It’s been a long rollout for the new Dodge Charger, and the next phase is just about in gear. You can finally order a Charger Scat Pack sedan with the high-output Hurricane inline-six, and it’ll run you a relatively reasonable $58,990 including freight. That doesn’t seem unusual until you look at what its two-door brother costs.
Considering the six-cylinder Charger Scat Pack coupe boasts a base price of $56,990 including freight, the sedan carries a $2,000 premium, or $1,000 per extra door. That seems unusual when you consider that these days, coupes frequently sell in far lower volumes than their sedan counterparts and often make up development costs on margin with higher pricing. A BMW 4 Series is more expensive than a 3 Series, an E-Class coupe used to cost more than an E-Class sedan, you know the drill. However, things used to be different.
Back when mainstream coupes were common, they were often a little bit more attainable than their four-door siblings. A 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier coupe was $200 cheaper than the sedan. A 1999 Honda Civic DX coupe was $205 cheaper than a 1999 Honda Civic DX sedan. A 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe was $174 cheaper than the equivalent sedan. We’re not talking huge margins here, a couple hundred dollars at most, but enough to test your rear passengers’ flexibility if you were on a rigid budget.
When you think about it, coupes should probably be a little bit cheaper than sedans. After all, the manufacturer doesn’t have to install rear window tracks, rear window motors, rear window regulators, rear door hinges, rear door lock actuators, rear door handles, or child locks if there aren’t any rear doors in the first place. Each interior plastic panel back there can be one piece from the bulkhead to the B-pillar instead of molding an interior door panel and separate panels for the door sill cover, any gap between the rear seat backrest and the start of the door jamb, and the B-pillar cover. Mind you, sedan front seats don’t need to fold forward on a quick release so there are likely cost savings there, but still. Oh, and then there’s time in assembly, as hanging four doors on a car takes longer than hanging two doors on a car.
Indeed, aside from the number of doors, the Dodge Charger Scat Pack sedan is pretty much identical to the coupe. No matter which body style you choose, you get a 550-horsepower twin-turbocharged straight-six, an eight-speed automatic transmission, and an all-wheel-drive system that can be switched into rear-wheel-drive mode like a BMW M car. Both have identical quoted zero-to-60 mph times of 3.9 seconds, and both can hit 177 mph given enough room.
It really just comes down to preference and whether you’re willing to pay the extra $2,000 for two additional doors. Well, that and how long you’re willing to wait. While the Charger Scat Pack coupe is expected to arrive in dealerships within the next few weeks, the sedan isn’t scheduled to enter production in Windsor, Ontario until early in the new year.
Top graphic image: Dodge
As someone who might actually buy one of these things I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I can manage the higher cost of entry. I’ll still complain about it of course, but I could put a $55,000 car in my driveway without having to over leverage myself. I also recognize that this is a high horsepower niche product that’s about to have this space all to itself. Given that it’s a Dodge there will inevitably be money on the hoods very soon as well.
But I also think we’re losing the plot a bit here. You could get an M340i/440i or Audi S5 for as much as one of these will cost. They’ll be more expensive to own long term, but not by that much given how complex this powertrain is and Stellantis’ colorful reliability track record. You also don’t have to deal with the stigma and type of attention these will attract with those cars.
I’m just not entirely sure who these are for other than…well, me I guess. I’m an upper middle class professional with a family who likes the combination of practicality, speed, and style but I don’t think there’s an infinite supply of me out there. As I said in my reply to V10emous, it wasn’t that long ago that someone might cross shop a GTI and Mustang GT or Charger because the pricing and accessible performance ethos were similar.
But now? You can still get a GTI, Elantra N, GRC, etc. for well under 40 grand. Hell I think if you’re a halfway decent negotiator you could sneak under 35 grand without much issue with any of those 3 or a WRX. But for a Mustang GT or Sixpack Charger? It’s going to be another 10 grand at least, and I think that’s going to prove to be a problem.
It looks like a Beluga whale with that hood bulge.
This really is not an attractive vehicle in any form. There is something ‘off’ when viewed from any angle.
Gotta be why they used an example painted black, indoors, with mostly ambient light for the pics.
$60k for a Dodge that doesn’t have a Viper badge on it is lunacy.
$60k is where this thing should land fully loaded with the most expensive powertrain.
