Paladin06

Yea, I'm ***** that I don't have one in my garage yet!!

Billionaire

Dodge skimped on every product development cost they could. They reused the Charger chassis instead of creating a new, lighter one. They reused the charger interior instead of making one like the concept. They use the same paint colors as the Charger & 300 instead of buying extra painting equipment for high impact colors. So all you get that's new is the body. And also Dodge loaded the Challenger up with many off-the-shelf options which cost them nothing to develop. Maybe they got a bit of extra profit by sticking in all those options.

By the way, speaking of interiors, the Cadillac CTS interior in cream + brown trim is fantastic looking and the car only costs between $33 to $37 thousand. It's the best interior I've seen lately. Challenger would've been a better, more completely new car if GM had built it. Challenger's interior looks more like a cheap $20K car. But then again GM probably would have made the body look ridiculous.

In order to bring the Challenger up to the full potential that it should've had, you'd have to take apart the whole car and find ways to lighten it and rebuild it, then put in a whole new custom interior to make it look a lot like the concept or something cool, and then put on a high impact paint job. The it'd be the way it really should be. I'm looking forward to seeing some people do that and it'll probably end up in hot rod magazine or summat. I would like to do that myself too.

2007HemiCuda

Doing what you wanted the Challenger would not be available another two years. It would have cost Chrysler developement monies it dosn't have.

RLSH700

Okay, I guess you would prefer it if they had done the Challenger like the way they did the Viper. Whole new platform, different engine that was at the time not used in anything else, shared pretty much nothing with any other car they had on the market since they didn't make any RWD cars at the time. The problem is you're going to pay for it big time. The Viper's dash is inferior to the Challengers and has not changed in forever, the radio head routes back to the 90s, the Viper is small on the inside, and magazines for years complained about how it is not driver friendly by its characteristics and being uncomfortable. The Viper academically is just a platform with a huge engine in it.

In comparison, the Challenger is getting some new seats, a similar BUT NOT THE SAME dash, a pistol grip shifter that has not been used on any other cars yet, an outstanding stereo system with brand new technology being utilized in it, is getting a seriously upgraded 5.7L that the sedans are yet to receive, a recently upgraded manual transmission which the sedans are also yet to have, etc. And yet your not satisfied? Who cares about having a whole new line of paint, the Charger has already had some classic style paints that we all know will eventually offered on the Challenger. Besides, what is wrong with sharing paint colors? The more you make the Challenger have completely all new stuff, the worse the price is going to be. "Off-the-shelf" options as you put it have development costs that many times are still being paid off with as time goes on, you should know that in running a business. Also remember that on some things, Chrysler has had to pay royalties to their ex-wife so it is not a "free lunch."

Cadillac vs. Dodge? That does not make any sense whatsoever, Cadillac better have a better interior since they are a luxury-performance division. Dodge is a non-luxury performance division. The CTS is meant to compete against BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class, the Challenger is meant to compete against the Mustang and Camaro. Have you even seen the cars GM has been making for the last 20 or so years? GM's interior has been absolutely horrible until recently and it is not consistently good throughout all of their models yet. The new Malibu, the Cadillacs, the new Buicks, and a few others have been doing well, but Pontiac as a whole is still very generic. On top of this, many of GM's interiors although significantly more visually appealing still consists of

Justinec101

You pretty much hit it on the head there. Had they started from scratch on the challenger it wouldn't be available for another 2 years and you'd be paying a lot more.

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...pissed.

[:@]

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[&o]

RLSH700

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.

Justinec101

Well if you would have waited 2 more years then wait!! Those of us who like what they've produced can get it now. And maybe in 2 years they will have refined it and given it more power to your liking. The retro muscle car market is here and now and who knows, it might be over in 2 years. Yeah there's muscleheads who'd buy a 500hp V8 if gas was $12 a gallon, but the whole idea of these cars is to mass market them. Putting out the challenger even this late in the game is a gamble.

Also, had they started from scratch on a new platform, there would have been the inevitable first year problems which are mostly avoided by using a proven platform. I imagine the last thing they wanted was to bring out a relatively unknown name, built on an unproven design, into a $5 a gallon market, dead last behind a redesigned mustang and brand new camaro.

All the muscle cars are different and have different pros and cons. If the challenger isn't what you need you have alternatives. For the first time in 30 years.

lear4406

Man I'm so glad you've made it clear to us you won't be getting a 4100 lb. porker. Now I won't have to read anymore complaints from you. Next would be the 425 HP is not enough. As the world turns around you, stop and look at what may not of been at all. I for one am glad you jumped ship and I hope you have warned the Camaro Forum of your arrival

1 Bad Mirada

Im not afraid of the weight. When I started running the mirada years ago, someone told me "that car will never get out of its own way with an NA small block". With an NA small block running 9 to 1 compression and 87 octane, the old girl went 12.30s...

when youre driving a mopar, weight isnt a concern as they make the power to overcome said weight.


what is this "fastest gm"? the Z06? We are comparing the Challenger to the 70,000+ dollar corvette? I hope that youre not comparing it to the camaro, which doesnt exist yet.