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If you want to keep a low profile
and not attract attention, the Challenger is not the car for you. If
conservation of natural resources is a priority, there are far better
choices than the Challenger. If your needs require a spacious interior with
easy access to all seating positions, move along to the next review.
That being said, if you enjoy discussing your car with strangers (and
getting thumbs-up signs and waves from people of all walks of life), if you
put a premium on performance over efficiency, and if you will usually only
use the two front seats, the Dodge Challenger SRT8 might be just what you
need. Especially when the car is Hemi Orange.
After having driven a Challenger SRT8 for a long weekend, courtesy of
Chrysler, it will be hard to forget some memorable moments. The afternoon
the car arrived, our neighbor asked my wife where I got a Challenger, saying
that he had been looking for one at local dealers to check out, but couldn't
find one anywhere. He also insisted on a ride, which I gave him later that
evening. Following that, I took it to the grocery store. As I was locking
the car, a woman in her late-40s said, "that's a beautiful car." On my way
home from the store, I had the windows down and was at a traffic light in
town, and a man across the street yelled, "Yo man, that's a TIGHT ride!" Two
days later, en route to my parents' house, a man in a minivan followed me
from their town square to their house to ask about the car. Later that
afternoon, a man actually parked his car across the street and rang my
parents' doorbell just to talk about the car. Several motorcyclists gave me
the hand-down wave they usually reserve for fellow bikers when they
encountered me traveling in the opposite direction. The man from the fleet
vendor who dropped off the car did warn my wife people would stop us to ask
about it - he was right.
So, the Challenger has the ability, at least as a new model, to make you
feel like a B-list or C-list celebrity. To me, that beats the anonymity I
usually experience in an Accord, or even worse - the anonymity that I'm
experiencing this week testing a Kia Sportage.