Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see May lease deals!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
To keep this on the SRT-4 topic. Put 225s on the SRT-4 and I am sure a great deal of the handling and wheel-spinning issues will be resolved. Can the car handle 225s though?
The SRT4 should handle 215s easy, maybe 225s if the fenders can accomodate them. Mazda fits 215/45/17s in their MP3 and Mazdaspeed Protege without a problem. A limited slip is the first thing i'd do to the SRT4 in terms of mods. Just like the WRX's achilles heel was the poor RE92s, so i got wheels and tires first.
BTW, stopped by a Dodge dealer today and was able to take a good look at the SRT-4. It looks much better in person than in the pictures. Dodge did a nice job on the exterior styling. The rear actually looks roomy too. The interior is decent but looks very bland.
I would have testdrove it, but it was raining, and doubted the dealer would let me testdrive it with driving up in a WRX. Who knows?
yeah subzeros are good. they're all hubcentric now too which is good. they're around 17 lbs ea. AFAIK. I like the formels a lot, i don't know how much they weigh. The tarmacs are heaviest at 19lbs.
I wonder if they would fit on the SRT-4? They look close to the current wheels on the SRT-4. I just can't believe the rims are 17"-6"s. I would have thought Dodge would have put wider rims on this car!
-B
The Mitsu's turning radius is actually bigger than our Town & Country EX's!
On the rubber, I bought a first gen Stratus ES V6 sedan when they first hit the market in '95. Excellent car, if a little underpowered, with exceptional handling (IMO) for the class, but true to Chrysler form, it had 195/65-15s on 6" rims. The car was capable of much more than the rubber would ever allow. At the first opportunity, I bought 16" rims and 215/55-16s. The difference was unbelieveable.
Not sure what it is with Chrysler and rubber, but their offerings always seem shy on treadwidth to me.
The "16g" simply refers to the compressor wheel in the turbo in this case. I would assume the flow is much less than 500cfm but I haven't seem any flow numbers yet.
I will post again once I have driven it around some.
I have not seen any ads on TV letting people know that the car is on sale, but the type of people who would buy this car should know it's out due to numerous magazine articles and reviews.
Those dealers who are holding on to these cars for a nice markup (over sticker) are fools. Those who buy these cars at or over sticker are even bigger fools. This is Dodge we're talking about here !!!
California dealers have a lot of SRT-4s because California is a huge auto market. Furthermore, this is the hub of the "sports compact car" scene.
You can have one of these babies for $18,469 (that's $100 below invoice) at a Dodge dealer by L.A. Airport (according to Carmax). He's selling them as fast as he gets them. As for the other dealers around town, don't know what they're asking, but their SRT-4s don't seem to sell. I know because I've been checking their inventories the last week or so.
If you want something similar with better reliability, the WRX is available for a little more money and you get 4 wheel drive thrown in. For a lot more money there is the new limited edition WRX model with even more power than a "base" WRX.
I think the SRT4 gives you crude, mean-looking bang for the buck raw power with good handling too. I don't think there is anything you can buy new for $19995 that will be able to outperform it, but plan on it not being any more reliable than a typical Neon. It should be an exciting car to drive though and probably worth the money as long as you are ready to "deal with" any problems that will turn up.
Dodge has done a lot to correct it's quality faults of the 90's.
The WRX is not bad. But it's a little too pricey and I don't need AWD.
Another thing, isn't there a forum that isn't infested with Honda zombies ? Seems like they're everywhere preaching their reliability and high resale value. Is the Honda world too boring ? Right, gee35 ??
BTW the 2.4l turbo has been around for awhile in Mexico so hopefully they atleast have the bugs worked out with the engine already.
-B
With a 225mm width, you'll need at least a 7.0" rim width. But this, too, will give you a slight bulging look. A 7.5" rim width is preferred. If you want to see a 225/45/17 with a 7.0" rim setup, check out the Golf GTI or Jetta (with the 17" wheel option). The Audi TT, on the other hand, has the same tire size, but mounts on 7.5" rims...much better.
thedarkwolf - Thanx for the info. I already check out the site. Lots of helpful stuff. I'll be keeping an eye on owner reported problems.
-B
With all this said, i was so close to picking one up this weekend, but they didn't have silver, only 2 reds, 2 yellows, 1-2 black. Financing was all set but i backed out last minute because #1: losing money on my trade in, #2 reliability.
ive never had good luck with US built cars. I used to own a 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX Turbo, which is a US built car identical to Eagle Talon and Plymouth laser. this car had sooooooo many problems, blown head gasket, burned valves at around 80k, leaks galore, all this and i bought the car new. i gladly sold the car, and bought a used limited edition 1991 Galant VR4, for those of you who don't know about this car (not surprising since they only imported 2000 of these babies from Japan in 1991), its a 4 door version of the Eclipse/Talon/Laser, with a few differences, the most important being the Galant VR4 was made entirely in Japan. Same engine, same electronics, pretty much same drivetrain, except built different places. Long story short, the Japanese built galant was WAY more reliable and built way better than my eclipse. Even fully modified with a bigger J-spec turbo, front mount intercooler, all on the untouched internally stock original factory engine, it still pulled 13.6 1/4 mile times on the original 160k miles and remained reliable enough to be driven from so cal to oregon when i sold it a year ago.
anyhow, that made the biggest difference in my decision not to buy the SRT4 despite such a great price and finance rate. With the non-turbo neons extremely poor reliability rating, i just didn't want to take a chance, plus with my career I don't have time to fix things and "DIY" modifications anymore. Hence, Ive decided to wait 1 month and purchase an EVO when the dealer mark ups are gone, or an STi but i doubt if that will be available, despite the 10k price difference, I think these two cars will hold their value, mystique, and reliability much better than a NEON, and more likely to be two of those cars destined to be "classics" or "keepers" because of the low # of units that will ever be sold. thats worth an extra 10k in itself! Perhaps 4 years ago, when i was still in college, working weekends at this shop that built rally cars, and only worried about having a fast car reliable enough to drive to street races but not enough to survive a long daily commutes with AC at full blast, the SRT4 is definitely the car to have, specially if you live life a 1/4 mile at a time! And im sure one of these days, a heavily modified SRT4 will pull up to my EVO/Sti and probably spank me (if they manage to ever put all that power to the ground), but which ever car I will own will still run mid 13s in street legal form and never need to be on rollers during emissions testing. Oh, last word of warning, Turbo magazine states that the srt4 despite running a Mitsubishi built 16g turbo, it will not be as easy to get upgrades as turbo eclipse which uses a similar mitsu turbo, because the exhaust housing is integrated with the exhaust manifold (weird!), and turbo upgrades will most likely need an aftermarket exh manifold as well, or the factory exh manifold and turbine housing can be hogged out to fit a bigger aftermarket turbine cartridge, but youll be limited by the relatively small size of the 16gs housing. sorry so long hope this helps someone!
http://www.atpturbo.com/turbopiping/videos/129SRT416PSI.mpg
http://www.atpturbo.com/turbopiping/videos/129SRT416PSI.wmv
same video just different formats.
A 1.8 second 60 foot time isn't too shabby with slicks and an open differential with a car with almost 300 lb-ft of torque at 3000 RPM. The 12.9 isn't bad either, tehe. Track nights will be interesting this summer for the unsuspecting!
I find it hard to believe dodge dealers around here, are really going to be able to sell SRT's above sticker or at for that matter.
Just give it sometime before you finally start seeing them on the lots. Make a few calls, visit a few different dealers....I'm sure anyone will eventually be able to pick one up at a reasonable price. With the cost of living in CT these days...these cars are going no where fast around here!