RoswellGrey

Vpoint, I've said exactly the same thing about my 09 SE and my 70 with a 318. Thanks for the validation.

Realistically, how many vehicles of any type currently made offer three engine options? Most that have any option at all offer at best two, the choice of a 4 cylinder or a 6 cylinder. The fact that the Challenger already has three engine options would seem to indicate to me that a fourth option of a small V-8 would pretty much be out of the question.

Besides, considering the decent performance of the V-6, I really don't see much sense in offering an engine that's slightly better than it but not as good as the R/T's engine. Unless of course they resurrect the 318. Now that I would buy.

VPOINT

Roswell...agreed the 318 was the best workhorse engine ever made!

RUBBERBNDMAN

I second that....

400Magnum

Well, that's kind of what I'm saying. I think it's kind of ridiculous that the current engine offerings go from a 3.5L V6 to the 5.7L, and then the next step up is a 6.1L. There's a huge gap between the baseline and the middle, and then virtually none between the middle and the top. If this were a transmission people would be pitching a fit about how horribly mis-spaced the gearing is.

If there was a more economical option available in the R/T for a smaller V8, or as an upgrade in the SE, I think they'd sell a lot more of them, and sales does a lot to get the car in the eye and mind of the public when they see them running all over the place, then they're going to get more people looking at them in the showroom. Just reading back thru this thread, it looks like there are several people thinking the same way. One night I was looking at an SE that's at a local dealer, I was there for about 45 minutes. While I was there at least four more people stopped to look at the car, and they all said about the same thing. "Great car, good price, just wish I could get a normal V8 for it like my old (and they all used to own an old Mopar of some sort and wanted to see the new one). An SRT was sitting in the showroom, and they didn't even bother looking at it because it was more than they could afford. Well, okay, they did LOOK at it, but not while contemplating an actual purchase.

Like I said, right now I drive an Intrepid with the 3.5L and I'm happy with the performance of that engine. The car has over 200,000 miles on it and still runs great. For all the more I need the car to do, it's just fine. But everytime I get in the car and turn the key, I miss the V8 sound and feel. If I'm going to have to drive a V6 car, then I'm going to stick with a front wheel drive that I can use all year long and forget about the Challenger. If my only option of getting a V8 is to hand over $40k, then I guess I won't get one at all.

mopar2ya

Market research may have indicated that there were really only two market segments that would have interest at the volume levels needed to justify the expense of tooling for different drive train options. Those two segments being style minded conservative types or the balls out performance minded crowd without much interest in the middle ground. Who knows?