wallstreetman

Thats the cheap part of it, now lets talk about the other persons medical bills!

wallstreetman

BTW, The Challenger will sell in the $50,000 range the first year!

SkillzDatKillz

You can wreck in anything. I have a simple question...If your so worried about safety...why are you guys drooling about how fast these cars go? I'm not a drag racer..I like the cars look..not really it's performance. Sure, it's good to brag about. But no way am I going at a speed that makes me uncomfortable. I figured with the size of the Charger it would be one of the more safe cars out there. Sure it's powerful, but a lot of things are. There are tons of cars out there you would reccomend me get..a lot that would go over speeds I will never even reach in my car.

And my parents basically just don't want me to get anything too small, I think I could easily talk them into a challenger. But I think I may just end up getting a GT..My sisters boyfriend just got a bad GT...I love it..

Jeremiah 29:11

I think what they are getting at is that they are concerned about your safety and inexperience. I have seen many shows that show how
young drivers have wrecks because they don't realize that things can happen quickly (ie picking up a dropped CD on the floor and taking your eyes off of the road).

One of the most common is running a stop sign or red light because they are talking with their friends. That is just pure lack of experience.

I even know of older adult drivers who have no business driving 500 HP cars because they do not know how to control and recover if they do lose control.

They have courses for that sort of thing and I recommend them to people who have never driven the bigger engines.

I think most of our discussion has to do with acceleration and not top speed unless we are at the drag strip. I do not think anybody is planning to do
174 MPH on the highways.

BootCamp

Agreed - made that point in the prior post regarding our two sons who wrecked in a Saab 900 and a Mitsubishi Eclipse. No argument there.
I don't remember saying anything about "going fast". I wrote about "power". That could be acceleration, top speed, roll-on/passing power, but I don't recall mentioning "going fast" anywhere in any post - here, or anywhere else.
The value brought at the Barrett-Jackson auctions for the old muscle cars is based on thier equpiment, condition, how many were made, and how many are left - especially unmolested (original, numbers matching, etc).
I'm psyched about this car because it looks like the cars being made when I was your age - okay, actually younger than you. The look and promise of similar/better performance is an opportunity to own a piece of history (my youth) revisited, and possibly, tuck away in the garage after I've gotten my fill of it for a long term investment (an original '70 Hemi Cuda Convertible brought something in the neighborhood of $2.7 million at a B-J auction. The original MSRP was somewhere around $4,000.00).
Our Charger R/T has the 5.7L in it (340 HP). I have no idea how fast it will really go. I haven't taken it to the strip, and wouldn't try in on the street. Again, there's a time and place for everything, and the highways aren't the place at any time.
That's the point I'm trying to make - our Sons THOUGHT they were comfortable at speeds that were obviously unsafe for the situations when they had thier accidents (one Son has had THREE accidents now). Young men who are new drivers aren't always realistic about what they can handle and what they can't. They don't have the benefit of years of experience.
Again, what makes a car safe or unsafe is the operator and the the decisions he/she makes. Those decisions are often influenced by experience.
Driving is a privelage, not a right. It's also an awesome responsibility.
Be safe, Bud.

Rob

Since I am the one that started this ball rolling, I will chime in here.

I am 27 and I hope to sell my current car and buy the Challenger when it comes out. That said, I do plan on doing exactly what Jeremiah said: take a driving recovery course (hopefully the allow you to use their cars...lol)

I have driven the new Mustang GT and fell in love with the power and handling. But it did make me realize...and I'm sure most would agree, this is a wild ride, and I do plan to go to the track and hopefully learn from some professionals.

I live in Toronto, Canada, and I believe there is a track west of me ...can't remember what it's called ...starts with a T ..haha


Anyhoo, I still say what I said before. Too young. Although I would have wanted the same thing when I was 16, I'm glad I didn't get it because it would most definitely have gotten out of my hands. And once it's out of your hands you crash, insurance goes up, you're paying for years. Do what the others say, get a junker, learn how to drive it...heck kill that little junker, then upgrade when you're ready...5-6 years down the road, I dunno. Cars with that much power have a tendency to get to 60mph faster than sh$t through a goose ...and worst of all, because it's built for speed it doesn't even seem like your going what the speedo says.

Parents say big car, big car = safe car, safe car = not sports car

If I was younger, and my parents were willing to spend $20-30,000 on my new car (or if you already have that kinda money...) I would probably look at a Ford Fusion or something (the only mid-size, reasonably priced car which I think looks half decent -- actually the Lincoln Mark Z...what a sweet a$$ on that car, but that's as much as the Challenger) or cool pickup like the Ford Ranger...

You're probably gonna have some response to this, saying "oh, it's not the power", "...it wont get outta control...", "...I'll drive it responsibly, I'll drive it slow" ...trust none of those things will happen unless you engage the governor chip at 60mph.

0-60mph in 4.5 sec ...enough said.



R

Rob

Oh...and anyone know the driving recovery program I'm talking about? Toronto area?


r

GTO JUDGE

The first thing you should do is take a drivers safety course including behind the wheel training. No offense to your parents, but I question any parent's sense of safe responsibility to their child that would give their blessing to a 16 year old who is in the infancy stages of driving the go ahead on any car that is stature.

Not only that, but the hefty price tag associated with it. Unless you are rolling in dough, I cannot phantom any parent letting a 16 year old tie up 40K or so on a first vehicle, or anything at so young an age.

A pilot doesn't get in an F-16 without first learning on a smaller less aggressive aircraft.

Youth+inexperience+horsepower= Disaster. The more you drive a car like this the more invincible you feel. The more invincible you feel the more risks you take, the more risks you take ......... read your local obits.

The odds are against you, statistics prove it. A responsible parent would be against a car like this for their 16 year old. There are plenty of cars out there to learn on. You're gonna do what ya wanna do, remember this.... For-site is better than hind-site.

Paladin06

Most important do yourself and your family a favor and learn to drive for a few years in a safe, reliable, small, low power car before you take on a muscle car. A new Challenger and a dead 16 year old is not how your parents want to start off 2008.

As a parent I am amazed that your parents would even consider buying you such a car. Maybe, hopefully you’re just experiencing a teenage fantasy.

The answer I gave my daughter when she was 16, got her license and asked for a V8 Mustang was, "NO" because I love you..

SkillzDatKillz

My friend just got a GT, other friend got a Mercedes, one of the SLK class cars. There not dead. And did someone just say this car doesn't even have 400 HP?