Test Drive - Mazda 6 vs Mustang vs Challenger

[veeman]

In-laws spending the last few days with us.  My father in law, who's a super great guy and loves cars, tags along as I test drive a few cars.  I'll break this into three parts.  Each one starts the same:  I pop in on a Monday afternoon and tell the salesman I'm looking to replace my VW diesel which VW will buy back.  I don't know when exactly they'll buy it back but fairly certain around November/December.  I'm going to rag on the salesman just for humor sake.  All three I didn't have any legit complaints about. 

2016 Mazda 6 - I had done some internet inquiries at this place so they had me in their system.  20-30 year old salesman after a minute or so says lets take the car for a long ride.  I had told him I was interested in the Mazda 6 vs Honda Accord and that I was only interested in buying a manual transmission.  He says that the Honda Accord has been the best car in this class for 20 or so years but last few years they've made their cars more like a Camry and less of a driver's car.  They only had 2 automatics on the lot.  My father in law gets in the back seat.  This car is very nice looking on the outside.  Interior is fantastic.  So simply laid out, just like my Beetle, and great looking.  Looks very high quality for a mainstream sedan.  Car drives great.  Feels very light and nimble.  Perfect leather wrapped steering wheel that's just the right size.  Acceleration is perfectly fine for me.  One of the few complaints I had about my 2003 Mazda 6i was it had an annoying buzzy sound when I accelerated hard.  This 4 cylinder engine note is far more muted and I liked the muted high frequency pitch of it when I smashed the gas pedal.  Unlike my 2003 Mazda 6i, the turning radius of this car is also fine.  The 2003 version had a turning radius more befitting a Suburban for some reason.  I cut the test drive short.  Salesman wants to go over some backroads but I knew I liked the way this car drove and I wanted to get moving.  I ask about what's this new steering or something the new 2017 Mazda 6 will have and he says the only difference is the shape and feel of the steering wheel.  I seriously doubt this but whatever.   Salesman says that if I want a 2017 model, he can get one in the color I want (soul red) to arrive for me whenever in Nov/Dec I get rid of my diesel. 

O.K.  So I leave knowing I probably am not going to get this car which I didn't know before test driving it. The problem is it looks nice.  It's a great midsize mainstream sedan. I don't want a mainstream sedan.  I now know this.   

[veeman]

2016 Mustang GT with the performance package and manual transmission.  Damn.  Damn.  Damn.  In 12,000 RPM speak, this car is Lex Steele's 10 inch phallus vs most other's 5 inches.  It looks great!  Like a rocket ship.  Performance tires combined with low center of gravity look so damn sexy on this car.  Salesman, 50 year old or so guy, is sizing me up in the dealer lot.  I haven't even entered the building.  I tell him I'm looking at cars to replace my diesel and I just drove a Mazda 6 and I'm interested in the Mustang GT with performance package and manual transmission.  He starts interrogating me about what is my angle here as you can't cross shop those cars.  I start giving him details about the GT indicating I know what this car is about and that I'm trying to figure out if I want to do the sensible economic thing or feed my soul.  After a few seconds of silence, he tells me to wait outside while he runs to grab some keys.  So I get inside the driver seat and he sits next to me.  My father in law waits inside the dealership because he's too frail to contort himself into the backseat.  So I'm checking out the car inside with the dealer next to me and the backseats are tighter than I thought they would be.  The car also is more narrow in width than I was expecting.  So after a few moments of dash stroking, I say, "So can we drive it?"  I know he's still sizing me up.  "You want to drive it?"  "Well, yeah, you know, to figure out if I like the car.  You know, seat of the pants feel."  "O.K., let me make a copy of your license and I'll get a license plate."  A minute or so later, I'm playing with the shifter.  It's real nice looking and feeling.  I'm putting it towards "R" but the car is not reversing.  I'm pushing down on the gear shifter while doing this to no avail.  I'm looking at the salesman and he's looking at me.  I'm feeling hot now because I'm doing something wrong and he's still sizing me up.  Why don't you tell me what I'm doing wrong?!  I ask "You don't push down on the shifter to go in Reverse?"  So after a moment in complete silence he shows me that you have to pull up on something while shifting into R.  Now I'm panicking a little.  If I stall this thing getting out of the parking lot, he's gonna cut this test drive short.  So thankfully, without any further hitches, we get going.  I'm surprised at how nice the ride of this car is.  It doesn't beat you up at all.  The deep grumble of the V8 when I very slightly smash the gas pedal is just great.  This car is very easy to drive.  It's definitely not nimble though.  But it's satisfying.  After a few minutes of us driving, the salesman totally relaxes.  I'm not driving the car like a prick and I know how to shift.  I get the feeling he realizes I'm a legit potential buyer.  I'm tell him I have yet to test drive the Challenger and he says I just got to go with my gut.  That I can't go wrong with either.  Afterwards at his desk he tells me that if I decide to go with the Mustang, he can order a 2017 model from the factory exactly how I want and it'll arrive in about 4 weeks.  He knows because I told him I have a close relative who's a retired Ford executive and so I can get discounted no haggle pricing. 

Two things hold me back from saying yes to this car.  One, the Challenger which I test drove afterwards.  Two, I have a sort of close cousin who 20 years ago while in college, was the driver of a Mustang in which he lost control and a passenger died.  Also, I have a brother in law whose aunt 30 years ago died in a Ford Mustang.  I'm not a superstitious person but, it's a mental factor. 

[veeman]

2016 Challenger R/T Shaker Automatic.  20-30 year old salesman.  I'm at his desk and I tell him my spiel.  Tell him I just got done test driving a Mustang GT manual and yadda yadda yadda.  I tell him the RT manual transmission model I'm interested in is about this much and he starts saying that the 5.7 L V8 (which is their smallest V8) is around 40 thousand.  I tell him, "Nahhh.  It's around 34.  We go back and forth.  He starts going to the Dodge website, and I tell him I want base everything, except wheels, manual transmission Challenger R/T.  No packages, etc.  After about 5 minutes of doing God knows what, he says the car I want is 33.  No shit, Sherlock.  After a few more minutes, I say, "So can we drive one.  A 5.7 L V8."  "We don't have any manuals in stock."  I say I figured that but I want to know what the car drives like and you know, I can't decide if I like the Challenger until I drive one.  So he acquiesces.  Wow.  This car looks like what a muscle car should look like.  I'm transported back in time to the 70s.  The Mustang looks like a modern day sexy as hell rocket ship.  The Challenger looks like a bad ass 1970s car straight out of the Dukes of Hazzard. Yee-Haw! I'm smitten.  I was expecting the backseat to have greater leg room but salesman looks fairly comfortable back there with my father in law in the passenger seat.  The car is not as precise as the Mustang GT with performance package.  It drives like a big sedan.  Being very used to driving my Infiniti QX56, the car doesn't seem wide to me.  I'm used to that girth.  It'll be a pain in the ass to park in the garage at my work but probably easier than a Camaro and all 3 of the cars I tested have back up cameras standard the way I would spec em.  Engine, just as in the Mustang GT, sounds absolutely fabulous with a slight smash of the gas pedal.  The uplevel 20" x 9" hyperblack aluminum wheels with all seasons look fantastic too.  One thing I can't help but chuckle out loud at is hearing the salesman try to defend the "skipshift" bullshit feature that manual transmission Challenger's have if you accelerate slowly.  I'm querying him about it and he's trying to tell me the car with the skipshift just shifts the way you're supposed to.  So I say that if I'm accelerating slowly, a proper manual transmission should prevent you from shifting from 1st gear to 2nd gear? and after hearing some more gibberish I start chuckling and he stops talking any more about it.  There's an easy aftermarket solution for it but I don't know if it'll void my powertrain warranty.  Apparently, according to Dodge Challenger forums, it doesn't kick in (the skipshift feature) that often.

