Farewell to my Charger SRT

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
42,356
Location
Great Lakes
I thought a few parting words were in order…

Bought it new / custom ordered 3 years ago. At the time, we were getting ready to move further south where snow driving capability wouldn’t be a requirement so I could drive it year round. Alas, those those plans never materialized, so the car spent a lot of time just sitting in the garage during our long Michigan winters and I was still using my old BMW as a winter beater. And then due to pandemic I started driving even less. All in all, I only put on 4,500 miles on it in 3 years. Finally decided that it made no sense for it to just sit in the garage 99.5% of the time and continue taking up space and depreciating while I had to clean snow and ice off my winter beater sitting outside every time I actually did need to drive somewhere.

Why did I buy it in the first place? I had an itch to scratch fueled by some midlife crisis and a secret desire to once own a big honking NA V8 in its pure unrefined unpolished rough-around-the-edges American muscle car glory. This car was an “out of character” purchase for me, but I intentionally wanted to try something very different.

The Good:
- Engine / Exhaust – loved the sound and power – primary reason why I bought it

- Brakes – those Brembos stop the car extremely well, despite the car’s heavy weight

- Suspension – adjustable suspension on the SRT is pretty nice – you can set it to comfort if you just want to go get groceries or drive with family or set it to a more sporty mode for a more spirited run. The track mode makes it even stiffer, but our roads aren’t smooth enough for this.

- Room – good amount of passenger space and cargo space to make it a practical daily driver in warm weather, alas fuel economy is obviously awful, so not ideal for long distances

- Seats – great seats, comfy, good amount of bolstering, pretty good leather quality


The Bad:
- Transmission - I found FCA's implementation of this ZF8 architecture somewhat sloppy, even in sport mode. I’m always comparing it to the programming in wife’s Q5 which has another version of this ZF8 trans and it’s night and day how nicely buttoned up, crisp and precise it is in the Q5. Maybe it’s the use of torque converter that makes it feel that way? The Q5 programming doesn’t seem to use the torque converter at all. And shifting from D to R and vice versa seems to take ages in the Charger.

- Throttle hesitation – not really sure what this was, but when rolling, when I hit the gas hard, there was always just a tiny bit of hesitation before it would take off. Like it would get choked up/startled a bit at first, even in manual mode. Weird. I’m sure 9 out of 10 service advisors would just roll their eyes and dismiss it as normal/not-there/nit picking, so I didn’t even bother mentioning it to them.

- Weight/size – it’s much bigger and heavier than any other car I’ve owned in the past. Again, one of those things that may be a personal preference. I guess I learned that I prefer something smaller, lighter, and more nimble next time.

- Interior – it’s in dire need of a refresh. I’ll leave it at that.

- Paint – I posted about this after taking delivery – the paint had a ton of dirt/blemishes embedded in it. A local detailer was able to get most of it out with some wet sanding and buffing, but some larger chunks that sit way under the paint were not able to be removed. I wasn’t expecting stellar paint quality from FCA, but this was rather pathetic.

Overall, did I like it? Yes. Did I love it? No. If I did, I’d probably keep it longer. But I’m glad I got a chance to experience it and have some fun with it. I think my son is more sad than me to see it go because he found it cool and he picked out the color. :)

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You picked a beautiful color. Sorry your experience wasn't better, but I'm finding that they all have their shortcomings. You'd have to spend considerably more money to get a new V-8 RWD sedan from anyone else, so Dodge knew the value of what they were building, for people who were willing to overlook the details to have a monster engine. Someday when we're all driving electric toasters, you can look back upon your memories of that V8 rumble with fondness. Looks like someone's getting a sweet looking garage queen.
 
Great honest review @Quattro Pete, and both you and @Zee09 had nice cars. I was a huge fan of the Challenger, contemplating getting one for a while. But after renting one for a few days, i realized the size was too big for me.
Thank you. The leather seats were fantastic-beautiful and comfortable.
Like you said the Challenger had the boat float wide body feel...lol but true
Next to it was my Lincoln LS V8- loved that little V8 but the seats were bad-too bad it did not come with the RT seats.
 
