I know that the pony cars are not very popular on this form, but given the fact that the Camaro first drives are all over the car web sites, I was wondering what would be your pick out of the three (I know the Mustang will be new for 2010, but still).
I'd go for Camaro although I have zero interest in this type of car.
Ooh, good question.
The Mustang doesn't really light my fire. Maybe it's too common already, so it doesn't have that X-factor for me. And the live axle really limits its suspension performance compared with the new Camaro and Challenger.
The Camaro is the one my brain wants. The G8 handles remarkably well, and the Camaro should handle even better given its much smaller size. And the direct-injection V6 should give better weight balance and better fuel economy than a traditional V8, while still delivering roughly 300 horsepower. But subjectively, I think the styling job is cartoonish, and the Camaro will always be the doing-burnouts-in-Walmart's-parking-lot car for me. Unfair and irrational bias against the name, but that's how I feel.
The Challenger is the one my gut wants. Objectively, I should hate it. Admittedly, the partly-Mercedes-sourced interior makes it handle like the original Challenger never did. But it's heavy, the interior is craptastic, fuel economy is painfully bad (2 mpg worse than my wife's
truck). But damn, that car is cool. I loooooooooove the design and I loooooooooove the noise it makes.
And if I were buying a pony car, I'd go with my gut over my brain. Because if my brain ruled, I wouldn't be getting a pony car at all. So I'll take a black Challenger RT with a pistol-grip six-speed manual, thankyouverymuch.
(Yes I realize that's the SRT)
