Are you able to sleep at night, or just stay up, staring at the screen for an update...:laugh:

My son keeps texting me, demanding updates! I then have to actually call SRT like an old Boomer does, since there is no online tracking.

Today's shipping update: Now they are saying ETA is from today (4/8/22) to 4/20/22. They added a week onto the time.

sigh

Earlier today I called SRT Helpline and they gave me a confusing information that my car no longer was showing an ETA after the last update a week ago that said 4/14/22. So I asked them to initiate an "expedite" on this issue. She agreed and I got a case number.

I then did the Dodge Chat around 4:30 PM and asked them if they knew where my car was. They responded: "Hasn't your dealer called you? It was just delivered today!" I thanked her a lot and saved the text printout of that chat for my files.

I then tried the SRT Helpline again on the off chance that I got someone who was not familiar with the system. The new person indicated that their data base has been down all day and there was no way to get any updates on anything today, but to try back tomorrow. I told tham what DodgeChat told me and the guy indicated that could be possible but his database is offline so he couldn't confirm it for me.

So I emailed Koons at 5:00 PM with the info that Dodgechat said and just a few minutes ago got an after hours email "Congratulations your car has arrved!" So It is true, my car has arrived, 8 week to the day from when I ordered it on Thursday 2/17/22!

02/17/2022 order date VON received from Koons
02/18/2022 VIN assigned, D status
03/16/2022 D1 status with estimated ship date of 03/30/2022
03/29/2022: Production status E at station G (trim)
03/30/2022: Pending final inspection I status
03/30/2022: Buildsheet posted
03/31/2022: KZ status, being shipped to dealer
03/31/2022: Received email from Koons saying my car is on the way but TBD as to exact arrival date
04/01/2022: Window Sticker just popped up on Dodge website at noon.
04/06/2022L KZ status ETA 04/01/2022 to 04/12/2022 (SRT Helpline)
04/08/2022L KZ status ETA 04/08/2022 to 04/20/2022 (SRT Helpline)
04/13/2022L KZ status ETA 04/11/2022 to 04/14/2022 (SRT Helpline)
04/14/2022: Car delivered to Koons Tysons Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram

Woo hoo!!!

Got the pickup appointment set for next weekend!

Just got some photos just off the truck:

Looks awesome! Congratulations.

Just wondering if people are still keeping those yellow protection strips on the front spoiler?

Congratulations! Kind of like getting the baby home, you really won't be able to sleep now.

'

Looks great also way cool hood, especially for an old Formula guy!
Have you already asked them to leave WS affixed + Last-6 decal etc or at least keep it all for you?
Big congrats Steve, looking forward to the road test!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Are you going to have them dealer prep it or bypass that and keep all the factory as delivered goodies?

Keeping it stock?

So far every email I trade with them has the same first sentence:

1) NO FRONT LICENSE PLATE BRACKET, and
2) Save all labels, wrappers, plastic etc., from dealer prep and hold them for me.

No, the Hellcat people are shaming one another over those things. There is a common meme of a Hellcat with a banana duct taped to the spoiler corners, whenever someone posts a photo of their car with the protector still attached.

Congratulations - looks great.

Congrats!

That's a good looking car Steve:headbang:

Like the wheel choice with that color, very classy looking. Good talking with you Steve via our PM. Thanks for sharing ordering info for it.
Enjoy.

Hard to go wrong with silver wheels on a dark color car.

Looks great, and should be lots of fun. Be careful.

I just noticed they sent me another email with a couple other photos.

Look at all the other Hellcats in the background. It's like the vintage Yenko Lot photo from the 1960's

Looking at the shipping order on the seat it appears that it left the factory on 03/30/22 which makes it six weeks from date of order to ship out. That's a new world record given that some people are still waiting for their cars after placing orders the moment the sales bank openied up in December 2021. The system seems to be that fickle about what parts they are missing and when and the resultant effect on the build process. This is why I specifically ordered it with just the red leather intetior, wheel choice, and the stereo as the only options (all the other stuff is mandatory as part of the 27Z Redeye package). Some guys have had their orders held up because of the shortage of certain welting colored floor mats they ordered! Not even starting with the widebody fender flair shortage due to manufacturing defects or the sunroof mechanism shortage.

