Ok things are getting strange in the land of the Hellcat. There are two things happening, both seemingly independent of themselves which point to what may be a larger issue. The thing that we saw first yesterday was a recall of ALL the Hellcat Chargers and Challengers on the road due to a potential fuel leak. Those need to get back to the dealers to have the recall work done to prevent your Hellcat from becoming a crispy critter. Nothing major there, right? Recalls are part of the modern automotive world we live in. There was something very telling. All the Hellcats? Yeah, all the Hellcats are exactly 2,211. That’s a weirdly tiny number considering that (a) FCA was very vocal in saying that there would be no cap or limit on production and (b) the stories about thousands of pre-orders flowing in from around the world ran rampant when these cars were first announced and dealers were able to take orders. We had heard that there would be production caps and the rumor picked up so much steam that FCA leadership was basically forced to make a public statement countering it. All this being said, how it is possible that only 2,211 of these cars have been produced?! In November it was announced that over 5,000 pre orders had been placed for Hellcat cars and yet not even half of them have been produced yet? These things aren’t handmade, they are coming off the same line as other production vehicles. Something is weird, right?
Then a couple of days ago, Chrysler posted a blog story that essentially warned potential Hellcat customers about how some dealers are playing games, ordering “too many” cars and basically cheating customer by taking pre-order payments for vehicles that they may not get for a long time…if ever. This has us really spun out. On the one hand we totally understand the need to have a system of ordering and distribution in place, that only makes sense. The real questions begin with why dealers are being limited on what they can order when there is no production cap on the cars. Are they telling them that they can’t get Dodge Darts? Something here is fishy.
In a story entitled Avoiding Hellcat ordering disappointment (which is a weird title in an of itself) the company uses a graph to describe how dealers are able to get Hellcats and why some aren’t getting them, won’t be getting them, or just flat out cannot get them. Here’s the graph:
So let’s get this straight. If you are considered an “eligible” dealer you will be allotted ONE Hellcat per month to sell, which clearly has already been sold by the time you get it. Even the dealers who are making a “stock” order to have a Hellcat on their lot already have them sold. It is pure fantasy that a dealer would be dumb enough to buy one of these things and let it sit there as a conversation piece in the showroom. If anyone knows how to make money, it is car dealers. No matter how they are ordering the cars, they are sold before they roll off the delivery truck.
We’re just wondering why there is a byzantine process to order and get a car that there is no production limits on, unless there are production limits and the way that Chrysler is engaging them is through this system which essentially makes it impossible for them to sell more than their “eligible” dealers can move via their workflow above. This does fail to address the fact that less than half the existing pre-orders have been built and we’re now wondering if they will deem some of those orders as bad because of how they were filed and who they were filed by. What happens then?
You are Joe regular guy and you went to your local Dodge dealer, ordered a car and now the company is going to refuse to build it? What company in their right mind locks the brakes down on a product that people are clamoring to buy? Ferrari freaking sells cars with less internal regulation than this.
We have always been a little nervous about the Hellcat being a red herring distraction away from the real story at “FCA” these days and stuff like this does not help that suspicion die down. Are we missing something here? Does this make sense to any human being?
There’s no production caps… but dealers may not sell more than one a month. Reminds me of “The work was strictly voluntary, but anyone who did not participate would have his rations reduced by half.”
Hmmm…reminds me A LITTLE of when I taught my students about fascism, “radical authoritative nationalism”, or telling citizens how they will conduct THEIR business for the good of the country (Italy). F…CA might not be too far of a stretch.
I wonder if there is a bottleneck in the production of the Hellcat engine? I don’t know Chrysler/FCA’s process but I imagine something like that would go on a smaller more tightly QA’d line.
I would imagine this type of thing is the real-world case. Nobody’s applying any “brakes” on production, it’s just a matter of these being time-consuming packages to put together and they were never scheduled for some big rush of deliveries at the outset. I’m sure FCA is pleased-as-punch over the demand and publicity but there still is only a limited market for these and they are not going to set up to crank out one every minute.
As for the dealers, I went with a buddy to look at SRT Challengers when they first came out and those guys were ASSES. The small matter of the extra ten-thousand dollars, posted right there on the window, wasn’t even the worst part when you’re being treated as a sniveling peon because you like their pretty car. He went back and bought one, I wouldn’t have.
I like Fiats. I really do. Old ones, new ones, no matter. I hated it when the NAZIs owned my car company, hate it worse that the Fascist do now….
Oh, Mother Mopar…..it was a nice ride while it lasted
Hellcats may be having thier problems, but I ordered a 392, Tremec 6 speed, Scat Pack Challenger and it came from Brampton to Tallahassee in 5 weeks . . . Had my name on the window sticker and everything !
IMO Mother Mopar is doing something right !
707 might cause me to spill my drink anyway DTB
Just what you can expect with Fiat is in charge. They never could do anything right.
Just announced: Dodge is recalling all Hellcats due to a potential fuel hose leak:
http://www.streetlegaltv.com/news/gm-not-alone-dodge-now-feeling-claws-of-hellcat-recall/
Lee, did you actually read the story above where I talk specifically about that?!
I’m convinced that it’s become very common for people to skim articles and just make a snap judgement. My wife does this s*** when I email her and it really steams me. “You never answered my questions” – “What questions?”
Three things I am seeing for plausible answers to these questions.
1. Longer build times for these due to horsepower numbers and cost. These are not pedestrian V6 cars and I am sure the lawyers want to be sure all safety items are double checked before shipping.
2. In order to avoid a glut of Hellcats on the lot and keeping demand above supply, FCA is throttling production to begin with. I am sure the bean counters and marketing have sales forecasts based on price and interest.
3. FCA could also trying to prevent any one dealer becoming “the Hellcat Dealer” by ordering an overabundance of cars for high priced markups.
A buddy of mine made a down payment for an ALLOCATED one at his dealer last fall. Still no build date………….
My dealer who is also a viper dealer has a pre-sold car for December and mine for February. And neither one of use have any idea when they will be built. he gets one a month . The give out Allotments to the dealers then we get no car in a timely fashion.
I went to the local dealer in my small town in KS and was told they had a deposit on 1 Hellcat and wouldn’t take my money. Called Wichita & Tulsa & was told not to waste my time trying so I bought a #’s matching 1970 Z/28RS like I had in the Army.
My guess is they are limited on how fast they can produce the engines. After all its not some 200000k a year 4banger. It has some very unique and expensive parts in it.
Do they have to sell 1000 v6 cars for every one hell cat to keep the mileage numbers in check?
If I owned a dealership I would want one on the floor at all times. Get them in the door let them dream of having a hellcat sell them a dart. Worst case you end up owning one. If you have dealership money that should not be a problem.
That’s fucking ridiculous. Just sell the sumbitches and make some money damn Chrysler I figured you would have figured out supply and demand by now.