The Charger is a good news-OK news type of car. It's no doubt a success, but it's an unusual sucess to say the least.

*There's been over 69K of them this year compared with 69K 300s over the 1st 7 months of production last year, but typically takes 36 days to sell compared with the 300's 16.

*88% of Chargers were sold with a rebate (the segment average is 52%), but the average Charger rebate was a mere $1100 compared to the segment average of nearly $1500!

The undeniably good stuff:

*The average Charger buyer is 40 years old, compared with an industry average of 44. Charger has successfully brought Dodge's average buyer age down.

*Finally, though the numbers charger sells at won't impress Chevrolet, unlike many GM cars, the Charger is a verifiable cash cow. The average transaction price of a car in this class is $23,500. Charger's?...... $29,300!

 

Gaining market share through rebates is great and all, but this last point is; 1.) what keeps you in business, 2.) allows deep R&D into the next gen (and beyond) and, 3.) give the corp some cash to spread around to other product lines.

 

Who is buying these ugly things, I don't know. I've seen a total of one since they went on sale.

 

Ooooh, Ooooh, I beat you............... I've seen two.

The local Chevy/Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealership (small town USA) had a Charger R/T sitting on its elevated corner platform for 3 months before it sold............. and that was in the summer.

I've seen one up here, and one in the Valley (Phoenix metro area).

 

heh, my wife was eating her lunch in the Avalanche, in the company parkinglot.

She saw a brand new Dodge Charger, pull right up into the unmercingly "charged" in and scraped the lower front end on top of a high parking curb all the way up the front tires. Look on the drivers face (a woman) was of pure shock!

Which was replace by a absolute look of horror when she slowly tried to pull back, with various scraping sounds could be heard..

Obviously she's never driven a f-bod.. You learn real quick not to do that..

 

i've seen a handful in my travels. what gets me is, all the ones i've seen were base cars. i still have yet to see an R/T or SRT-8 on the streets.

 

It looks like my Spirit on steroids.

 

I don't think the sales of the Police Pkg. Hemi Charger started out to great, they just dropped the price $3K to $23K. Its still more expensive than the Ford Police Interceptor (Crown Vic) which is around $21-22K and the Impala 9C1 which is $17-18K. I guess a lot of govt. beancounters don't think the Charger is worth it.

 

One more thing to add to all this.

On a more personal note, my sister in Tolleson Arizona (the one with the black 96 T-topped Camaro "stud magnet" as she calls it) came within a whisker of buying a Black Hemi Charger this past week.

The thing had the competition package, and was loaded up to $34K. God bless her, she got them down to $27K before she left!

Guess I gotta take her with me when I buy my next car.

(In case you're wondering, dad advised her to wait, mom was against it, and I told her if she NEEDED a new car, and she wanted a Charger R/T, then to get this one. She decided she didn't NEED a new car, but knowing her, it isn't her final decision. )

 

She must look really good.

 

Guy remember one thing a woman's cleavage helps make everything easier.

 

I would never own a Charger. But it is clear why they would appeal to people.

 

Oddly enough, I've seen only one base car. Almost every one I see is an R/T and I've seen several around the KC area. Almost every Magnum I see is an R/T as well.

 

I'm starting to see more around Dallas. I think my count of total spottings is now cracking 12. Most have been R/Ts.
But far from the number of 300s or even Magnums I spotted in the same time period after those cars came out. I think the Charger is going to get a hefty discount in the next year because I honestly don't see their sales picking up any if at all.

 

It helps that most salespeople are men. And men seem to lose their senses when delt with a pretty face. Saying "NO" just gets harder it seems.