Many Dodge Fans Don't Want a Challenger Convertible
Over the past five years, the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang have outsold the Dodge Challenger each year and while the Mopar muscle car occasionally grabs the second spot in monthly sales, the Challenger has never led the segment in sales. Some people believe that the lack of a Challenger convertible is one of the reasons for the difference in sales numbers between the Dodge and the other two muscle cars, but in polling a collection of Mopar fan pages on Facebook and the huge Mopar fan community at LXForums.com, it looks like the interest in a Challenger convertible is much lower than some might expect.
Honestly, the interest in a Dodge Challenger convertible for the next generation is much lower than I expected.
Many Mopar Fans Don’t Want a Challenger Convertible
I am the owner of a classic Mopar muscle car and I am very active in the Mopar enthusiast community. I have the pleasure of helping out on a variety of different Mopar-themed Facebook pages and across those many pages, there is a huge spread in the interests of the folks who are active. In other words, these pages are not groups of people with interest in a specific type or genre or vehicles - including truck fans, muscle car fans, tuner fans, etc.
I polled each of these Facebook fan groups and the community at LXForums.com if they would be interested in a next generation Dodge Challenger convertible if the price was reasonable (relative to the rest of the segment) and if the performance levels were not severely diminished by removal of the top. Basically, I asked these groups if they would buy a Challenger convertible over a coupe if the price wasn’t outrageous and the extra weight didn’t kill the performance.
In every group, the response was an overwhelming “no”.
While there was definitely some interest in a next gen Challenger convertible across the collection of Mopar enthusiast groups polled, the final rate of No to Yes was about 4 to 1, so roughly 20% showed interest in picking a convertible over a coupe. It should be noted that there were some fans who were on the fence and they couldn’t make a decision without actually seeing the car and the price tag, but since they were considering the idea, I moved them to the “yes” group. On the other hand, among the hundreds of “No” votes, many of them were passionately against the idea of a drop top Challenger.
Really, I believe that 20% interest in a convertible Challenger might be enough to get the company’s attention, as the take rate on convertible models is fairly low in the US, but this relatively low interest in a convertible shows that the introduction of a Challenger ‘vert isn’t going to allow the Dodge to quickly close the sales gap with the Camaro and Mustang.
A special thanks to the members of the Mopar National Facebook page, the Mopar Family Official Facebook page, the Team Hellcat Facebook page, the Hellcat Group Facebook page and the folks at LXForums.com for their participation in my poll!
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