Why the Challenger may be stick-shift only

It now looks as though the Dodge Challenger is a “go” for 2007-08, albeit with a stick-shift / Hemi V8 only. Here is why the car will be so limited.

First, it’s a limited production vehicle, and there aren’t many to be made; that means each version will have fewer copies to spread around engineering costs. If you make 100,000 Neons, then spending $100,000 on an engineering change is only $1 per car. If you make $15,000 Challengers, how can you justify spending another couple of million to make and certify different engine/transmission combinations? Due to very tight packaging, having two transmission choices would be very expensive and would disrupt production, increasing engineering costs in what is alreayd a limited production car

By sticking with a manual transmission, they both mollify an increasingly loud contingent of drivers and reduce their rather massive investment.

The manual transmission should bolster acceleration despite the Challenger’s likely weight gain and make it a supercar which will increase likelihood of people buying it – which they might not do if it was “just another 300C.”

Finally, the interesting engine/manual transmission combination makes it “not just another 300C” and that might be the biggest real reason though they’d never admit to it! … because they’ve already told us that the Charger and 300C and Magnum are all so COMPLETELY different.