My friend used to have a Dodge Daytona

 

I agree, the names need to be swapped.

 

Being that these events happened over a year and a half ago, I think I can safely bring them up now.

When I did my story last year on future performance cars for PHR, the person I interviewed (through indirect hints, "what ifs", & innuendos) left no doubt that Chrysler had a RWD coupe ready to go, but that the issue was making it financially viable enough to be OK'ed for production. At that time, the approving officials (Germany) felt that there was only a market for sedans.

The case at the time was that "if" Chrysler did a coupe, at the expected level of production it would have to carry a fairly hefty pricetag to make it worthwhile. If it were to carry a hefty price tag, then Chrysler would have to "theroetically" make it worthwhile to the customer by providing a car that could potentially be the quickest car Chrysler ever made save the Viper, with a price well in the upper $30K range and a price about $10-12K less for base models.

I brought up the Mustang and how Ford is able to do a car cheaply. I was told the same thing that GM reps have said. That while the Mustang is doing extremely well, the rest of the coupe market is not. The overall coupe market was actually shrinking, and Mustang's sales are actually going against trends (Mustang owns something like 50%+ of the sporty coupe market). This made any sporty coupe proposal difficult since the cost of development would no doubt be spread over far fewer cars than what Ford does, and therefore each car would be more expensive to the company than what each Mustang would cost to Ford.

My guess is that the roaring success of the Chrysler 300, the Magnum, and the fact that just the Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrysler is earning more money than GM by bucking the perception of what the public is intrested in buying, is making the case of producing the coupe a heap easier for the guys at Chrysler to the guys at Daimler. Also, being the only automotive division at DaimlerChryslerMitsubishi that's actually making money now certainly doesn't hurt. I'd say it's more like an "I-told-you-so".

So keep on telling everyone else to by a 300 or a Magnum. We'll get a "Challenger", and we'll have some killer "Big 3" muscle car comparisons. Just like when I was growing up.

 

Call it 'Cuda.

Challenger-Cuda as Camaro-Firebird

 

F- that.....Road Runner would rock!

 

So the name Challenger was used for a 4 cylinder compact. Big deal. No one associates the 300 name with some of the land yachts that went by that name. I had a 1970 Chrysler 300. Weighed about 5000 lbs, had a 440 and got 8-9 mpg. Hardly a performance car, or for that matter a luxury car. All they will need to do is run a few ads with the original Challenger in them alongside the new version and the econo Challenger will be all but forgotten.

 

when you hear 'Chevy Nova', do you think 396 SS or four door econobox? If you think econobox, maybe you need to join some sport compact forums

That being said, I disagree with the four door challenger thing. The challenger was a pony car in its glory days. Which days do think dodge wants to reflect, the good or bad?

 

TF&TF had vin drivein a charger so people will recognize the car, if thats what your worried about, EVERYONE knows what the charger is maybe not the lesser known models like 6pack, road runner etc, but def charger. I would love to get my hands on a 68 charger RT in hemi orange please
As far as the new ones go, do a search this topic has come up alot