SRT Hellcat and Hemi Engines Might Not Survive Through 2019

[Mikebrinda]

SRT Hellcat and Hemi Engines Might Not Survive Through 2019

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/srt-he...173010561.html

[Red2014SS]

History repeats itself. Just like 1971 all over again. If so, those current Hellcats will quadruple in value very quickly.

[motorhead]

I'll be amazed if chrysler corporation last through 2019.

[hotlap]

We live in an era of increasingly stringent fuel economy regulations and consumer expectations of higher and higher MPGs. In response, automakers are downsizing engines...

I'm perfectly happy with the fuel economy of my V8 engines. As in the past, this has nothing to do with "customer expectation".

[BMR Sales]

Originally Posted by motorhead

I'll be amazed if chrysler corporation last through 2019.

Yep, it will be all Italian crap before long

[Briby37]

Originally Posted by BMR Sales

Yep, it will be all Italian crap before long

Exactly. Other than GM products I'm a bit of a Jeep guy, I was appalled when FCA rolled out a FWD Fiat crossover and called it the "Jeep Cherokee."

It's the same reason I wasn't even excited when I heard FCA patented the Barracuda name again. It's hard to believe it'll be a real performance or muscle car with the way things are going.

[hockeylover86]

The article is pure BS.

As long as HP sells, the mfg's will build them, and the Hellcat clearly sells.

The current gen Hellcat is in the middle of its 3 year run, and gen-II cars are in testing now.

Bet on the 6.2 SC having even more power in 2018, not a V6..

[Red2014SS]

The problem is the CAFE standards will be kicking in. CAFE stands for corporate average fuel economy. If manufacturers don't meet it they get fined for each vehicle produced. Pickup trucks are the top sellers, and they get lousy mileage, which doesn't leave room for a lot of muscle. Since every vehicle sold counts in the average, expect to see less cars with big engines. It sucks but Uncle Sam killed muscle cars once and he seems intent on doing it again.

[2013 ZL1 #7860]

Originally Posted by hockeylover86

The article is pure BS.

As long as HP sells, the mfg's will build them, and the Hellcat clearly sells.

The current gen Hellcat is in the middle of its 3 year run, and gen-II cars are in testing now.

Bet on the 6.2 SC having even more power in 2018, not a V6..

Just like what happened in the 70's...

[hockeylover86]

Originally Posted by Red2014SS

The problem is the CAFE standards will be kicking in. CAFE stands for corporate average fuel economy. If manufacturers don't meet it they get fined for each vehicle produced. Pickup trucks are the top sellers, and they get lousy mileage, which doesn't leave room for a lot of muscle. Since every vehicle sold counts in the average, expect to see less cars with big engines. It sucks but Uncle Sam killed muscle cars once and he seems intent on doing it again.

The key is AVERAGE. This is the reason you are seeing pickups starting to evolve getting lighter, smaller turbo engines, small diesels, etc.. These are the high volume units.

Cars like the Hellcat are not high volume so they don't contribute much to the average and can continue to exist provided they sell well.

[sherob]

Originally Posted by Red2014SS

The problem is the CAFE standards will be kicking in. CAFE stands for corporate average fuel economy. If manufacturers don't meet it they get fined for each vehicle produced. Pickup trucks are the top sellers, and they get lousy mileage, which doesn't leave room for a lot of muscle. Since every vehicle sold counts in the average, expect to see less cars with big engines. It sucks but Uncle Sam killed muscle cars once and he seems intent on doing it again.

Yes... but FCA sells a TON of the diesel Rams... which get excellent MPG. They'll be marketing a new midsize Ram too, and Dodge is selling Darts a pretty good pace too.

[Red2014SS]

Originally Posted by hockeylover86

The key is AVERAGE. This is the reason you are seeing pickups starting to evolve getting lighter, smaller turbo engines, small diesels, etc.. These are the high volume units.

Cars like the Hellcat are not high volume so they don't contribute much to the average and can continue to exist provided they sell well.

