Shove that pedal to the metal
In response to my recent column asking readers about their first/favorite cars, I received the following email from a central Arkansas resident; it absolutely sums up the benefits and downsides of getting behind the wheel of a car—in this case, a classic muscle car—that you just can’t live without:
Ifell in love with muscle cars back in the mid-1990s after seeing the movie “Dazed and Confused” [a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater that follows an array of teenagers on the last day of school in Austin, Texas, in 1976 and includes scenes featuring a lineup of muscle dream cars including a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge, a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454, a 1972 Chevrolet C10, a 1973 Plymouth Duster, and a 1974 Pontiac Trans Am].
When I was in college, a buddy of mine had a 1969 Mustang that was partially restored, and that only fueled the fire.
Around 2008, Dodge announced they were bringing back the Challenger, and I knew that was the car I wanted. While I love the classic older muscle cars, the newer ones have appealing features, like air conditioning, reliability, and decent gas mileage. So I was just waiting and planning for the right moment to make my move on a Challenger. There was a particular one I wanted, and started keeping an eye out.
Fast-foward to 2016. One day I was casually looking at Craigslist, and a listing caught my attention. It was for a 2009 Challenger R/T Classic, with the 5.7L Hemi V8, in B5 blue, with around 80,000 miles. The transmission had recently been replaced, which was a plus. The car was in Texarkana, which is where I was born and grew up.
I got in touch with the seller, and the car had an interesting story. He had bought the Challenger for his fiancee, but shortly after buying it, the transmission went out. He got it replaced, but then his fiancee laid down the law that the second baby they had coming was not going to work so well with a sporty two-door car.
You see where this is going. My wife and I drove to Texarkana and ended up buying the car. I had never had a rear-wheel-drive V8 before, and it was just intoxicating. Starting it up every morning, you just felt like the king of the road, or at least like you’d somehow harnessed a lion.
I ended up keeping it until about May 2023.
Coming back from an event one night, I ran over a large chunk of tire on I-30 in Benton. It did a lot of damage to the front bumper and underside of the car. That was going to be expensive to fix, and the body shop was actually a little concerned about being able to find/get original equipment manufacturer parts for a 2009 car (aftermarket bumpers were problematic, he said).
Plus the car had always had issues with its key fobs, and recently had stopped recognizing the one good key fob I had, potentially stranding me randomly at work or home. Finally, with nearly 200,000 miles and 14 years on the clock, it had various other “older car” problems I didn’t want to chase down.
I ended up trading it in on a 2016 Mazda 3, which I love. It gets twice the miles per gallon that my Challenger did, has four doors, and other various creature comforts the Challenger lacked.
Somehow it doesn’t have the soul of the Challenger, though. I hope it has a good life for its next owner. I really struggled with letting my Challenger go for several months afterwards. Occasionally, I still have a twinge of remorse.
What I realized was there are chapters in life, and it was time to turn to page to the next chapter. Oftentimes it seems that resistance to the change is harder than actually accepting the change. At least that’s been my experience.
I mentioned “Dazed and Confused.” If you’re familiar with the movie, there are at least a couple of scenes at the Top Notch Hamburger drive-in in Austin, Texas. My brother lives in Austin, and I go visit him from time to time. I got to drive my Challenger through the Top Notch, so the dream of my youth was kind of fulfilled. I’m very grateful things lined up for me to have that experience.
I received several more interesting, entertaining, funny, and poignant responses, which I’ll include in future columns; thanks to those who are sharing their stories. — Karen Martin, senior editor, Perspective.