Third Gen Dodge Challenger Break Down

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Image by: Ermell

The Dodge Challenger has been on its third generation since… 2008 and if you are looking to buy one, you came to the right place.

Come with me as I break down the Challenger.

We bit of history

Starting production in 1969, the Challenger was born for the wake of the 70s. Sharing the same E body chassis as the Plymouth Barracuda with a goal to compete directly against the Mercury Cougar and the Pontiac Firebird. The name “Challenger” first arose on the Dodge Silver with a Trim package naming it the Dodge Silver Challenger as a 2 door coupe. Even back in the day, the challenger market was targeted towards the young affluent American buyers, and not much of that has changed in today’s market. Kind of.. Il speak about that later.

The First Gen challenger was loaded with trims until its demise in 74.

In 78 Dodge thought that bringing back the car in a disrespectful manner was proper, just like the Dodge Dart. They rebadged the Mitsubishi Galant Lambda Coupe as the Dodge Challenger 2nd gen. Sad story, yes. But it gets much more depressing.. The only engine options were the a 1.6 and 2.6l i4 instead of its slant 6 and v8 from the first gen, and that’s mainly due to the EPA cracking down on emissions.

Quick 3rd Gen Run Down

The third gen challenger started its sales in 2007 for the 2008 model year. The challenger is somewhat of a parts bin car using a lot of parts from Mercedes like its 5 link rear suspension from the w211, 5 speed auto, rear diff and front control arms from the w220.

All 2008 models sold in 2007 were SRT8s with the 6.1L v8 HEMI with 425 HP and the 5 speed auto and all 6,400 units were pre sold in the US and Canadian market.

2009

The 2009 model started sales in august of 2008 for the SE, R/T and the SRT8 in the US.

For the first half of 2009, the entry level SE model was powered by a 3.5l V6 with 250hp, with a 4 speed auto

The R/T has the 5.7L Hemi with 372 HP with the optional 5 speed auto or the Tremec 6 speed, which was an added offer in the SRT8 for this model year.

2011

2011 marked a few updates. The SE received the 3.6l Pentastar with 305 hp, which is the same motor that was in our 2012 Dodge Avenger SXT Plus with the MPI 6 speed auto, the trans had issues, so I’m glad it wasn’t used in the Challenger and instead the charger started using the 5 speed auto. The SRT8 received the 6.4l 392 v8 with 470 hp. The SRT8 also received a new chin spoiler that resembles the first generation.

2012

In 2012 the SE model was replaced with the SXT, which was being used in the Canadian market and the 392 got a few techy updates and gained… Launch control in 2014

2015

2015 was a big year for dodge.

The SRT8 trim was thrown in the bin and replaced by the SRT 392 and the.. Wait for it, SRT Hellcat. The 5 speed auto was replaced with an 8 speed ZF auto, and some design features were updated, some to more closely resemble its heritage from the first gen. 6 pistons in the front and 4 piston in the rear with Brembo brakes were standard for the 392 and hellcat.

The 392s Apache motor received a 15 hp increase, while the newly introduced Hellcat sported 707 HP from its supercharged 6.2l. The motor is also in the Charger SRT Hellcat and the Jeep Grand Cherokee Track hawk. The Hellcat received a 11.2 second quarter mile and had a 3.6 second 0-60

2017

2017 marked the introduction of the GT model with the AWD version of the SXT Plus paired only with the 3.6L and the 8 speed auto.

2018

2018 simply had performance upgrades added to the SXT and R/T models. Oh, and the backup camera is now… STANDARD

Wait, hold up..

No, I didn’t forget about the Challenger SRT Demon introduced in late 2017. Equipped with a 6.2L Supercharged V8 Hemi with a 2.7L Supercharger with 808 HP on 91 octane and 840HP with 100 octane or higher with a 2.3 second 0-60. When bought new, the challenger comes with a black key fob and a red key fob. The red key fob unlocks “the demon” while the black key fob limits the power to 500hp, which is still crazy fast. Nitto Tires paired with Dodge to create a tire with enough tread pattern to be street legal the NT05R, all while still being drag radials, which makes the Demon the first production car to sell with radials stock.

