RE: Dodge offers $10 cashback for each horsepower

[unsprung]

Parents are taking / are planning to take their children to see the new Corvette. No sales manager of a mass-market middle class brand will ignore this the way PH posts here ignore this.

[Teddy Lop]

irocfan said:

unsprung said:

Vocht said:

Marketing Campaign Name: 'Flog what you can before the C8 Corvette gets here!'

+1

yup - because a 2 door, 2 seat (nearly) supercar is the same as a a 4 door family super-saloon, a 4 door super-SUV or a 4 seat super-coupe... the Camaro is being battered by the Challenger at the moment (thanks partly to a ghastly, and now replaced, facelift), the new Chevy SUV range is gopping and the saloons are dull looking. Yes GM will still sell more cars than Dodge (IIRC always have - likely always will) but I suspect their markets are slightly different.

Just love the Challenger, Charger, Trackhawk and new Durango

even the vette with the engine upfront wasn't really the same car as a challenger/charger and although a certain $ might ponder both its probably a $ that'd have bought both in time anyway.

[Matt Harper]

Vocht said:

Marketing Campaign Name: 'Flog what you can before the C8 Corvette gets here!'

We've all seen plenty of moronic posts on this forum over the years - and this one ranks reasonably high.

Dodge are marketing stand-outs. They understand their demographic and deliver a promise that is pretty much exactly what the expectation of their potential target is. Muscle Chargers, Challengers, Durangos and Grand Cherokees deliver their promise spectacularly well and their sales totally buck the current trend experienced by GM and (to a far lesser extent) Ford - in this segment (Corvette is most definitely not in this segment).

I suspect that the idea of consumers walking into a Chevy showroom to drool over a C8 Vette and subsequently buying an Equinox, Malibu or Camaro is somewhat fanciful.

[unsprung]

Matt Harper said:

I suspect that the idea of consumers walking into a Chevy showroom to drool over a C8 Vette and subsequently buying an Equinox, Malibu or Camaro is somewhat fanciful.

Ask a sales manager at a large, middle-class store that offers literally something for everyone, and both new and used inventory, if he would appreciate a bump in footfall at no cost to him.

Meanwhile, rather like that scene in the animated film, Fantasia, the buckets of water just keep on piling up.

[Matt Harper]

unsprung said:

Matt Harper said:

I suspect that the idea of consumers walking into a Chevy showroom to drool over a C8 Vette and subsequently buying an Equinox, Malibu or Camaro is somewhat fanciful.

Ask a sales manager at a large, middle-class store that offers literally something for everyone, and both new and used inventory, if he would appreciate a bump in footfall at no cost to him.

Meanwhile, rather like that scene in the animated film, Fantasia, the buckets of water just keep on piling up.

Right - but if that footfall is primarily the merely curious, tire-kicking variety that just want a selfie with a shiny new Vette in the background, that's not going to make a whole heap of difference. I know you know this - but Corvette buyers - like muscle Mopar buyers, tend to know exactly what they want and don't (usually) get swayed on a whim. When I bought my current Challenger, the 'sales specialist' confessed that I knew a hell of a lot more about the car than he did. When I asked if that was unusual for SRT buyers, his reply was, "No, not really".

[unsprung]

Matt Harper said:

I know you know this - but

thanks for that

Matt Harper said:

When I bought my current Challenger, the 'sales specialist' confessed that I knew a hell of a lot more about the car than he did.

I'm chuckling just a bit (at myself) because, when I bought my current car, I had created a PDF, a couple of pages in length, formatted like a report with subheadings, quotations, and the like. Perhaps, in retrospect, there was an element of obsessive-compulsive behaviour to this.

The salesman was astonished and asked about any connections to the OEM (he would, I imagine now, want to say anything flattering despite the deal being already done). Maybe some 20+ hours went into that document, and for no reason other than to satisfy my curiosity and to share with motor mad mates.

[aberdeeneuan]

Went out in a hellcat recently. Admittedly it was tuned, but dear lord was it fast. It wasn’t even a disaster inside. The dash was nice, huge boot, kids loved it. Even the green colour.

In a world where cars are al moving to electric, it was an absolute joy to be in something that just made you smile, amazing noise and theatre. Loved it.

I can see why they’ve done well, in Dallas earlier in the year it seemed everyone had a truck, modern muscle car or a battered old Toyota.

[Vocht]

Matt Harper said:

Vocht said:

Marketing Campaign Name: 'Flog what you can before the C8 Corvette gets here!'

We've all seen plenty of moronic posts on this forum over the years - and this one ranks reasonably high.

Obviously touched a nerve. Do you work for Dodge's marketing department or something? Sure sounds like it! They "deliver their promise!"

What is the main reason somebody buys a Charger/Challenger Hellcat? It's because they are 'affordable' high-performance enthusiasts cars. As muscle cars always have been. Big performance, low cost.

