Dodge Challenger Gains All-Wheel Drive This Fall

by Steph Willems

Published: September 6th, 2016

dodge challenger gains all wheel drive this fall

The Dodge Challenger is well known for fouling empty parking lots with smoke-belching burnouts, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles clearly feels its muscle coupe needs four-wheel traction.

Horsepower lovers in northern climes are likely celebrating the news (reported by Automotive News) that the Challenger will gain an all-wheel-drive variant.

According to the publication’s product update, FCA will market a Challenger GT AWD this fall, followed by a specialized version of its 707-horsepower Hellcat next year. That beast will be a wide-bodied, Hellcat-powered model called the Challenger ADR, likely designed for track use.

Adding all-wheel drive to the Challenger could mean new buyers for FCA’s aging pony car, which is struggling to hold its market share.

FCA’s product pipeline still shows the Dodge Charger and Challenger moving to the slimmed-down Alfa Romeo Giulia platform in 2018. The platform swap sees the two models drop significant weight (up to 500 pounds) while gaining a redesign. There’s the potential for a turbocharged four-cylinder base engine.

The Dodge Barracuda, a two-door convertible based on the Challenger, will bow in 2021.

A new look for the Chrysler 300 is a ways off, with a redesign tentatively scheduled for 2020. By not being included in the 2018 update of its LX platform cousins, the 300’s future is far more uncertain. There’s a chance that a future 300 will borrow the front-wheel-drive platform from the Chrysler Pacifica minivan — a possibility hinted at earlier this year by FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne.

(Update: the original version of this story reported that the Challenger Hellcat would receive an all-wheel drive version, which is incorrect. The text and headline has been changed to reflect this.)

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

#AllWheelDrive #DodgeChallenger #Fca #FiatChryslerAutomobiles #FutureProducts #ProductPlanning

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Corey Lewis on Sep 07, 2016

This sorta reminds me of how AMC didn't have any money, but would add trims and 4x4 to things and POOF! New cars! -The 300 and Charger are already overdue for an update, and now they are to wait four more years? -The Challenger is overdue, and it's getting AWD to make it a bit heavier? It won't even chirp tires with V6 and an automatic, which is what most of them are anyway. -No more 200 and Dart, so there's two more things gone. -Durango can't be long for this world, when the new Grand Wagoneer comes around (if ever). And then when the 300 does get updated, its going to go FWD and compete with what... the other large FWD items of vague luxury like the MKS, RLX and Avalon? Yeah, good plan! At least they've got lots of Alfas and new Fiat models to sell! Oh...

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- JustPassinThru on Sep 07, 2016
  
  It does kinda stink of desperation, don't it? The elephant in the room, the one no one's talking about, is Jeep. Jeep and its curse. ANOTHER satchel of brands, pulled down by the Cursed Marque of Toledo! Think of how, once Kaiser-Frazer bought Willys-Overland, slow sales killed the remaining Kaisers - including the Darren roadster. Of course the Aero-Willys was dead-car rolling; but two more brands, Kaiser and Frazer, were soon gone. Then, AMC still had fantasies of succeeding. Buy Jeep, instead of updating their Javelin...and watch everything else implode to dust. New Matador...crash. Pacer...lame and outrun. Gremlin, mutated by Federal standards to where even teenaged girls didn't like it. Jeep setting sales records. Enter Renault. The Renault 9 was a sales and critical winner in Europe. Assembled in AMC plants, it was first dubbed the Appliance - and then was disowned as a fragile POS. Which it was. Chrysler to the rescue. Lido was brilliant in buying Jeep and its management - it saved him from the consequences of his bad ideas. But the Curse followed...his last bad act was to make Eaton his successor. And Eaton was looking for a payday... Daimler-Benz. Telling how, in the end, DaimlerChrysler had market valuation LOWER than Daimler-Benz before the covert purchase/sham merger; and how Daimler value shot UP once they gave Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep AWAY. Cerberus. They haven't survived as a venture-capital company by making bad buys; but Chrysler was really one for the books. Now Fiat. The foreign White Knight, which now looks like a sick old European in its soiled white cravat, sucking the life out of...yup, Jeep. This is one of Sergio Sweaterman's last frantic acts. Jeep sells...must be the FOUR WHEEL DRIVE!
  
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- SC5door on Sep 07, 2016
  
  Did you read or just skim over? "FCA’s product pipeline still shows the Dodge Charger and Challenger moving to the slimmed-down Alfa Romeo Giulia platform in 2018."
  
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- Corey Lewis on Sep 07, 2016
  
  @SC5door Yes, I saw the Challenger is moving to a new platform in two more years. I don't see how that invalidates my point - it's already overdue, and an AWD offering in V6 guise isn't going to help much. Also, I don't think moving the cheaper Charger to an Alfa platform which is undoubtedly more expensive makes much sense when you're separating it from the 300.
  
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Pinzgauer on Sep 07, 2016

The key here is the AWD is only with the V6. Nothing to write home about IMHO.

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