ORIGINAL: Lounge Machine
But the Challenger isn't supposed to be a trip car. It's not supposed to be a family car. A Charger is not supposed to be a 4 door. A Challenger is supposed to be light, fast, impractical, and overpowered.
Let me summarize all the responses:
In 1970: somebody who primarily wanted a good-looking car bought a Mustang or Camaro. Somebody who wanted the fastest thing on the road bought a Challenger.
In 2009: somebody who wants the best looking car buys the Challenger. Somebody who wants the fastest, best handling thing on the road buys a GM.
A person who used to be a Challenger customer is a GM customer now. I hate to say it...because I was Mopar or Nocar. But not at 4100 lbs.
Yes, it was cheaper for them to make it on the Charger platform. Yes, it was quicker for them to use the old, cheap parts from other cars.
I would have waited two more years. Would have paid more. And does anybody here really believe the Challenger is not heavier than it should be? It anybody really arguing 4100 is the proper weight for a sport car?? The new Cadillac is 4300 lbs....with 550 hp.
Sad.
Disappointed.
And, yes...ticked.
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The Challenger's purpose is to compete against the Mustang and what was the thing that made the original Mustang significant, it was a practical coupe that could also be a family car when needed. A roadster with no back seat like a Corvette, Crossfire, Viper, Porsche, and other cars like this are the ones that are light, impractical, and overpowered. The Pony cars are still somewhat practical.
You're listing of the 1970 to 2009 is purely subjective to a person's taste in styling. You're also making an illogical argument on the basis that the Camaro is already automatically faster when it hasn't even been released yet. We don't even know for sure what engines will be offered in it yet. Also, you are assuming that Dodge is not going to up their engine offerings before long. Do you really think that Chrysler will honestly leave the 6.1L engine completely alone after they just updated the R/T with technology that the 6.1L doesn't have yet in the coming years if not replace it with one of their other engines? It isn't over until its over. The Challenger is yet to have been tested thoroughly to give us specific acceleration time numbers for us to make judgment calls on for the automatic let alone the manual version. On top of this, the Challenger IS the fastest pony car by having the highest top speed of the available pony cars to test in the 170 range as the GT500 is in the mid to upper 150 range.
Cheap parts that were used once to build a European luxury car as opposed to building a lowest bidder non-luxury Australian design. Right! '
The fact of the matter is that is what the market dictates these days. A car must be crazy safe or else they will get into trouble. As I already explained, the only other way around this would be to use other materials that are lighter like Carbon Fiber or maybe Aluminum (as they did in the Prowler), but those two are a more expensive route and would not be worth the extra cost.
And stop using vulgar language.