The best part of the Challenger?  The 2017 models aren't out yet.  The 2016 models come with a $2500 discount plus 0% financing.  And that's before any negotiating on the price.

Only thing left for me to do now is test drive the Focus RS.  I know my wife doesn't want me to get another small car but I have to at least test drive it.

[CJ]

You won't be able to get a test drive of the RS.

[veeman]

You won't be able to get a test drive of the RS.

Oh well.  I guess they won't get my money. 

[SJ_GTI]

You won't be able to get a test drive of the RS.

He might get lucky, you never know. But yeah lots of stories on the net of no test drives and some dealers still asking above MSRP.

[MrH]

Legit lol at the "12,000 RPM speak".

Go for a base Challenger Scat Pack.  That's the best deal out there.  You get upgraded shocks, 485 hp, 6-speed manual.  MSRPs for $40k, but you can get it for $36k probably pretty easily.  It's got all the power of the 392 SRT, but it's $10k cheaper.

It's what all the Chrysler employees ordered in droves the second they opened up the scat pack option to them for company cars.

[CALL_911]

No Camaro SS?

[veeman]

Legit lol at the "12,000 RPM speak".

Go for a base Challenger Scat Pack.  That's the best deal out there.  You get upgraded shocks, 485 hp, 6-speed manual.  MSRPs for $40k, but you can get it for $36k probably pretty easily.  It's got all the power of the 392 SRT, but it's $10k cheaper.

It's what all the Chrysler employees ordered in droves the second they opened up the scat pack option to them for company cars.

Yeah Car and Driver also said it's the best bang for buck model to get.  Thanks!  It doesn't look any better to me though and the engine note of the base V8 sounds great as it is.  Do I want to pay more for the go faster and handle better parts.  Maybe.

[Cookie Monster]

Yeah Car and Driver also said it's the best bang for buck model to get.  Thanks!  It doesn't look any better to me though and the engine note of the base V8 sounds great as it is.  Do I want to pay more for the go faster and handle better parts.  Maybe.

Damn near 500 hp for $36k is a freakin steal. Do it.

[veeman]

No Camaro SS?

I need a backseat for I take my kids locally to their activities and appointments often enough.

[veeman]

Damn near 500 hp for $36k is a freakin steal. Do it.

Well if you put it that way

This is not a weekend toy for me though.  It's my daily driver and I put 25 thousand miles a year on my car.  Buying a V8 pony car is not the economical choice as it is and I wonder am I going overboard with the larger V8 engine both in terms of gas mileage and maintenance costs.  Maybe I should.  I don't know.

[Cookie Monster]

The R/T is rated at 16/25, and the Scat Pack is 15/25, so you're not really giving anything up by getting the Scat Pack. Plus you get to enjoy that acceleration.

I do see your point, though. At 25k a year I don't know if I'd want to get a V8 pony car. I mean, gas is cheap now, but probably won't be forever...

[MrH]

Maintenance and gas mileage are not going to be appreciably different between the R/T V8 and the Scat Pack....but the acceleration will be!

[veeman]

Hmmm...

Big V8 vs even bigger V8.  It's a V8 already dammit.  Leave me alone

[Cookie Monster]

But why go Scat Pack when you can go Hellcat?

[CALL_911]

I need a backseat for I take my kids locally to their activities and appointments often enough.

No Camaro SS?

[veeman]

I think that might qualify as cruel and unusual punishment (sticking my kids in the backseat of a Camaro).

[CALL_911]

Naaaaaaaaaaah

[CALL_911]

Have you considered the RWD 340i with Track Handling Package?

[12,000 RPM]

Driving my buddy's Challenger SRT8 put some hair on my chest. I get it.

You should give the Accord Sport a try though.

[SJ_GTI]

Have you considered the RWD 340i with Track Handling Package?