In fact…a few years ago, $60k WAS where this thing landed fully loaded with the most expensive powertrain.
I feel like the cost saving on a 2-door vs. 4-door switched as side impact safety became a bigger consideration. Fewer parts you can see, but more to engineer for. You can see that in some of the NHTSA ratings when they started side impact testing – example, in the 6th gen Honda Accord, sedans got 4 stars for front passenger side impact, coupe received 3. Coupe and sedan Accords were the same price for at least part of that gen, then the coupe got increasingly more expensive than the sedan with each subsequent generation until the coupe was dropped.
Presumably the police departments that will I guess be buying 90% of these will get volume discounts anyway.
They won’t sell any of these to police, the 2023 Charger police package started at $35,000 BEFORE any discounts, you’re not negotiating a $60,000 car down that far
I appreciate Stellantis moving forward with this, there are not a lot of cars in this segment with these specs and pricing.
Ok so we’re talking 60k here, roughly. For either.
Is Stellantis eventually going to realize that they need to put the Pentastar in a bunch of these to have any prayer of making money off this platform? Is that in the works? Genuine question.
Cause right now my local CJDR dealer has literally only Durangos under the Dodge brand all priced at 47k or above. Not sure a 60k sedan is going to turn things around.
This is the top level/more powerful Hurricane car, a lower price, lower power option is coming later next year.
The SO Hurricane is still going to be a $50,000 car though. I know inflation is a thing, the average price of a new car is $50,000, etc. But being able to drive off the lot in a Pentastar Charger/Challenger for $30,000ish just feels too different for potential buyers. I think this will have similar issues to the S650 Mustang.
The price itself isn’t necessarily unreasonable in our current hellscape, but the vibes? They’re bad. 3-4 years ago you could drive off the lot in a barebones Mustang GT or Charger/Challenger RT for $35,000 if you were a good negotiator. You can’t anymore, and $50,000 is a different ballgame entirely.
I think it’s why we’ve seen a resurgence of hot compact cars but a lack of new/interesting muscle cars and pony cars. The price of stuff like this is just too far away from what it used to be. It wasn’t that long ago when someone might actually cross shop a GTI and a Mustang GT, and those days are long gone.
I would be shocked if discounts weren’t swiftly and readily available on these as well. You probably won’t get one for $35K but low 40s seem pretty likely.
I agree that sticking to their guns at $50K probably won’t be good for sales, so if they do, that’s a mistake.
I’m assuming we’ll get something along the lines of the LX platform’s base V6 option so Stellantis can at least make fleet sales. How widely they will market that to consumers versus trying to get them into a more expensive trim level is harder to predict.
i like the idea of pointing out it’s $1,000 per door because that implies that for $4,000 extra you can have six doors, $6,000 you can have eight doors, and so on
But do you stretch your 8 door Charger into a limo so you can have normal doors, or do you keep the car at its current length and diabolically force people to enter via tiny doors?
Barn-door hatch a la Mini Clubman or GMC Suburban (a natural pair to compare), at least for the 6 door spec.
Maybe the higher price is reflective of anticipated demand? I haven’t seen sales figures broken down between the Charger and Challenger, but I always was under the impression the Charger sold in higher volume.
Also, it doesn’t hurt that this thing looks great as a four-door sedan. While I probably wouldn’t buy one, this is one of the best looking sedans on the market in recent years.
It’s going to be hard to come up with good numbers on that. Haven’t they just been running out old inventory of both of those for years? And both were well beyond their shelf lives when production ended.
The higher price is reflective of Stellantis upper management believing that the market distortions that occurred during 2020 were permanent
I like this thing. Give it an MT and we’re in business. Plus hopefully it continues to force Ford’s hand on a Mustang sedan, and makes The General put some real effort into the new CT5-V.
I’d be willing to pay two grand more for a manual transmission version.
58k reasonable? I have a different pay rate the then the rest of the country.
Still some of the cheapest horsepower one can buy.
I just don’t have 58k laying around or fiance a car worth that. I suppose a place to live and eating are optional 🙂
My point is just that $58k is in fact reasonable for a car of this performance in today’s market.
Is the coupe built in Windsor? (Isn’t it just Pacificas?)
Tariffs could easily explain why the Windsor-built sedan would be a couple grand more..