Everyone with one of these things in Atlanta is a **** nuisance. It's like, over COVID, there was a group buy on the loudest exhaust system possible and everyone installed it and decided, "Hey, let's drive around Atlanta slamming on the gas, then letting off, then slamming on the gas, then letting off... and then let's do some donuts in this intersection... and then let's accelerate as fast as we can for a few seconds here... and let's ensure that everyone knows that my ***** is has far less inches to it than I wish it did there." It's a freaking plague. Be glad you've moved on...
 
Everyone with one of these things in Atlanta is a **** nuisance. It's like, over COVID, there was a group buy on the loudest exhaust system possible and everyone installed it and decided, "Hey, let's drive around Atlanta slamming on the gas, then letting off, then slamming on the gas, then letting off... and then let's do some donuts in this intersection... and then let's accelerate as fast as we can for a few seconds here... and let's ensure that everyone knows that my ***** is has far less inches to it than I wish it did there." It's a freaking plague. Be glad you've moved on...
You think that is bad? I had a moron that lived about 5 miles from me here out in the country. He had a black one and
this guy would pass my house 3-4 times a day and rev his engine at my car just sitting in my lane. I got ticked off one night and followed him home
and he was a young punk and his mother came out after I tracked him down and she said he had a mental problem as I was not the only
one to complain....lol
 
Nice car!

Ever since Covid happened there has been an issue with Dodge R/T, ScatPack, and Hellcat drivers here in north Texas. They are doing donuts in the middle of busy intersections and street racing all the time.
 
I live through my neighbor vicariously. He stops & talks when I'm outside, so I get to hear that rumble. Stock exhaust with the resonators removed. The seats look incredibly comfortable. He had a professional ceramic coating done...it's like a rolling mirror.

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Boy, did you trigger my memory, i live a good distance from the two intersecting main roads nearest our home but can hear the (what seems like 100s) of modified Dodge, Chevy and Ford muscle cars ripping down the road daily. Muscle cars are a dime-a-dozen here now.
 
That's the problem with reasonably-priced performance cars. They're really affordable when they hit the used car lot, so any old thug or dip**** can afford one, and they're not that worried about ruining them.
 
You'd have to spend considerably more money to get a new V-8 RWD sedan from anyone else, so Dodge knew the value of what they were building, for people who were willing to overlook the details to have a monster engine.
Oh yes, there are certainly tradeoffs there, and I knew what I was getting into. :) I was hoping the drive train would make me turn a blind eye to some of its shortcomings, and it kind of did, for a while.
 
Sorry to see it go. I'm always glad to see V8s driving around, from any brand. Always liked the Dodge stuff. I love the Dodge mindset.

Every other car maker: "And here is the next all electric version of every car"
Dodge: "THE HELLCAT MOTOR FITS IN THIS ONE TOO"

I think we've reached peak internal combustion. Its all downhill from here.

Idiots do the same thing with Mustangs and ruin the image for everyone. They buy the car, don't care about good tires or brakes or suspension just cut the mufflers off and run around town at all hours. They don't respect the cars or the history or anything at all.
 
First of all.. Are the times on these posts correct? Why are people up at 5 AM posting to this site? Before going to work I HOPE!
Anyway:
- Throttle hesitation – not really sure what this was, but when rolling, when I hit the gas hard, there was always just a tiny bit of hesitation before it would take off. Like it would get choked up/startled a bit at first, even in manual mode. Weird. I’m sure 9 out of 10 service advisors would just roll their eyes and dismiss it as normal/not-there/nit picking, so I didn’t even bother mentioning it to them.
Was this in sport mode or Comfort? A lot of cars, mine included change the throttle mapping depending on what mode you are in. Comfort always has a slight delay, but sport mode (or sport+) makes the throttle responds much more immediate.
 
First of all.. Are the times on these posts correct? Why are people up at 5 AM posting to this site? Before going to work I HOPE!
Make sure your time zone is set correctly under your Account Settings.

Was this in sport mode or Comfort? A lot of cars, mine included change the throttle mapping depending on what mode you are in. Comfort always has a slight delay, but sport mode (or sport+) makes the throttle responds much more immediate.
It was independent of mode in my case.
 
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