3.5 Underpowered?

[09 R/T]

Originally Posted by 425hpChargerSRT8

yea that would be good too, but i think he said he was only 17. That insurance payment would be obsurd

Thats another thing to factor into this... I already looked at insurance for the 08 SRT for myself and with a perfect record, 5 years driving experience, and being a full time student... it was still around 2.5 grand. I expect the RT will end up being around 1.8 grand. That means the RT alone would end up being over 2.5 for you probably.

As soon as you can just test drive your SE and buy her! We will all look forward to seeing new pictures of your new baby.

[Cuda340]

Go with the Challenger SE. You'll have a great looking car. I read that the 0-60 mph time is 7.7 sec.- not too bad for a heavy car.

To read about driving experiences and mods for the 3.5L do a search on Dodge Charger Forums.

[425hpChargerSRT8]

Originally Posted by 09 R/T

Thats another thing to factor into this... I already looked at insurance for the 08 SRT for myself and with a perfect record, 5 years driving experience, and being a full time student... it was still around 2.5 grand. I expect the RT will end up being around 1.8 grand. That means the RT alone would end up being over 2.5 for you probably.

As soon as you can just test drive your SE and buy her! We will all look forward to seeing new pictures of your new baby.

2.5 grand? Im so sorry. I can remember when i was paying $287 per month on my quad cab dodge ram. Fortunately when i turned 21 my insurance dropped tremendously. I will now pay $110.00 per month for the SRT8 Challenger

[09 R/T]

Yea for the fun of it I also had them simulate the 08 SRT with my dads name and all this current stuff. It would end up being around 600 a year for him... Thats CRAZY compared to 2.5 grand for me!

[Venthos]

Yep. Yay for insurance

I looked up insurance for the '08 SRT myself when I had originally planned to get one. Here's a link to the breakdown I made of it in another thread:

Car Insurance Cost

But basically it was going to be $2,244/year for an '08 Challenger SRT8 as opposed to the current $2,104/year I am paying for my '06 G6 GTP

24 year old, flawless record.

[425hpChargerSRT8]

Thats not too bad for MI venthos. But what surprises me is the fact that your G6 and SRT quotes are that close together.

[thesteve]

Haha, in all honesty, 250hp is going to be be alot more than what most of your friends have in their cars. The average econobox Toyota has a 1.8L engine in that puts out 130 hp...and those are marketed as "sporty." If your trying to impress the ladies, the SE would be the way to go, and you can do burnouts in it no problem.

[Repth]

Originally Posted by thesteve

Haha, in all honesty, 250hp is going to be be alot more than what most of your friends have in their cars. The average econobox Toyota has a 1.8L engine in that puts out 130 hp...and those are marketed as "sporty." If your trying to impress the ladies, the SE would be the way to go, and you can do burnouts in it no problem.

Actually, a lot of my friends are up-coming car enthusiasts, so some of them have some pretty fast cars. But don't get me wrong, I'm not wanting to know all of this to compare to my friends, I'd just like to be able to have a little fun with it myself, as well as I think having a little snap to it makes it safer to drive in some situations.

Insurance is the main reason we're not getting the R/T. My dad did the calculations and saved it in an excel file somewhere; I'll see if I can find it later to show you guys. As soon as I get the car I'm getting a job so I can pay for my gas and at least help pay for my insurance (my parents don't know this yet but I figure it'll be a small expression of gratitude that I want to help them pay for it without being asked). To the person that suggested that I wait a year and get a used R/T, I absolutely would but my dad refuses to buy a used car as he thinks that we'll get the shaft no matter what car it is we buy or who we buy from. I'm not complaining though, I'm sure a lot of my friends would love to have parents that refused to buy them a used car and opted for a new car instead.

Please don't misunderstand me, I truly am ecstatic to be receiving a car, much less a new car, very much less a very nice new car. Even still, I don't want to get a new expensive car that I'm going to feel is weak when I could have gotten something for the same price that is considerably faster and still looks nice. Basically it all comes down to ensuring that the Challenger is the right choice for the money, and thanks to replies in this thread, I believe it is.

Lastly, to the person that said SE's don't have ESP full-off; they do. I researched it and with the SE G package you get the ESP; the same one as the R/T's and SRT8's get.

[deserthorizons]

My brother bought all 4 of his kids new cars when they graduated from school..

With the understanding that they had to make payments to a savings account equal to the car they wanted..

That way in 4 or 5 years when they wanted to buy a new car, they would be able to pay cash..

He explained that doing it that way would save them over $250,000 in interest over their lifetimes..

So if possible, you might want to try the same thing..

[09 R/T]

Used cars are a great way to go depending on the car... I would probably never buy a used Challenger. This is a car that a lot of people will end up driving hard. The gas mileage isn't the best so most timid drivers will probably elect to avoid this car. With that comes worn out components on used cars that go out what.... 10-20k miles too soon...

Its good that you looked into the ESP issue. Knowing that should make you feel even better about the car.