The end of an era

[Bryster]

First the Camaro
https://fordauthority.com/2021/09/ford-mustang-rival-chevy-camaro-to-end-production-in-2023-report/
Then the Challenger
https://fordauthority.com/2021/11/ford-mustang-rival-dodge-challenger-to-end-production-by-2024/amp/
Now the Charger
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/dodge-just-killed-the-charger/

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[Mason]

It’s be “EV muscle” as in muscle cars are dead

 

[zrk]

Ok

 

[tadda]

meh...no great loss...next

 

[XtremeMaC]

Charger Challenger made 150K+ sales in the past years, each year. Meh, but it leaves a gap in the market... Not many of those folks will be ok with a 2 seater or the size of Z, GR86 or Supra, etc....

 

[Cptnslo]

I mean all that said is “this generation of charger is ending” it’s not ending the charger name just the ICE version

 

[KahnBB6]

Dodge can’t afford the regulatory penalties to keep making their Hemi and Hellcat V8’s much longer. It happened in the early 1970’s when emission controls first came on the scene and killed the highest output engines of that era.

It happened in the early to late 2000’s in Japan when the 2JZ-GTE, 1JZ-GTE, 3S-GTE, RB26DETT, RB25DET, SR20DET, VG30DETT and 13B-REW were all killed off.

Now this is the current beginning of yet another cutoff before something else replaces it, only it’ll be a different ballgame this time. I am still optimistic if manufacturers could just get away from emulating Tesla’s products and do their own unique and immersive takes on fun performance EVs.

Dodge could easily do just that. There are a number of ways to offer a zero emission performance Dodge that no prospective Tesla buyer would want but which gearheads could really get into.

But outright killing off the Challenger and Charger entirely with no new generations of each isn’t it.

Similarly Ford turning the Mustang into an EV Escape crossover also isn’t that answer for them either.

And despite low sales of the arguably excellent current Camaro, killing that car off entirely or abandoning its two door coupe configuration the way Ford did with the “Mustang” Mach E is also not the answer.

These cars need to live on as fun driving machines that heavily involve the driver. Emphasis on finding ways to make them fun first and everything else second. And emphasis on their style and feel behind the wheel being keys to standing out with their own identities in the EV era.

So far Ford, GM and Dodge have all yet to figure those crucial things out or demonstrate with pre-production prototypes that they have figured it out.

The current era isn’t totally over yet until the last model years of all these popular fun performance muscle cars are sold out. It’s coming and sooner for some models than for others.

I really want to see these companies actually try hard and put in serious effort to keeping these iconic muscle cars alive and true to their identities and personalities even amidst the regulatory changes they can’t avoid.

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