Dodge Drops the Top on the 2022 and 2023 Challenger

Brian Wong has worked in the automotive industry since 2010, writing over 1,000 car-related articles and testing and reviewing hundreds of vehicles over the course of career. Brian is a senior reviews editor at Edmunds and has also contributed to Cars.com, Motor Authority and Green Car Reports. Brian has also been featured on MotorWeek as an expert for several car comparisons. He loves convertibles (the smaller the better) and hates paying for parking, so Los Angeles is both the right and wrong city for him.

Dodge is partnering with Drop Top Customs to allow customers to order a convertible version of the Challenger for the 2022 and 2023 model years.
After it's ordered through a dealership, the car will head straight to Drop Top Customs for the conversion, then to the new owner.
This process isn’t cheap: The conversion costs $25,999 on top of the price of the new Challenger.

The Dodge Challenger had to feel left out. Its muscle car counterparts, the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, have long offered convertible variants, while the Challenger has had a fixed roof exclusively for its whole life (save for two short years in 1970-1971). But the Challenger can finally let go of its drop-top envy, as Dodge has partnered with Drop Top Customs to lop off the roof and replace it with a fully powered hydraulic soft top so you can hear that 700-plus horsepower Hellcat engine in its full glory.

How's this going to work?

Interested Challenger buyers will go to a dealership to order and configure their 2022-2023 Challenger, but once it's built, Dodge ships it straight from its plant in Brampton, Canada, to the folks at Drop Top Customs. Once the shearing process is complete, the car heads to the dealer for the customer to pick it up. This expedited transportation process is offered on all Challenger R/T, R/T Scat Pack and Challenger SRT variants (including the Hellcats) but not the SXT or GT.

The soft top is fully powered for easy operation, has a heated rear window, and includes structural reinforcements to help reduce the body flex that lopping the top off a vehicle can produce. While Dodge hasn't released actual specs, from photos it's clear that the added convertible equipment shrinks the Challenger's otherwise spacious trunk considerably.

What's it cost?

You should probably sit down for this part. Retail pricing for the conversion is $25,999, though Dodge cheekily notes that final pricing is negotiated and confirmed at the dealership. There may be some wiggle room involved, but even so, this is a hefty price tag. Ford charges an additional $5,500 for its convertible Mustang models and Chevy tacks on $6,000 to lop the top off the Camaro.

Edmunds says

Though the prospect of hearing the Challenger Hellcat's supercharger whine in the open air is intriguing, having to pay $26,000 for the privilege gives us pause.