Repair-It

I think it depends upon what happens in the near future. Waiting is probably the best plan.

The V-sport is the nicer car, and more capable in some areas. But the SS is a special car. If you think about it, it's actually really sad that it IS a special car. It shouldn't be. If GM was really on top of their stuff, they could have brought the VE over before we got the G8 (like a year or two) and matured it on the platform the whole time. Instead we got a too-late G8 and the why-did-this-take-so-long-to-come-back SS.

On the other hand, if they really wanted to sell cars, they would have changed the styling more from the VE (G8) and VF (SS) Commodore.

It would annoy me if FCA just owned the full size RWD non-luxury sedan market from here on out. I guess they already do.

By default, FCA rules the class. I did develop a little bit of love for the Charger R/T during my time with it. Sure, it has cheap interior materials, cloth seats and so-so chassis and steering, but it was fun to drive. I looked forward to every excuse to take it out.

When you think about it, there is a lot of similarity to what you like about the Charger now and what I liked about the Impala SS in the 90s (a full size muscle car not seen since 1970 or so). I would say the Impala SS gets the nod for significance because not only was attitude hard to find in the mid 90s but performance was just picking up from where it left off in the 60s. The Charger R/T exists at a time when the bar has been significantly raised. But you do get a big car, good performance and even surprising fuel economy for a reasonable price. I just think the car itself is a bit of an anachronism. Maybe that's why you like it. It's a novelty in its time.

I'd like to drive one because I really did not like the brand new 2007 300C that I drove 10 years ago. The Hemi did not cure what I thought was a fairly sucky car to drive. And that was pretty lame because a year later you could get a 2008 G8 GT which drove circles around the non-SRT LX cars.

The problem is price/attainability. A Charger R/T starts at $33,895. The SS is $48,870. I get that the SS is way better in every way, but $15K is not negligible.

Here is a perfect real life example: The Gen 6 Camaro is better than the Gen 5 by the numbers in every measurable category. I am going to get a Gen 5 for 22K vice a Gen 6 for 37K. There is your 15K delta.

It is funny that people claim you can't build a V8 RWD sedan for 33K, but Dodge does. The Scat Pack with 485 HP is just under 40K, still 9K less than the SS.

The fact that the Charger R/Ts were produced in fairly large numbers and were in rental fleets will further depress their resale values. If these are $15k in a couple years, they might be hard to ignore even though there are some things I don't like about the car. At the end of the day, I will be willing to pay more for a more sophisticated chassis, but there are going to be some people who get a great used car bargain.

Don't forget they made the Charger R/T continuously from 2006 (300C from 2005). They are pretty cheap depending on year.

kevm14 wrote:I'd like to drive one because I really did not like the brand new 2007 300C that I drove 10 years ago. The Hemi did not cure what I thought was a fairly sucky car to drive. And that was pretty lame because a year later you could get a 2008 G8 GT which drove circles around the non-SRT LX cars.

Maybe someday I'll have the perfect storm of making a business trip to southern New England and getting one of these as a rental. I would like to think it's better than the 300C of 10 years ago, but I have never driven one of those so it's hard to compare.

kevm14 wrote:Don't forget they made the Charger R/T continuously from 2006 (300C from 2005). They are pretty cheap depending on year.

I am somewhat partial to the ZF 8A version. Maybe it's because I have too many bad memories of pentastar versions with the 5A.

Quite a bit of money, but a cool car: http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/5712154079.html

Holy shit. That is awesome. I think it is worth that. Think what an M5 goes for and then realize how much more performance this is. He really went through it, too. I think you need this.