73Cuda340

Another country heard from. We all work hard for our dollar. Corporate America has lost her way. It used to be corporations looked after their employees becuase they were a company asset. Today, they are a commodity. Greed is certainly a growing factor in our culture. It does not help when there are so many Americans who will put up with it though. An example. I went to an auction not too long ago. There were four pressure washers going up. The people who wanted them would not wait for the caller to bid it down, those jerks jumped as soon as it hit their middle-water mark. Me, i usually wait and see (listening for the wavieir in the voice), but these fellow idiots kept the price artificially high because they lacked the patience to wait it out. The same is true in the auto industry. My cousin has been in the businesss well over 25+ years. He basically, at this point, is disgusted with the car industry. He refers to them as pigs with wheels. He thinks the corporations are srewing themselves and in the process screwing it UP for the American people.

I know this is way off topic, but people's nerves are getting frayed as the last corner and the final straigh-a-way looms before them.
Sorry for the detour. I really wish everying who is getting an 08 all the best. Please enjoy it, don't look back, and try to have compassion for those around you who are losing it.
73Cuda340

MFIllini5

I strongly agree with fatcat and 73Cuda340. The real "American Way" is not to take our capitalistic economy that America is known so well for to greater and greater extremes, but to remember that this country was founded with "The People" being of utmost importance. Corporations were meant to just be a tool to allow the people and the nation as a whole to prosper. The people must be first. If only we as the people could make our federal government more a reflection of us, the government would do a better job of keeping things in order. There is this persistent view that pure economics is so great and takes care of itself. This is the textbook view. The reality is that consumers do not always have perfect information or there are any number of other things that may contribute to a less than perfect operating market. That is what fatcat is essentially talking about with this withholding of information from Dodge. He has a valid point.

DSkippy

Wow, a lot of clairvoyance on the board....personally, I'm amazed at the confidence in facts and figures that haven't even been established yet, couldn't be yet.

Maybe I'm naive, but, I can't fathom why a Dodge who gets X amount of margin from a dealer when they sell them a unit to be sold to the consumers would not produce as many as dealers would buy? The dealers stand all to gain not Chrysler.

Maybe I should get my aluminum foil hat fashioned too, before the corporations start controlling my thoughts with their greed beams.

How's about we wait for the first 09 to be sold, allow Chrysler to determine what appropriate production schedules are based on demand and see if this free trade thing'll work like it has for 200+ years in America.

Or would it be better for the government to determine the price of our goods? Soon they can start to redistribute the wealth and voila we have a Utopian society like the Soviets had before those evil freedom lovers came to town.

I'll defer to the points about workers being mistreated in Corporations these days to a degree. One example being the Airline industry pulling it's retirement packages, that was poor form, and before anybody loses a retirement package, executive management should have had pay cuts and no bonuses, because it was they who mismanaged and they should be compensated as such.

GPMAN

I just do not get these attacks on capitalism. How else do we decide who gets the cars? Should it be the folks who want them the most? Should it be those least able to pay? When you go to work tomorrow, are you not trying to get as much as the market will bear? Just like the critics of the oil company profits. When oil was ten dollars a barrel and they were losing more than most countries GNP, nobody pitched in to help them.
The only fair way, like it or not, is the free market and just because I was too busy to camp out on some dealers doorstep on December third, I should not be precluded from owning this dream car.
Burnouts truly,

GPMAN

ru1041

I am not really upset that they are selling these cars above the MSRP. This is a capitalist country, like it or not. The dealers are making a choice as to what is more important to them: money or customers. My local dealer chose money so I went elsewhere and got one at MSRP instead of 65,000. They lost a customer for good. If they treat every customer like that they will eventually have NO customers. It all comes back around. Its a free market, you dont have to pay their price. Besides, the higher prices only makes the less expensive ones more valuable.

1971cuda convert

I dont think we will see any 08 seting around and I dont see the srt geting any cheaper .The sold over 10000 gt500 shelbys and the 07 gt500 still get close to what they cost new 2 years ago and theres way more of them than challengers .I think challengers will bring big money for awhile and it will most likely be a year or more before any are seen just seting around unless dodge really cranks up production . IM glad these cars have all this demand behind them it just makes it alot more sweeter .Now its geting kinda old on the wait but hopefully we will soon be geting cars .

WhiteHeat

I agree with your free market opinion regarding the Challenger, but likening it to the oil companies hurts your argument.

I believe the oil companies are colluding to set the price in a fashion that is anything but representative of a free market. One tinfoil hat for me please, size 7 7/8.

Billionaire

The dealer markup is a simple case of supply and demand. There really is nothing that needs to be done about it or should be done about it. Price is the fairest and best way to determine who gets something that is in short supply. I feel sorry for the Dodge dealers because other than the Challenger, they have so many ugly clunker cars that hardly sell at all. So as far as I'm concerned, they're welcome to a $15,000 markup on Challengers for as long as they can get it. It can be really tough to make money as a business owner. You have to take advantage of every opportunity. In fact, I think it would be STUPID for a Dodge dealer NOT to try to get as much as possible for Challengers. Also the Challenger is just a luxury item. They're not stealing food from babies.

bluestang50

You are right... its called OPEC

awsure

I think another point is that the dealers have ZERO to do with the pricing. WE DO! The price is a direct function of what we are willing to pay...not what dealers want to charge us.

I am not not a Buffet fan but I keep hearing "...it's yer own damn fault..." in my head.[8D]