Dodge Dealers Make $5,400 on Every Challenger Hellcat Sold at MSRP

New car dealerships like to haggle prices based on the fact that they “need to make money” on the deal and with cars like the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, dealerships may complain that they don’t make a whole lot of money so they tack on big markups over MSRP. Unfortunately, it isn’t all that easy to find out just how much money a dealership makes on a new car so some consumers buy into the “poor me” sales pitch and stop haggling.

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Fortunately, thanks to Allpar, we know exactly how much money a dealership will make on every Hellcat Challenger sold at MSRP and while the number isn’t particularly high for a $60k car – there is plenty of profit built into the MSRP of the most powerful muscle car ever.

Dealership Profit on Each 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat carries an MSRP including destination fees of $60,990 when fitted with the 6-speed manual transmission. The built in profit of this car is $3,368 plus $29 that Chrysler sends the dealership for gas and the $51 worth of the gas guzzler tax paid by Chrysler. The automaker also has a $1,982 holdback charge, which is a paid to the dealership on every unit sold to discourage any dealership markup. After all, Chrysler would prefer if prospective consumers went into the dealership to pay the same prices that they see on the Dodge.com website. When you add up those amounts that stay in the dealer’s pocket, you get a total of $5,430 so on every 2015 Challenger Hellcat sold at that $60,990 MSRP, the dealership makes $5,430.

That dollar value goes up if the 2015 Challenger Hellcat buyer opts for navigation, which adds another $76 to the dealer’s bottom line, while those models with the new 8-speed automatic transmission come with an instant $220 of extra profit for the dealership. This means that a dealership that sells a 2015 Hellcat Challenger with navigation and the automatic transmission makes around $5,726.

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Now, as a $60-64k new vehicle goes, $5,726 isn’t a whole lot of profit, but that is a very fair profit margin for a car that is going to bring in a whole lot of foot traffic – some of which will purchase other cars including non-Hellcat powered 2015 Challengers. This $5,726 profit is why guys like Bob Frederick of the Frederick Scat Pack website can sell Hellcat Challengers at MSRP.

Smart Hellcat Shopping Can Save You Money
If you are looking to buy a 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and you would rather pay a price closer to the official $60,990 MSRP, it is possible, but you might need to do some shopping around. I have spoken to shoppers who have been able to reserve a Hellcat Challenger at MSRP and I’ve also talked to folks who had to agree to a $5,000 upcharge. The recently announced allocation process should help put a limit on both the time and value of dealership markups and with some dealers looking to move units at MSRP, it will make it harder for those dealers adding $20,000 to the price to move units.

Hellcat Galleries:
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat in TorRed
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat in Sublime
Live images of the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat debut

The bad news is that at this point, the fastest acting Hellcat Challenger buyers have snatched up many of the first units expected to reach dealerships. In many cases, the allocation numbers for many dealerships around the country have already been spoken for so if you haven’t ordered one already, you will likely be waiting a while before more units roll off of the production line. Fortunately, that wait will likely allow you to avoid the first-run markups that are always the biggest.

Source: Allpar