Any Dodge Challengers in the house?
 

Was wondering if anyone here drives the new generation Challenger. When I return from sea in January, I plan on going down to the Dodge dealer and getting the 2014 Challenger RT Classic.

If there are any Challenger owners here, tell me what to expect. Of course, I expect a lot of FUN! I also expect I will be buying my first set of tires in less than 6 months!!

I was curious if any current Challenger owners have experienced any problems.

On a side note, I see that we have a CT100 up for sale now. Dammit... just when I finally decide to buy a new car! I am almost tempted to skip the car. Must stay focused... new car... new car... new car. :sigh:

Wife and I test drove this exact car over the summer. Yep, it's still on their lot

http://www.cappellinobuickgmc.com/Ve...-NY/2019476623

My guess is that the asking price is keeping buyers away, but I have to say that the car was so insanely stupidly fast, that owning one is asking for trouble. Yep, we had a fun test drive :) . This particular one was supposed to be some special very limited edition....never was curious enough to find out if that's true or just salesman BS.

I myself wouldn't hesitate to buy a slightly tamer version. It was comfortable, even in the back seat (no, the test drive wasn't THAT fun! :D). Plus, it felt like a real car underneath, not like many of the current tomato cans on the road.

Tim, I had considered the V6 model, but not for long. This is my first new car.... ever! I'm not going to settle for less than what I want. But I gotta say... the V6 version has a helluva lot more power (305 horses) than then Slant-6 version woulda had during the eary 70's. Years ago, I knew someone with a 1970 Slant-6 Challenger. They loved the car, but always regretted not opting for an 8 cylinder. I dont want to make that same mistake.

Here at work, we have a program that gets us a discount on new cars. I will be able to get the car for 1% below dealer invoice... plus whatever incentives Dodge will be offering at the moment.... typically like one or two grand cash back.

I considered getting a used one... maybe a 2012... but figured it was time for me to finally get a brand-new car.

It looks like the car in that ad in an R/T Plus. Not exactly a limited edition that I know of. The one I plan to get is the Classic (model above the Plus). The Classic version comes with stripes that would be found on a 1970 model (which I hope to get a stripe delete since they might not look as nice many years down the road), and the Challenger name badge is also the same as the one used 4 decades ago. There are also other standard features over the Plus version.... probably more goodies than I will know what to do with.

Only thing that I didn't care for personally was that the six speed in that car has ridiculously short shifter throws, even for a performance car. Blip the throttle, and you're hitting 50 MPH in 2nd gear with a lot of RPMs left to go. Fun? HELL YEAH! For a daily driver, it would get me into some SERIOUS trouble.

The interior looked a little on the boring and spartan side at first, but I fell in love with it after a drive. Loved the cloth interior. I had no idea that it was such a serious performance machine until I drove it.

I'll take one in purple or slime green, thank you :D

like them a lot, get the hemi...

Get the car. You'll be getting something that actually works, can be used daily and comes with a warranty. Better to use the savings for something you have been saving for. I decided against a well-preserved console TV and used the money toward a new digital camera, something I have been wanting for a long time. It was more than I wanted to pay, but it has all the features I need. No regrets. Better yet, I just learned that those TVs eat flyback transformers. Also, I second Tim's tomato can car comment. A Challenger is probably the only new car I could be bothered with.

Now you're speaking my language!
My daily drivers have always been Econobuckets. Right now, I'm driving a Prius. My first car was a Valiant slant six, with three on the tree. No power anything. I never got a speeding ticket, in 49 years of driving. A few warnings, though.
Mustangs and Camaros are still "Girlie" cars. :D

Yes, I am getting the hemi.... the 345 cubic inch engine (5.7 liter). The larger 392 hemi with 470 hp (comes in the SRT model) simply wont be needed, and would cost a lot more in insurance!

I am opting for the automatic... mainly because I want the variable displacement feature, and also the remote engine start. You cannot have either one of those features with a standard. Of course, I understand why you cannot have a remote start feature with a standard tranny, but I am not sure why you can't have the variable displacement engine with a standard. Anyway, automatic it is.

Earlier, I mentioned not wanting stripes on my car. Also, I am hoping to learn that I can request no rear spoiler. I will be calling the salesman today to see if getting those items deleted is a possibility.

I will be choosing between Plum Crazy (purple), Redline Red, or Jazz Blue. I will have to see them in person first before making that decision. I do not want white, black, silver, or grey. I want a color... not a shade.

I always found automatics boring, but to each his own. This got me thinking how the Ford Pinto and Mercury Bobcat with the 2.8L V6 were never available with a manual shift. The reason? They would have out-performed the Mustang II with the same powertrain.

