Posted on Friday 9 May 2008
Production for Dodge’s long-awaited Challenger SRT8 muscle car officially kicked off yesterday at Chrysler’s Brampton assembly plant, with the first car’s scheduled to hit dealer showrooms next week. They won’t be sitting idle for long, however, as the SRT8’s entire first year production run – about 7,000 cars – is already accounted for.
Priced from $37,995, the new SRT8 Challenger flagship has created a level of excitement around the Dodge brand that hasn’t been seen since the launch of the first-generation Viper more than a decade ago. Chrysler needed to spend more than $151 million on refurbishing and tooling at the Canadian plant to accommodate the new Challenger line, but this amount is the smallest the carmaker has ever spent on a new model, reports The Detroit News.
Things is because of a number of new cost cutting measures implemented by Chrysler engineers including increased use of new computer design processes and flexible manufacturing. The Challenger is built on the same production line as the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans and uses most of the same machinery.
completely unrelated and i’m sure this isnt the additude of all the chrysler workers but my girlfriend just started working as a consultant for chrysler’s industrial R&D facility and had a little discussion with one employee there.
needless to say he maintained that this car was already sold out “at 60k a piece”. she then informed him that it retails for less than 40k and it was “already sold out” because the first year was a limited run. and then proceeded to tell him that there’s better cars for the money. particularily mustang. he then informed her that “mustangs have been proven unreliable”… she then said “say what you want about ford but the mustang is cheap, looks great, and has never had any quality or design issues.”
pretty much sums up my thoughts about this car. hey it looks bad ass. for sure. and im sure most of the buyers are literally going to cream nostalgia all over the interior. but in the end its a charger with a body kit.
I’ve heard the Europeans (Hammond of Top Gear in particular) are drooling to get their hands on this car. I’m sure it’ll be popular, but will it last in today’s day of higher fuel prices, and on the same stage as the Mustang and Camaro?
hamsters got a thing with american muscle.. which I can understand.. but seriously. its a charger. with a body kit.
Good Humor…. Better check your history of Chrysler the “OLD” Challenger contained MANY B-body parts. And a B-Body consisted of CHARGER, Satellite, and Coronet models. Parts as in same transmission, engine, suspension, and some body and interior parts. Better Humor Ford has no quality or design issues….
james: i don’t care what the historical model was. the point is people are going hog wild over a reskinning of a relatively poor selling vehicle.
and i never said anything about FORD having no quality or design issues… just the mustang. I think thats pretty clear from what I wrote. there have been some mustangs that were worse than others, but generally speaking, every one of them has been a quality car. on the flip side of that, I most certainly will admit that ford has had their issues with many vehicles. but ford does rear wheel drive very well. 3 best ford vehicles in recent history: F150, Mustang, Panther. simple as that. Panther’s 30 years old and they’re still making it (and selling it).
Chris:
I can not disagree with you that the Charger is poor selling vehicle AND an insult to the Charger name. BUT many die hard Chyslers fans have waited a LONG time for a V8 rear wheel drive car in TWO doors…. It may not be perfect, BUT it is a V8 and rear wheel drive AND TWO DOORS.
Challenger is heavier and bigger than a Mustang. But they did a good job at what they had. Could it be better - sure. But did I mention Chrysler fans have been wainting for a rear wheel two door vechicle….
Mustang was-is a nice car always has been except for those late 70s through the 80s years. And they did a good job with the new one.
So give us poor old Chrysler fans something to cheer about! The last real muscle car for Chrysler was 38 years ago!!