Dodge Challenger? Thoughts?
 

I wanna get yalls opinion on the new dodge challenger. I hear itll have a slightly higher horsepower mark than the camaro.

I REALLY like the car :D

I can see the Challenger being more of a limited production car than the Camaro. I don't remember how many they plan on producing.

The styling may be a bit too retro for the mass market IMO.

Looks to me like its Camaros fat sister.

If I bought that car I'd hafta wear daisy dukes everytime I drove it. It would just feel wrong if I didnt.

That car is LONG too...something like almost a foot longer than the original car and a couple inches wider! I saw that car at the New York show last year and it was beautiful! If I had the extra dough, I think I would get one.

~Camaro88Lover~

Stared at it spinning for 10 min at the SJ Int carshow

If for some out of this world reason I dont get a maro, im gettin one

I think it's WAY TOO RETRO. It looks like a '70 Challenger that Chip Foose got his hands on. Where do they go with the styling in 3 or 4 years? And, it's too big, being based upon the Chrysler 300.

I'll be honest. If the Camaro wasn't coming back to production, I would buy one. At some point, the miles will get too high on the 4th Gen and I'll have to replace it. This is a beautiful car and I like it a lot. The crappy part is that, yes, they will only be offered in the higher trim models and they will be more expensive. I also read that there will not be a V6 model. Hurts on sales, but they do what they will... There's no other muscle car I would really want which is all that appealing to me. This would make me happy. I don't think it'll out do the Camaro in the HP range, though. GM has to be top dog on that one and with the Challenger being released first, GM will have the ability to see what Dodge is offering and then top it.

I really like the current Mustang, the Challenger would be my 2nd choice if there was no Camaro in the wings.

Regarding waiting to see what the Challenger would offer, you might be suprised what each automaker already knows about the other :D

if chevy wouldnt come out with anything i would be driving a GTO right now but im holding on tight for now. i really want a sports car but im staying faithful.

Buster,

I kinda agree with you on the "Guess alot of it has to do with your age and what you grew up wishing you could have.", but I grew up right in the middle of the muscle car era. (I graduated from HS in 1971), so I lived through the Challenger/Cuda, muscle car era.

Plus, I had an Uncle that got me into cars when I was 10 years old (1963). He took me to the Martin US131 Dragway, in a '55 Chevy, nearly every Saturday night for years. But I learned early on, the the big deal was the Chevys vs. Fords. So, I became a died-in-the wool Chevy guy! Mopars were not that big of a deal here in west Michigan (much more so in the Detroit area) and I never had any desire to own a Challenger or Cuda.

Through all those years, I have owned one Ford (Free, when my ex-wifes grandmother died, it became a winter beater, and two Oldsmobiles, one winter beater and one family car, the now wife drove when we got married). Other than that, I have only owned Chevrolets! My High School yearbook even mentions my "leaving in my Chevy Jacket"

But, I saw a lot of 1970 Challengers the first time around, am not all that excited to see them again. Same goes for the Mustang. I've seen the '67 Mustangs before, too. That's why I think they are both too retro. The Camaro is not so retro as either of the other two, it just makes you think of the 1st Gen, not so retro to be locked into the past.

Plus the Camaro will have more HP.
 

If you believe the interview with Steve Saleen, the top-dog Camaro will have ~450hp from the new 6.2L V8 (as seen in the new Cadillac Escalade, tuned for more HP and probably less torque).

This means at the top we have:

-2009 Challenger = 425hp 6.1L HEMI
-2009 Camaro = 450hp 6.2L V8

The real question is weight... the Holden Commodore SS-V tops out just over 4000lbs, and so does the Dogde Charger. The real technical question is who goes on a better diet...

Either way, the Challenger looks OLD. I don't think you could advance the design past its current iteration whereas the Camaro has a nice new design direction that could be pushed in any number of ways.

Either way, I don't think anyone could go wrong with either choice... both are the hottest American Iron to come out of detroit in a loooonnnggg time.

~LSx

GM has never been behind Chrysler in performance and I don't expect them to start now :D

Hemi this Hemi that, they still had a hard time beating BBC Muscle cars back in the day :cool: