We won’t jump in and say this is the first wrecked Dodge Charger Daytona. Dodge has been selling them for a few months now, so crashes have certainly happened, but this is the first time we’ve seen a Daytona in a salvage yard. It’s sitting at a lot in Austin, Texas, awaiting auction. But we’re having a devil of a time figuring out why this car is totaled.
Here’s what we know from its listing at IAAI.com. This is a 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T. The door tag shows a manufacturing date of November 2024, and the odometer shows just 682 miles. Primary damage is listed as being the front end, with the airbags deployed. Images show the driver and center displays powered up, with the battery still holding a 95% charge. A basic VIN check states a collision resulting in a total loss occurred on March 12, so this is a recent event.
From there, we’re left with what we see in the photos. There is clearly some front-end damage; the fascia is scuffed and pulled away from the grille, but it doesn’t appear to be broken. There’s also some damage to the passenger front fender, suggesting that’s where the impact occurred. The hood is popped, but it’s unclear if something is damaged or if it’s just unlatched. A glimpse underneath doesn’t show any obvious damage. For that matter, we don’t see any other signs of damage on the outside. Inside, airbags on the driver side are deployed but there’s no obvious damage beyond that.
So yeah, this has us scratching our heads for a few reasons. The R/T starts just north of $60,000, and we can see the Demonic Red seats inside so it’s safe to assume it has at least a few optional extras. The impact was hard enough to set off airbags so there’s almost certainly some hidden damage behind the fascia, but the front clip looks pretty solid for the most part. The wheels aren’t all torn up, and everything from the front of the fender back looks fine.
Photo by: IAAI
The Charger Daytona isn’t exactly a hot seller right now. But even if we assume a value of $40,000 for this car and a 70% threshold for declaring it a total loss, that works out to $28,000 of damage. Perhaps something happened to the front motor? And lest we forget, there are likely a bunch of cameras and sensors in the nose that also got whacked. It could well be that technology versus outright damage killed this car.
In any case, it’s headed for auction. Would you take a chance on this Charger Daytona? Let us know in the comments.