I like having a standard. My Chevy half-ton has a 5-spd... and I doubt I would have gotten it had it been an automatic. In this case, the automatic will get a little better mileage on the highway, and on those hot Texas summer days, I can have the air-conditioning on and cooling before I get to the car! :D

Yes it was nice to see the Challenger and Charger names again.... But before you guys go plunkin down 40K or more for one of those, go look at all the problems those engines are having..... there are quite a number of low mileage $47K door stops on youtube.... Friend of ours got a charger with hemi we added up the payments $55K she'll have paid years from now.... Would really suck if the engine went before it was paid off and, or, sold off to someone else....

I can't even imagine how I would sleep if I signed a loan for even $30K for a car..... And then had to drive it on the same roads as the nuts I have to drive with in our old car....

as long as we are on cars, I saw a vette, looked really radical had a 4 pipe exhaust under the tag, did not see it for long. I would like to have a 1969-70 Chevelle with a big block, AC 4 speed etc....

I paid up my last car note in 1974. I've had several cars since then, both new and used. Always paid cash. Bad habit from my father.
I never had a Mopar engine fail prematurely. Every one I owned went way into the six figures. I wouldn't trust a GM product past 30K miles.
You hear horror stories about any make, including Honda and Toyota. :sigh:

In my family, we've clocked a lot of miles on the odometer. We've also owned all of the big 3 makes, and a couple of foreign jobs (not me). So far, the only "problem child" has been a Ford Explorer that my sister had. everything else has been good. I hope this continues with my Challenger purchase.

I had a 2001 Ford Explorer Sport, that had the 4.0 liter V6. Everyone said that it was the better engine. The 3.8 was the short lived engine.
I traded it on my 2005 Diesel Jeep Liberty, which I no longer have. It was totaled in 2009. First time for me. :sigh:

I find it pretty amusing that Mopar uses classic hemi cu. in. displacements like 345 and 392 =), and is the 5.7L hemi truck engine a poke at GM?...
Id take a Challenger too, it looks alot closer to the real thing than the Mustang and Camaro does.

While we are thinking Ford, my first new "car" was a 1993 Ranger XLT 4x4 with the 3.0L V6, not the 4.0L which had a lot more torque. It got 22 mpg, but with a 5 speed, it was only rated to tow 2500#
It got very rusty underneath and I decided to sell it while it was still looking good. Yes, it was a tomato can - should have got a full size.
IIRC the 3.0L and 3.8L Ford V6 engines were used in the Taurus and minivans, not truck engines like the 4.0L.

I agree a lot, the Challenger looks 100 times cooler than the mustang, and camaro combined ! Not just today, but in the 70's too !

I saw hemi heads on youtube, are the other truck heads also just 2 valves per cylinder ??

Those hemi valves are pretty dam big, but what about ford and gm ??

What kinda poke ?? Dodge quit using 100, 200 on their trucks a while ago and went on to 1500 and 2500,
I figured that was them going after GM.... poke-poke.

Wonder why ford hasn't gone and went f-10,000 and f-20,000
I guess the f-150 is just too memorable....

You know like tv news Doppler Radar 5000, and such as stations think they are out-radaring each other..... I bet its all from the national weather service anyway.....

Yes, the 345 and 392 engine sizes were used back in the 1950's... good catch, Dave. However, I, too, am confused about your reference to the 5.7 and GM.... only engine size in that area that I recall GM using was the 350 (man that one was around for a long long time).

So far, I've made my decision to get the car in Jazz Blue. Loan is pre-approved at the credit union. Now all I am waiting to find out about is if I can get a Stripe Delete. If so, I will be ordering the car in a couple weeks.

When I lived in Florida Brighthouse cable company had it's own state wide news station Bay News 9...They were trying to out radar themselves! There were various different things they tried to do. Dual polarization radar that was supposed to give you a 3D view of cloud banks, one or two other things that I can't remember, and then...Klystron 9 Which was supposed to be one of the most powerful radar systems in the country...I don't doubt that claim as after they put it in, the area around their tower on the map ALWAYS had a small, jagged, fuzzy ring of false 'clouds' around it (which I assume was from all that power reflecting off dust in the air near the tower and the occasional bird that got too close and roasted...).

Pretty funny !

When I lived in Atlanta the area stations gave more and more creative and aggressive names to the weather radars, then they added numbers too. When I left they were up to 2000, Now I think it was in keeping with the coming y2k. I imagine Klystron 9 will eventually become Klystron 9000 ! only spoken with louder masculine speedy voice with weather radar graphic wizzzing behind the voice....

Man, I wish Big Mama Mopar would have put this one out....

