Three in a Row: Dodge Brand Wins Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Award

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

• Award categories are calculated among luxury, non-luxury and truck shoppers and are based on annual new-car buyer perception data
• The top purchase reasons for Dodge vehicles are overall exterior styling, being "fun to drive" and overall power and acceleration
• Challenger and Charger are coming off a strong 2020 with combined retail sales up 6% year-over-year

Dodge vehicles are known for their iconic muscle car looks and Kelley Blue Book is recognizing America's performance brand by naming Dodge the Best Car Styling Brand in the 2021 Brand Image Awards for the third year in a row. Award categories are calculated among luxury, non-luxury and truck shoppers and are based on annual new-car buyer perception data.

"Dodge represents quintessential American muscle through and through," said Isabelle Helms, vice president of research, market intelligence and pricing strategy for Cox Automotive. "Aggressive exterior styling with unique heritage design cues immediately draws consumers to the brand. That styling is matched perfectly to unrivaled performance under the hood. Dodge is true to its brand from its styling to its performance."

Indeed, the top purchase reasons for Dodge vehicles are overall exterior styling, being "fun to drive" and overall power and acceleration. Challenger and Charger are coming off a strong 2020 with combined retail sales up 6% year-over-year. 2021 marks the year that Dodge is distilled to the highest levels of performance, offering Hellcat-powered, 700-plus-horsepower SRT versions of every model across the lineup.

The 2021 Dodge Durango is the Charger of the three-row SUV segment and raises the bar this year with updated exterior styling, a new interior with a Challenger-inspired cockpit and more performance than ever with six distinct models – SXT, GT, Citadel, R/T, SRT 392 and the new 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat – the most powerful SUV ever.

Dodge muscle gets even stronger for the 2021 model year with the new "Demon-possessed" Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan the world. Raising the bar to performance levels never seen before in a four-door family sedan, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye serves up 797-horsepower and 707 lb.-ft. of torque, plus a top speed of 203 miles per hour (mph), delivering the ultimate in high-performance, comfort and road-ready confidence as the world's only four-door muscle car.

The Dodge Challenger is the world's quickest, fastest and most powerful muscle car. While the record-setting Dodge Challenger SRT Demon was a one-year, limited-production build, the 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock is born from its successes and, for 2021 model year, is the halo of the Challenger lineup, outperforming the competition in the modern horsepower wars as the newest ultimate drag-racing muscle car.

Dodge continues to offer customization straight from the factory with unique appearance packages, a variety of different color stripes and wheel finishes, all-original badges and distinctive Dodge heritage colors, including Sinamon Stick, Frostbite and Hellraisin on Charger and Challenger models, all of which make Dodge vehicles unique and stand out on the road.

Kelley Blue Book's Brand Image Awards
The Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards recognize automakers' outstanding achievements in shaping and maintaining brand attributes that capture the attention and enthusiasm of the new-vehicle buying public. Award categories are calculated among luxury, non-luxury and truck shoppers. The 2021 Brand Image Awards are based on consumer automotive perception data from Kelley Blue Book's Brand Watch study. Brand Watch is an online brand and model perception tracking study tapping into 12,000+ in-market new-vehicle shoppers annually on Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com. The highly comprehensive study offers insights into how shoppers perceive important factors driving their purchase decisions and captures brand/model familiarity and consideration among new-car shoppers.

Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)
Founded in 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource®, is the vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry. Each week the company provides market-reflective values on its top-rated website KBB.com, including its famous Blue Book® Trade-In Values and Kelley Blue Book® Price Advisor tool, which provides a range for what consumers can reasonably expect to pay for a vehicle in their area. Car owners looking to sell immediately can also get a redeemable, transaction-ready offer with Kelley Blue Book^SM Instant Cash Offer. The company also provides vehicle pricing and values through various products and services available to car dealers, auto manufacturers, finance and insurance companies, and governmental agencies. Kelley Blue Book is a Cox Automotive brand.

Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using cars easier for everyone. The global company's more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of $21 billion. www.coxautoinc.com.

Dodge//SRT
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge shifts into high gear with muscle cars and SUVs that deliver unrivaled performance in each of the segments where they compete.

2021 marks the year that Dodge is distilled into a pure performance brand, offering Hellcat-powered, 700-plus-horsepower SRT versions of every model across the lineup. For the 2021 model year, Dodge delivers the drag-strip dominating 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock, the new 797-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world, and the new 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the most powerful SUV ever. Combined, these three muscle cars make Dodge the industry's most powerful brand, offering more horsepower than any other American brand across its entire lineup.

In 2020, Dodge was named the "#1 Brand in Initial Quality," making it the first domestic brand ever to rank No. 1 in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS). The Dodge brand also ranked No. 1 in the J.D. Power APEAL Study (mass market). These results are historic because it marks the first time a domestic brand has earned top spots in both J.D. Power studies in the same year.

Dodge is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com.

Follow Dodge and company news and video on:
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Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial
Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge and @StellantisNA
YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge, https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

SOURCE Stellantis