Check out that shipping weight: 4,336 lbs. And the way I optioned it, this is the lightest weight version you can buy!

It must be a Boomer thing. :biggthumpup: I just don't understand the current affinity for black wheels and those grey body colors. The colors reminds me of varying shades of grey sandable primer caught out in the rain.

YES, YES, YES, I'm not the ONLY person that can't stand that, along with desert storm tan with black wheels. What happened to bright, fun colors ???

Car is very cool, Steve. I would think they have tight security there, with all that desirable iron sitting around.

Here's a photo of one of the storage lots (from a few years back) at the Brampton plant. It appears that recently, it is more economically feasible to ship out a car fresh off the assembly line, than retrieve and ship a car that has been sitting for a while in this storage mess in Brampton, Ontario. Some buyers have had cars stuck in storage limbo for months now.

Here's a more recent photo...like from 3:00 PM today!

Yeah it's a boomer thing, us Gen X'ers love the black wheels. :)

:haha:

They can look decent.

:no:

I would be that guy that left the yellow protection strips on the front spoiler.

I would also want all the docs and paperwork. I did that when I bought my Monte SS brand new in 87.

FWIW, I'm a Gen X-er and ABSOLUTELY HATE BLACK WHEELS. The black has no style, covers or disguises the detail of the wheel and just looks terrible IMHO.

Worst trend in cars that refuses to die.

Hides brake dust when the fridge is runnin' ...

No, the brake dust just makes the black wheels look like fuzzy, black wheels. :wink:

Heading out at zero-dark-thirty tomorrow to get the Heckitty. Picking up my son at college on the way. I got the truck and trailer all ready to go. Fingers crossed!

Left at 5:15 am and got back to the house at 6:30 PM. Mission successful, including dropping the boy back off at college just in time to get ready for his Saturday night date.

The old 1995 diesel K2500 Suburban ran great and pulled the 1991 Pace trailer just fine. Used around 35 gallons to go 450 miles so that's about 12.85 MPG

I'm exhausted.

Here's couple shots for the moment.

BTW, I learned today that this dealership (Koon Tysons Corner) isn't just the largest Hellcat dealer in the US, they are actually the largest Dodge dealer in the world! I'll post more lot photos tomorrow of all the "ready to deliver" Hellcats that are sitting in what they call their "pit" area. They have a separate off-site lot that serves as a massive staging area for incoming cars. They said that 90% of the cars in their facility are ordered/sold cars.

Congrats!

My son and I just returned from our trip from NJ to VA to pick up the Octane Red with Demonic Red interior Sveltebody. We had a great experience overall. Very professional outfit. No waiting - we had a 10:00 AM appointment and we were moved along the process very rapidly from intake to financing to going over the car's features (in whatever amount of detail you desire). We got there at 9:30 and checked in and then immediately went out to see our car in the "pit area" of the lot, where they have the cars ready for customer pickup, staged and blocked off from theft with a couple of TRX's. Craig came out and humorously chided us for going out of order by looking at the car first but I told him: "You gonna tell a kid on Christmas day that he can't go see his presents and instead had to do his math homework first?"

Koons advertises the 6% below invoice price on their Hellcat Redeyes with the caveat that you lose $1,000 of the 6% if you don't finance through them. This eligible financing is different than the Dodge incentive offered financing such as the current 0% for 36 months offer. The upside is if you take Koons financing you still get to take the Dodge $1000 April rebate in addition, giving you $2,000 off right from the start. Compare this to doing the Dodge 0% offer which loses you both the Koons $1,000 incentive and the Dodge $1000 incentive. Just food for thought. The downside is Koons percentage rates are somewhat less than competitive. But that is irrelevant if you are just going to take the financing to get the extra $1000 and then pay off the loan after the third payment (a requirement specified in the deal)

