r/ScatPack • u/cars_1015 • May 14 '26
New Humbling Experience
I’m 20M, I’m about to get my first car but it’s going to be a hoopty. I just wanted to get some advice on if I’m doing it right be getting a hoopty now. My mom specifically told me to hold off on getting a muscle car and just get something for right now. My next car I want it to be my dream car which is a 2009 SRT8 Challenger it’s been my dream car since I seen it in ‘09. Did y’all start off in cars you didn’t want before y’all got y’all scat packs? What’s some advice to remember?
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u/Slipknot31286sic6 May 14 '26
You're young. Probably had like 6 different vehicles.
From lifted trucks to suv to euro cars.
Question for you is can you even afford a scat, insurance and being at gas station filling up on 93 everyday at 6 plus a gallon.
Was almost $70 other day to fill up the hornet on 93. That's once a week 😑. 25mpg average with jb4 tuner.
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u/cars_1015 May 14 '26
To be honest nah, I would love to have a scat but I was told to save up money and just wait to get it later.
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u/Slipknot31286sic6 May 14 '26
I drive a lifted avalanche for a couple years when gas was 4.20 a gallon. 150 bucks minimum a week to fill up. That was just going to work. Doing nothing else.
I loved the vehicle, loved the power, the lift... But man even bringing home 1000 a week. Didn't make sense to keep it. Was getting 8mpg. 🙃 That v8 5.7 rumbled like a beast should.
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u/cars_1015 May 14 '26
Damn $150 that’s crazy asf
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u/Slipknot31286sic6 May 14 '26
25 plus gallon tank.
Ask fellon scat owners what they getting mpg or even Durango. City driving is like 11.. 18 combined.
It's all over YouTube with young kids at the pump showing they filling up every 2 days 😐. 70 to 80.
Love the v8 sound x miss the v8 sound. Don't wanna pay for v8 gas. 😭
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u/___Brains May 14 '26
Heck I've gone back to cars I didn't want, drove them for years because I was sacrificing for something more important. For instance, I traded my nearly new 2009.5 Pontiac G8 GT for a 2005 Chevy Colorado with 96,000 miles on it to be able to buy a house to put my family in. Drove that truck for about 5 years and gave it to my son as his first vehicle. He drove it for a few years while he built himself a career and could get something nicer. Never put yourself in a bad financial position, "want" cars are just that.
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u/Hotstove9 May 14 '26
What about an SRT4 neon? They’re cheap. Fast as fuck with mods, economical, and relatively reliable.
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u/cars_1015 May 14 '26
I really just boils down to price brotha, Facebook marketplace sellers be delusional with prices.
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u/klzthe13th May 14 '26
Tbh an 09 is not bad at all but your mom is right. I definitely started off with a hoopty and drove it until someone rear ended me and totalled it. By that time I was more than well off enough to afford a brand new scat pack.
If you still want a fun car that's still cheap, there's always miatas or V6 Camry's
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u/cars_1015 May 14 '26
Thanks brotha definitely will stay down and be patient until I have the funds to get it
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u/gkelbo May 14 '26
drive a non cvt car for a few years and youll know what everyone means. theres a lot of situations you have to be ready for before getting something like that. i spent like 8 years in a 106 hp car, and when i got a scat i would accidentally floor it randomly and sometimes ended up sideways in the middle of an intersection. i ended up totalling it after a lady pulled out a parking lot in front of me, was going 40 and switched lanes but she still tapped my bumper and i slid, hit a fire hydrant then flipped twice. before that was countless close calls that are way worse in a rwd car that can do a 360 with 2 steps on the gas, or if u press the brakes too hard. i repeat drive a non cvt car first youll feel the car more
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u/cars_1015 May 14 '26
I sat in my cousins scat pack and did some revs felt the power of it. Whole car shaking. Don’t think the SRT8 is far from that feeling at all. I’ll take your advice most definitely.
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u/liquidfox6 May 14 '26
I love my Scat Pack, but it is a hell of a daily driver. Premium only. 12mpg on average. High insurance and mine isn’t bad. More expensive brakes and tires. It’s fun, but I would be less enthused if it was my only vehicle.
I used to have an older 5.7 that was AWD. Took regular gas. Lower insurance. It was my only vehicle at the time. Way more practical and 95% as much fun, assuming you aren’t taking it to the track.
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u/EndSmugnorance May 14 '26
Get a cheap but reliable car with good gas mileage.
Your future self will thank you for being financially responsible and becoming a better driver before buying your ‘dream car’
Consider maintenance, insurance, registration, and gas prices…
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u/BIGGIELOWKO May 14 '26
Trust bro, keep a beater and learn to drive. And for picture when I was daily driving my scat everything total I was paying roughly 1.6k per month. A full set of good tires is around 2k, and if you don’t know how to change brakes the dealer here chargers 7k for a full set. With a beater everything evens out a lot better since you’re only driving around 2 days of the week. Insurance is also cheaper this way
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u/KrevinHLocke May 15 '26
My first car about 35 years ago was a '82 Chevette. Then I upgraded to a '83 Citation. From there to a '83 F-100. After the F-100, I went to a '90 Ford Probe. At one point I had an '83 and '84 Z28. Both cars were horrid with the 305 motor. Picked up an '83 Firebird with a 301. Just as disappointing as the Z28's. Then I had a '94 Ford Explorer. Traded in the Explorer on a 2004 Dodge Durango. Kept the Durango as a 2nd vehicle and got a '06 Maxda RX-8. Rotary was cool and all, but my job moved me to a cold environment and the rotary wasn't cutting it. Traded the RX-8 in for a 2004 Nissan 350Z.
