Gas mileage in my ford f250, 12 on the freeway,
10 in the city.
Gas mileage in my 4 cylinder ranger, 16/14
Gas mileage in my e350 van 12/10
Gas mileage with my 64 malibu ss 283 high performance 4 speed 12
Gas mileage with 1974 formula 350 firebird 12/10

I was really worried when i bought the challenger but now i’m so happy I want another.
Killerdecks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqT1rD1RUk

Also looked to be pretty nimble in the slalom. Of course the driver had better know what he or she is doing. I’m sure it is a handful.

Here it was topped out at 167 Mph, so it is plenty quick enough once it gets rolling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh7Qql9eVDs

All in all I think Chrysler did a nice job – at least from the clips.

Even if someone could pull it off, name one automaker that plays in the market of $25,000 cars that would not cannibalize its own product line when it offered an affordable RWD sports-sedan at that price point. If you truly believe it is brand mis-management to offer 2 cars that are perceived similarly to showroom customers, then you cannot really advocate the need for a RWD sports sedan when most automakers already have a FWD sedan sitting there.

Furthermore – in regards to those who claim to really want that RWD sports sedan – why have cars in that segment done so poorly in the past? When it comes time for someone to drop their money on a car, they didn’t buy those cheap RWD sports cars. In almost all cases, these mythical car buyers all realized that FWD was cheaper and more pragmatic. A pile of alleged piston heads will not buy enough cars to make economic sense. Sure you’ll see 240SX, MR2, 2nd Gen Supras, etc… but you don’t see enough of them.

Mazda’s RX8 demonstrates that there is no market for your “ideal” car. Less than 200 units last month and less than 800 unis in January 2008? People are quick to laugh at the Nissan Titan – but even Nissan pushed 1,400 of those things in January.

RWD is more expensive than FWD to produce, and the customer base for these types of cars is limited. If you want your sporty RWD, you have lots of options. If you want your sporty RWD for cheap – then you’re pleas aren’t going to change anything.

If you want someone to build your car – then work to put a business case together and convince one of the major automakers they should invest the $billions necessary so dealerships can start selling your car in 2012. Simply pestering people at some dinner isn’t going to get the ball rolling.

As in the US, Chrysler has big problems selling their cars overseas, primarily due to the fact that they are American – many Europeans think of Chrysler as second rate, poorly designed and assembled vehicles, I can only say that the 2 cars I own, both assembled in Brampton, Ontario are absolutely flawless and can be measured by any European car, as a matter of fact they are sold here in Sweden by M-B dealers sharing show – rooms.

I do not understand why many Americans think of the “ThreeBig” as inferior, they have never built better cars than they do today, so instead off all this European & Japanese cars are better talk, be proud as Americans, and support US manufacturers, I do and I´m a Dane living in Sweden :-) ( Sweden is a small country in Scandinavia mostly known for ABBA & Volvo! )

Check out http://www.startech.de and see how awesome the 300 can look after a tweak from the makers of Brabus, mine looks like this and draw more attention than Audi’s & BMW’s twice as expensive !

Jonny’s using a bit of journalistic license. The Challenger SRT-8 is running 12.8-second quarter-miles in owner hands; a 1981 RX-7 ran an 18.5 or thereabouts.

Put another way, if you and an RX-7 ran a flying mile, you could wait until the RX was just about halfway there before leaving in the SRT-8, and you would still win.

Dr Lemming: “Chrysler would have been much better off giving the current Charger a two-door version than creating an obese faux-pony car. A Charger wouldn’t have been unfavorably compared with the lighter Mustang, and it would have been a much less risky financial proposition.”

My sentiments exactly. In fact, I once saw a 4-door Charger that was in the process of being converted to a two-door and it was quite a good looking car. Graft on a retro tunnel-back style roof from the ‘68-’70 Charger and Chrysler would have a much better seller than the bloated Challenger.

The E-body was nothing more than Chrysler’s usual following GM’s lead, meaning they were behind the trend by a couple of years. The big-block F-body Camaros had earlier cleaned up the ponycar/musclecar market and, despite having arguably cleaner (albeit similiar) styling, the E-body’s market had essentially dried up by the time it made it into Mopar showrooms.

Likewise, as mentioned, the Duster 340 with it’s excellent low price to performance ratio was a huge (surprise) hit for Chrysler. Unfortunately, conquest sales came not from competitors but cannibalized more than a few Roadrunner/Super Bee/Barracuda/Challenger sales instead.

It’s ironic that the original E-body is held up as a shining example of the pinnacle of Chrysler’s late sixties engineering and styling, when the meager sales the car generated in no way justifed the expense to develop and produce it. While it’s all hindsight, Chrysler would have been much better off if they had simply killed off the B-body musclecars after 1970 and kept the Barracuda/Challenger on the A-body chassis. Of course, the E-body would never enjoy the ‘legend’ status it has today with clean examples going for unbelievable prices.

