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Picked up, as in bought, a new 2018 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack Sunday. 392CI V8; 485 hp; 475 torque; 8-Speed TorqueFlite, with grey alcantara seats/interior, 20" black forged aluminum wheels and some other goodies. Sport mode. "Performance pages". Traction control. LSD. I kind of remember seeing some reference to launch control. Automatic dual zone A/C. Heated/ventilated seats. And enough TLA electronics to drive a luddite like me (at least when it comes to in car electronics) crazy. The dash keeps giving me a message it wants to mate with my smart phone. And I don't even have a smart phone.
Anyhow, I have added over 100 miles to the car and it quite the car. Not a Porsche, to state the obvious, but a nice car in its right and in its own way. Looking forward to many miles of smiles.
Hope I don't forget which car I'm working with and dump a quart of Mobil 5w-50 oil in the trunk and put my briefcase on top of the engine.
And how the heck am I supposed to check the oil level in this thing? Salesman said something about opening the hood and using a dipstick? Geesh. Next thing you know I'll be having to eat raw meat, the GF sew my clothes out of animal skins, and bring more rock in the cave when company comes over.
Congrats thank god you got the v8. Now the Turbo will break something out of jealousy.
Actually the Turbo has been on its best behavior of late. I shopped it around a bit as a trade in although I didn't need the trade in to make the deal. Have to tell you seems the word is not out what a desireable car these 996 Turbos are. At least for well maintained, stock, all services up to date, good tires, brakes, with 160K miles examples. One place when I said I had a 996 Turbo with 160K miles to trade in the used car appraiser said "I'll send a tow truck." Well, not exactly. I exaggerate a bit. But one guy started talking about having to spend thousands to address all the mechanical issues and I had to interrupt him to say everything's addressed and I have the paperwork to prove it and the car is in very good shape and runs just great. (The Porsche dealer used car appraiser said the car is in very fine condition but the market's kind of soft on used 996 Turbos. From one source the take away could be he would say that wouldn't he, but other places gave me a similar (or worse) trade in number.)
Anyhow, the Turbo is on its best behavior but it won't last. And just in case I drove by the Porsche dealer and there's still a space up close to the service entrance with a sign that reads: "Reserved for Macster".
Very cool. Love the white. Congrats Macster!
BTW, just to add some 996TT content to keep the fun police at bay, how would you compare the acceleration to your 996TT? I assume more linear grunt, but does it feel a lot faster?
Started out way back in early 2015 looking onto one. I was laid off then and had the time but then I went back to work and have not had time to shop cars. But I managed to find the time.
As I got back in the shopping mode I remembered I had given up on the 5.7l V8 for the 6.4l V8 because my research convinced me as good as the 5.7l engine is the 6.4l engine is even better.
I briefly considered a Hell Cat. Guy at the Porsche dealer -- the guy who had the 2017 Carrera S then got rid of it less than a year after he leased it -- bought a Hell Cat. I have not ridden in one yet and may never but he loves the car.
But the Hell Cat is a bit of overkill and with the supercharger a bit of a risk as is the Turbo with its turbos. The Hell Cat cost was quite a bit higher and I'm not sure I could have swung as good of a deal -- relatively speaking -- for the Hell Cat as I did for the Challenger R/T Scat Pack. Didn't bother with an insurance quote on the Hell Cat but I did with the R/T and the R/T bumped my yearly insurance premium by just $93.
Actually the Turbo has been on its best behavior of late. I shopped it around a bit as a trade in although I didn't need the trade in to make the deal. Have to tell you seems the word is not out what a desireable car these 996 Turbos are. At least for well maintained, stock, all services up to date, good tires, brakes, with 160K miles examples. One place when I said I had a 996 Turbo with 160K miles to trade in the used car appraiser said "I'll send a tow truck." Well, not exactly. I exaggerate a bit. But one guy started talking about having to spend thousands to address all the mechanical issues and I had to interrupt him to say everything's addressed and I have the paperwork to prove it and the car is in very good shape and runs just great. (The Porsche dealer used car appraiser said the car is in very fine condition but the market's kind of soft on used 996 Turbos. From one source the take away could be he would say that wouldn't he, but other places gave me a similar (or worse) trade in number.)
Quick answer is that a dealer will rarely give you a good trade in value - they have to make money on the deal. And a 15 year old supercar with 160k miles on it is just too much of a risk. For a car like that, the easy answer is just put it on BringATrailer in March and get top dollar for it in a week. A no brainer. The guys on BringATrailer will appreciate your 996TT for what it is and with your penchant for thoroughness and attention to detail, it should do well on that auction site. My prediction, assuming very good condition with those miles, would be around $28,000 on BringATrailer. I'll bet the dealers weren't offering even half that.
Very cool. Love the white. Congrats Macster!
BTW, just to add some 996TT content to keep the fun police at bay, how would you compare the acceleration to your 996TT? I assume more linear grunt, but does it feel a lot faster?
Being a new car I have not pushed it real hard yet. But one knows there's 485hp under one's foot and the car can get up and move. And with the automatic no more being beaten off the "line" by a stinking hybrid.
