Dodge Challenger – A Powerful Car With Bells And Whistles
Being in Times Square New York affords the opportunity to see many things. Today I saw that the American Muscle Car is alive and well. I also saw enthusiasm from passers by, and people very interested in Dodges return to Muscle Car glory. Passers by stopped and were talking about the looks of the car, the speed of the car, and the price point, which no one seemed to bat an eye about.
While this Challenger SRT is being driven on a tour around the country, it could have been driven by anyone. This car was approachable and exciting. In Times Square I have seen Ferraris, Beemers, and other high end cars around. People glance, and admired them from afar. With the Challenger, people were gravitated to the car from the first second it pulled to the curb.
Scott Vandekerckhove, the representative driving the car, could barely get out of the drivers seat before questions about the car started coming from the building crowd. He couldn’t even keep his hands on brochures.
Being a satellite radio enthusiast, my trained eye went right to the roof line in search of the satellite radio antenna. Of course, it was there. It is on all 6,400 of these cars that were built in 2008, which carry a fully loaded sticker price of about $42,000 . Scott Van (he said I could shorten his name), was very personable. He answered questions, popped the hood open, and even let me take a seat behind the wheel of this beast.
After the initial wave of crowd faded, and before the new onlookers came I chatted for a couple of minutes with Scott about Sirius. He said that he loves the service, and that this tour he is on has given him a chance to catch a steady selection of tunes, as well as some Howard Stern.
Walking away from the Challenger I was encouraged to see that people still carry an excitement for cars despite the economy. That while people are watching their wallets, they can still picture themselves in a car such as the Challenger. The impressive and timeless looks of the Challenger SRT seem to bring young and old together in more ways than one. The retro look combined with modern performance, and a dashboard full of all of the gear an audiophile would want make the Challenger appealing across the demographic spectrum. The 2008 Challenger was a limited edition, but for 2009, the Challenger will come in three models with pricing starting as low as $22,000. I can picture a ton of passionate car fans jamming to satellite radio as they rev the engine of their Dodge Challenger.
Learn more about The Challenger road trip by visiting RedLetterDodge.com, the official Doge Blog.
See a comparison between the Challenger SRT and the Ford Shelby Mustang at MotorTrend.
Position – Long SIRI
I love classic cars too. But sometimes American’s are so STUPiD. Oil prices are JUST beginning to go down, and already people are talking about buying SUV’s and muscle cars again. Um….HELLO! Lol. American’s have the shortest attention spans.
What I don’t get, is that Detroit COULD create a classic muscle car that looks EVERY bit as bitchin….AND is electric.
Now before you scoff…the Tesla Roadster electric sports car goes from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds! Which puts most gas guzzling sports cars to shame. Oh…and it also gets 220 miles per charge!
So whats the appeal of the gas guzzlers? The LOUD engine? Puh-lease.
All the electric sports car needs is a great advertising campaign, and the race will be on.
In fact, I see a day when Nascar and the Indy 500 are all electric.
WHAT the F%#K electric muscle car
doom and gloom! the sooner we run out of oil the quicker we do something about it. i am not worried about it. if we run out, and that is questionable in the next 100 years, think of the efect on global pollution. the price of gas for any car is not that much annually. if you can afford the muscle why not flex it. and besides this car was begun 2/3 years ago. even detroit can’t see that far into the future.
This thing gets 13 mpg city and 18 highway.
Even my gas guzzling Tahoe gets better than that. But what ken says is true… This was not designed last month. This has been at least 3 years in the making, when gas was not as bad as it is now.
You want a nice fuel efficient car? I bet you will get one in about 2-3 years…
But thats my point. Is it the SPEED? Or is it the NOISE? That makes a muscle car? Because an electric sports car will beat any muscle car off the line. Electric sports cars are FAST. But yeah…they’re QUIET too. In fact they don’t make any noise whatsoever. Which gives a whole new dangerous twist to doing 60 in a school zone.
Maybe they could electronically create LOUD engine sounds in the car’s computer, so that every time you pumped the gas…er I mean “electric” pedal, you’d get that familiar Detroit VROOM VROOM sound.
Like the head of Tesla motors says, electric cars DON’T have to be boring little boxes. If they make em sexy…they’ll sell.
It’s all in the perception.
friggin….
The Tesla car is great, but also expensive. The staring price of $109,000 is about $68,000 more than the top of the line Challenger!
Even at $4 per gallon, that $68,000 would buy 17,000 gallons of gas. With an MPG at 15, that would equal 255,000 miles.
Electric is great, but it needs to compete in price point.
IMO Flex fuel is the next step, as the part to make an engine capable of flex fuel only adds about $100 to the price of the car.
Oh yeah…I totally agree. The price point is not anywhere near competitive yet.
I lived in Brazil for awhile, and something like %80 of their cars are flex fuel.
But Brazil uses sugar cane while we use corn which is NOT a good source of ethanol…and we are far away from a cellulosic solution.