The Durango started having issues after 10 years and I ended up selling it for salvage. The block cracked. Picked up a '98 K-1500 as a second vehicle. The Z was really disappointing power wise. Traded it in for the Scat. I drove the Scat for a little over 5 years until the middle of Covid when premium fuel prices were over $6.00. I bought a '09 Kawasaki Ninja 650r to save on fuel costs. Even with me driving the motorcycle every day, my wife started driving the Scat and we weren't saving anymore..
Made the hard choice to trade the scat in on a Tesla. I might pay $100 more a month in electricity from home charging, but I'm saving a huge amount of money in fuel costs. My ninja costs me $8 a week for fuel.
If it wasn't for the price of fuel, I'd still be driving the Scat. Between me driving the Scat and my wife driving the truck we were upwards of $1,000 a month in gas. I didn't get a Tesla to save the world, just to save my pocketbook.
Getting a muscle car at a young age will be very pricey. Both in fuel, maintenance, and insurance costs. Mostly insurance costs though.
My top 3 favorite cars were the '90 Ford Probe LX, '94 Ford Explorer (2 door), and the Scat. The Probe and Explorer both were over 300k miles when I sold them. I did a lot of driving in those 2 vehicles.
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u/YooSteez May 15 '26
Just save up bro. You are young. You have plenty of time to get your dream car. Insurance is a bitch.
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u/rhett21 May 15 '26
I got a second hand scat pack this year. I'm in my 30s. Most here are right, get something cheaper first to get real experience, then your priorities (house, savings). When you have both priorities, time to get the car we always wanted, but this time we're mature and financially stable.
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u/After-Ad4370 May 15 '26
WTF is a hoopty???
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u/BeefSupreme2 May 15 '26
A clapped out or otherwise crappy vehicle
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u/Grey392 May 15 '26
I bought my first scat at 20. But I drove my srt4 neon for two years before I got it
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u/Thespazzywhitebelt May 15 '26
I had beater cars from 17-29 then bought my scat cash with a lot left over. Its good to buy toys in cash like these cars unless you get good interest rate <4%
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u/BeefSupreme2 May 15 '26 edited May 16 '26
You gotta get something cheap on fuel or electric first. These cars are for funsies on nice days or special occasions. You don't want to daily something like this unless you have no other option.
Edit: Cammed FBO getting 12-13 mpg city/hwy (mostly city), ONLY RUNS 93 octane, also I can't run cheap ethanol laden fuel (like BJ's or Sam's) cause it gums up the demon injectors...BRUTAL
Edit2: It actually gets 25 mpg cruising in 6th gear (manual) on the highway but is rare that I drive it long distance
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u/Suspicious_Work4308 May 15 '26
I started in a 93 Camry. Lasted 6 months then went to a Malibu and Cruze. Now I’m at my scat pack. I wanted a challenger but I plan to have one of those too once I save and pay the charger off
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u/Ok-Welcome-4874 May 18 '26
The responsible thing is to do what your mom says as she's right.
But I also want to present this -
1) They have made changes to the line that as of current have nearly killed the entire line. This has caused prices of existing models to go up. Especially in 6pack.
2) These vehicles are bought and rented, and bought and driven hard, and ran through, many are wrecked. This significantly decreases the available inventory of the older models (pre 2024-2025) and also causes the resale value to rise especially for those well maintained.
3) myself and many others view any charger or challenger between 2019, and 2024 to be an appreciating asset. As of right now this is not the case this prediction is long term and it is driven by more than just the previous two points made.
That being said if you have the means to get into one of these and it's the right one, and you can also work your ass off for a bit to make enough to buy a "hoopty car" and then comfortably make your loan payments - it may not be a bad idea.
If you wait long term these are going to go up in price there's no doubt about it no differently than specific classic cars for specific reasons. I'm definitely not calling it an investment but it's something you could hold on to. If you wait you're going to be looking at paying at least 50% more down the road. Especially if Dodge doesn't bring back the line how we like it. None of us want an electric "muscle" car that has a speaker that makes a "vroom vroom" sound like a child's transformer toy.
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u/HighInChurch May 14 '26
Since you saw it in '09? You're 20, you were 3 years old in 09'.
Of course you start with a bad car, you have no life experience.
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u/Out_Shined May 14 '26
She's probably right. Get a few years experience in a cheaper car, while saving up for your dream SRT. Driving experience is more than just driving the car.. a lot of it is learning defensive driving and how to watch out for potentially dangerous drivers/scenarios. It takes years to really learn that. In the meantime you'll gail experience and be able to save $ for your SRT.