Passed the magic 1000 mile mark today while heading to a cars and coffee event in Southern Joysey with my son. Fun day had by all.

Well Dodge just dropped the apocalypse on its customer base. They released the dealer list and all the alllocation information for the final year 2023 of Challenger and Charger production. This is all they are making. And if you order a car from a dealer with no allocation, you just threw your money away and won't be getting a car.

Dodge totally hosed its customer base because now the dealers are DOUBLING the MSRPs on the high end cars because they only have single digit allocations (many got no allocations at all for any Challengers) and that's it. The dealer I got my 22 from was the largest selling dealer of Hellcats in the world and got a limited amount, too (see photo below)

Here is the final set amount of cars they will build:

29 Svelte-body Redeye Challengers (807 HP) (like mine)
112 Super Stock Challengers (807 HP)
694 Wide-body Redeye Challengers (807 HP)
2,549 Svelte-body Hellcat Challengers (717 HP)
2,797 Widebody Hellcat Challengers (717 HP)


And Dodge made them all "Jailbreak" editions meaning they raised the price again to permit you to order as ugly a paint/trim combination as you want (green with red interior, etc)

Go here and punch in your zipcode and then set to "all of US" and pick a specific model and you can see. My local dealer here in NJ didnt even get allocation for a 6-cyl Challenger!

https://www.dodgegarage.com/horsepower-locator

For example, the dealer I got mine from (Koons in DC) which was the biggest seller of Hellcats inthe world has the following allocations:

5 Svelte-body Redeye Challengers (807 HP) (like mine)
11 Super Stock Challengers (807 HP)
31 Wide-body Redeye Challengers (807 HP)
91 Svelte-body Hellcat Challengers (717 HP)
94 Widebody Hellcat Challengers (717 HP)

I reached out to them early on to see if I could order a duplicate of what I have but in Plum Crazy (which they are bringing back for 2023). They said: "The sales manager is making a list of potential buyers and will go down it to see what the buyers will offer them to purchase one (above MSRP, of course).

It seems like all the other dealers are doing the exact same thing. It is few and far between to see any postings of people who actually got a printed out sales contract confirmation from an allocated dealer at MSRP.

Oh, and all those final special edition sticker cars? The dealers seem to be buying them for themselves. Looks like the 1978 Indy Pace Car Corvette all over again.

There are potential customers calling 25 dealers a day just trying to make a purchase. There have already been several people who had sales contracts and paid deposits only to have the salesman call them back hours later saying they are cancelling and refunding their deposit because "the owner wants to keep the car for himself unless of course you want to pay him a $100,000 ADM".

So, I'm glad I got my 2022 svelte-body Redeye when I did. And at the 6% below invoice price they were offering at the time.
And as I had a hunch, it will actually be the rarest bodystyle for the end of the era.

The best outcome to this is for the entire country to NOT order, or buy one of these cars and let Dodge sit on them.
Chevrolet did the same crap with constantly delaying the new Corvette until they could get the price, and profit margin, much higher.

But, people will still shell out the price and many will end up in collections as "investment grade" vehicles to sell later at exorbitant prices.

This will be interesting with an ever-changing economy.

Yeah, there are no longer any cash incentives on the dodge website and they show the current "incentive" loan rate as 6.12% for 60 months at the moment. Earlier this year it was 0% !

I think I'll go out to the garage now and hug my discount Heckitty.

You can be sure Dodge will exploit this as much as they can and don't be surprised if by next June, they offer to "extend" the limited production for another year...:rolleyes2:

Oh well, I couldn't help myself. I got a call from a North Carolina dealer that I left my name with, a few weeks ago just to test the waters. He had one allocation for one of the 29 Narrow Body Redeye Jailbreak Challengers that will be built and I was first on the list. I bought a 300C there 17 years ago from them so I am considered a repeat customer I guess. :-)

the offer: MSRP ! and their dealer fee is ZERO. Just taxes and tag/title.

So the wait begins...again. They don't start the 2023 builds until January but I enjoy the anticipation.

The only glitch was that the wheels I like (the Machined Granite Pocket Wheels like on my 2022) are no longer available. The only other choices were not so good - the standard black 5-spoke, the silver five spoke or the super gaudy Brass Monkey 10 spoke. So my son picked the ugliest one they had (the Brass Monkey) for the build.

