2009 Dodge Challenger R/T: Why Buy Used?

and, no offense, it was driven by you guys...

no more than $25k.

thats 20% which I think is rather fair. The 26k that was put on was on long road trips that is the least abusive to the drivetrain. That is also just the asking price, it gives everyone the room to haggle and come to a price a buyer is willing to pay. I think the asking price is appropriate, and had I not just bought a new mustang I would've considered it.

I will wash and wax every car in the IL fleet every day for a year in exchange for the car

Seriously that's a steal

I know you guys hate it when we say this... but there's absolutely no way I'd ever purchase a performance car that's been "tested" by you guys. It's undeniable that your cars are abused more than they would be by a typical owner who has his own money invested in the car.

Given the character of this car, I suspect most buyers will probably want the lazy-man automatic transmission.

"The 26k that was put on was on long road trips that is the least abusive to the drivetrain." Very true, but buying from IL is like trying to find a wife at a whore house. (Yes I've said that before, but it is no less true.)

Lovely car, and from a dealership with dealer support maybe the price would be okay, but not from IL.

Mr. John Q. Public might not know this car's history, but certainly anyone reading this blog does. I would prefer to buy a new Challenger over your used one for the following reasons. Number 1... with 26,000 miles the majority of the basic warranty is already gone. I'd rather pay a few extra thousand and get a new vehicle and have that peace of mind. Secondly, buying your used one is much like buying a rental car. There have been many different drivers using this car each week for various activities, each with different driving styles. If I did buy a used Challenger, I'd rather it be from a one driver household where the previous owner kept meticulous care of it. Buying a used car from an automotive journalist is like buying a former rental car, and like Jeff Foxworthy says, that's like going to a whorehouse to find your next wife. Do you really want something that's been ridden that hard?

30k for a lightly used loaded challenger seems reasonable to me. However, 30k for what amounts to an enthusiastically driven rental (since no one keeps it more than a few days) with documentation of shifting issues already developing seems much less attractive (to me) than paying the extra few grand for a less loaded new car.

At least when you buy an IL owned car (and it is "their" money by the way, they bought this car, it isn't from the Chrysler press fleet) how it was used and cared for is well documented.

It is foolish to think that the private seller was any nicer to his car than IL. IL used it in a burnout test, so what? I did plenty of burnouts in my 5-speed Mustang 5.0 back in the day.

IL may drive their cars harder, but they carefully follow the manufacturers recomendations for fluid changes and other service, and they take their cars in for repair promptly. I would bet that this Charger is in just as good condition as any other Charger of a similar vintage with simlar mileage.

"Furthermore, to buy this car with the options on our car, you would actually have to spend at least $36,000. So buying this car for a negotiated price of $29,000 would save $7,000 plus the dough saved on taxes, insurance and registration fees. I think that's a bargain. "

1. The buyer will pay taxes on 30k, just he would on the new car - the gulf on taxes is about $500.
2. Your price is 30k (29.9k). That's a 6k gulf for MSRP.
3. The real price of the new R/T is about 34.5k (nobody pays MSRP and even you show that in your TMV)
4. Top tier credit for a manu loan program is the 600s. From there it will drop BUT you will need atrocious credit to get near the 5+% you see for used loans and if you have bad credit THAT used APR% will climb quickly too. Getting a loan from a car manu is easier than from a credit union or bank. Those with average credit still come out ahead going with manufacturer offers. Dealers will jump through hoops and have the ability to even lower their profit from a loan (yes they may make money on the loan rate too) to get you out the door. Credit Unions and banks are disinclined to give loans to people with poor credit.
5. Insurance - almost the same as this will be a result in the loan company demanding minimums.
6. If your car's registration is near due (most likely you didn't re-up it and then put the car on the market), the new buyer will have to pay this just as he would a new car.
7. You're selling a performance vehicle and you're claiming $1700 in performance parts isn't attractive? If someone wants a V8 and manual then they probably also want warrantied parts from the manu. Thus that's attractive.

Good luck.

I can think of three Dodge dealerships that I have seen in the past three weeks where the front line of cars was Challenger after Challenger after Challenger after Challenger. Without walking onto the lot, it looked like all they carried were Challengers. They're wheeling and dealing to move them off the lots. And if you can get a few thousand off of sticker on a similar model, you can have a smaller payment (on approved credit, of course) than buying IL's used Challenger.