That's the contradiction. You said, "Cars like the Hellcat are not high volume, but they can exist as long as they sell well"? Well, the more they sell, the more it impacts the fleet average fuel economy. Popularity will kill them. Yet, if they don't sell many, their is no incentive to produce them. The solution? Well, for Chevrolet, it's the 4 cylinder Camaro.

Super Chevy just wrote an article praising the 4-cyl turbo Camaro. Why? That 4-cyl engine, if it sells well, will allow GM to continue producing the V8 ... at least for a little while.

Taken from this months Super Chevy magazine -
"Every car sold figures into the average for the manufacturer. The way the law works, is that all vehicles produced by the auto maker have their EPA mileage numbers averaged into a single number by a complex mathematical formula. That number must meet or exceed a federally set CAFE standard. If the company's CAFE is less than average, they are forced to pay a hefty fine to the tune of $5.50 per .1 mpg" ..

That's for EVERY vehicle they sell. It doesn't matter how well the Hellcat sells. They need to lower MPG for the entire fleet to make the cut on these new standards. If a manufacturer fails to meet the standard, for every .1 mpg under, per 1 million cars - the fine is $5.5 million dollars! They miss by 1 mpg, it's $55 million! In the big picture, cars like the Hellcat are fun, but they are small potatoes. Fiat/Chrysler makes their money selling pickup trucks and econo boxes. If one or the other has to disappear, say goodbye to the Hellcat engine.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Red2014SS

That's the contradiction. You said, "Cars like the Hellcat are not high volume, but they can exist as long as they sell well"? Well, the more they sell, the more it impacts the fleet average fuel economy. Popularity will kill them. Yet, if they don't sell many, their is no incentive to produce them. The solution? Well, for Chevrolet, it's the 4 cylinder Camaro.

Super Chevy just wrote an article praising the 4-cyl turbo Camaro. Why? That 4-cyl engine, if it sells well, will allow GM to continue producing the V8 ... at least for a little while.

Taken from this months Super Chevy magazine -
"Every car sold figures into the average for the manufacturer. The way the law works, is that all vehicles produced by the auto maker have their EPA mileage numbers averaged into a single number by a complex mathematical formula. That number must meet or exceed a federally set CAFE standard. If the company's CAFE is less than average, they are forced to pay a hefty fine to the tune of $5.50 per .1 mpg" ..

That's for EVERY vehicle they sell. It doesn't matter how well the Hellcat sells. They need to lower MPG for the entire fleet to make the cut on these new standards. If a manufacturer fails to meet the standard, for every .1 mpg under, per 1 million cars - the fine is $5.5 million dollars! They miss by 1 mpg, it's $55 million! In the big picture, cars like the Hellcat are fun, but they are small potatoes. Fiat/Chrysler makes their money selling pickup trucks and econo boxes. If one or the other has to disappear, say goodbye to the Hellcat engine.

The flip side of that is small volume cars don't shift the average very much. The calculation formula is intended to weight big sellers more heavily than niche products. And a vehicles footprint factors into the target that it needs to meet. So something like a Hellcat doesn't actually hurt them all that much. Now, the R/T Chargers & Challengers that get only slightly better mileage than the Hellcats yet sell in substantially higher numbers ... those might be a point of concern for FCA.

But an even bigger concern for them should be the poor sales of the Dart. Strong sales of efficient cars like that make it easier to do gas guzzling V8s. GM does fairly well in the compact & subcompact segments, as does Ford. But FCA has been struggling with the Dart, for reasons that I'm not entirely sure of. And the 500 isn't doing that great either. At the moment, they're probably relying on diesel half ton Rams to pull their average up ... which just feels odd.

[hammdo]

Sounds like a 'internet rumor' marketing ploy to drum up 'mania' to buy (dealer induced) so the dealer(s) can mark it up to crazy $#s ;o).

These are selling, are not in large enough #s to kill the 'averages' MPG and emissions, so, why would they want to kill it? It an attention getter and help sell other versions too...

-Don