Dodge Challenger: Will they, won’t they…

Newswheel staff :: 19 January 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, Dodge, Dodge Challenger, Europe & UK, US

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Chrysler weighs up production pros and cons

Innovative the Dodge Challenger concept shown at Detroit most certainly was not. After all, producing shamelessly retro recreations of former favourites seems to be the only trick designers at America’s Big Three automakers have up their sleeves. But what the hell, it’s a great looking car. Will Chrysler build it?

On paper, you’d think it would be relatively straight forward for DaimlerChrysler to knock up a production variant. It has the rear-drive 300C platform, derived from the last-gen Mercedes E-Class, ready and waiting. Likewise, the concept’s 6.1-litre Hemi V8 is an off-the-shelf part.

What’s more, a senior Chrysler suit recently told Autoweek magazine that the possibility of rising fuel prices won’t be a factor. “If gasoline is $4 a gallon and the market said this would be a great business case, we could do it,” Eric Ridenour, Chrysler’s COO, decreed. “If the market says it is not, then we probably won’t.” In other words, production is a bona fide possibility, but as yet no decision has been made.

However, whatever happens with the Challenger, we reckon we’re nearing the end of the retro boom in car design. Lamborghini’s born-again Miura concept, in particular, recently demonstrated the dangers of simply taking an angle grinder to a classic design. It was bland, boring, unimaginative and completely devoid of the drama of the original. And after poor sales of the retro-pastiche SSR pick up, even Chevy decided that its Camaro concept would be better off with some genuinely contemporary design cues.

Linkage:
Autoweek on the Challenger’s prospects for production
LeftLane News on Chevy’s decision to close SSR production early