Because Why Not? Scat Pack Challenger ?s

Depending on how the future plays out I may need a newer car. Lately, I'm thinking about a newish Scat Pack Challenger. I'm just wondering for those of you who own them how do you like them? Also, just curious on what MPG you're getting? Anyways, let me know anything else I should consider or look at closely. Any cons if I decide to go with the Shaker setup? Thank you in advance.

They are a beast. The car is fairly easy to live with. MPG, and tires for that matter, depends on your right foot. Drove mine to work everyday and on long trips.

Thank you for the feedback. I usually drive like Grandpa honestly. I might romp here there but, that's a rarity these days unlike I used to do in my younger years. I figure the 6.4 would better with the heavier weight compared to the 5.7 and for what it's worth I had an 71 Challenger moons ago. I thought about the WideBody because of the better handling but, for the way I drive I figure nah.

If you truly drive like a grandpa, have you driven any of the modern Hemi vehicles yet? If not, a test drive should be in order. The modern stuff is not like the 70s stuff used to be.

I like having the power when I do need or want it. I haven't driven a new Challenger. I sat inside a base model V6 but, that's as close as I have gotten. I have a 408 Magnum stroker but, it's a street/strip setup and sometimes I have fun but, not too often. I'd imagine an Scat Pack is slightly faster than my 70s stuff.

I think Fiberglass (Eric) drives his everyday.

Because they are asking MSRP or more for used

Honestly

I have looked at two/three year old low mileage Scat Packs locally here in Central WI

Obviously with no new inventory for months , the used market is ridiculous just like everything else right now

Inflation

I have a widebody. Its more of a play car after I sold my 71 Barracuda and 73 Satellite. Its never seen rain. Honestly I'd be a tad nervous. Mine will easily break loose even with the big tires. I can not imagine a narrow body scat or a hellcat for that matter. The car is fun to drive. There are some folks who complain about size, weight, etc. Its never been an issue for me. The car looks good, sounds good, drives good. It is everything my old iron wasnt. I have zero remorse for going modern. I usually run mine in a sport mode and get around 16-18 in the slower driving. If I go standard on a highway I've gotten 22-24 mpg. Hardest thing for me is the thing wants to "go" if that makes sense. I can be cruising at 75 and it is wanting to "go". Ive been on some open back roads with the radio going and then notice I'm in the 110-115 mph range. Totally snuck up on me.

My sister in law daily drives a 6 speed Scat Pak Shaker. I have had the opportunity to beat on it a few times. Its fun, its quick, but its hardly near out of control. With the traction control off it will spin the tires pretty good on a hard 1-2 shift but its easy to stick on a decent road. She wasn't experienced with fast cars at all when she got it and as far as I know has stayed out of the ditches lol.

There would be one in my garage if I could but the wife says something about the dogs, and the kid, and storage blah blah. So we have a Durango R/T.

Love my 2020 Scat wide body auto garage queen.

It’s never seen rain either. Purchased almost a year ago, and has 1100 Fun miles. I do not abuse it, other than to speed tromp it here and there to keep it “awake.”

Minor mods: Hellcat headlight intake air box, catch can, Active Exhaust Delete modules, Vibrant 1794’s replaced mid mufflers, Modern spare tire, rock guards.

Tons of info here: www.challengertalk.com

Got mine pretty much option loaded for upper 50’s.

Best of luck! No regrets here!

Thank you all. Yes, I'm aware the car market is crazy right now and that's why I'm holding out plus other things going on right now. I did look early last year I think and saw a Frostbite Scat for $35k which was the cheapest for an 8spd auto car. I may have to try one. If I get one I think I'm partial to orange colors. Anyways, this all is good information. Thank you again.

Beautiful car and thank you.

If you want to save some serious coin, you might consider an SXT Plus, or GT all-wheel-drive if you have serious weather (especially winter). Especially if this is to be a daily.

Why “drive away” big bucks? Just my opinion.

Darned near all the looks of a 5.7, Scat, or Hellcat. And save many, MANY thousands on both purchase and ownership.

The 3.6 Pentastar is nothing to sneeze at in its own right.

I loved my 2012 SXT Plus. Only had 17k miles when I sold it for the Scat last year.

Got almost as many looks and positive comments as I do the Scat.

I wouldn’t have even made the switch, had it not been for several financial issue that ok’d it.

