Dodge is in a pickle. When it brought back the Charger so many years ago, it sold plenty well for over a decade. Then Dodge made the fateful decision to go electric with the all-new Charger Daytona. After just a few months on sale, things are getting awkward—and the discounts are embarrassingly large.
Remember when I told you the old Dodge Charger is the cheapest muscle car on sale right now? Well, it turns out things aren’t going any better for the new model, either. It’s not just that it has trouble doing burnouts, or the fact that it’s an EV built to appeal to people that normally hate electric cars. It’s also failing to shift units, hardcore.
The first cars started hitting dealerships in late 2024. Prices were high—the new R/T would set you back $61,590, with the Scat Pack even pricer at $74,185. Fast forward to today, and the mood has changed. Dealers are slashing prices across the country—how does $32,000 off sound?
This is a 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack, on sale in North Carolina. That’s the fast model, with 670 horsepower on tap from dual electric motors that drive the front and rear wheels. It’s a hot ship, capable of hitting 60 mph in just 3.3 seconds. Dodge originally wanted to sell this car for $75,980. Meanwhile, Deacon Jones Dodge will let it go out the door for just $43,480. That’s a discount of $32,500. Mighty.
What’s even more wild is that Cars.com suggests this beautiful orange muscle car was only listed 35 days ago, originally at full sticker price. Just over a week in, Deacon Jones sweetened the deal by dropping the price a full $6,500, before making a further $26,000 in discounts over the following three weeks.
It’s the most extreme discount I came across, but it’s by no means a fluke. Clay Cooley Dodge in Texas has a Scat Pack in silver for $56,603, a full $19,377 under sticker. Medina Auto Mall in Ohio has slashed $25,260 off their 2024 model. Extreme Dodge in Michigan has a great deal too, slashing $21,184 off a Scat Pack for a current advertised price of just $57,796.
If you’re not so obsessed with power, you can get into a Charger Daytona for even less money. We’re talking Toyota Camry money, here. The R/T trim only has 496 horsepower, but it’s still got dual-motor all-wheel-drive. With that said, it’ll still hit 60 mph in 4.7 seconds on its way to a 12.6 second quarter-mile, according to Dodge. Even better, you can score one for a hair over $30,000.
Once again, it’s Deacon Jones Dodge with the hottest deal. Down in North Carolina, they’ve got a few R/Ts on the lot, like this one listed for $30,185. That’s $32,500 under sticker—this car originally wore an MSRP of $62,685.
Elsewhere in the country, you’ll pay a touch more, but the discounts are still radical. Claremont Dodge in California has a black Charger Daytona R/T for $40,090, over $20,000 below sticker. Jason Lewis Automotive has a striking orange example in Tennessee for just $42,527. Over in Virginia, Southern Chrysler Dodge will sell you an RT for $44,500, over $17,000 under sticker.
Some of this is coming from up top. Last week, Autoblog reported that the automaker was throwing plenty of cash on the hood to get things moving—up to $12,500 in some cases. What we’re seeing now is far beyond that, however, with dealers apparently making their own calls to drop prices further.
Given that March is not yet over, we don’t have a full picture on how the Charger Daytona is selling. The model had barely been on sale when Stellantis released Dodge’s Q4 sales figures last year, so there’s no help there. We should get a better idea when Q1 sales are posted soon.
Regardless, it’s easy to read between the lines here. Typically, a brand-new performance or enthusiast model will sell far above sticker price when it first hits the market, due to high demand and constricted supply. We’ve seen this before with models like the Ford Bronco and the Tesla Cybertruck, for example. We haven’t seen any evidence of that with the Charger Daytona, though. Nobody’s running with stories of big dealer markups or scalpers selling early editions for cheap. Instead, big discounts are plastered across the Internet for all to see.
It’s an inauspicious launch for a model that was supposed to herald a new era. It’s early days yet, but it’s clear the Charger Daytona hasn’t found its stride just yet.
Image credits: Dodge, Cars.com via screenshot
Its a Stellantis EV, not surprised at all. Their buyers dont want them, and the quality certainly wont sell itself.
why would you buy this? To charge?
Literally every car enthusiast I know had secondhand embarrassment when it was revealed that there would be a Charger with fake vroom vroom exhaust noises. And now they’re not selling….so something literally anyone who knows cars could (and did) predict is happening.
I don’t think I’ve seen the first one of these.
Same. I’ve yet to see one in the wild.
I have actually surprisingly seen 2 around town in north west Indiana.
Can confirm. I live in Valpo and have seen one around town. Very odd proportions. Seeing it in person definitely did not improve my opinion of it.
We probably saw the same one as I am a fellow Valpo resident haha
I live in Silicon Valley where EVs are everywhere and I’ve never seen one.
Unlike other EV’s, when you buy this one you get the charger.
It’s sad that Stellantis thinks the solution to their problem is to somehow get the hemi V8 back into this chassis so it will presumably sell again. Because they are completely out of ideas. The truth is this: they got Jeep, and that’s it. They can “Jeep” all the things, but they’d screw it up if they tried. Shut the doors, fire everyone, you won’t be missed. Your customers will find better product across the street at the KIA dealership.
So what I’m hearing is that Stellanis is really just AMC in a shitty suit, I mean they even brought back the hornet.
But it would sell again with a V8. The Dodge muscle cars were wildly popular.
Are we sure of that? There are certainly some nice underlying design queues, but overall it looks bloated and weird, especially in the trunk and rear seat area! The prior model was big but it still had relatively acceptable proportions for what it was.
Are these really THAT bad?
The Deacon Jones site is now showing those back up at full msrp? Did this article generate enough interest to make them think these are hot suddenly?
They were never available at that price. I actually called the dealership and they told me it was a “glitch.” Despite the headline, it doesn’t seem like the author actually verified anything before publishing.
It’s actually compelling at literally half msrp. You could say that about almost every car that isn’t the Urus, though.
The Turbo-6 and a manual gearbox would almost make this car appealing to me.
Aaaaaand it dropped in price again to $39k off, just a mere $30,480 now.
They dropped the price that far in less than 30 days. Did it have a lit fuse on it?
Normally the dickering starts when it’s been on the lot for 60 days.
Only 496 Horsepower? Call me a wimp, but I think I could live with the shame of driving a mere R/T.
Now, make it a convertible with a base price of 40k, I think you have something.
Perfect storm here – everyone knows not to get anything Stellantis right now, everyone knows the economy is imploding (along with all societal aspects of our society), but most importantly: muscle car buyers and EV buyers are not the same people, unless they happen to be buying a Tesla to prove their loyalty/obedience.
They basically shoved an electric power train in to a modern production 70s boat. The pricing was insane like all stalantis products. At $30k they will get interest. They sold a lot of challengers and chargers but most were v6 for around $25k. I’m still not convinced there is an actual market for these things other then people that want someone weird.
It is showing $30,480 now. I can actually see some appeal at that price.