I drove past two Dodge dealerships over the weekend and noticed the plethora of Challengers sitting on the lots. Seriously... they each had like 15 or more Challengers at each lot. Both these dealerships are prob within a 15 mile radius of each other as well. From what I could see there was actually a pretty good blend of SE's and R/T's there in every color, with maybe 2 or 3 SRT-8's...
I know they said that most of the initial 6,400 08 SRT-8's that were produced were purchased but there are definitely some still out there...
Which had me wondering.... I actually went out Sat evening with my girlfriend and one of her best friends and her boyfriend, who actually works @ one of the Dodge dealers and I asked him what was going one with all the Challengers at the dealer.
He works in the service department but he said that Dodge made way too many after seeing the huge initial demand for the SRT-8 Challengers, and assumed that the SE's & R/T's would sell just as well if not better due to being less expensive (reminds me of what GM did with the SSR & GTO, after they killed off the Camaro & Firebird actually for).
He also stated that due to Chrysler financial pulling out of the leasing business, their dealership's total monthly sales have almost nearly declined by 50% in the last month, (not to mention August being one of the worst months this year for the big three) also being a contributing factor.
But the last thing he said was what put a smile on my face that night... He said that they are afraid that when the Camaro comes out next year that it will also really hurt the Challenger's sales...
He did actually say that the Challengers are going for sticker or below sticker now as well...
Although I'm hoping the same thing doesn't happen with the Camaro, and hopefully GM actually looks at their pasts mistakes and doesn't make the Camaro another GTO...
February can't come soon enough...
