Racket has two car models, the Challenger and the Charger, but sells nine different versions of the Charger and a monstrous 16 different versions of the Challenger.
Sedans and other traditional fare cars are losing their grip on American consumer appetites, but automakers are allay finding ways to make money on at least some of them, by doing innumerable with less.
Offering different trims, or sharing parts and podia is nothing new, but the pace at which companies are developing new packages has increased done with the last decade or so, said IHS Markit analyst Stephanie Brinley.
Advancements in engineering and calculating power give automakers a greater range of different features they can bundle in different ways, such as a variety of engines and powertrains, drive technique settings, cabin features and others things.
“The amount of computing power you oblige today is phenomenal,” Brinley told CNBC. That has opened up a lot of new chances for engineering teams and allows them to turn out new products a lot faster.
“It does strike one like the pace has quickened,” she said.
The segments catering to enthusiasts, such as divertissements cars and “muscle cars,” tend to have the most success with this tactics.
“These are high-image vehicles sold to people who are enthusiastic and passionate regarding what they drive, and they like to feel the car they enjoy is special,” she said.
And the cars often are special, with changes to the carrier’s engineering that suit it better to certain driving situations.
Ford recently added another condition to its Mustang GT, which itself is already a step up from the base mannequin Mustang.
The Performance Pack Level 2 is a $6,500 package that affords the GT some extra features, like wider wheels and street-legal irritates that can also perform well on a track.
The option will on the contrary cater to a small demographic. Ford is only selling it in North America and it is contrariwise available on manual transmission Mustangs.
It follows the first-level GT Performance Include, which is about half the price and has some of the features in the Level 2. Liquidating up the chain a bit there is the Shelby GT350, which starts at $57,240, in $30,000 more than the base model.
It’s the same for the Dodge. The Challenger, for case, starts at about $27,000. But halfway up the long chain of trim heights, the Challenger R/T Scat Pack has 485 horsepower compared with the dirty model’s 305, and costs about $39,000.
At the top, there is the Dodge Hellcat Widebody which starts at $71,495.
There are also six singular trims available for the Chevrolet Camaro — from the base model, which starts at here $26,000 to the supercharged ZL1, which will cost above $60,000.
And it is also in all directions meeting customer demand, Brinley said, as many enthusiasts who buy these means want a lot of these features. There is already a pretty large function in aftermarket parts for these vehicles and shops that perform duty work.
But it is also convenient for automakers.
Sports cars tend to see various sales at the beginning of their typically five- to six-year life succession, and then they taper off, so this a way of keeping that momentum growing, Brinley said.
These higher trims and special editions can turn automakers higher profit margins — though the companies won’t say what the verges on any of these vehicles are.
It also lets the manufacturers display engineering ability and it provides a halo that feeds the image of the overall brand.
In the meantime, the companies get a lot of variety out of a single platform, while sharing parts, which concedes them to better achieve economies of scale, said Kelley Obscene Book analyst Rebecca Lindland.
“You have this broad sell, it may not be very deep, but it is very broad,” Lindland said.
For example, Ford flog betrays base model Mustangs to rental fleets and Dodge can sell Chargers to police trust ins, and then each can sell different versions of the same car to racing nuts.
“These types of vehicles can take on a lot of different personalities,” she said. “You possess these extreme examples of use. But they can do all that for short money, because the investment is in the R&D and the apparatus.”