matt69olds

I just saw the Mopar is going to bring back the Swinger.


Why do automakers create desirable cars, and then limit the number produced? Why create competition for yourself??? If you have a product that people want, build as many of the damn things as possible!!

Limiting the production will creat bidding wars with dealers selling their allotted cars to the highest bidder. That money that the automaker could be collecting.

I had about 3 years seniority at Chrysler when the Plymouth Prowler and PT Cruiser was released. I remember hearing people were paying 10K over sticker to buy a Powler, and lesser amounts for the first few PT Cruisers. It’s happened countless times with other cars, it makes no sense to me.

High dollar rare cars from the 60s like the Hemi Challengers/Chargers (basically anything Hemi) W-30 Olds, first gen Z28 Camaros, etc are rare and valuable because not many people bought them. I understand creating cars lines this for publicity, but it seems that all the numbers cars are becoming entirely too common.

Can anyone explain the logic?

69HO43

It's marketing they can capitalize on, too. Every company would love to have that first-world problem of empty shelves because extra demand strips out normal supply, not because supply can't meet even basic demand, like pandemic problems.

It's partially risk in building a "new" car or version, as they have to line up contracts and parts well in advance to make such a vehicle so it could be limiting in various regards. For example, I know for a fact they were already working on the 5th gen Camaro steering column in 2004 and the first actual customer car wasn't built until 2009. First, they have to get the greenlight from the brass to make the car or version, and that means sales predictions on their current proposal. So if they think they can sell, say, 10,000 of a special version, they may get it, or get more or less depending on the expected market conditions on release.

It's also partially the "hook", in that if they can create a hot seller, it might just bring in more people to the showrooms and even if they can't get the hot item, maybe get the customers to buy the next hot item sitting on the showroom floor. A GM shows executive told me in 2012 about the upcoming limited availability of a new Camaro version (which was the then-un-named 2014 Z/28), and that they would love to have them be "flow-through" units, aka, sell as many as they could build. But they also have to put those gas guzzlers into the mix as far as CAFE standards so they would be limited. So be thankful for the gas sippers they sell that get a million miles per gallon to allow those kind of gas guzzlers to exist.

More factors go into building those cars today than just how many people are wanting to buy them since many places use just-in-time manufacturing. Sometimes, if they have the capacity, they can bump up the production numbers if market demand dictates as they did with the 2010 Camaro, where V6 sales helped even out the CAFE standards bump. The sales expectation was around 50K units the first year, and it ended up with 129,405 sold. And sometimes they can't do that so easily, like the Z/28 with a 7-litre hand-built engine and specialized (expensive) track suspension.

allyolds68

Automakers can't even deliver enough daily drivers to fulfil market demand right now. It's probably more enticing to say "limited production" than "we can't produce enough to meet demand"

Weezer

It really depends on what these special packages entail, because working at a supplier, I know first hand that Stella shells out lots of R&D money to do testing on various components when these ridiculous packages come out. About the only thing Stella has going for them on the Lx platform is that it's so damn old, all their tooling is paid off for common components that don't need to be changed / beefed up when these special runs are developed.

hurst68olds

most of these Mopar "limited edition final year HEMI V8 Challengers & Chargers" are just sticker packages with limited color combos on car & drivetrain packages that already exist

bucks up collectors will have to have one of each, or want the combo that ends up being "1 of 1" (out of 500/1000/3000 whatever) because it is green with gold stripes

69HO43

The swinger is apparently mostly cosmetic. Maybe the only thing they had to do a little testing on is any new paint colors they wanted to use or emblems/decals and such. Only 3 colors anyway. Maybe even some seat cover testing, I don't know. Since they're all going to be widebodies, they already got the goods honed out there. 1,000 Challenger Swingers and 1,000 Charger Swingers are planned as I gather. Of course, there's a total of 7 "last call" versions of the cars, so we'll just have to wait and see what else they got.

Weezer

Heh... yeah, if they are sticker packages, I can't imagine any testing is happening for that. I have to be careful what I type here, because I don't know what could or couldn't get me in trouble at work, but we're always having to run tests for tire and wheel packages. Anything that will affect weight or handling comes to us.

matt69olds

with the crap going on in the auto industry right now, I’m betting this is the biggest reason for limited production. Years past, I don’t know.

oldcutlass

Stupid, the Swinger was originally a Dart. Same stupid I've always applied to the 4 door Charger.