Taming 707 horsepower from a Satanically-supercharged V8 in either two or four-door flavors, the 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Charger Hellcat have been hailed as the salvation of the American sports car. Orders poured in from customers across North America, swamping dealerships and production lines with orders than even the combined efforts of Fiat and Chrysler couldn’t quickly fill, and for the 2016 model year, FCA is wiping the slate clean.
Automotive News reports that about 900 customers still waiting for the 2015 Dodge Hellcat will have their orders cancelled as FCA revamps its ordering system for its hot pair of halo cars. FCA is also changing the way it allocates Hellcats to dealers to curtail greedy markups and get cars to customers faster.
While FCA executives acknowledge that nobody wants to have their car order cancelled, especially after months of waiting, the fresh start approach has its benefits. First off, customers who had already put down deposits on a 2015 model will get vouchers allowing them to pay the 2015 price for the 2016 model, which is almost certainly going to go up in cost. So, a better car at a (slight) discount, though these customers will have to get back in line like everyone else.
Because FCA plans to double Hellcat production though, the backorder delay should be significantly diminished. There’s also changes taking place at the dealership level, as FCA will allocate Hellcats based on total Dodge vehicle sales, and it will no longer allow dealers to place more orders than it’s been allowed.
This will (hopefully) prevent a repeat of what happened with the 2015 models, where small rural dealerships were taking deposits for dozens more Hellcat orders than they’d ever be given to sell. To discourage high dealer markups, FCA is also placing a timer on Hellcat sales, and dealers that don’t sell their stock risk losing future allocations, and it’s only taking orders twice a year.
Basically, FCA is taking steps to ensure that buying a Hellcat doesn’t mean going through dealership hell.