Great American cars today

Still one of my favorites.

 

After putting over 50k miles on my 328xi manual wagon I started looking for another daily car to put a ton of miles on. (just under 80 miles per day commuting)

Had a list of reasonable choices, A6, A7 then thought hmm, S7? That lead to me loooking up direct injection problems and Audi's with intake ports clogged solid with carbon.

Started looking at cars that were port injected and came across the 392 Charger, test drove one and really liked it. Didn't have much luck with negotiations on the SRT 392 cars but did score a pretty good deal on it's sibling so here we are. Really liking it so far. Big comfortable car with nice features and a lot of fun. Still keeping the 328 around with winter tires for the worst of the snow (so probably December through February).

Considered ATS-V/CTS-V but the cue system annoyed me so much I couldn't get past it. I find the Dodge u-connect much nicer to use.

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Please give us your impressions once you’ve had some quality time with it.....

 

I've put about 500 miles on it.

Sounds great, comfortable, there's a lot of interior space even for rear seat passengers. Feels between a normal car and a pickup truck as far as interior size and ergonomics (it's just big with a more upright seating than legs stretched out). No squeaks or rattles at 38k miles. Nice visibility.

Exhaust note from the factory is great, I have no intentions on changing that. May even be too loud on a cold start if you leave early and your neighbors are close.

I have not pushed it handling wise as it hasn't been warmer than mid 30's since I got it. Steering feel is good and a little heavier than I expected. (Hellcat is hydraulic power steering all other Chargers are electric power steering).

You do feel the size/weight and the chassis I would say isn't even as refined as my 07 328xi wagon. For example, when changing lanes over uneven surfaces, expansion joints I can feel a bit of lateral movement in the Charger chassis. Oddly only noticeable in slower direction changes.

In this weather, traction is practically nonexistent. If you punch it on a concrete highway at 60 it will still haze the tires. Loaded 4 of us in the car and it would still spin the tires at 50mph.

Lots of fun but certainly not an ideal winter car. I'm sure winter tires would help a lot (it's on Pirelli all seasons).

The electronics work great. Almost no delay and the touch screen is more of a matte finish so doesn't show marks like the high gloss CUE system.

The ZF 8 speed is probably the best automatic I've experienced. My old Lexus IS-F had an 8 speed and I strongly disliked it. Always seemed to be doing what you did not want it to do. The ZF is the complete opposite. Holds gears on throttle lift to the point where there is some engine braking but not overly annoying like some cars that seem to hold a gear in decel at 5k rpm forever. WOT kickdown and upshifts are very fast.

Averaging 17mpg in 50/50 highway and 35-45mph zones.

At this point I'm really liking the car. Seems like a really good value. As far as a sports car goes my F355 is still much more fun to drive but for a big car you can put 4 people in and still do highway speed burnouts, no complaints

 

I decided recently that I wanted to get another gearshift car (the NXS does not have one and that is the car I'm looking for now), so I had a chance the drive both the C7 Z06, and the Grandsport. It is rare for me to say this, but for once I agree with the reviewers the Grandsport is the best Corvette I've ever driven. Yes I have had C5, C6 (modified Z06), and a regular Z51 C7, but none of them came close to the balance of the grandsport. I am not talking about its abilities as a track car, just the street. The car just did what I asked of it and did it perfectly, I could actually feel the g's.The Z06 is just too much for the street and it does not feel as balanced. The grandsport had run flat tires which also surprised me, because they were pretty good once they heated up. I don't know what the C8 will be like or even whether there will be a manual but there are some great deals on very low mileage (many corvette owners treat them like it is a Enzo) well maintained cars out there. I really like the look of a black car with black wheels, though the red is growing on me. As some of you might know cars must all have a propose for me, and yes the interior is not that great (I have cars with great interiors), but I do not want it for that. Having that NA V8 and a gear shifter in my hand brings me back to the days before cars were just infotainment systems on wheels. This thread is called great American cars today, and in my mind a car that does exactly what it was designed to do is pretty damn great!