Since 2015 Dodge have 'only' sold circa 35,500 Hellcats, yet it's taken Chevrolet just a few days since the release of the C8 Corvette to sell out their first years production (40,000 units). Why so? Big performance, low cost.

The Corvettes popularity and threat within the high-performance segment where the Dodges sit is absolutely undeniable and it doesn't take a genius to see the correlation between Chevrolet releasing a sub $60k high-performance enthusiasts car and Dodge dropping their prices to sub $60k too.

[irocfan]

Vocht said:

Obviously touched a nerve. Do you work for Dodge's marketing department or something? Sure sounds like it! They "deliver their promise!"

What is the main reason somebody buys a Charger/Challenger Hellcat? It's because they are 'affordable' high-performance enthusiasts cars. As muscle cars always have been. Big performance, low cost.

Since 2015 Dodge have 'only' sold circa 35,500 Hellcats, yet it's taken Chevrolet just a few days since the release of the C8 Corvette to sell out their first years production (40,000 units). Why so? Big performance, low cost.

The Corvettes popularity and threat within the high-performance segment where the Dodges sit is absolutely undeniable and it doesn't take a genius to see the correlation between Chevrolet releasing a sub $60k high-performance enthusiasts car and Dodge dropping their prices to sub $60k too.

and yet the 'Vette for all it's qualities can't do at least 2 things anything like as well as the Hellcats can.

As an aside if I was looking at a $75k car I wouldn't be looking at a new 'Vette - even a second hand one would be low down the desirability stakes. The Hellcat on the other hand.....

[RoverP6B]

Vocht said:

Obviously touched a nerve. Do you work for Dodge's marketing department or something? Sure sounds like it! They "deliver their promise!"

What is the main reason somebody buys a Charger/Challenger Hellcat? It's because they are 'affordable' high-performance enthusiasts cars. As muscle cars always have been. Big performance, low cost.

Since 2015 Dodge have 'only' sold circa 35,500 Hellcats, yet it's taken Chevrolet just a few days since the release of the C8 Corvette to sell out their first years production (40,000 units). Why so? Big performance, low cost.

The Corvettes popularity and threat within the high-performance segment where the Dodges sit is absolutely undeniable and it doesn't take a genius to see the correlation between Chevrolet releasing a sub $60k high-performance enthusiasts car and Dodge dropping their prices to sub $60k too.

That's like saying BMW would drop M5 prices because there's a new Cockster out. Completely different cars. You're talking about a 500bhp mid-engined 2-seat sports car vs an 800bhp 2-ton 4-door family saloon.

[Matt Harper]

Vocht said:

Obviously touched a nerve. Do you work for Dodge's marketing department or something? Sure sounds like it! They "deliver their promise!"

What is the main reason somebody buys a Charger/Challenger Hellcat? It's because they are 'affordable' high-performance enthusiasts cars. As muscle cars always have been. Big performance, low cost.

Since 2015 Dodge have 'only' sold circa 35,500 Hellcats, yet it's taken Chevrolet just a few days since the release of the C8 Corvette to sell out their first years production (40,000 units). Why so? Big performance, low cost.

The Corvettes popularity and threat within the high-performance segment where the Dodges sit is absolutely undeniable and it doesn't take a genius to see the correlation between Chevrolet releasing a sub $60k high-performance enthusiasts car and Dodge dropping their prices to sub $60k too.

No nerves offended or molested - and I have done some marketing research work for FCA, I must admit.

Consequently I am aware of the market segmentation that is appropriate when brand/model perception is examined. FCA's "Brotherhood of Muscle" products (Daytona, 1320, Scat-Pack, Hellcat, Red-Eye and Demon) are aimed squarely at a customer who is very specific in their aspirations and expectations - and are very different from those who are more focused on sports-cars, versus 'muscle' coupes/sedans.

Corvette also has a quite specific consumer following, which is less about cost-to-own and more about brand loyalty and what some marketers refer to as "stage of life", being older, more image than performance influenced (GM/Pratt & Miller racing program is aimed at capturing younger buyers, in addition to retaining existing customers).

No C8 is going to be a sub-$60k purchase in the real world, whereas all of FCA's muscle options other than Hellcat, Trackhawk and Red-Eye are in that "out-the-door" price range.

I think that it is fairly easy to demonstrate that generally, muscle Challenger/Charger/Durango/Grand Cherokee buyers not the same as Corvette buyers.

[unsprung]

Matt Harper said:

I think that it is fairly easy to demonstrate that generally, muscle Challenger/Charger/Durango/Grand Cherokee buyers not the same as Corvette buyers.

That sounds right to me. And you've articulated well the case that, I would have imagined, is almost self evident. Cross shopping between Dodge and Corvette is a minor, not a major, overlap.

Where I probably differ is on the ability of C8-mania, if you will , to drive online traffic and forecourt footfall such that the general public, including some latent non-Corvette intenders, see something that they like... and decide to take a next step.