How To Be Crushed

Way back when I had heard Dodge was going to be showing the Challenger concept at one of the auto shows. I was kind of

interested because Chrysler was pretty good about bringing their concept cars to the road. The Viper and Prowler being good examples here.

Then I saw what the prototype Challenger looked like and I became even more interested. It was a distant sibling to the original Challenger, much like the Mustang is with its 1965 relative.

I wasn’t too excited because I still remembered what the 1999 Charger prototype looked like.

When it became known that the 2008 Challenger would look very close to the prototype, well, then I became excited. I figured it would be like the good old days and it would compete with the Ford Mustang and the new Chevy Camaro. A relatively inexpensive, relatively powerful triad. How great would that be?

On a lark, I went to Dodge’s web site and saw that they finally had the Challenger listed as one of their cars. I clicked on it and saw what the price was going to be.

I was crushed. Completely crushed. Not that I ever had a chance to get one, mind you. But now I saw that I would be so far out of the running of ever getting one, there was no reason to even dream about having one. Not for another ten years or so when, maybe, I could buy one used at an affordable price.

So, if you’re looking to buy a Challenger you’ll be looking at an MSRP of $40,000.00. Well beyond a Ford Mustang GT Premium, which weighs in at $27,260. Judging by the specs of the Challenger, though, it looks like they’re going to go after the Mustang Cobra’s.

What a bummer.

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