Hello all! Greetings from snowy Colorado! I thought I'd tentatively poke my head in here...I'm glad to have found this site. Currently, I drive a '13 Ford Taurus SHO. It's been a great ride for the last seven years, but "Ragin' Bull" is beginning to show its age. At 117k on the odometer, the suspension's going south, the MAP sensors need cleaning (AGAIN), one power door lock actuator has burned out, the windshield's showing the effects of being a CO car... ...It's tired. And the fixes for all of these things are going to end up being more expensive than the car is worth. Forgot to mention: I'm speed-limited on the interstate. Not really by choice---the hood latch failed last summer. It didn't fly all the way up, but it popped up against the retaining hook at 75 mph...didn't need any more coffee after that...I-25 through CO Springs is a madhouse, and this happened in traffic, so...yeah, I can't get it over 70-75, or the hood starts shaking so badly that it looks like it's gonna fly up. I've found a gently used '17 Challenger GT at a decent used car dealership here in the Springs. Wanted to solicit some opinions on it...I've heard stories that suggest the AWD '17 models had some issues early on with the AWD setup. Hasn't got too many miles on it; 35k for a three-year old car is pretty good. Here's a link, hope it works for all of you: https://www.echopark.com/used/Dodge/2017-Dodge-Challenger-d064444d0a0e0adf2ba66a5920b6fa82.htm Echo Park seems decent enough as dealerships go. A look around their inventory looks like 2-3 year-old models with low miles and no damage history...could work. My biggest issue right now is financing. I'm coming off of a long employment drought; was out of work between November '18 and January of this year. As if that wasn't bad enough, my wife was diagnosed with two forms of breast cancer last May. Things are better now; I've got two jobs, one as a GS-9 with the Army, another as a part-time security guard at a construction site in Denver. I'm about to take on a third, as a published author, this coming summer as long as the COVID doesn't screw me over at the editing level. But my credit rating is mortally damaged after over a year of late/unpaid bills. I'm a cosigner on my wife's car; the amount of time off she's had to take for her cancer treatments caused her car to get repossessed. Fortunately, with our tax returns, we were able to reclaim it. But the financial hit is bad...really bad. So anyway...here's the TL;DR version: Introducing myself, long-time Challenger fan, think I've found one that I like, bad financial history, what do you guys think?
Welcome to the forum. That GT looks great and the price seems to be good for the mileage. I did a quick search within 500 miles of my zip and most 17 GT’s are selling for between $25-28K with 8-38K miles on them. I don’t have any first hand experience regarding reliability on a GT but if it concerns you, check out an extended warranty for up to 7yr/100,000 miles. The price that came up for that dealer’s 5 yr plan (75k miles) for $3,100) seems real steep to me. Just know you’re hitting the age and mileage where a battery, brakes and other routine maintenance and wear items might be needed, so see what the dealer has done During prep for resale. Good luck!
Wow...annnnnd it's gone. Just like that. That car sat there for months. I bring it up as a possible purchase and it disappears within 24 hrs. Hey Echo Park....I want commission for that...
Welcome. We are almost neighbors. If a GT is going to be your every day car then you may well want AWD. These cars in RWD can turn into a 2 ton hockey puck on an icy/snow packed road. I do see some RWD Challengers on snow packed roads and they do like to fish tail. Some drivers seem to do ok with RWD and I guess that it comes down to good winter tires, some weight in the trunk and a light foot. Keep looking for a late model used Challenger. They are out there and many AWD GTs were sold in the Denver metro area and I would guess that the same would apply to Colorado Springs also. Denver is only an hour away if you have to go there. Good luck.
Hi Climber! I agree pretty much in full with everything you've said. I ran into a guy at one of our local carwashes last summer who drives a 2012 R/T for his daily car. He swore that his RWD car handled just fine in the snow, but I'm not that big a believer. As you know, the snow around here, when it gets packed down, pretty much turns into glass. After that, well..... There's a leftover 2019 at COS Dodge down here. We bought my wife's '15 Journey Crossroad from them new. The big problem with them is they're really obnoxious; if you even go in there window-shopping, you'll get pestered for the next year with offers to "just come in and we can try to work something out for ya."
Welcome again. Yes, these dealers can take their brand of rudeness to a new level sometimes. IMO they are desperate these days to sell cars and if so that can be used to the buyer's advantage. You may want to look at the Medved Dodge website here on the south end of Castle Rock. I am in the dealership every now and then and they seem to have several Challengers new and used on the lot. I have seen new and used GTs on their lot. When I bought my 2016 R/T new back in Oct.'16 from Medved they took almost 3k off the sticker because the car had a 6 speed manual tranny and it had been on the lot 4-5 months with no takers. We ended up buying the then new 2016 5.7 Hemi Challenger Plus for about $33,700. The wife and I would drive through their lot at least once a week and the car just sat there until one day I got tired of it sitting there without a home. The rest is history and we have no regrets. You should be able to cut a good deal because sales have slowed because of the cootie invasion.
I would think once things start to clear up that the Big 3 will be offering big incentive packages to get $$$ moving.
JEEP is offering some good size rebates now, and they haven't done that before. my dealer tells me that they very rarely offer rebates.