In what appears to be another example of frugality, the E-bodied Challenger’s front overhang doesn’t look any longer than Chrysler’s mid-sized sedans. That’s in contrast with the Mustang and Camaro, whose wheelbases were clearly stretched in front of the cowl. The ultra-long hood and short deck was the signature styling feature of pony cars.

To my taste, the original Challenger would have been a much better driver’s car if it had used Chrysler’s compact platform — essentially a Duster with more modern sheetmetal. Note that while the E-bodied Barracuda and Challenger sold poorly (even relative AMC’s Javelin, as mentioned above), the Duster sold like hot cakes.

The public didn’t abandon pony cars — the Big Four supersized them to the degree that their original appeal was lost. After 30 years Chrysler still hasn’t learned its lesson. Chrysler would have been much better off giving the current Charger a two-door version than creating an obese faux-pony car. A Charger wouldn’t have been unfavorably compared with the lighter Mustang, and it would have been a much less risky financial proposition.

Heck, with the money saved by sharing parts with the four-door Charger, Chrysler could have added a convertible and upgraded interior appointments. Subsequent restylings would have also been much more affordable. I doubt the Challenger will generate enough sales to justify even a mild restyling.

With how many years of progress? I certainly expected better when I drove one (no more dealer BS about test drives BTW). This car needs to lose about 700 pounds, 15% of it’s size, and way better steering. Forget the autobox issues, a car like this should be manually shifted…a perfect opportunity to use heritage to one’s advantage LOST.

I’ve seen the episode. I have a feeling that he either forgot to turn off the Traction Control, or directors told him not to because Top Gear decided to take some “creative control” with the situation like how they did with the Tesla test. I also thought that Clarkson’s ZR1 burnout was rather weak. I’ve seen 240hp L98 powered Corvettes do about what he managed.

Also, there are lots of videos and pictures on youtube, edmunds, Motortrend, etc. showing automatic SRT8 Challengers doing a burnout.

Evidently not everybody, see “Hamster’s” attempt in above referenced episode of Top Gear. Additionally, the car was the slowest at the Bonneville Salt Flats (no surprise given its competition), their destination in the road trip, and even the Hamster, a self-professed muscle car junkie with a 67 (68?) Mustang 350GT, thought it was one of the worst cars he’s driven through the twisties.

Drove across the USA two weeks ago, WA to GA, nasty weather, ice etc.

WA – Serious mountains, serious twisties, gets straight near Spokane

ID – I90 is one bowl of spaghetti,

MT – Western MT is twisty, avoided the freeway in eastern MT so fairly twisty

WY – Did not do freeway so mega-twisty, I mean fun fun fun

KS – Whats a bend?

OK – Bendless

AR – No freeway and lovely twisties, Hot Springs is a blast to drive around

MS – Lots of twisties with flat stretches in between

GA – Again, cut through or around freeways, lots of twisties with flat stretches in between

SRT8 would have been real scary in WA, KS and MT, due to weight distribution and handling, not sure if it would have done ID at all. SRT8 would have taken the fun factor out of the rest of the states with the exception of KS and OK.

Oh, I did have an opportunity to try my rice burner against an older Mustang, until I saw that OK has good coverage with its boys in blue.

With the traction control “off”, anyone can perform a major burnout in an auto SRT8.

4.8 seconds to 60 and on through the quarter in 13.3 seconds at 108 mph.

Yes its big, even bigger than its earlier kin. I do not think anyone expected it to handle much better than its predecessor.

Actually, I would have thought it would have turned in a quicker time with 420hp. The transmission is probably not the best. It should do 4.5 seconds with that much horsepower.

Still a good looking car on the outside.

saywhat :
January 19th, 2009 at 11:51 am

Why can VW put an interior in a base Rabbit at 15k that puts any Chrysler built at any price to shame in terms of fit and finish?

Because VW dumped all the cost of the car into the interior to wow you long enough to buy one and cheap out on other items.

The long hood/short deck theme everyone copied from the Mustang was considered stylish, the longer the hood the better. It certainly wasn’t for engineering purposes.

That same theme is a hallmark of today’s Mustang, Challenger and coming [maybe] Camaro. It has been for more than 40 years.

The cars of that time were notoriously under-suspended,under-braked,under-tired,way over powered for their capabilities and over styled. Stying is what sold cars at that time.

The Maverick and Hornet were sold with the same “sporty” styling, the Maverick called a $2600 Mustang for those who couldn’t afford a $3000 one.

The Challenger is more competent than it was in 1970 but it is still overweight and too large as is the current Mustang.

Missing segment: small stylish rear wheel drive sporty car of reasonable size, weight and price that can be had with nothing or everything,economical 4 mid range V6 or steaming V8.

Enough of these intermediates in “pony car” drag.