They also don't show an optional 3.09 rear gear anymore so I dont know if it comes standard or if they are only using the 2.62 rear gear for 2023 since the "build your own" website is still only showing the 2022 options.

So here it is:

Svelte-Body Redeye Jailbreak 807 hp
one of 29 to be built
Plum Crazy
Demonic Red leather interior
HK Stereo

I already have the Purchase Order Contract in hand with the magic "5N9" sold allocation, guaranteed schedule build code on it.

The 2023 waiting game is afoot!

Sounds VERY exciting, again, Steve but red interior with Plum Crazy exterior ?????

Yup! Its not as ugly as it sounds. It's uglier! :-)

I saw a Demon in that color once and it was absolutely pschedelic looking.


Hey, my second choice could been Limelight green with red interior

Here's a 2019 Redeye widebody in Plum Crazy with red interior. (The last time it was available)

Got the 2023 Purchase Order Contract (POC) today with the VON (Vehicle Order Number). So the car is officially in process in the Dodge computer system.

Though it says "Restriction" at the moment which basically 95% of the orders say. A couple guys already have their VONS and VINs issued and are scheduled, which means they won the lottery of "you didn't pick an option whose parts are on backorder". A lot of people have found out that things like sunroofs and specific interior trim options like the carbon fiber dash, are slowing up the orders.

That magical "5N9 Guaranteed Schedule" code means it is a car that was allocated to the dealer and the allocation was confirmed. If you ordered one of these at a non-allocated dealer, there won't be any 5N9 code on the POC...and there will be no car built.

And I just noticed that it now says "October Production" so this may be an 11 month wait! LOL

Brass Monkey wheels? Sounds awesome https://youtu.be/acY2VSskD80

They're hideous looking but I had to pick something. They don't have the Granite Pocket Machined wheels like on my 22, anymore. So I may buy a used extra set to put on the car.

The other two choices were worse - plain black 10-spoke or matte silver 5-spoke. Come to think of it I should have just gotten the standard (free) black 10-spoke and spent the $1095 on an extra set of Granite wheels. And yes, it's to late to alter the existing order.

The first wheel is the wheel that is on the order.

The black one is the standard wheel and the silver is the other optional wheel.

So I thought of this thread yesterday. I was at a wedding Saturday night and a young guy had his new challenger stolen from the hotel parking lot we all stayed at. Cops told him they get stolen all the time and was probably long gone and stripped by the time he reported it. He was concerned about getting another.

Yes, they supposedly issued a update to the security system but dealers have no clue how to do it. It blocks any duplicate key fobs from be initialized.

One thing every owner should do is disable the auto unlocking capability - That annoying option that unlocks your door when you walk up to the car. Like they think we are too lazy to push a button on the keyfob?

You just go to your dashboard and turn it off in the settings. If you don't, it is sending out your key fob signal at all times awaiting a response from your keyfob. The theives have a laptop program that captures this signal and boosts it enough to actually activate the ignition off it.

Which really meant, they had no intention of doing a damned thing about actually looking for it.
Interesting info about the walk up door unlock "feature". Now I need to see if there is a way to turn mine off.

I think it may be called something like "passive unlocking"?

Thanks, Steve. It's a Honda, so who knows what it's called. No heading that seems to relate in OM, so posted the Q on a CR-V forum.

The order is confirmed by Dodge on their tracking website. So that's at least a confirmation that the order is in process.

What's the plan with the "22 Steve? Are you trading it in or is your son taking possession?

Can't afford the two so I'll either trade her in if they give me a decent price (with the sales tax credit, too) or sell her outright. She has all of 1,113 miles on her now.
She's a rare piece - last time I checked she was 1 of 9 svelte-body Redeyes produced in the Octane red with red interior.

Steve,

Are you having purple car withdrawals? Do we need to build you another with a 6.4 crate in it this time?:burnout:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Helephant all the way, baby.

Got an updated Purchase Order Contract (POC) last week. Car has moved from "BG Restricted" status to "C-Tentative Schedule" status. No VIN yet but the 2022 assembly line ends production on 12/12/22 and moves to 2023 production. They have already built a dozen or so 2023 Pilot Hellcats according to insider info.

Had her out for probably the last day before the snow (and salt) come down. The translucent stripes really pop in the noon-day sun.

And disappear in indirect light.

