I know this is for slant six's, and I have a slant six, but I just found out what the new charger is going to look like, and it's a wannabe Magnum. If you haven't seen it yet, its at http://uat.dodge.com/home_flash.html Makes me sad compared to what the other concept was It never amazes me how car companies ruin the name of good cars, for example the Impala ain't nothing but a passenger car. There is no such thing as an affordable muscle car coming from detroit expect for maybe the trucks. Example the Ram is the first vehicle that they put the hemi in. Why not make a "pony car" for the return instead of putting it in the truck. Or better yet why not put it back in nascar where she started. I don't understand.

The answers to your questions are pretty easy, and the same answers caused the demise of the muscle car from 1972-1974....


High Insurance Costs( go ask your agent what it would cost to insure a viper vs. a station wagon/ pleasure vs. utility)

Increasingly restrictive smog laws

The niche market for 'performance' is small compared to the family/utility market (GM almost dumped the Camaro/Firebird platform because 6 cylinder cars were out selling the V-8 cars 3 to 1 )....


You can also look at the return of performance in say the 1978 Dodge Lil ' Red Express since smog laws were less restrictive for trucks (so the "sport truck" was born, same as all the "SS"/SST trucks you see on the lot now)...


-D.Idiot

Sadly enough, probably 75% of the people whining about the new Charger were never going to buy one anyway.

The new GTO is a rocket and yet Pontiac can't give them away. The major complaint is that it looks like a Gran Prix. What were the original Goats? Just a rebadged Tempest with a big motor. What's the difference?

Affordable is a relative term anyway. A $30,000 hot rod is much closer to affordable for me today than a $4000 one was in the early '70's. Remember, a Hemi Superbird was only around $6,000 or so when they were new and many never sold because they were too expensive.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Most of the people complaining about the Charger were not complaining about a hi-po family sedan, they were complaining about the name going on a 4-door.

The original Chargers were luxury sport coupes first and muscle cars if you wanted to buy it that way. The new Charger is a 4-door sedan first and a muscle car if you desire. The panache of the original Charger was a result of the styling, not the quarter mile time. Without the Hemi, a new Charger will be nothing more than another universally ignored rental car.

I'm one of those 25% who has been waiting for the Charger since the rumors first began, but I won't buy what they are now building. I would buy a 2-door hardtop with a 4.7 V8, or even a V6, before I'd buy a Hemi 4-door. I owned my share of 4-doors when my kids were growing up, but never again.

For the car companies, it comes down to what they think will sell. I doubt that many of the people who bought the original rwd Chargers new will be in the target group for this one, anyway.
A few folks cried "Foul!" when the T-bird grew a back seat, but Ford sold a lot more of them that way. That kept the badge around a lot longer, and let them build a couple of cool T-Birds years later.
Other folks griped at the use of the name "Charger" on the fwd cars, which were just more stylish versions of the Omni/Horizon. Personally, I loved my '84 Shelby Charger and wish it had survived that deer strike. I don't think rwd would have helped one bit!
Getting hung up on the number of doors, to me, is kind of like worrying about the number of cylinders or where they put the antenna. How well it actually fits my needs is much more important than the spec sheet numbers and checkboxes.
I'll hold my tongue on the new Charger until I've seen one up close.
BTW, I like the Dodge Magnum and Chrysler 300, and think the SRT-10 add-on bodywork (scoops and wing, etc) looks a bit silly. So much for my taste in cars ...
Hey, to each his own!

I bet for half the money of a "new" Charger, you could built one heck of a slant six car!

You mean Dodge makes a Hemi?!

I think it's about as much of a Hemi as the new "charger" is a Charger.
.02-zorg

'zilla, good point about the GTO. Never thought about that one.

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