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/in...?topic=32318.0

I would probably already have one... it's just awesome looking... and amazing how well it resembles the 1971 Plymouth.

Funny to think... starting in the 80's, many of Chrysler Corporation's autos were going front wheel drive and sporting weed-eater engines. Back then, that was the wave of the future. Their last car to have RWD and a 318 was the 5th Avenue in 1989.

Fast forward several years, and here they are going back to available v8's and rear wheel drive in the 300, Charger and Challenger... with the 200, Dart, and Avenger staying FWD with 4 and 6 cylinders.

I bet back in the 80's, they never thought they would return to a V8/RWD configuration!

Personally, I'm glad they did. Now they need to make that modern looking GTX! :D

One of those was T-boned by a cop car in the original Gone in 60 Seconds just after the couple who took it for a test drive decided to buy it. Bummer.

I have had my 2010 Dodge 2 years,bought it brand new.I have just a little
under 10k miles on it.Mine is a R/T Classic.5.7 litre,6 speed manual.I like it,SoFar-SoGood.
My first car ever was a 68 Charger,I have owned a dozen or so Cuda's,Challengers, Chargers,etc.. So basically this was a no- brainer for me
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...psf24f5b08.jpg

Very cool looking car ! ! !

Sure is! I am planning on mine being blue as well. Too bad they weren't still offering B5 blue like they did a few years ago... I always liked that color.

The picture is great, but it's kind of hard to see the real blue shade.
My 2000 Dakota is brighter blue called Intense Blue Clearcoat. Back then the darker blue was referred to as: Patriot Blue. Then my 2003 Dodge Neon was Levi's blue. Metallic blue in the middle of the two mentioned colors.
With all the great colors available, by all the manufacturers, who in their right mind would buy a white car? :sigh:

ORDER IS IN!

Currently, we are a couple hundred miles off the West Coast headed to LA. Talked to a salesman, told him what I wanted, made a deposit for the order... all over the sat-phone this morning. Was that simple.

The car should be here in February. I get off the ship in late-January, so this should work out just fine.

My car will look like Grimer's in the photo above, except will have different wheels. It's likely that i will remove the black stripes... they peel off pretty easily when new... just like electric tape.

No,but does a 426 hemi superbird,fitted with a tremec magnum 6 speed,4 wheel discs Dana 70 Detroit locker 4.88 axle, count painted in a very ghey pink,with environmentally friendly leaded marine paint,hand painted by my crazy 6 and 7 yr old girls,the ones who bought it from an old man for 44000 bucks,clutch started it and drove it home,lucky the cop who saw them was my brother.Had phony plates from my Australian Chrysler valiant.Anybody know what these 43 numbers on parts of the underside mean.Australian-American marriages produce lunatic children.Had an old 303 lee in the trunk.

Got an update today... my car is built and being shipped!! Awesome!! Talk about perfect timing... I got signed off the ship today... I am on my way home. This gives me time to unwind, get all my ducks in a row, and just wait for the car to arrive!

Then, BURN RUBBER BABY!!!

Sweet, now you just have to change your user title back again. :) Oh, and have the car delivery people check for rats.

Charlie, saw your thread a bit late. Would have offered you the 1% under MSRP discount, but it also appears you scored that deal!

I have owned two of them (sold the first black one, too hard to keep clean)! Obviously I like them. Gen III has been around for a decade now with no meaningful issues, so I wouldn't worry about any of that. I test drove the stick back-to-back with the auto, and 0-60 was always faster with the auto, as virtually every report will back up.

Oh yeah, I also have an '89 5th Avenue in my "car collection" precisely because it was the last V8 RWD Chrysler (till '05).

As for who would buy white... Well only with orange stripes!

Carmine, I like those old Dodge M-body cars, Thought about buying one last year, the old lady car only driven to church.... But then we already have more cars then we drive,.... Post a few pictures and lets hear the full story.... please.....

Very nice Challenger you have ! ! !

Allpar has a nice writeup on them.....

http://www.allpar.com/model/dodge-diplomat.html

Thanks...

Carmine: I, too, am a fan of the last V8 5th Avenues. My mother had a red 86 model... that car was sooo comfortable to sit it! Those velvet red fluffy seats and deep red carpeting... that car was like a whore-house on wheels!!

As far as the 1% under invoice goes, I might be able to squeeze just a little more out of them. Come to find out, my father ordered a new truck from the same dealer a few weeks back (a 4-dr with 8ft bed). He's getting it for 500 under invoice. He didn't have to twist their arm for it, either. This dealership has recently been bought by someone else, and they are currently trying to undersell everyone in the area. So, I am going to meet my salesman this week, and see if I can get the same deal. It only saves me another 150 bucks, but, that's 150 bucks that could otherwise be used to buy beer!

