Cuda340

Here is a review of the Challenger that every "tree hugger" will love. See how many misstatements you can find in this article.

"Review: In a world gone green, there's still the Challenger

The 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8
By AARON COLE
The Aurora Sentinel
Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008 9:17 PM MST

When it comes to muscle cars, I’m sure I know more than a teenage girl — but just barely.

I know muscle cars have loud, interchangeable parts like carbs, headers and glasspacks that require folded arms, beer in cans and approving nods to discuss. Whether those carbs, headers and glasspacks bolt on to your car or insert nicely into the glove box is, however, beyond my mental reach.

It’s not my fault. I didn’t grow up in that era.

When dealers, auto makers and qualified mechanics performed services far better than a backyard mechanic — and AutoCAD drafting created automotive engineering that required a graduate degree to understand — muscle cars became as desirable as bell bottoms. The fad went away, and the fundamental understanding that just like land, God ain’t makin’ more fossil fuels, led to big muscle’s meltdown.

So, in 2006, when Dodge unveiled the Challenger concept on a $2.20-a-gallon world, most thought it was Dodge’s re-entry into the crowded retro muscle market. That same year, Chevy publicly announced their intentions to bring back the Camaro and Ford’s Mustang was just beginning it’s fifth generation.

What a difference two years makes.

Now, an mpg-conscious world isn’t taking too kindly to the idea of a muscle car that struggles to sip only a gallon of gas every 15 miles. Driving a car with more than four cylinders these days automatically qualifies you to be chased by the same Greenpeace fleets that hunt whaling vessels near Antarctica.

Deserving — and undeserving *— the 2008 Dodge Challenger has been a lighting rod for criticism.

Ever since the first limited-edition 2008 Challenger SRT8 models rolled off the Brampton, Ontario, Canada line and into the arms of uber collectors like Jay Leno and Craig Jackson, a scornful world has chastised the Challenger as the epitome of “Big Three” stupidity. The world doesn’t need a muscle car, and the world doesn’t need a 425-horsepower V8 Hemi. It doesn’t need a car that can’t handle in anything other than a straight line and on a sunny day, and the world doesn’t need a car that you can barely see out of.

The Challenger, it turns out, is all those things.

So explain to me why the 2008 Challenger can stop more traffic than Victoria’s Secret lingerie models in a water balloon fight?

I’ll give you a hint: It’s not because people want to shake their heads at it.

Nope, the 2-ton Dodge bullet is a 2-ton reminder of how much Americans used to love their backyard beauties that spawned countless General Lee knockoffs. It’s a reminder that with enough American brainpower we can make something that is stupid, sexy and fast all at the same time. The Challenger, by the way, is all of those things, too.

Too bad sitting in it is unimpressive to say the least.

The only dead giveaway that you’re buckling into a two-door rocket are the white “SRT8” gauges staring blankly at you. The interior is surprisingly comfortable and bare for a halo, best-we-have offering by Chrysler.

But then again, you didn’t buy this car for the navigation system and rear-view mirrors.

Consider the calorie expended to push the start button as the best return-on-investment expenditure you’ll ever make in a Chrysler vehicle.

Without much effort, the massive Hemi engine rumbles to life and lovingly shakes the car into creation. The exhaust note at idle is serene and subdued, but hauntingly portent of the power underneath your right foot.

At first start, almost by nature, my brow sunk lower, my hair got longer in the back and my right foot got heavier — call it octane-induced devolution.

The loud revs and under-5 second 0-60 time does come with its penalties though. In a straight line, the Challenger is fast, loud and fun. Turning, it’s clunky, nearly unwieldy and a handful to corral — even with traction control on.

Nimble, the Challenger is not.

Each potential buyer of the Challenger, along with an IQ test, should be administered a vision test, because a Sherman tank could get lost in the Challenger’s blind spots.

But don’t expect to buy a 2008 Challenger anytime soon.

The $40,000 SRT8 sold out long ago because Chrysler only produced about 3,600 of them. Expect to see the 2009 Challenger hit showrooms soon, equipped with a six-speed manual (our model, like every 2008, came with an automatic) and a drastically stupid option for a V6 under the hood for those who like the body but can’t take the bite.

It’s hard for me to believe that this car’s production will last longer than a 2- or 3-year cycle, and considering that the Viper’s sales are in the toilet and Chrysler may soon join it, the flagship car for a fledging auto maker is everything it should be: impractical, nearly undriveable, tremendously fun and turns every head within a city block.

For a Detroit, big muscle swan song, the 6.1-liter Hemi sings a delightful tune."