Will Charger/Challenger plants go idle for year?

Everything indicates new Charger/Challenger or their replacements out in 2024. What I'm wondering is will there be 2023 LX cars? It's hard to find out right now. I can't find any info on release dates of 2023 model LX's, build and price, or any of that. Is it just too early for that or do you think the plants will have to be re-tooling and there will be no 2023's?

Plants setting idle don;t make money and costs.

If not the LX then something will run down them, or they'll be shuttered. Probably permanently and no replacements for the LX at all.

Well there's supposed to be a replacement sedan at least, completely redesigned, just unknown whether it'll be a Charger. Remember the tease video from FCA about the electrified future?

The first year for the all new is 2024. So there'll be a 2023 Charger?

https://www.carsdirect.com/2023/dodge/challenger

They also have that new gas powered they are making and they have said just because they had that big electric vehicle announcement a while back didn't mean that they were abandoning gas powered cars all together. So it'll be interesting to see what their plans are.

My dealer told me there will be.

Info is sketchy right now but sounds like they'll build the current cars for as long as possible like they're doing with the last gen ram and did with caravan. Plant where built is getting big upgrades, cars may be moved to another plant so they can keep building them.

That's pre-COVID thinking.

The manufacturers have now figured out by keeping inventory sitting on dealer lots artificially low, they can charge artificially high prices and increase profit on each unit.

Empty lots and higher prices are the new normal.

Yea as the tool up for a more mellow/friendly line to be produced.

Got any source for that?

Thinking back to the point of when the current Charger was proposed and the arguments on every Mopar site about 2-Door or 4-Door was all that seemed to be talked about. IMO opinion it seems Ma Mopar knew better to go with a 4-Door as it seems to have been one of the best law enforcement vehicles ever for modern Mopar and maybe even better than the 4-Door Crown Vic. What will replace the Charger 4-Door Law Enforcement CAR/Sedan and don't say an SUV This should be interesting.

Dealers are benefiting on a unit basis, volume is killing manufacturers and dealers. Development is insanely expensive, costs won't be recovered without volume, future development funds will be curtailed to all our detriment.

Are you implying we'll have to deal with another 70's style crap car options?

Gotta try to figure in how steeply rising interest rates will steeply rise monthly vehicle payments, which may further reduce volume.

If I were Stel-ain’t-US
I would “hunker down” and keep selling existing USA models built on existing tooling,
sheltering cash when ever possible.

Our county and village patrol units are pick-up trucks and SUVs and have been for a while.

There’s more to it than that. Ralph Gilles discusses this in a podcast: https://youtu.be/vLYB5Z_qU5Y

Low volume on dealer lots will be the norm.

This ^. The manufacturer bills the dealer for the car once it rolls off the line. The lots will be stuffed as soon as they can and the discounts will also be back.

That doesn't go for Ford. And other carmakers are expected to follow suit.

"Ford noticed, and now the company wants to shift more future buyers to the vehicle ordering process, Ford CEO Jim Farley said on a conference call this week with reporters to discuss the company's second-quarter results. Getting more buyers to order a specific vehicle online can also help Ford's bottom line.

"We are really committed to going to an order-based system and keeping inventories at 50 to 60 days' supply," he said. "I know we are wasting money on incentives."

www.caranddriver.com/news/a37187201/ford-build-to-order-online-ordering-changes/

Reducing inventories reduces overhead, most notably interest. And reduces the need for incentives to move slow moving units. There will be inventories, just lower numbers with fewer discounts.

Ditto; a lot of local LEO's here got in Durangos a few years ago, and see mant county guys in Rams. Still seeing Ferd SUV's as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvXRTnZbECs

Toyota has hinted that they will be at a 30-day supply or less going forward.

Instead of learning from the pandemic about all of the pitfalls of "lean" manufacturing, it appears some manufacturers are doubling-down instead.

Exactly. Parts for my 51 Plymouth have been mostly available, having been made and setting on a shelf for 70+ years. But new build stuff, like water pumps, fuel pumps and the like are getting thin on the ground.

Lean manufacturing relies heavily on a supply chain being intact and competent. Anyone that has bought rubber motor mounts lately knows how competent the supply chain is for our stuff.

They are showing 3 new Dodges in August so you'll know then, its believed one of them will be the final edition LX. Other the hornet and the EV one, at roadkill nights

[

This ^. The manufacturer bills the dealer for the car once it rolls off the line. The lots will be stuffed as soon as they can and the discounts will also be back. [/quote]

There’s no returning to that model after Covid. Dealerships and manufacturers have completely changed their future practices.

Yeah they said the same thing about RV's "The big discounts and inventories are gone forever". Both are already back lol

The car companies have some complex issues on their hands regarding your EV being worthless once the battery wears out, as well as battery recycling that will cause some changes. You'll see pre-owned turn into "factory refurbished" or something like that. Not far from what they do today with laptops and cell phones.

Every coming model year vehicle MPG requirements get much steeper, and soon there is also a CO2 per mile regulation.

https://humanevents.com/2022/06/22/new-mpg-rule-will-exacerbate-existing-car-shortage/

sample quote

NHTSA’s new rule requires a massive 40 percent increase in mpg from now to 2026. Fuel efficiency must rise 8 percent in 2024 and 2025 model year automobiles, and 10 percent in 2026 model year automobiles, to a 49-mpg car and truck fleet average. Historically, the most manufacturers have been able to increase mpg year-over-year is about 3 percent. So, surging average mpg by a whopping 10 percent is a tall order.

Adding insult to injury, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has separately set carbon dioxide (CO2) emission limits on automobile fleets.
By 2026, cars will have to produce an average of 132 grams of CO2 per mile (g/mile) and light trucks an average of 187 g/mile for a fleet average of 161 g/mile, a 28 percent decrease from 2022.

If vehicles do not meet this standard, EPA will not certify them for sale.

The challenge with this ruling is no cars with an internal combustion engine, that is, every automobile that runs on gasoline, currently emit CO2 at this extremely low level. The lowest-emitting car is the 2022 Toyota Prius Eco at 159 g/mile.
Trucks like the Ford F-150, Dodge Ram, and the Chevrolet Silverado, the three most popular automobiles in the country in terms of sales, emit 407 to 550 g/mile, depending on engine size.

end quote

Sign up now for a Stellantis mining job.....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/oth...apse-if-evs-don-t-get-cheaper/ar-AAYZXp3

sample quote

While Stellantis will comply with the decision, policy makers appear to “not care” whether automakers have enough raw materials to underpin the shift, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares said Wednesday.

Greater demand for EV batteries between 2024 and 2027 -- a period before more European capacity is due to come online -- will benefit Asian producers and “put at risk” cell output in the West, Tavares said during a factory visit in Metz in northeastern France.

Stellantis is developing five large battery factories across North America and Europe to produce 400 gigawatt-hours of cells by 2030.
He added the company won’t rule out buying a mine to secure raw-material supplies.