Sweet car love the stripes that disappear! Happy to see another mopar on here. My dad had a dodge d500-1 convertible which is what spurred me to buy the hell cat Durango in 21 just thrilled they are making another run of them :-(

You can do donuts w yours which I can’t w the Durango wish they’d made it selectable between 2 and 4 wheel just for that reason

The final 2022 production numbers were tabulated by one of the members on the Hellcat.org site.

881 Narrow Body Hellcat Redeye Challengers were produced.

Only 69 of those were in Octane Red.

Only 10 Octane Red were produced with a Demonic Red interior.

So, 1 of 10 made aint so bad.

If anyone wants to see the overall productionchart, it is here: https://www.hellcat.org/threads/curr...umbers.253630/

The order tracking website finally shows an actual rendering of my 2023 order. They are staging the new paint color introductions with Sublime already being produced and B5 Blue is next, followed by Plum Crazy (on 2/27/23) and then Destroyer Grey in March. All the other colors are already being produced. Can't wait to see that Purple with the Demonic Red interior! I gotta get me one of these Austin Powers matching jackets.

Yeah baby, yeah!

Well it looks like the purple car order is gonna get cancelled (by me).

Some weird things were popping up on the hellcat websites so I did a little digging:

The 807 hp rating of the narrow body Redeye Jailbreak was advertised on the Dodge website from day 1. But recently a buyer took delivery of his car that was just built a couple weeks ago and the SRT app on the infotainment center which displays the horsepower rating, said "797" and not "807" like it was supposed to show.

So I started digging and comparing build sheets and window stickers from the narrow body Redeye Jailbreak and Widebody Redeye Jailbreak and found something very concerning: the widebody listed the "high performance engine controller" as part of the Jailbreak package ONLY on the widebody version.

That didnt sit right with me.

Here's what the website showed from late October to 2/1/23:

So I wrote an email to the CEO of Dodge with my observations and evidence like this:

The dash display from the just delivered, 30-mile 2023 Narrowbody Redeye Jailbreak

And this:
1) The window sticker portion from a 2023 Widebody Redeye Jailbreak
2) The window sticker portion from a 2023 Narrowbody Redeye Jailbreak

And what happened?

On 2/2/23, within 12 hours of my email going out, the Dodge website gets revised to show the horsepower rating has been "adjusted" downward to 797.

What's the consensus as to why, Steve? Any reply from them other than "Dear Enthusiast..."

Cheers
Dave

So, since I placed an order on 11/1/2022 under the impression that I was going to get a "one of 29 to be made" Narrowbody Hellcat Redeye Jailbreak with the highest horsepower (807) version engine available, as a last call edition, I was sadly mistaken.

The bottom line is that if I continued with this order, all I would be getting for around $20K more than my currently paid for, 2022 797 hp Narrowbody Redeye, would be a different color version of my same exact car I have now with no upgraded engine.

The funny thing about this whole 807 vs 797 horsepower issue is that it is entirely due to the different engine controller that raises the fuel shutoff redline point by a mere 100 rpm.

They are the same exact engine (that actually puts out 812 hp at 6400 per the official SAE certification reports)

These are the 2019 to present Redeye specs from the SAE Test report:

793 HP @ 6200rpm measured (+79 HP), 797 HP @ 6300rpm advertised, 812 HP @ 6400rpm measured
709 TQ @ 4800rpm measured (+57 TQ), 707 TQ @ 4500rpm advertised, 719 TQ @ 4800rpm measured


And these are the 2020-23 Super Stock/Jailbreak specs:

793 HP @ 6200rpm measured (+79 HP), 807 HP @ 6400rpm advertised, 812 HP @ 6400rpm measured
709 TQ @ 4800rpm measured (+57 TQ), 707 TQ @ 4500rpm advertised, 719 TQ @ 4800rpm measured


Same exact engine rated 100 rpm higher, gets you the extra 10 horses...and in reality they both achieved 812 during the tests at 6,400 rpm.

:hmmm:The PR side of Dodge doesn't seem to be speaking to the engineering side is probably what it boils down to.

I had some entertaining emails with the CEO last summer when I sent a nice email thanking them for building my 2022 so quickly and casually asking why it was missing the specific Hellcat owners manual. We traded several emails about our old Mopars over the years and current ones we both owned. He had no idea the printing company failed to deliver the manuals in the owners packet and he started a campaign to have one sent to every purchaser. A similar example of a prior problem that no one at the top knew was occurring.

