My friend Graeham and I went out to lunch and stopped by a local dodge dealer afterward. He's looking at picking up a 2009 Ram. In any case, we found out that the dealer was closing very soon and their stock was being moved to another dodge dealer. So basically the sales guy told us we could drive almost anything on the lot we wanted. I asked about driving a charger and he grabbed the key to this (sorry camera phone): SRT8 with 425hp Hemi, Brembos, Bilsteins, and 20" forged Alcoa Wheels. That color is also worth an additional 10hp...or so I was told. Lets just say I was absolutely amazed. It was ridiculously fast and very stable. It handled extremely well for a car its size. Lots of grip and very little body roll from what I could tell. The autostick was even a very competent sports car transmission. The sales guy told me to do an on-ramp pull at one point. With your foot to the floor the shifts are really quick and really violent, accompanied by a pop from the nice, loud exhaust. A peek under the car revealed a pretty massive (looked as big as my 3" system) dual exhaust. As far as build quality, it rattled way less than my WRX did when it was new. It was HUGE inside, and the seats were comfy. Tons of leg room. I walked away unsure if I would have spent the same 40k on a new STI. It was that cool. Just thought I'd share. I could definitely see adding one of these to my garage one day.
Does Dodge use a solid rear axle or are they four wheel independent? I came from a Mustang and that's one of the biggest improvements I've seen from foreign vs. domestic cars...foreign cars can turn.
It was fully independent, which surprised me. The car handled like a champ. Stiff and rather neutral. Turn-in was super crisp.
Yeah those things are nasty! fkuihdcncrs bro has a srt cherokee that runs 12.6s with boltons, handles suprisingly well also.
yea srt8'ness FTW!!! I'd rock an SRT8 300c no questions asked.....can't do the cherokee since..well like scoobaru said..my bro's got one.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcxQpLzc5E&NR=1
What dealership was this? I have a friend that has been wanting to get a Charger. He may be able to get a better deal at this place since it is closing soon.
The showroom was already buttoned up. :unamused: However, the way the economy and car sales are I bet your friend could swing quite a deal even after the stock has been moved to the decatur place.
closing or not anyone should be able to get an awesome deal on any new car seeing how the auto industry..just like most folks are taking such a hard hit from the economy...
Are you for real? The SRT8 Charger is SLOW. I drove one and was unimpressed. It's torquey but that's it. Now the SRT8 Cherokee is a totally different animal. Dunno why the Charger felt so slow but it was.
You're just used to your car. Other cars that could be fast don't feel so because of how fast your car is.
I have a charger rental right now since I got hit by a f%$#ing semi in my WRX while sitting still and I must say I'm impressed by the car. Its slow as hell since it only has the 2.7L V6 with 180hp or something like that but it drives pretty well. The room it has is awesome for road trips too; I'll be taking as many of them as possible while I have this stupid rental and gas is relatively cheap. Its my goal to put 4000 miles on this thing while I have it for the 4 weeks the body shop said it would take to fix my car.
You may doubt me, but I'm on pace as of now, went to Clemson for the Tech game this past weekend. I think I'm going up to Vandy for lil Wayne this Thursday. With 4 people splitting gas it isn't too bad when you're getting 30mpg. PCB next weekend....I'm going to be driving like I bought oil futures
haha, when I had my rental, I put 2200 miles on it in 9 days. I took as many business trips as I could find since I wasn't putting the mileage on my own car. 3 trips to Savannah and 1 to Augusta adds up fast.
Ha, I hope they did not let Graham drive that thing. I like the chargers, but if I would get an SRT8, it would totally be a Challanger! And for the 2009 model you can actually get a manual...
I assuming youre talking about Premier...the Decatur place is gone now as well. Im in the CAP program at Gwinnett tech and 2 of my classmates have to find apprenticeships at other dealers now. I drove one of the 2009 Rams the other day and I like it so much more than the previous model years. The only bad thing about the challengers is the massive markup dealers are putting on them. I think the 3.5 models have a 5 grand mark up I have no idea about the SRT-8s.
I don't doubt that car is brutally fast. The handling improvement on most muscle cars i.e. Mustangs have advanced 100% the only draw back I see in American muscle cars and what has been my experience is that the weight of the vehicles over time literally shakes them apart. I would like to drive one of those with 100k hard miles and then see what it drives like. The other issues would be the Chrysler Tranny which historically has been a problem, although the Subaru five speeds do not impress me what-so-ever!