CarAndDriver has the R/T Scat Pack with the 392 engine doing the following: 4.2 seconds 0 to 60mph (ties with the Turbo); 2.6 seconds 50mph to 70mph (I don't know what the Turbo numbers are); and the quarter mile: 116mph in 12.5 seconds. I don't recall the Turbo's quarter mile speed/time.
The car might not top the Turbo in top speed -- the R/T sits up kind of high and is a larger car and in some respects has the aerodynamics of a brick -- but it could keep up with the Turbo for a good ways. I could say as far as I'm concerned it is a tie.
'course the R/T's "white knuckle" color is aptly named when it comes to the twisties. While no slouch -- it does have sports suspension with Bilstein shocks, no way the R/T is going to run with the Turbo in this regard. Not and stay on all 4 wheels. I didn't buy it for that. I mean it will see some twisties but at a more leisurely pace than the Turbo or even the Boxster.
The Hellcat gets all the attention, but these are the sweet spot in the lineup. Not to mention that Hellcats are now fairly commonplace where I live, and have depreciated accordingly.
The Hellcat gets all the attention, but these are the sweet spot in the lineup. Not to mention that Hellcats are now fairly commonplace where I live, and have depreciated accordingly.
Drove my Turbo to the Dodge dealer because I wanted a trade in appraisal. The trade in didn't happen. So I was faced getting the Turbo 15 miles back to my house. A number of dealer employees declined to drive the Turbo.
But one guy appeared to be willing and up to the task.
We made it home ok and I parked the R/T and told the guy if he wanted he could drive the Turbo back to the dealer and I'd ride along as a passenger.I had an ulterior motive. I had overhead at the dealer he was the dealer owner's son and I thought he might be tempted by the Turbo. Anyhow, he declined to drive it back. So I drove the Turbo and drove the guy back to the dealership.
On the way we were talking and he cautioned me about the R/T and being careful with it. He said for 2016 nearly 1 out of 2 Hell Cats were off the road due to accidents. (I recall something similar back when I had my 2006 GTO. Guys were buying these and losing control. If the driver didn't wreck the car if he made it home with the car in one piece he would then mod the heck out of the car to the point only its mother could love it. Then he'd take it to the street or track and wreck it.)
Anyhow, this Hell Cat accident rate is going to drive the Hell Cat insurance rates sky high but maybe the valuation of surviving cars sky high too as there are not a lot of these cars to begin with and their numbers are already in decline.
Drove my Turbo to the Dodge dealer because I wanted a trade in appraisal. The trade in didn't happen. So I was faced getting the Turbo 15 miles back to my house. A number of dealer employees declined to drive the Turbo.
But one guy appeared to be willing and up to the task.
We made it home ok and I parked the R/T and told the guy if he wanted he could drive the Turbo back to the dealer and I'd ride along as a passenger.I had an ulterior motive. I had overhead at the dealer he was the dealer owner's son and I thought he might be tempted by the Turbo. Anyhow, he declined to drive it back. So I drove the Turbo and drove the guy back to the dealership.
On the way we were talking and he cautioned me about the R/T and being careful with it. He said for 2016 nearly 1 out of 2 Hell Cats were off the road due to accidents. (I recall something similar back when I had my 2006 GTO. Guys were buying these and losing control. If the driver didn't wreck the car if he made it home with the car in one piece he would then mod the heck out of the car to the point only its mother could love it. Then he'd take it to the street or track and wreck it.)
Anyhow, this Hell Cat accident rate is going to drive the Hell Cat insurance rates sky high but maybe the valuation of surviving cars sky high too as there are not a lot of these cars to begin with and their numbers are already in decline.
50% seems high. When I turned in my Jeep the salesman said that they had a hard time selling the Hellcats in stock because everyone who wanted one ordered one, whereas the regular Hellcat inventory needed big discounts to move.
Quick answer is that a dealer will rarely give you a good trade in value - they have to make money on the deal. And a 15 year old supercar with 160k miles on it is just too much of a risk. For a car like that, the easy answer is just put it on BringATrailer in March and get top dollar for it in a week. A no brainer. The guys on BringATrailer will appreciate your 996TT for what it is and with your penchant for thoroughness and attention to detail, it should do well on that auction site. My prediction, assuming very good condition with those miles, would be around $28,000 on BringATrailer. I'll bet the dealers weren't offering even half that.
Might consider that BringATrailer thing.
One dealer offered to put the car through an auction for me, one that moves a lot of these cars and similar cars. I thought seriously about taking it up on the offer. I could set a reserve. There is a small seller's fee and a small transportation charge, IIRC around $100, to get the car to the auction site. If the car didn't sell I'd be on the hook for approx. $100 in transportation charge to get the car from the auction site back to me, well back to the dealer where I could then pick it up.
But I'm sort of thinking of keeping the car. With 3 cars and the Boxster serving as my almost daily daily driver the Turbo and the R/T would get used for a 60 mile work commute just one day a week each. They'd get used enough to keep things lubed and the battery charged.
With low miles the Turbo would only need an oil change once a year. Tires might actually have to be replaced on time rather than on miles. Other consumables would last a long long time. It cost me just $230 to register the car for another year. Insurance isn't that much.
But I'll look into that BringATrailer thing. I have heard of it I just know nothing about it.
12-19-2017, 04:07 PM
Turbo (and Boxster) have a new stablemate....