A quick look at AutoTrader reveals 41 Challengers within a 200-mile radius. Most of them seem to be in LA and Orange Counties. I was shocked to see that the vast majority (probably at least 80%) were SRT-8s and R/Ts, and there were plenty of manual transmissions. For a few thousand over IL's asking price, I can get a similarly loaded R/T manual from a dealership that is certified. And several have less than 10,000 miles on them. With not much pressure, I can probably get that price down into the ballpark of IL's price. With the certified coverage and lower mileage, they would be the better deal than the IL car.

I saw IL's Challenger listed. Perhaps it's because of the size of the image thumbnail, but the photo you see in the main listing doesn't look nearly as attractive as the other cars. Yes, the IL photo angle and light is much more ideal, but most of the other cars look so bright and shiny... they draw your eye much more than the IL photo does. It took me 10 weeks to sell my F-150 several months ago on AutoTrader. I went through the same photo problem. Follow AutoTrader's advice on photos, and make sure the car looks very shiny. Once I did that, the calls started coming in!

20% happened when you drove off the lot ... another 15% is in order ...

Nearly $30,000 is still asking for way too much. While no one at IL is likely a bumbling ape, there's very little incentive for each individual to concern themselves with the car's long term health.

And as for that Foxworthy joke, it only works if you don't understand basic anatomy. He screwed up which gender doesn't hold up well under heavy mileage.

I am viewing this with interest to see actual selling price - I have a 2009 R/T purchased new 1/2009, now with 13K miles. Mine is off the lot with an automatic and with few options - sound group, sunroof, Sirius, and 20 inch wheels. MRSP was $33,485. For a short time in January, 2009 Chrysler had a deal with employee pricing, $1000 rebate, and 0% financing. So my base cost after all this was $29,298 - $4,187 off MSRP, and I got the 0% financing. Then of course paid sales tax and license fees and had to put up with a dealer hard sell about an overpriced extended warranty, which I declined.

Edmunds private party sale TMV for my car is $29,613, about $300 more than my base cost. I am not selling the car so the TMV number doesn't matter to me - but interesting that Edmunds TMV claims this 1.5 year old car could sell for more than I paid for it.

Options in the used market, worth BUNK. Get over it..this is a used Dodge...

We'll see how it pans out. If you guys want the car to sell before August, I'll bet you have to sell it for around $25,000.

$36K is the comparable sticker for a new one? I would use $33K as the real sale price for new, then take away 25% because this is a Dodge with 26K on the clock. That leaves $24,750 by my calculations, the max price I would pay for it.

But I wouldn't EVER buy a car with this much performance used. It is a guarantee with this type of car that it has been abused by its first owner. Why buy abused when I can buy new and save myself a TON of hassle?

Maybe if you can convince Dodge to discontinue the Challenger line immediately, you will get somewhere near $30K for this one.

You should think of this like a stock invesment:

Doesnt matter what you paid for it, its worth what the market tells you its worth at any given time, not what the charts, graphs, and experts claim its worth.

Time is a factor in value, and this commodity is time sensitive...and it will lose more the longer you hold it. Cut the losses and buy a 1984 ferrari again....so I can read about an interesting car with history other than..."whelp its from the company that is bankrupt again...pretty cool acceleration though"

I'll be extremely surprised if you get more than $26,000.

Do you not have to reregister the car in Cali when you change owners? When I bought a used car I had to get new plates and that required a whole new registration. 200 bucks gone there, and I had to pay sales tax on it. So it was the same as a new car.

I just can't imagine there's someone out there who wants a challenger loaded up with options, specifically, but who is also too cheap or uninformed to buy one new.

This is just me. If I am in the market to buy either a Camaro, Mustang GT, Challenger, 370Z or the like, it will have to be a brand new car or I won't purchase one at all.

The only IL owned car that I'm interested in is the project EVO car.
The upgrades make it cool, despite the track time.

The Challenger has been driven too hard and too long.

"Do you not have to reregister the car in Cali when you change owners? When I bought a used car I had to get new plates and that required a whole new registration."

Not in California. Plates stay with the car, and registration is good for 1 year regardless. You often negotiate that with the buyer if you had to renew recently before selling. The DMV does not refund you if you sell the car, since the buyer doesn't have to renew until the year is up.

LMAO at near $30k for a used car with close to 30,000 miles on it. A dodge at that. HA!

NO WAY you're getting that.

$25k max, better off trading it in than trying to sell it.

You'd be lucky to get 20 on a trade in and they usually mark a car up 5k. I'd say 25k and a you take the buyer out for a steak dinner. The car doesn't even have the nice wheels.

With that accessories cash a buyer could get the car lowered so it handles right.

When I bought my G8, a local dealership had a demo car with 5k on it. With 4.5% financing vs. 0% through GM, I SAVED about $35 a month by getting the new car. Your car isn't quite so bad, but it's not far.