I think here in the states the Plug in Electric Hybrid is the stepping stone to full electric rather than the flex. We just don’t have the infrastructure or resources for ethanol being viable right now. Corn ain’t the answer.
We’ve reached the tipping point tho, and even tho the Tesla is on the extreme end of performance…the regular electric car is definitely getting close to being competitive.
It’s exciting times we live in.
Friggin….
Corn is actually a fine resource for for ethanol. Some people say that it takes more energy to produce the ethanol than we get out of it, but that is not the case.
If we use corn, we can stabilize the corn market without having to subsidize anymore. Flex fuel is already produced. All GM’s, Fords, etc. sold in other countries are flex fuel capable. The technology is already here, and the impact can be almost instant. If people knew that a $100 upgrade would allow them to cut gasoline use in half, they would flip. People are simply not informed!
The problem is that Opec controls the market and will adjust production to keep their prices high.
35 years ago Opec was producing 30,000,000 barrels per day. now, thirty five years later they are producing 32,000,000 per day even with more member nations now than before!
For every barrel of oil we self produce, they will cut back by a barrel. Opec knows they sit on 75% of the oil, and can manipulate us no matter what.
Going to flex fuel benefits our farmers, gets the country less dependent on oil, and that is where we need to be.
If people began to think in terms of miles per gallon of fossil fuel rather than simply miles per gallon, it would be a big step.
Another myth is that solar, nuke plants, etc. as a source of electricity will help with the oil situation. This is flat out wrong. Oil burning electric plants only make up about 2% of this countries electric service. A wind mill, solar, or nuke plant does nothing to curb oil consumption. while they are all great, they simply are not part of the oil solution.
Well the other side of the equation is the environmental impact. Electricity produced using solar and wind are definitely better when compared to coal burning plants for the environment.
friggin….
I agree. One issue is that people are convinced that solar and wind will help solve the oil issue. It wont. I like solar and wind and think we should do more in that area, but the tie between electricity and oil simply is virtually non-existent.
In my opinion we need to first limit oil consumption to a point where it carries a global impact. that can happen sooner by making flex fuel a requirement in all cars sold in the U.S. This allows for a realistic transition, and for people to get used to the idea of alternatives. Those that want to burn gasoline still can, and those that want to use an methanol/ethanol based fuel can do so as well….or any combination in between. Add electric to the mix and we are really getting somewhere!
The Challenger will be offered in a less gas hungry 6 cylinder in 2009.
That’s it. A 57 chevy with a dual solar powered motor and twin wind driven propellers. Now that’s the kind of solar muscle car that you guys might drive. Please
give this subject a break, since you guys obviously can’t afford these kinds of toys.
OK….
It is not about affordability for me, it is about value. What type of value is delivered. I see a car as a poor value, but something that is required for me to get to work. Thus, I get a car that I like, but don’t go crazy.
The discussion is actually a good break from the norm.
The Telsa car was produced to prove that electric cars could be “cool” and were marketed toward the high end in order to produce sales. The price of initially producing a lower end electric car would have been too costly for your average American buyer so the wealthy were targeted as potential consumers. Just a way to get the technology out there to people who could afford it. Great strategy. I like loud muscle cars but it interferes with my Sirius XM programing. In an electric car I can hear all of the wonderful content the Satellite radio industry is providing!! By the way, if you can find a Challenger with a Hemi for $42 K buy it. They are asking $55k to $60k in the after market in my area and you just can’t go to the dealership and buy one since they were limited to 2 per dealership most of which were already paid for in advance!
T,
I purchased a 67 GTO back in 1970 for 800.00. I had it for 3 years and sold it for 500.00. In 1990 I purchased a rebuilt all original mint condition, all numbers matching, 67 GTO for 7,500 I had it for 5 years and sold it for 15,000.00 to a friend. Not bad. He sold it in 2007 for 65,000.00. Yes 65,000.00. I wish I had my 10 mi/gal gas guzzler back. Sorry about my last reply I understand.
I think that was $67,000 poorly spent!
$65,000 I meant!! I’m getting old!!
W.B.
The 800.00 was also poorly spent.
I was only 16 at the time.
Tyler,
Thanks very much for posting the article on our car and the plug for our website. It was a pleasure talking with you on the street. I think the comments that have resulted are a great discussion.
If I can just say one thing. The Challenger’s purpose as a vehicle is simple; put a smile on every person’s face…and I think we succeeded while in NYC, as well as everywhere else I’ve had the car. This thing just has such character and adds excitement to your life when you’re behind the wheel, regardless of fuel prices.
We’re all feeling the fuel costs now. But you have to take the good with the bad. Chrysler is actively pursuing alternative fuel sources and range-extending electric vehicles. We’re not far off from seeing huge changes in the industry to respond to the fuel crisis at hand. Change doesn’t happen over night, but we’re getting there.
Thanks again. It was a pleasure.