via Fark
Detroit 2006: Dodge Challenger Concept unveiled
It’s kind of interesting but it doesnlt really grab me. IMO Chrysler-Dodge is getting a too into this "retro"design aspect on their new cars. Retro is fun but there’s a reason design moved on.
This is one of the main reasons why I hate the Chrysler Corporation. They cough up cars like this every 2-3 years to detract your attention from their crappy regular cars. I wish Daimler would come to its senses and sever their link with them and let them die a well-deserved death.
Ummm, nice! I like it – but I grew up in the muscle car era. If they offer a stick, maybe I’ll get one…
I’ve always thought the original Challenger was cool and this car rocks. If I were in the market for a $30K (or whatever it’s going to cost) toy car, I would so be driving one. Especially in orange. Ooooh yeah!
It brings to mind the car that Troy Trepanier built. Except that it’s a Cuda not a Challenger, but you know what I mean, right?
I had an original.
‘71 R/T, 383 Magnum, 4 speed.
Paid 6 grand for it.
I actually sold it in '72, when gas skyrocketed to a buck a gallon.
Those were the days, my friends. 
agreed.
i really like the rear of the car, but the front might as well be chopped off a charger/extended ram truck, etc. etc.
i live in detroit and we bellyache about how our auto companies come up with nothing interesting.
chrysler is trying, but i think they’re using retro designs as a crutch and as a cost-effective means to make something “new”. instead of coming up with a new design, how about we sofeten the corners and slap some lipstick on a pig?
retro designs died because they weren’t efficient. i’m sure they’re more efficient now, but they ARE invoking the old days when people cared about the cars they released. they’re pandering to baby boomers and nothing more. they’re sacrificing future buyers by getting nostalgic. meanwhile, foreig car makers get stronger and better every day…
charlie gets stronger every day in the bush…
sorry, couldn’t resist the apocalypse now reference.
What’s wrong with that? It’s standard practice to make many variations based on the same platform.
I don’t think so. To younger people, retro designs are refreshingly new (to them) designs. I see a lot of young people driving PT Cruisers, Mustangs, New Beetles and Minis.
By the way, does anyone else think the new Charger looks vaguely Japanese? The front end reminds me of the Mitsubishi Diamante. I think I like the Mustang better.
And did anyone notice on a linked page the new Chevrolet Camaro Concept?
This is something I could wrap around me on the road.
Ewww. This is something I’d like to wrap around a tree.
I like this better than the new Charger.
Is this a great time for cars, or what? I think the new Challenger is awesome, and the new Camaro looks equally awesome.
It’s hard to believe, but 40 years after the muscle car wars, they’re starting again, this time with cars that are light-years ahead in quality, performance, comfort, and reliability. The SS/Hemi/SVO versions of these cars are going to be pushing 500 horsepower and still getting 20 mpg. I think it’s great.
I also don’t see anything wrong with retro design. It’s just another design philosophy, and can be done well or done poorly. This car and the Mustang are a hit, the Chevrolet SSR and the Ford Thunderbird were flops. Good design is good design.
If someone makes one of these in AWD, I am so there.
Yuck. Looks like it’s designed to appeal to teenage boys.
It’s growing on me, but it looks more like it belongs on the Firebird side of the family than the Camaro side.
That Challenger is almost perfect, though.
/thinks the SSR would have sold better if they’d called it an El Camino
I like this one: Ford Reflex.
An all-wheel-drive sports car with a third seat making it more practical and a hybrid drivetrain that goes fast and gets 65 mpg. Perfect.
Exactly like the original and every other Camaro/Firebird/Mustang/Challenger/GTO. I’d say they nailed it.
I like the Challenger a lot. The profile looks respecially. My biggest concern when I see concepts that I love is how they end up looking with the stock wheels. American car companies seem to have a real issue with putting badly undersized wheels on their sports cars base models. It ruins their lot appeal.
I’m not sure how anyone can bash Chysler for what they are doing these days. You may not love their designs, but they are about the only quasi-American car company making waves with new models. Certainly they’ve trotted out some retro designs to varying success, but compared to GM and Ford they have been brillant.
The Chysler 300 is a really popular car that diverged from the stereotype and is actually taking back some of the foreign market share. They’ve kept the Jeep brand strong and even the Charger has been a improvement over the standard bland US sedan.
Ford’s been trotting out an embarrassing line of bland, recycled crap for a decade now. GM has at least taken some risks, but with a few exceptions all the new designs have been shit. Aside from Cadillac, Corvette and the Mustang there’s not much positive happening in Detroit besides Chrysler.
that camaro looks like a copy of the dodge cars. tweak the front, nip the back, and it’s virtually identical.
and the last poster is right, so far. dodge is the only one trying.
however, i DO like that ford reflex. how much do you want to bet we’ll never see it?
you know, i think the retro design would be better…especially the dodge grill…if it weren’t pummeled to death for the past 10 or so years by the dodge trucks.
i much prefer the challenger to the charger, by the way. (if anyone cares)
and there’s plenty wrong with leaning on old designs for new cars. it shows a lack of imagination and “trying”. some of them look interesting, but i tend to attribute it mostly to lazy designwork.
I like the Camaro better, it’s where Ford should have went with the last redesign of the Mustang. I could see the new Camero taking market share back from Ford. I also agree with the posters who’ve said the Challenger looks better than the Charger. The problem with the Charger is that they probably caved to some idiot in Marketing who wanted a family freindly sedan like car. The four doors make it look clunky rather than a muscle car.
Stuffy
Who’s first car was a 72 Mustang
Ditto. It also looks like the car will be iPod compatible. 
That Camaro looks horrific, IMHO, and I have to wonder if it was designed by the guy who did the first retro GTO design (with 4 doors) who said, “Until I was assigned to this project, I didn’t even know Pontiac had made a car called GTO.” Way to pick the wrong designer, guys. One of the auto magazines mentioned something about “snot bubbles” in their article on it.
Oh yeah, here’s the new design for the Imperial. It’s not pretty, IMHO.
Oh. Your God. That’s hideouser than the 300 it’s based on.