Why you don't want to own a Hellcat

**Black Pearl** · 10-06-2014

Saw this posted on another site....

7 Reasons Why You Really Don't Want to Own the SRT Hellcat

1. It's Expensive – With a price starting at $60,990 for the manual transmission and $61,390 for the automatic transmission, the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat costs roughly double the price of the average modern muscle car.

2. It's Terrible in the Snow – Unless you live in an area where there is never any rain, snow or cold weather, the Hellcat Challenger is only going to be a reliable vehicle for half the year at best. The Challenger Hellcat set to the 700+ horsepower mode easily spins the tires at almost any speed on a warm, dry day so driving in the rain is tricky and driving in the snow would be little more than a comically frustrating experience. Even driving on a cold winter day where the roads are completely clear and dry, the simple fact that the tires and surface are so cold would make traction a nightmare. Some muscle cars can comfortably be driven year round – the Hellcat Challenger is not one of them.

3. You Will Spend a Fortune on Tires – the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat comes with 275-40ZR20 Pirelli P Zero Nero tires all around and while they can be expertly used to get the big Challenger into the low 11s, it is also very, very easy to get the tires spinning. It is blissfully simple to smoke the tires and anyone who buys a Hellcat Challenger will most certainly spend some time roasting the rear tires. In looking up those tires online, I found a price of around $260 per piece – and that doesn’t include the cost of having them installed.

4. You Will Spend a Bigger Fortune on Gas – Chrysler expects that the 2015 Challenger SRT Hellcat will return around 20 miles per gallon on the highway, but you have to also consider that at wide open throttle, it burns through 1.5 gallons per minute – there is great potential for very poor fuel economy. Now, I would love burning every cent of that fuel cost, but buying, owning and driving the Hellcat every day while flexing its muscles is going to get very expensive in a hurry.

5. You Will Spend a Fortune on Insurance – Even if you are an older individual with a spotless driving record, the cost of insurance coverage on the most powerful American production car of all time is going to be very high. As for younger drivers, insuring a muscle car is expensive – insuring the most powerful muscle car ever will likely be astronomical.

6. Other Muscle Car Owners Will Hate You – Do you have friends who own a Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro or even another Dodge Challenger? If you get the Hellcat Challenger, you wont have those friends anymore, as they will quickly get tired of you stomping them and making them look bad. For the same reason average women hate supermodels – average muscle car owners will hate you when you own a Hellcat Challenger.

7. It Just Isn't for Everyone – Sadly, while it would be hard for many people to admit, a 707 horsepower street car simply isn’t for everyone. The Hellcat Challenger has so much power that when shifting into 4th gear on a road course at high speed, the back tires still break loose and spin. Starting from a stop and even giving the Hellcat Challenger a gentle jab of the throttle will spin the tires and bring the back end around in a big hurry if not handled correctly. It is easy for someone who has never driven a car like this to assume that they could drive it every day, but the Hellcat simply packs far too much power for the average driver to safely and responsibly handle.

As you can tell, some of these 7 reasons why you wouldn’t want to own a Hellcat Challenger are obvious and other are obviously a joke. In all reality, the 707hp Challenger is a remarkable marvel of modern American engineering so of course every gearhead would love to own one and hopefully my 7 reasons – as absurd as they may be – will help some of you feel better about the fact that you won’t be buying one anytime soon.

**FLATOUT** · 10-06-2014

How is this even remotely related to Viper : General ?

**swexlin** · 10-06-2014

The insurance thing is not true. I pay less insurance on my 03 Viper (less than 5000 miles a year) than on my daily driver Dart. And neither one of them is that expensive. It depends on your age, record, FICO, and where the car is insured. The other things, probably right!

**City** · 10-06-2014

It has all been stated before, but regarding Vipers. And most of us own one (or several). The whole list isn't worth the time it takes to read.

**Late Apex** · 10-06-2014

All of those 7 reasons are actually very well stated. Lots of gas and tires for sure !!!

**ACRucrazy** · 10-06-2014

Dumb article. Swap Hellcat for Viper and it could read the same.

**plumcrazy** · 10-06-2014

moved to other rides.

FYI, those are all reasons why id wanna buy one

**Stretch** · 10-06-2014

That article is a joke.

Every item on there is actually a reason in favor of owning it.

Who ever wrote that is not a fan of cars. Period.

**Joel** · 10-06-2014

Are they making them in yellow? I'm sure they're even faster!!!!

Originally Posted by Stretch

That article is a joke.

Every item on there is actually a reason in favor of owning it.

Who ever wrote that is not a fan of cars. Period.

**SN95SNAKE** · 10-06-2014

Originally Posted by Stretch

That article is a joke.

Every item on there is actually a reason in favor of owning it.

Who ever wrote that is not a fan of cars. Period.

Agreed!

**ViperSmith** · 10-06-2014

$250 tires are expensive ?

**swexlin** · 10-06-2014

Originally Posted by ViperSmith

$250 tires are expensive ?

I thought the same thing. My PS2s were twice that, each.

**C.J** · 10-06-2014

Maybe the author forgot to start each sentence with "Compared to a Prius, ".

**v10enomous** · 10-06-2014

Reminds me of every time someone asks me what kind of mileage I get while they roll their eyes when I tell them 4mpg... lol

**VYPR BYT** · 10-06-2014

Whoever wrote this clearly doesn't get the "sports" part of sports car. Lame

**Roddy** · 10-07-2014

Obviously a written with satire!

**Canadian venom** · 10-07-2014

One good reason why you don't want to buy a Hellcat: it's the halo car of the same people who axed the Viper racing program..

**Sybil TF** · 10-08-2014

Reason why I won't buy one? My 2009 SRT8Challenger is paid for. Otherwise I would.

**BlknBlu** · 10-08-2014

It sounds like things are in the works to keep the Viper as the Halo car. I love the Hellcats and would take a Charger in a moment, but not at the expense of my Vipers.

Bruce