Curious... did your RT come with the original style script lettering in the grill, or did you put that there? I've seen some guys place that in there after getting the car. Hell... that's my favorite thing about the Classic... they use the "cool" letters instead of the newer block letters.

I am still trying to decide if I am going to keep the stripes or get rid of them. My main concern with stripes is wondering how they will look several years down the road. They come off pretty easy, and it's my understanding that it's best to remove them while the car is still fresh.

As mentioned by many people online, I also agree that they could have put a little more thought into the inside of the car. The instrument cluster is a hand-me-down from the Charger. It's not that they look bad, but they could have come up with something a little more reminiscent of the 70's Challengers.

I haven't been around VK for the past several weeks. I got my new car a month ago, and been dealing with some troubles... but seems they are straightened out now.

Got my car Feb 4th. Was a dreary cloudy day (we've had a lot of those lately). On the drive home (I live an hour from the dealership), I noticed an unusual vibration throughout the car. I decided to drive it a few days and see if it would go away (which I figured it probably wouldn't) and then ended up back at the dealership about a week later.

The service mgr drove the car with me, detected what I was describing, and told me they would check the balance on all the tires. I kinda felt like it wasn't a tire... this vibration had a weird rhythm to it. The dealer had the car ready for me the next day (Friday evening) and I went to pick it up. He said all four wheels were off. I got on the highway to go home, and after about 5 miles, I realized the vibration was still there! Since it was almost 5 pm on a Friday, I just continued home.

Over the weekend, I did a lot of reading on Dodge forums. I noticed a few guys talking about driveshaft issues. One guy in a new Charger had a vibration, and it was corrected by rotating the shaft 180 degrees. A few others talked about having them replaced on other cars.

Monday, I brought it back and mentioned the driveshaft. He said they would look into it. I got the car back nearly 2 weeks later. It got a new driveshaft... problem solved. Come to find out, they had swapped wheels/tires with another car on the lot... didn't work. Then they swapped driveshafts (which sounds like a lengthy process on these cars) and that made the vibration go away. Ordered a new one... it arrived the following week. All is well now.

I've made a couple of small trips in it so far... one to Baton Rouge and another to Mississippi. Car does great on trips. I had 3 other people in the car for the Mississippi trip. Everyone was comfortable... even in the back seat. The car is much larger than a Mustang, so if you put anyone in the back seat, they won't be crunched up in a fetal position. The car got 25 mpg... sometimes it got as much as 27 mpg. Not bad for a 375 horse V8.

I certainly dig the power it's got. It's amazing what they get out of these engines compared to just 20 years ago! There's a rumor out that next year's model will have about 50 more hp on the 5.7 engine (apparently to be more competitive with the Mustang). There's a Zero to Sixty timer on the dash. That's a really neat feature. I played with that a few times... my best time was 4.98 seconds.

Seems I also read somewhere that next year's SRT model will have nearly 600 hp! That's friggin crazy! What do you do with 600 hp???

After reading on those forums, it sounds like many guys have issues with timing chains (at least it sounds like that problem was corrected a couple of years ago). There's also the "hemi tick" that they talk about. Mine has that just a little bit. It kinda reminds me of what a slant-6 used to sound like. It's very subtle, but it's there. Even the service manager told me that was normal.

A couple of pics are below... not the best pics, though. It's hard to keep the car spotless out here in the woods, and it seems lately that most days are cloudy.

Badass! The only new car that's worth having in my opinion. Got to get those stripes off soon, they don't look very good anyway. The trouble with leaving them on is that the paint under them will not fade whereas the rest of the paint will.

The shock wave from one of those things passing a Prius would probably rattle the latter apart... hopefully anyway.

I have been debating over the stripes. Initially, I did not want them. Now, I kinda like them... and since they are black on a dark blue car, they don't scream out at ya like the white stripes would... so I kinda like that.

I am not so concerned about the paint fading so easily... being that the car is in the garage kept. Plus, since I go to sea for 7 months out of the year, that's even less time that the car will see the sunlight.

My main concern about the stripes was what they would look like years from now. I guess if they go to crap later, I can always get new stripes on it... or just buy another car! :D

Also, I might decide to trade it in on a 2015 later. Having the stripes removed might hurt me more on trade in.

I like the stripes.............

One day I'm gunna find a pic of my'73 mustang with the 'cuda strips I put on one
evening after work.....

The dodge challenger hapens to be one of about 3 cars that are made today that I will even consider driving. My parents say that if I graduate with good grades the are gonna buy me one so I can have something newer and more reliable than my 74 260z

Four hundredth post!!!

Beautiful car! Best of luck with it.