This is her:

If you have always wanted one, buy it. The v6 has plenty of power and so does the 5.7. You would probably be happy with one of those, but if you think that you would always want more - do it. You won't have any regrets. The only issue that I had with mine was the backup camera was intermittent. Took it back several times under warranty. Mine was optioned well with a great stereo and automatic headlights, wipers, etc. Seats were supportive and comfortable. It has quite a bit of room, but not like an SUV.

If its going to be a daily driver and you're potentially worried about costs just get a 5.7. The 6.4 is a wallet drainer, the short life tires, oil changes all adds up. 5.7 runs on regular gas too

Same thing going on up around here as well. Just plain stupid why some people think you would buy a used car for the same price as a new one or more.

You know I did consider a V6 but, for the price point I think I would lean more toward a V8 model. My thought process is buy what I want which would be the Scat Pack. Now the R/T wouldn't be either but, I guess how I think of it is the Scat Pack would be the 440 R/T of the bunch where the 5.7 Hemi would be like ordering a 340 or 383 car. The V6 car would be like a Slant 6 or 318 car which isn't a bad deal either. Like I said I'm going to wait and see where the cards fall especially in this current market but, never hurts to start planning. I will tell you I have driven/rented two Ecoboost Mustangs and one V6 Camaros. I will tell you the Ecoboost Mustangs weren't bad but, the best MPG I got was probably 25-26 mpg on the highway. One was a convertible and one a coupe. The V6 Camaro I rented was a 2017 V6 compared to the prior model it felt too small and low to the ground. I didn't care for how the 8 speed shifted especially on hills. The closest experience I had with a newer Hemi was a 2016 Ram Outdoorsmen truck. With the 8 speed and 3.92 gears it was tire fryer off the line even being a quad cab and 4x4.

That's interesting to hear. If I could manage I would hope the most mileage I would drive in a year would be 5,000 or less. That's the first I've heard about the tires though.

6.4 is on a different level. Significant driving experience vs 5.7. I’ve had 5.7s in trucks as well as charger.

those ecoboost mustangs can make some good power also.
evolution performance bolted up a much larger turbo on a 100% bone stock motor and ran 9's for several months of weekly drag racing before it came apart.

I kind of figured that. I see that even when I option an 5.7 R/T that's not much away from a standard 6.4 Scat and in some case I've seen 5.7 cars listed for more than 6.4 Scat cars. If I could drive a manual that's the route I would go but, due to some injuries/disabilities I would have to go with the 8 speed automatic.

My wife has a 2019 purple scat, best car we have ever owned. It gets 19 average city highway, has gotten 27 highway only....not that we really care about that. It gets just as much attention as the old muscle, even the police give it a thumbs up. We have been 147 mph in it, and it had plenty left, it runs 100mph like you are going 50. Now let's debunk a lot of bowsheet.
Tires we have 9000 miles on it, from my calculation they should go 40-50k and age out before they wear out, rears are 2/32 more worn, but we don't do burnouts, it just slips a little when wide open. We do not have a widebody, it does not get out of shape unless there is dirt, sand, or water on the road. If you are going to go balls out somewhere not well travelled I would drive down the road first to see what's down there, just like the old muscle cars, know the road.
Brakes, same deal they look like new, should go 50-60k.
Weight, ya and that heavy car hooks pretty damn good on the street vs the lightweight boys who also
admit it is a way more comfortable car.
Handling it will corner so hard on stock p-zeros it will scare you, and you will never reach the cars limits unless you are a professional driver on a track. When we first got The car we thought we had to slow down to 10 mph to go around a corner after reading internet boards The car will kick your ass if you try to drive it hard when it is cold out, so beware. A lot of what you read on the internet is people who have never owned one, they give you skid pad specs tbey will never atain, all I can say is I did not want to believe how good these cars are, it cost less brand new than the paint and body work on my superbird, and I would sell the superbird before we would sell the Scat, I like it that much. Orange or tor red would be fantastic, get a GOOD color if you know what I mean. Oil changes are $94 at the dealer, $70-80 if I do it, same price as the old muscle if you use good zinc oil. Your results may vary.

You want the 8-speed auto, it is what makes the car so good.

We replaced my wife's 2010 5.7 Challenger R/T with a 2020 6.4 Scat Pack. Both were/are 6-spd daily drivers, but luckily she has a short commute.