So I applied for their financing and ended up with a 3.99% offer which isn't very competitive for a person with an 824 FICA score. (I could get a 2.29% at my own bank) This initially didn't make me too happy since I could just as well have paid the car off in full and not financed it. So I brought this up with the finance guy during our checkout and he dropped the 3.99% to 2.67% and said I could finance as much or as little as I wanted, so I paid for 85% of the car with a personal check and took out the financing on the remaining 15% of the price and paid the rest with a check. BTW, if you go through the financing application beforehand, they allow you to pay with a personal check instead of having to bring a certified check with you for an exact amount. (They don't do wire transfers). He also said I could pay off the loan immediately when the first payment is due in June or continue to pay the $184 monthly payment for 60 months. After you do all the paperwork...and I use that "Boomer" term loosely since it is all done digitally now on a giant interactive tabletop with a magnetic pen, you get a dealer logo'd thumbdrive with PDF's of everything on it. They also gave me hard copies at my request, just to humor an old man.

I was quite pleased that they followed most of my crazy requests for:
1) NO FRONT LICENSE PLATE TO BE INSTALLED which I actually put in every single email I sent them with and even wrote it on our purchasing contract. Craig joked at the end when he asked if we wanted him to install the plate bracket now.
2) Saved every piece of inspection paperwork, labels, plastic wrap on the car. They did keep all the paper stuff and labels but didn't save the plastic seat wrap. When I mentioned this, he grabbed the plastic wrap from a nearby just delivered car and put that in my trunk. (I know, I'm crazy but I love all that original shipping stuff for collector value).
3) The car came with two red and one black keyfob (I made sure to ask beforehand after hearing about other dealers "losing" or claiming that only one red key comes with the 2022's - yeah, right!). It also came with the full owner's manual package and fashionable bright red storage pouch.
4) In the trunk were the fancy pedals, the infamous front license plate bracket, and the brake cooling deflectors.
5) An original green "Koons" cardboard file folder to put all my paperwork in and the black plastic pouch that they use at the dealership for keeping track of each car's paperwork and keys - something they normally just throw out.
6) A dealership decal that they don't put on the car and nobody wants but I wanted one for the file just for future collectible value.

The hardest part of the day was loading the car into our old 1991 24" Pace trailer. This car is WIDE. I don’t think a widebody would have fit in the trailer. For comparison, our first gen '93 Viper has 3/4" clearance between the side pipe outlets and the trailer inner fenders. There was maybe 1" to the inner fenders on this car but the entire car is that wide, versus the viper which is much narrower once you get above the side pipe covers. Then came the other hard part - trying to get the hold down straps on the lower control arms without having the straps rub against the belly pan ducting. I had to switch out several strap setups and wrap the strap in towels in that area so the strap wouldn't be sawing away at anything fragile during the trip home. Same thing out back, only this time it was the exhaust pipe that the strap buckles were too close to, so switched out those and also wrapped the sharp areas on the top edges of the stamped steel lower control arm bracket that could have cut into the strap sleeves.

And then I made the mistake of using the key fob to lock the doors before sealing up the trailer and hitting the road. Turns out the alarm system is rather sensitive to movement and bumping, so at our first traffic light we wondered what rude impatient butthead was honking at us...and the figured out it was me, for setting the alarm. So I unlocked the keyfob and no more honking.

The trip was uneventful other than the car being rather heavily loaded. The trailer load was around 500 pounds heavier than my old 1970 426 Hemi Charger I used to haul, and certainly heavier than the Viper. You really knew there was something behind you. I trailer with my old 1995 K2500 6.5 diesel Suburban that I bought new. Got around 12.8 mpg with the old gal.

For your entertainment I thought I post some photos of our car and all the other ones in the pit area for future reference.

BTW, Koons also has a mega-sized Chevy dealership on the same property and had a bunch of new Corvettes being delivered at the same time. I don't know if they do similar deals on those, but I could ask Craig if anyone is interested.

more lot photos.

BTW, the cars you see with their dealer logo plates on them are trade-ins and used cars that appeared to already have had a front plate attached beforehand.

My son also took a bunch of photos and we shall see if he wakes up sometime before dinner to read my text and send them to me.

After seeing the side-by-side pics, I don't care for the wide bodies. They don't look as svelte, as your style.

Yes, 4 out of 5 enthusiasts with taste prefer the Svelte body to the Rubenesque body.