More than 5,000 new 2023 Dodge Chargers and Challengers are still sitting on dealer lots

Over 5,000 new muscle cars, namely Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger models, are still sitting on dealer lots in the United States.

When Dodge said they would retire both the Charger and the Challenger in late 2023, everyone assumed the last available models would sell like hot cakes.

Clearly that wasn’t the case.

As a result, thousands of Chargers/Challengers are still up for grabs.

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The potential reason why these muscle cars are still available

A while back, Dodge announced its plan to unveil an electric muscle car known as the Dodge Charger Daytona.

Fans weren’t too happy about that.

Then Dodge went further and announced its intention to discontinue both the Challenger and the Charger, and muscle car enthusiasts really didn’t like that.

The problem is that muscle cars used to be cheap, but that’s no longer the case.

Partly because the MSRP went up dramatically across the board, but also because of the outrageous markups that dealers apply.

Not long ago, a dealership tried selling a Dodge Demon at three times its original retail price.

What’s next for the Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger

The Charger is one of the most iconic Dodge models, but its future is uncertain.

First unveiled in 1966, Dodge produced four generations in 21 years, before discontinuing production in 1987.

They then reintroduced the Charger almost 20 years later, in 2006, but this time they turned it into a four-door sedan rather than a two-door coupe.

This is because, at that point, Dodge was already selling another two-door coupe, the Dodge Challenger.

In 2023, Dodge said goodbye to both but only replaced one, the Charger.

The new model, unveiled this year, is again marketed as a two-door coupe, but it’s electric.

Some people aren’t too happy to see the words ‘electric’ and ‘muscle car’ in the same sentence, although to be fair Dodge did try to capture the essence of a muscle car by also giving it a (fake) soundtrack.

Dodge might eventually recycle the Challenger nameplate for something else but, whether we like it or not, that is also probably going to be electric.