I can say that the decade worth of development between the two cars is more evolutionary than revolutionary, since both ride very similarly, have similar cabin noise, etc. Besides the shaker hood, what I liked about the new Challenger was not having to break out my Diablosport to tune out the skip-shift. With the Scat Pack, you can just row the gears as hard as you want. It also sounds great through the factory exhaust; much better than the new Mustangs in their "hey, look at me because I'm a pin-head" exhaust mode.

I can also say that the Scat Pack is a more integrated package with more creature comforts, heated/cooled seats, proximity sensors, better smart phone interoperability, etc. It also hauls the mail and gets similar gas mileage to the 5.7, IF you keep your foot out of it...

I have a 2016 Scat Pack (8 Speed Auto) with some obvious retro "enhancements", right down to the Pentastar on the fender, and the two tone "VO2" painted white top.


A blast to drive. More "thumbs up" along the way than I can count. And perhaps the best bang for the buck going!!!


Bill Rolik


201-394-5533 Cellular


bremotorsports@verizon.net

Mine was my only car for 2-3 years, rain, sleet, snow. I routinely drag raced it and to get the best ET you have to do burnouts, tires were toast by each fall. Weekly premium fill ups and while I was able to hyper mile 29mpg on the highway it didnt matter because anything saved was used up at the next green light. Fun car, amazing engine and still miss it but as I said, if someone is going to buy one and scoff at the fuel costs or replace the performance rubber with chinese junk its best to just get a 5.7. Get your catch cans on them too, they ingest a LOT of oil

I've had a 2010 SRT, 2015 Scat Pack, 2015 SXT Plus, and currently have a 2020 Scat Pack Wide Body. All fantastic cars. The B5 Blue 2015 SXT Plus got the most compliments. Nothing wrong with that V6. Plenty of power for whatever you need except maybe racing. I traded the SXT Challenger on an SXT Plus Charger, also in B5. But the Hellraisin Wide Body Scat Pack is on another level. If I was going to daily drive it, I probably wouldn't get the wide body. But, the 245-section tires on the non-wide body cars aren't remotely capable of putting the power down although they are much less expensive to replace.

Agree on the 245s, dangerous with those. A 5.7 is scary below 50 degrees with those. Whatever you buy the larger tires, dynamics package and big brakes are smart to order.

Mine had the 245's, one of the only places you can enjoy the 392's grunt is highway on-ramps, 2 times the azz end kicked out when dropping the hammer - once on an on-ramp with no guard rails and 15' drop offs on both sides, would have been REAL ugly had I been a tool and turned the traction control off. (which is exactly what a friend tried to do when I let him drive it, I said you will turn that back on, now, as all he was used to was fwd import crap)

They run good when you put your foot into them and turn on track mode if it's stock. But, that's impressive for a 4 cylinder. They do have their own issues though or the earlier ones did which I think was the head gasket. MPG wasn't what I expected but, not bad either I guess for having over 300hp.

Thank you all. That is good to know about the tires and with the car being heavier I would like to get one with 275 width on minimum. As far as tires I haven't seen what's recommended but, I try to buy decent tires. On my current vehicle I have Continental DWS tires which is a huge improvement on the cheap tires that it had on it.

The other thing I want to mention is I'm use to driving something that is a slight handful. I have a 408 stroker LRE and let's just say in the rain I have to be careful taking off from lights with the old Cooper Cobras it has on it. Anything half throttle or more is instant tire spin.

Lol a V6 charger with TC off will do that (V6 charger will spank any 383)

Then you should be fine. It is a little different to have torque and horsepower over the whole rpm range. The old school stuff had power peaks, these cars always have power, and 8 speeds, and are going triple digits in a hurry. Fun car, best bang for the buck, just respect it.

Thank you all. I can respect the power. I like the look and sound. I used to own a 71 Challenger with a 383 in it.

Lots of newer stuff is quicker than the older stuff. Keep in mind I grew up driving K Cars and Dakotas with 125hp.

I started with a 2009 R/T 5.7 then went to a 2015 SRT 392 and now on to a hellcat. You can basically now option a scat like my 2015 SRT with adjustable suspension and wider tires (275 on a narrow body). In my opinion, the 392 is the best all round car.

The 392 is an awesome car, but so awesome you fall in love and want to keep it under a sleeping bag in a heated garage. For daily use - walmart, mall, grocery store parking lot, road salt, long term airport parking, parking on the street, gas/insurance - get a 5.7 if any of the above applies