Until the end of the month, Dodge will offer a $10 discount per horsepower on some of its cars. The Power Dollars offer – something we haven’t seen since pre-pandemic days – encourages buyers to move up to more powerful engines by erasing some of the added cost involved in choosing more cylinders.
But, this time, there’s an asterisk. Dodge has excluded powerful Hellcat models from the program.
The last time Dodge offered the Power Dollars deal in 2019, some buyers got extraordinary discounts on the headline-making models. When news hit the internet that Power Dollars was coming back, enthusiast message boards filled with exciting tales of buyers who brought home high-horsepower Hellcat models at stunning deals five years ago.
No such stories will emerge this time.
But in some regions, buyers can stack the deal with other discounts.
The Power Dollars offer applies only to the Charger, Challenger, and Durango. Two of the three have been discontinued. Dealers still have plenty of Charger and Challenger models on sales lots, but both cars have been canceled, and the factory that built them has fallen silent. So, you can’t custom order a new one.
The offer lasts only until February 29. This promotion could lure some buyers into a bad decision. The discounts generally don’t make a larger engine cheaper than a smaller one, so they’ll convince some buyers into spending more on the initial purchase and more at the pump to feed the additional horsepower.
Some drivers will enjoy the added power and rumble enough that the price difference is worth it. Others are better off sticking with the 300-horsepower V6.
Another message has surfaced in the news — dust off your negotiating skills.
The re-emergence of a pre-pandemic deal is a sign that the new car market is normalizing. Incentives routinely made up 10% or more of the average new car purchase before the pandemic hit. They slipped below 3% last year. They’re climbing again – up to 5.7% last month – as dealers compete with one another to attract your business.
