At first glimpse, the 840-hp Dodge Challenger SRT Demon doesn’t make a great deal of sense. It gives way more power than anybody could ever require their road vehicle to have, most people cannot afford it, and just a few thousand will ever be produced. But Dodge states it didn’t built the Demon to offer Demons. It developed the Demon to sell regular Challengers. And apparently, that plan is working, despite the fact that Dodge still hasn’t really provided a Demon to a single consumer.
Talking to the Detroit News, TimKuniskis, FCA’s head of passenger cars, stated Challenger sales are up, and he credits the Demon. “We have not built the first one yet, but people have been discussing this automobile since January,” he stated. “So the hype has been developing and selling other Challengers. Our Challenger sales are through the roofing. We’re having an all-time record year to this day.”
Indeed it’s only been the best year ever by about 100 units, however it’s still a record. Through August of this year, the Challenger has likewise outsold the Chevrolet Camaro, something it hadn’t done at this time in 2016. In the month of August, the Challenger likewise beat both the Mustang and the Camaro, selling 6,253 units to the Mustang’s 5,535 and the Camaro’s 5,017. From the appearances of it, what Kuniskis called a “trickle-down effect” is working.
“It’s selling SRTs and Scat Packs and regular Hellcats,” he stated. “We developed the Demon to cement the image of what the brand name is in peoples’ minds. And this is exactly what we want our mindset to be viewed as.”
What’s a lot more impressive is that the Challenger isn’t anywhere near as brand-new as either of its rivals: the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang. Ford last revamped the Mustang in 2015 and provided it a refresh for 2018. Chevrolet started selling the brand-new Camaro in 2016. But the Dodge Challenger hasn’t seen a redesign since it was first presented in 2008. And the LC platform it’s built on continues to utilize parts from the 1999 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and the 2002 Mercedes E-Class. To say it dated would be an understatement.
So while a limited-edition, street-legal drag racer that prices no less than $85,000 may not make sense on paper, it seems like selling the Demon was really a brilliant move on Dodge’s part.
