14 Comments

1. On Apr 28, 2008 at 12:26PM, superbird posted:

   Wow, rough crowd. I wonder if Chrysler is listening. I wonder if they care? Actually I think they do, but Cerebus is probably tieing their hands back. So the real question is Cerebus listening to Chrysler?

   It is too bad, actually, they had the ability to make a truely distinctive automobile - but economies of scale over rules what the consumer really wants.

   Imagine if they provided the full customer experience? One of two things would happen
   1. They would go bust.
   2. They would sky rocket in popularity

   With big risk comes big reward. Doing the right thing at the right time is the battle every Manager faces. Let’s hope there is still some fight left in Dodge to tell Cerebus that Dodge designs great cars and Cerbus is good at saving good companies that had lost their way.

   I was going to buy an 08 Challenger, but I did not want a re-skinned Charger (no manual)
   I was going to buy an 09 Challenger SRT8 but no color selection
   I thought of an R/T but wanted features only available in the SRT8
   So, now I wait for a 2010. What will Dodge do to delay that? You don’t make a living on delaying sales - maybe they will figure that out before it is too late.
   ‘69 Superbird Hemi-Orange 440
   ‘73 Cuda Bronze 340
   20?? Challenger ????

2. On Apr 27, 2008 at 10:53PM, TJ posted:

   Dodge only wants to crank these things out as cheap as possible being they’re guaranteed to sell. The price will still not be reasonable to the consumer though. People will overlook the poor interior and the watered down overall features of the vehicle because of it’s history. Dodge could and should have done better. Sticking in a generic interior, what the hell! The only thing the car has going for it is nostalgia.

3. On Apr 27, 2008 at 10:06PM, SIXPAK posted:

   Well they also gave us the pleated/rippled seats from the Concept’s - in the R/T , which for me was a big deal ,enough that I was gonna go out and have them pleated by a custom shop .

   My other big pet-peeve is the wrap-around console missing from the Conept mimicking the original ‘70 and other Mopars of that era ! As a kid sitting in my old man’s Plymouth Satellite ‘74 and having that console shoot up and hide my arm rocked my world and to me it is a truly iconic mark of the genre that is sorely missing !!! To say they (in the video) angled it in the production version is a total joke and to see resemble a generic shift console yaay wide like so is dishonarable to the original Challenger and other Mopars .
   Well I will just have to mold myself one wrap-around consolefrom an original one , I guess . What could have been sooo expensive when all that was needed was this center/masterpiece to set it spot on !!!??

   Asides that I look forward to owning one in 2010 when I get choice in colors + a good deal below MSRP

4. On Apr 25, 2008 at 7:51PM, Yankee posted:

   After falling in love with the concept’s interior (particularly the dash), I’ll admit I wasn’t terribly pleased with the production’s warmed-over Charger dash… but hey, it is what it is, and if that’s the way it’s gonna be, then so be it.

   I can only hope that the concept’s interior wasn’t totally wadded up and thrown away - hopefully some of the concept’s item will work their way into future editions

5. On Apr 25, 2008 at 8:34AM, tigilles posted:

   I apreciate the capability the aving to make that car on the good time is ot easy to find one and the site of auction sale to much.

   But we wait with patient the production of 2009 to buy my old dreem six speeds hemi.

   I hope it’s gone be noting to long I hope the day sit in the seat and push the gas and check the RPM.

6. On Apr 24, 2008 at 10:01PM, Joeyr posted:

   Did they stay true to the interior. Pretty much

   Seats are the same
   colors are basically the same
   shifter same
   headliner same

   Everything else (CD cover, etc) can be changed by a dash kit. And they have those for chargers/300/magnums already and are quite nice.

   I am glad you made it…..now just release pricing and a 4.0 V6 I keep hearing about before the demons er I mean government cracks us down like a bar during the prohibition era

7. On Apr 24, 2008 at 8:13PM, LaRooster posted:

   It’s just too bad that ALL of the development funds went into the exterior leaving NO money for the interior. What a shame that such a wonderful car ended up with an embarassing parts-bin interior. Of course, WHAT else would we have expected from Chrysler?

   It’s pretty sad that they thought they could get away with a cheap Charger interior being that the car was going to be so popular and sell regardless. That may work for the first year or two but after that sales are going to slow down.

   Mr. Gale and Mr. Nielander actually sound proud of the interior, and act as though a lot of time and effort was put into it. Huh?? WHAT was so hard about taking an existing (Charger) interior and fitting it into the Challenger?

8. On Apr 24, 2008 at 6:22PM, superbird posted:

   Should we start giggling yet? Or should we wait till the Ford and Chevy people start?
   Hey, there is always next year! You know - keep the product “Fresh!”

9. On Apr 24, 2008 at 5:32PM, BigBadJav posted:

   was not the concept built on the LX platform? thnaks for listening guys on so much with gas cap,spoiler, manual tranny, 70 style grille, etc. but if development money actually went into the interior then it shouldn’t have, because it looks way too much like the charger. I fyou were going to make a new interior you should have.

10. On Apr 24, 2008 at 3:02PM, superbird posted:

    So will we eventually have (more) color selections to match exterior colors (i.e retro, like white)? Also, will we be able to have exterior accents on the interior in all trim levels?

11. On Apr 23, 2008 at 11:00PM, jrejre posted:

    Let’s all accept that they’re not going to bluntly say what we all already know

    “dodge said make it cost less”

    They did an incredible job of keeping the exterior close to the concept so they were obviously capable of doing the same with the interior if they would have been given the budget to do so. There’s little cues to the concept here and there and I’m sure they did what they could with what they were given. They mentioned in a previous video how much they fought to lose the crosshair grill, I’m sure they tried just as hard to replicate the concept interior but at the end of the day they had to save costs somewhere.

12. On Apr 23, 2008 at 10:36PM, superbird posted:

    It would have been nice dodge-boys to give this car a distinctive interior, after all, it is a distinctive car. But I understand you can only do so much when you have to work with economies of scale. On a scale from 1 to 10 you earn a strong 6. Keep those enhancements coming.
    Cheers

13. On Apr 23, 2008 at 10:23PM, awsure posted:

    Seems to me you dropped the Charger interior (in large measure) into the Challenger. i am a little stunned to hear you say you retained the concept interior. I guess you opted for economics of sharing LX elements over developing a distinct Challenger interior. Thank goodness for the aftermarket world.

14. On Apr 23, 2008 at 3:27PM, Greg Anderson posted:

    Gentlemen,

    I would like to thank you and the entire Chrysler team for such a herculean effort. You’ve done what this old soldier thought would never happen in his life time. He gets to own a real American Muscle Car!!

    I hope you keep this site open so I can follow-up once I bring that baby home..

    Again thanks from a sure fire customer.