MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 It's funny how time flies and how your perspective and wants/needs can change. Back in early 2006, my tried and true 1990 Mitsubishi was getting tired, and was showing signs of having electrical/electronic difficulties at 155,000 miles. I had just done some major work on getting new wheel bearings, new front discs, recent timing belt change among other things, and now the electrical gremlins were creeping in. I had to decide whether to keep the car and keep fixing it, or trade it on a new car. Well, enter a 2004 Saturn Ion coupe at the local dealer which is just what I needed at the time as back then I drove 30 miles one way to work each day. Being that it was a four cylinder and a 5 speed, it got about 33 MPG on the highway, which was exceptional as I figured it would save me a LOT on gas. Well, fast forward nearly nine years, and the time arrived when now the Saturn was getting a bit tired. Not totally worn out------but it wouldn't pass inspection, and I'm faced once again with fixing what was wrong, and then the possibility of new troubles creeping in, or getting a "new" car and not have the feckless attempts at fixing problems as they arise. So, off I go last week while we were on holiday shutdown at work and look for either a new car, or one that's just a few years old. When I saw what I wanted online at a particular dealer, I first checked to see if I could get credit lined up before I talked to the dealer. The first car I saw and liked immediately was a 2011 Hemi Charger. I spoke to the dealer and then made an appointment to stop in this past Friday morning. When I got to the dealer, I told him that first and foremost, I want rear wheel drive. Front wheel drive cars have their place, but even in my Saturn a trip longer than two hours in it could be torturous, due to the limited leg room because of where the front wheels are in relation to the front of the door. He left the room for awhile, and came back and said that due to how I wanted the payments to be, and at that point I wasn't willing to trade in the Saturn, he couldn't swing a deal on the Charger. HOWEVER-----he had a Nissan Rogue (??) and a 2011 Nissan Altima with 14,000 on the clock that I could check out. I immediately said NO to the Rogue, and figured I'll check out the Altima even though that wasn't exactly what I wanted. I drove the car, and while it was competent enough, it was just lacking a certain "personality" that I look for in a car. My friend and his wife who were with me as they drove me to the dealer were telling me I could do as I'd like, but they didn't care for how the salesman tried to push off a car that HE wanted you to have, and not push for getting what you wanted. I kinda agreed, but was going to go for the Altima as I didn't want this to be a long drawn out process in looking for a car. Well, my friend took me home and I was all set to bring the Saturn in on Monday, finalize the loan, and take the car. About 45 minutes after I got home my friend called me almost shouting and said "BILL!! YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS CAR MY WIFE AND SPOTTED AT THE DEALER IN LANCASTER!! AS SOON AS I SEEN IT I THOUGHT OF YOU!!" Well, to make a long story short, here she is.............as she came home with me Friday evening, and yes, I did trade the Saturn in to make the payments a bit more manageable. Here are the first pics when she was at the dealer's..............................texted to me-----interior pic's a bit blurry. And now parked safe and sound in the back of my place----off the street as I DON'T like on street parking, especially overnight! One downside of the car is that my insurance has gone up $90 a month!! They consider this a "muscle" car despite the V6-----I will say that I've planted my foot in it a couple times and it'll plant you in your seat. Needless to say that I'll be shopping around for another insurance carrier! This car is a head turner as well, as I haven't seen myself coming and going. When I drove it to work, it was all the buzz as no one else there has one. Well, I intend to live with this gal a loooooong time! I had my Saturn for nearly nine years (the longest I've ever had ANY car), but this one is definitely a keeper simply because of what it is. If I were to make one change to the car mechanical wise, I wish the car was either a 5 or 6 speed manual-----but the manumatic shift is a nice compromise. I've owned manual shift cars pretty steady for 20 years so going back to an automatic is a nice change. Thanks for lookin' fellas..........any comments or questions are most welcome!
FordRodnKustom Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Sharp Challenger. Congrats and good luck with it.
ChrisBcritter Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Hoo boy! Congrats on picking up this one - it's the only car that I would have traded my Magnum for. How many miles does it have on the odometer? And what's the triangle sticker on the rear?
peter31a Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Congrats, Bill! Real sharp set of wheels. Hope you have many great years and road trips together.
MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Author Posted January 1, 2015 Hoo boy! Congrats on picking up this one - it's the only car that I would have traded my Magnum for. How many miles does it have on the odometer? And what's the triangle sticker on the rear? The triangle is the dealer sticker (Lancaster Mitsubishi), and it had 49,900 on it when I brought it home-------just ticked over 50,000. Not bad for a 2011 car. Incidentally, the payments on this one are about $100 cheaper than what the first dealer wanted for the Altima. Albeit the car was the same year, but to me just doesn't have the "gotcha" factor. Yeah, a Magnum wagon was also on my mind to look for if this one didn't pan out. Unfortunately, sometimes the banks don't want to finance cars that are over five years old. I would have wanted an '08 (the rarest ones), but those are hard to find as it is.
oldscool Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Way to go Bill! Welcome to Mopar land and I know you will love this car. An automatic is nice after a hard days work and having to drive home in stop and go traffic. the solid white paint and the wheels look great . It's nothing but greed that insurance companies want to charge the same rate for a v6 car just because it is the same platform as a real muscle car. Edited January 1, 2015 by oldscool
High octane Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Congrats and good luck with your new ride Bill.
MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Author Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Gerald, someone mentioned to me that the insurance companies now put a surcharge on cars that can do (I may be off on this), 0-60 in seven seconds or less. The V6 Challengers will do that in 6.5 seconds (so I've read), and that may be well be a factor why my insurance went up so much. Used to be they went by horsepower, but you've got little pocket rockets that can best that by a wide margin. Looks like model buying will certainly be a bit less until I get that one under control! Edit: Also, I gotta say----this is the first Chrysler product I've owned since the early '80's (last was a '65 Dodge Dart convertible) so yeah, it's nice to be back. It even (to me) has that very familiar Chrysler starter sound! Edited January 1, 2015 by MrObsessive
62rebel Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 congratulations, Bill! she's certainly a beauty. and that coming from the resident anti-new car guy! i wonder if you can get to San Francisco by 12 tomorrow afternoon...
bbowser Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Great car Bill, looks nice in white with those wheels. Just be careful in the snow!
MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Author Posted January 1, 2015 i wonder if you can get to San Francisco by 12 tomorrow afternoon... :lol:
MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Author Posted January 1, 2015 Great car Bill, looks nice in white with those wheels. Just be careful in the snow! It has traction control-------to me rear wheel drive cars are more predictable in snow/rainy weather. Not always the case with FWD.
vintagercr Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Bill, congratulations on your new purchase. Nice looking car!
bbowser Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 It has traction control-------to me rear wheel drive cars are more predictable in snow/rainy weather. Not always the case with FWD. Predictable, maybe. Easy, not so much! I drive a F150 daily in the snow and it will swap ends before you can say Oh cr@p! I hate traction control, just like I hate ABS. All the gizmos to save us from ourselves when we should be teaching better driving technique to start with! End rant. I know you will enjoy that beast!
tim boyd Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Bill....congrats...I am a 100% Ford guy now but I was 100% Mopar back in the 1960's/70's, so I can sure share your excitement. Looks like you found a really good edition, too! TIM
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 She's a real beauty, for sure. Looks great in white, too.
Ron Hamilton Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Congrats Bill on the new ride. I'm waiting for you to dissect it, and build a stunning model of it, using the Revell kit, modified to a V6 like your car.
tbill Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 congrat's on the new ride, very sharp looking and those wheels look great on it.
MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Author Posted January 1, 2015 congrat's on the new ride, very sharp looking and those wheels look great on it. The wheels are what sold me on the car. The stock ones always seemed to be a bit "small" even though they're 18" wheels that come with it. The design of the wheelwells scream out for something more aggressive and larger! Those are 20 inchers on all fours-------I just hate to see what the tire replacement cost will end up being!
Kostas Parchas Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 Congratulations on the new ride , you are a lucky man, although its a little bit milkey for my taste, maybe one or two black stripes running one end to the other could add to the look. Once again my congratulations. Kostas.
Tom Geiger Posted January 1, 2015 Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Congrats Bill! Much better choice than an Alty-ma appliance! I had rented a Challenger V6 when I was in Canada and in the three days I had it, several people had complimented me on the nice car. It sure is a looker! And the interesting part is how close they made this to the 1970 era car! I used to have a 1973 Barracuda and when I slid into the front seat of the Challenger, I felt like I had gone back in time! Same seating position, controls etc. Good luck with it. I also try not to buy new cars. Let the original owner take that depreciation drop! I recently bought my wife a 2005 Buick LaCrosse with 32,000 miles on it for cash. Edited January 1, 2015 by Tom Geiger
MrObsessive Posted January 1, 2015 Author Posted January 1, 2015 Congrats Bill! Much better choice than an Alty-ma appliance! I had rented a Challenger V6 when I was in Canada and in the three days I had it, several people had complimented me on the nice car. It sure is a looker! And the interesting part is how close they made this to the 1970 era car! I used to have a 1973 Barracuda and when I slid into the front seat of the Challenger, I felt like I had gone back in time! Same seating position, controls etc. Good luck with it. I also try not to buy new cars. Let the original owner take that depreciation drop! I recently bought my wife a 2005 Buick LaCrosse with 32,000 miles on it for cash. Tom that's it!! The Altima while a very nice car, was just that.........too much of an appliance for me to get excited about! It had as much soul as the refrigerator in my kitchen! Now that's not to put down anyone who's bought one-----but my friend who told me about this car said it all............"Bill, that car is just you!" He didn't know me when I had my '69 AMX, but I've told him stories about it, and this car reminds me a lot of it.......albeit a LOT more comfortable to drive, but performance wise, certainly right on par with it!
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now