we enjoy. The higher gas prices go the more people will no longer be able to afford to do that - no matter what their particular money pit is. Even games for our Wiis*!

(*Wii used as example only. PS3 owner)

 

This is what we call:

Underpromise & Overdeliver in my business. If they forecasted sales of 50k or more and fell short by two cars you would hear calls for the hangman. Especially if they were a public company. I would not put too much emphasis on this except to note that management is taking a cautious approach.

 

That's the best explanation I've seen so far. They're trying to guarantee that the Challenger looks like a huge success.

Justinec101 is right, too. If they sell like hotcakes Dodge can always ramp up production. I've seen shortages of foreign cars before because they didn't import enough to meet demand, or they couldn't respond fast enough to meet demand. I've never seen an American car that was in too short supply unless that was by design. Dodge might choose to limit production of SRTs even in '09 to maintain their value and exclusivity, or even to keep from hurting their CAFE numbers. But I think they'll build all the R/Ts and SEs they can sell and be glad to do it!

 

They did say at the NY show the R/T is expected to be the big seller. I got the impression they thought (predict) the market for the SRT8 would be very small.
As for SE's, well, this car may be showing up as fleet vehicle at Dollar rent-a-car. So maybe someone could probably estimate their build numbers.

09.5_Challenger_6.1

 

Unfortunately, from what I've been reading, it sounds like Chrysler is pretty much OUT of the rental-car market now. I was hoping I could pick up a spare Challenger this way, but I don't think that's going to happen ....