16 replies to this topic

[mudmonster]

William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
June 19, 2012

Chrysler has begun taking orders for the new Dodge Dart from their dealers. Hopefully the dealers read the fine print, as there are a couple catches to the new Dart.

The first catch is how many Darts each dealer will receive. Chrysler will be rewarding a certain number of Darts to dealerships depending on the number of Dodge Caliber models each dealer sold. Despite Caliber production ending last December, there are still 2,200 Calibers still sitting on dealer lots.

Catch number two deals with the first Darts that the dealers will be receiving. Like the first Chevrolet Volts allocated to dealers, the first Darts will be used for demonstration purposes. Chrysler says the demo Darts can be sold once more Darts enter the flow in late July or early August.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at william.maley@cheersandgears.com or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

Click here to view the article

[dfelt]

Makes sense for people to be able to test drive a dart and decide if they want to put money down.

You know some will be pissed that they cannot drive and buy at the same time, yet supply and demand tends to dicktate this.

[regfootball]

it's nice for folks who just want to try it, then they know they have an out to leave without buying! lol

[dfelt]

it's nice for folks who just want to try it, then they know they have an out to leave without buying! lol

True this does work very well for Looky Lou's.

[Lamar]

The Caliber thing concerns me...

[dfelt]

The Caliber thing concerns me...

WHY????

A dealership who sells lots of cars should get a better assortment of the new car than one who barely sold them.

[A Horse With No Name]

The Dart looks like a darned nice new car....

Glad to see it making it to market. Should really help Chrysler,.

[Lamar]

The Caliber thing concerns me...

WHY????

A dealership who sells lots of cars should get a better assortment of the new car than one who barely sold them.

Because the Caliber is a pile and has been since it was introduced. I would feel differently if it were even halfway decent at the time of the Caliber's introduction.

[Lamar]

... I meant "Dart's introduction."

Daggone editing time limit.

[daves87rs]

Keeping those prices up, I see.....

[dfelt]

The Caliber thing concerns me...

WHY????

A dealership who sells lots of cars should get a better assortment of the new car than one who barely sold them.

Because the Caliber is a pile and has been since it was introduced. I would feel differently if it were even halfway decent at the time of the Caliber's introduction.

I know the caliber had corners cut, but still was a nice over all Entry level car in comparison to others out there.

My point still stands, why should dealerships who can sell cars not get a better assortment in comparison to dealerships who do not put much effort into selling them.

[Drew Dowdell]

No. the caliber really wasn't a nice entry level car..

[Lamar]

I was really here thinking to myself, "are we talking about the same Caliber? "

[pow]

I wouldn't be surprised if transaction prices exceed those of the Avenger. Glad to see Chrysler are moving away from such crappy cars.

[NeonLX]

I'm a Mopar fan from way, way back but I never took a liking to the Caliber. My biggest beef was that the interior made me feel claustrophobic...and I'd been driving Neons for years!

Haven't been in a Dart yet; hope to get some time to poke around in one soon.

[dfelt]

No. the caliber really wasn't a nice entry level car..

Your right that if you paid MSRP it was not a nice Entry level car. Yet while it was in production, at least here in the Seattle area, you could get a fully loaded awd RT model for around 18K or so, well below MSRP due to rebates and other money thrown on the hood and when you compared it to a stripped down toyota or honda, it was still a very good deal when you compared fully loaded awd rt to base stripped Honda or Toyota for less money.

Maybe it was just a local thing, but I always could get far more out of the caliber for the price compared to others around here.

Yes it was a plastic mess inside, but you had the VW approach of selling fully loaded cheap to try and gain market share I guess.

[Lamar]

The fact that they absolutely had to incentivize sales in order to move the Caliber (and that wasn't just a Seattle thing; it was true on the east coast as well) shows how undesirable the car was and that people would only buy them if they were cheap.