Despite Dodge’s best efforts dealerships are taking advantage of buyers, to no one’s surprise.
Dodge might not have exactly been the cheapest American performance option for all of their incredible average in the world of enthusiast automotive technology. However, especially when it comes to the Hellcat lineup, drivers were pretty happy to know that their car, usually purchased for under $100,000, could wipe the floor with any $300,000 Lamborghini that happened to roll next to it. This was certainly the case for the Dodge Demon in 2018 which is exactly why it was such a massive hit. Nowadays, Dodge has unveiled the latest edition of the Dodge Demon which they call the Demon 170 because it runs on 170-proof alcohol.
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On the surface, this looks incredible: over a thousand horsepower, 945 lb of torque, a wide body rear and slim front fenders for aerodynamic and weight-shaving purposes, and an 8-second quarter mile time. Seriously, nothing has ever rolled off a factory production line with this kind of speed, at least not in America. Of course, such is usually the case for any American Enthusiast who gets their hopes up about these sorts of vehicles, it comes with a crazy price attached to the name. Oh no, not from Dodge themselves but from the dealers selling all 3,000 of these vehicles.
From the factory, Dodge had listed the MSRP of the Demon 170 as around 93,000, though if you look it up now it's more around the $100,000 price point. Either way, it's about a third of the cost of high-priced European supercars that are still slow even though their claim to fame has largely been performance over the years. Instead of keeping with the expectation set by Dodge, dealerships have gone out of their way to squeeze as much money as they possibly can out of enthusiasts, especially with this model such as in the case of Khaled Alsalman from Kahl SRT. When all was said and done, his car was given a $100,000 Market adjustment fee or dealer markup in layman's terms. So make no mistake, dealerships aren't setting aside their greed just because of dodges vision of affordable enthusiast-based performance cars.