2019

2019 introduced the R/T Scat Pack 1320 with the Chrysler 6.4l at 485 hp and the SRT Hellcat Red Eye wide body after the discontinuation of the Demon with the supercharged 6.2L with 797 hp with an upgraded ZF 8 speed.

The Hellcat received a hp bump to 717 hp.

2020

2020 introduced the SRT Super Stock sandwiched between the demon and the Redeye using the same motor as the redeye with 807 hp.

Just like the first generation, there were a million trims and packages, so I skipped the meat to make this a “quick” recap of the long 3rd generation.

Entering its 15th year, I wonder what’s next for the Dodge Challenger?

Dodge Challengers Market

Who exactly is the Dodge Challenger marketing to? Same as the first generation, its main target is young buyers. First, raise your hand if you know a military friend who bought a v6 or R/T new…. Then had it repoed…

That’s neither here nor there, but the v6 Challenger is so cheap anyone with a decent job could afford payments on one, which is mainly young buyers. SRT8s seems to be geared more towards 30-40 year old’s who have a good paying job. And the Hellcats have their eye on ANYONE who can spend 60k or nearly 80k on the Redeye.

Against all odds

You’d think for such a long model run, the sales would tank; they did the exact opposite. How exactly did the challenger stack up against its two main competitors, the Mustang and the Camaro. The 2008 model started with 17.5 thousand sales and by 2018 it reached its peak with 66.7k sales. By 2018 the Challenger started to outsell the Camaro due to their plummeting sales and started to give the Mustang a run for their money in recent years. Taking a look at the sales of the mustang from 2007-2008, their sales took a hit. Was it due to the Challenger taking sales away? I firmly think so because the Mustang was in the middle of its Fifth generation.

I’d say the Challenger fared well from coming back from the dead.

Price

The prices are kind of all over the place due to the chip shortage. The post facelift v6 can be found for about 20k with alright miles, meanwhile you can find a 2010 R/T with less miles for about the same. But, you could also say screw it to the miles and grab an 2010 SRT8 with a manual for a similar price.

You could spend double the price on a low mileage 2016 Hellcat, or spend more on a 2019 Redeye.

Or, you could buy a barely driven Demon for 230k, which new, btw it only cost around 90k. This is an investment car, which is why no one is driving them.

Reliability

Seems that the main issue with these challengers is the Alternator going out in the 2012 model, which is easy to replace.

The interior is cheaper and the plastic bits are prone to breaking over time

Should you Buy a Challenger?

Yes, no and it depends.

Since the main issue with the Challenger is the alternator going out, we can rule out the no due to reliability.

If we look back at the prices of Challengers from the 70s, they are selling between 90k-300k depending on the rarity of the model and trim.

If you are into collecting, I’m not nor am I a professional, but I can assume the Demon will be very rare due to only 3,300 being made. Their price already nearly tripled in just a few years.

Collecting Challengers is not a bad way to go because most of the SRTs and R/Ts will be run to the ground by 10 years, especially the v6 models.

In my book, Dodge is doing things right. They are creating hundreds of special edition Challengers and also under-selling its competition. That will make the special editions worth more as time goes by, similar to the first generation.

If you are a young buyer

and want a muscle car as a daily, the pre facelift R/T is an affordable way to go. It keeps its value pretty decently used, if you take care of it and it’s cheaper than most new cars in the market today.

Speaking from my opinion, do not buy a Challenger if you are scrapping by and are looking for a new V6 model. The price plummets after a few years. Buying a used v6 is much smarter.

But, keep in mind insurance will be more expensive if you are under 25 buying a sports car.

Hopefully the Chip issue will be resolved so prices of cars can kind of level out by the end of the year. We will see.

If you are also in the market for a Dodge Charger, check out its reliability breakdown here!