hi I'm Joe wiesenfelder from cars.com cars.com is close to its 10th birthday
and in all these years the winner of the most old car award is 2008 dodge
challenger now it's never been quite as difficult for us to get anywhere in a
car because every time we're on the road people are slowing down to look at it
take pictures of it we can't get out of a parking lot because we're surrounded
by people who want to know what it is
it helps that the car is kind of orange and they're only less than 7,000 made
and there are none on the road yet that'll get attention it's also just so
big and opposing but it looks terrific
now we did a video at the auto show that give you the highlights of the outside
and the inside so what we'll do now is just talk a little bit about the
drawbacks that we've noticed in driving it and a little bit more about the
driving experience both on the road and the track now the only real drawback we
found driving it this week is the pillar back here which we knew was big and
might block vision and actually blocks it quite badly and not just for regular
driving but we particularly found that when pulling out of parking spaces in a
parking lot
you just can't see back there exactly where you need to your kind of at the
mercy of the person coming to see you have to creep out very slowly hoping
that they see you now as we pointed out the other video it's pretty big backseat
considering it's a two-door it's a big car I'm six feet tall I'm alright with
headroom and such but again the pillar because it's so wide and it's pretty far
forward people who are a little sensitive to car sickness who want to be
near a window the windows not exactly close
how do I put this thing is a vomitorium waiting to happen
power is amazing in this car 425 horsepower is extremely responsive and
it's a kind of thrust that you really don't get many cars anymore it's a big
VA and then there's the sound just listen to it
dodge says 0-60 times on this car less than five seconds and i have no reason
to doubt it
now the automatic transmission is a five-speed is actually very good
it's unfortunate that it's an automatic I was actually surprised the Dodge is
coming out with a six-speed manual next year that will be available in the SRT a
person like this one and the regular heavy V8
ride quality is good in this car it's not great though the suspension is nice
and firm which really is good for handling and such but you really do feel
it on the road especially on rough roads more than you doing some more expensive
cars that give you the performance and handling without as much of a sacrifice
in the ride quality
now with this big v8 the acceleration is a lot like the original muscle cars were
and maybe this is a last hurrah given how high gas prices are now but for what
it's worth all the 2008 in the srt8 version are sold out and come the 2009
model year you'll have your choice of a smaller v8 and a v6 so let's not dig the
grave just yet
for additional information on this car or any other go to cars.com and our blog
kicking tires