I am awaiting an actual response from him but the immediate "updating" of the Dodge website shows he started the ball rolling.

In my email I jokingly said I was having flashbacks of the 1999 Mustang Cobra debacle Ford had to deal with when they sold the Cobra with a specifc 320 HP rating and all the purchasers wondered why it was a half second slower than the previous version, and dyno testing showed it was down by 50 horsepower under their advertised rating. Ford was forced to recall 5,300 Cobras to replace the intake manifold and exhaust system on every one to get back to the advertised rating. That must have cost them well into the 8-figures to do between the parts, service costs and legal expenses.

I guess the real interesting issue is that there are 31 of these cars already built and delivered (or on their way) and those buyers relied on the "807" advertising for their purchase decision. I wonder how that will shake out? Oh, and I almost forgot, Dodge keeps updating the allocation for all the special Jailbreak models and keeps adding more and more units to the list. There are 31 narrowbody Redeye Jailbreaks built as of this morning and the website just popped up another 26 allocations as being available. So who knows how many they will actually make, which dilutes the rarity even further. https://www.dodgegarage.com/horsepower-locator

So in the end I am happy to stick with my 1 of 10 Red-on-Red-Redeyes. And the wife is REALLY happy since she loves this color....

....hmmmm this makes me wonder if this whole conflagration is some elaborate conspiracy by the wife to keep me from buying a purple version???? :hmmm:

This may explain why she has been telling me to refer to her as the CEO of our house.

So you're gonna cancel the order over 10 hp for a car that you drive on the street and sparingly? Is that extra 10 horse power really that important that you would cancel the order??? Seems like kind of a silly reason to me!

They are charging a ton of extra money for the final year Jailbreak package which was supposed to give you the extra componentry to get the 807hp level with a full 3/36 and 5/50 powertrain warranty.

Now that they have dropped it to the previous 2022 model year's 797 rating, they have NOT dropped the price to reflect the difference. On the widebody Redeye Jailbreak and the Superstock, you are paying that extra money to "unlock" an entire menu of extra interior, trim, stripes, and axle ratio options in addition to the different engine management software that allows for the extra 10 hp. On the narrow body, all that extra money gets you now, is a choice of three more exterior paint colors than they had in 2022: Sublime, Plum Crazy and Destroyer Grey. You can't even order the 3.09 rear gear any more on the narrow body.

For example if you wanted to add that missing high performance controller through the (still NOT available but advertised as available) Direct Connection Pre-Stage and Stage 1 packages, you would have to pay around $2,000 extra and your warranty would be voided.

The 807 rating on a factory built car means the car has its full warranty as a brand new car.

It's also the bragging rights and future value of the last of these cars at the highest HP rating ever. Since it is the same car as my 2022 but in a different color there is no reason to give up the 2022 that I got at a really good price ($10K under sticker) to buy a purple one at a much higher full sticker price. (around $20k more after sales tax, etc). So basically I'd be paying $20K over the cost of my 2022 for purple paint. My son said I could wrap it in purple for around $3K and give him the difference. LOL

Kind of like ordering a 1967 L88 Corvette but what shows up at the dealer is a 1967 L71 Corvette. That was only a 5hp difference on paper but a world of difference in collectibility and value.

Sorry to read this, Steve. I did doubt the final build count from the start, but having them screw with the ratings, costs and warranty is unethical.
In the end you have a better looking car now, IMHO

I do t blame you at all, they just don’t really care about the consumer at dodge, I’ve written some scathing posts on the hellcat forums . When you ask 27 times to be 100 percent sure the Durango is gonna be a one year only. And 27 times the dealers swear it’s absolutely positively going to be a one year only. Then a year later they make another run I can assure you you are not very happy w that company and its dealer network and this wasn’t one dealer I asked it was many different dealers. That IS going to affect values down the road . If all I wanted was a fast car I’d have bought a model X or S Tesla plaid (which I did also) and smoked the crap out of the hellcats . I like my hellcat Durango but I’m not happy w Dodge at all. :-( They lie about so many things to perspective buyers too I’ve seen guys strung along for a long time that a car was going to be built only to find out it’s not getting built . That’s not right either . But my opinion is they owe you something for that change and damn sure owe the 22 Durango buyers something. Idk what but it should be something limited edition to add future value.