We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

With the current disaster in the car business - we are VERY lucky that Chrysler built the Challenger. It is a low volume car (2 door coupe is a specialty vehicle) that will not contribute a bunch to the bottom line of the company. It's no secret that Chrysler is doing poorly. It is a miracle that we have the Challenger at all.

Business is down, heck I have only seen 3 other Challengers on the street EVER. My dealer has 1/2 dozen S/E models in stock for a few weeks - none sold. Those cars should be flying out of the showroom at full MSRP of 23k - but they are not.

Chrysler does not have any global presence, even Ford and GM are making money overseas. They do not have any compact vehicles since they dumped the Neon. The biggest money maker has been the truck and Jeep business which is dead right now.

I hope Chrysler will survive. I love my new Challenger, and hope that there will be a company behind the lifetime warranty.

Once again - it is a miracle that we have the Challenger at all.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

yep and hopefully I get mine before chrysler is gone. But hopefully the electric cars keep chrysler alive past 2010.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

The current state of the economy and the nightly news pumping doom and gloom out of the media machine certainly hasn"t done the auto industry any favors either. Combine that with the high price of gas and the lowest average fuel mileage in the industry and Chrysler has certainly has thier hands full trying to keep things rolling toward profitability. Hopefully they have the financial capital to weather the storm and the engineering know how to turn out some interesting fuel misers. The decision to scrap the Neon just never made any sense to me... but that was made under the Daimler regime... not really anything current management had any say in. As with all things... time will tell.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

I think part of that problem is the fact that Chrysler has done virtually NO advertising on the Challenger. Since I have an SE, I've been amazed at how many people are shocked to hear that a V-6 Challenger even exists. They may have heard that the Challenger is back, but to most people (I'm talking "normal" folks, not people like us, obviously), it may be a cool car but it's just a V-8 monster that sucks up costly gasoline. Chrysler needs to start pushing the Challenger in all of its versions instead of yet another "crossover" vehicle. Also, are you sure the dealer is just charging just MSRP? Unfortunately, many aren't and are trying to fleece the public for an extra $5K or $6K on SEs.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

I see a ton of ads for the Journey these days. And saw a lot of Caliber ads last year. Chrysler needs to get hot and make some 40+ city mpg cars if it hopes to survive. 32 highway mpg for a manual Caliber isn't good enough.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

In Europe ... you guys don't know about the Magnum 300 ? Or "Chrysler 300 Wagen"

It's just a magnum with a 300 front end and 300 logo on the back !!!

73Challenger , you are 100% right , this car should not even be out right now !!! WE are INDEED lucky !

I have only seen 3 other ones then mine in my LIFE , and 73 was one of them !

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

Well with all the money congress is handing out, I'm sure the big 3 will stay alive for a at least a few more years. I cant remember the exact amount but i know that they approved a huge loan to automakers over the next 2 years and maybe they will have something happen during that time. It will take some changes in the way they do business but with any luck they can stay afloat.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

25 billion dollars is the figure I have heard.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

yea 20+

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

The government's "bailout" of the car industry is earmarked for reserach and devlopement of fuel efficient vehicles.

None of that money is to prop up the companies current situation.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

That is exactly the truth..
It was not until I got my copy of the 'Spring/Summer 2008' "DODGE" magazine exclusively for owners that I knew they were making a SE..
I thought that all of them were going to be too high priced for me to even think about..
The article in the book said they were going to be making a base model SE , but this was before they knew what the prices were going to be..
So just about every day I would go to the Dodge.com website looking for updates..
So if I had not been a former Dodge owner, ('06 Ram) I probably would not know that they were selling a model
that would be practical for me, the SE, and I would not have found any of the forums..

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

AMEN to both RoswellGrey and Mopar2ya, you both have in my humble opinion some great insight and I totally agree with you. I may add that I really believe they need some serious TV ads especially touting the SE model as a gas saver but with HOT MUSCLE CAR LOOKS or something in that order. It will sell thier cars for them. Lets keep are fingers crossed and our hopes high for Chrysler and Dodge !!!!!!!!!! Fat Cat[sm=gears.gif]





mopar2ya Date 10/5/2008 11:56:11 PM

The current state of the economy and the nightly news pumping doom and gloom out of the media machine certainly hasn"t done the auto industry any favors either. Combine that with the high price of gas and the lowest average fuel mileage in the industry and Chrysler has certainly has thier hands full trying to keep things rolling toward profitability. Hopefully they have the financial capital to weather the storm and the engineering know how to turn out some interesting fuel misers. The decision to scrap the Neon just never made any sense to me... but that was made under the Daimler regime... not really anything current management had any say in. As with all things... time will tell.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

Well at least Dodge brought out the new Challenger "before" the new Chevy Camaro this time around so we get an extra year should these cars go away again. Personally, I have never seen any Challenger ads on TV...perhaps I don't watch enough. But I agree with everyone else...why no ads trying to sell the SE? It's almost as if Dodge doesn't want to make a big deal about the Challenger to the general public.
Everyone else including Car Mags, owners, etc. are the ones selling the car....where's my check!

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

What would be the point in corporate advertising at this point? They've got fistfulls of sold orders just sitting around. All of the cars sitting on dealer lots are "sold" as far a Chrysler is concerned - the dealers need to step up.

The V6 barely gets better gas mileage than the R/T. I doubt mileage consumers would give the SE much consideration. If anything the SE is probably scavenging more profitable R/T sales - people that want the looks, but don't want / need the performance.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

They could recycle some of the old adds but substitute the new challenger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TycR57p1vzs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kam4jdg_zl0

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

The late "Sheriff" Joe Higgins. A True American, indeed.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

The only place I have seen ANY ads for the Challenger is just on billboards at Baseball stadiums and as the title sponser of a NASCAR race, but other then that I havent seen anything on TV or in print....Heck, I havent even seen it on the windows od dealerships. All I see there is "Check out the all NEW 2009 Journey" YUCK Like the Journey is really going to attract Muscle car people to a dealership. Some people at my work didnt even know that the Challenger was even out there yet.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

Hey is that the new "Charger"....how many times have you heard that from people.....

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

Took my wifes car in for service last night. Mechanic saw our Challenger last time we picked up her car there. He asked how I was liking our new Charger. I humbly corrected him and within a couple minutes he asked me something else about my new Charger... jeesh... and he is supposed to be a car guy... [8D]

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

Ummm... That Challenger thingy... you know the one from the Dukes of Hazzard :-Þ

They both start with a CHA, so they must be the same.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

There are some ads in Motor Trend but that's all i've seen.

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

I live in a small city in southern Utah, and the population of the entire county is just 20,000 people. With that in mind, I have never seen another Challenger in person. Seriously, mine is the one and only Challenger I have ever seen, anytime, anywhere. I have not even seen another Challenger at the bigger Dodge dealership that is 50 miles down the interstate from where I live. If I ever do see another one on the highway someday I will probably get so excited that I wet myself, LOL.

MoparToYou

RE: We are very lucky to have the Challenger
 

even if we were in an economic BOOM right now I'd consider myself lucky to have this car that's how much I LOVE IT.naturally in my proffesion I see more cars than most so I have had the pleasure of seeing a few out on the road,but prolly the most I've seen was at the SRT experience in Daytona,besides mine there was 6 others there,most from somewhere in Florida.

The good side(if there is one) to the economic situation and the possibility of manufacturers going out of bussiness is then this prolly will be worth some money like some people were speculating.