Last week, after 19 years in production, the very last of the Chrysler/Dodge LX platform muscle cars rolled off the assembly line in Brampton, Ontario. After almost 4.4 million cars built, the legacy left by the automotive legends built on this platform will be felt for decades and generations to come. For car fans, the reasons to mourn the loss of these legends are obvious, but what their demise signals for working-class empowerment, freedom, and upward mobility, should concern all Americans.
So we’re all clear, the cars I’m talking about here are the mobster-looking Chrysler 300C, the muscle-wagon Dodge Magnum (which was made from 2005 to 2008), the badass Dodge Charger sedan, and perhaps the best modern interpretation of a classic retro car, the iconic Dodge Challenger. It’s not an overstatement to say that these vehicles changed the automotive landscape of this country, creating a whole new movement of diehard enthusiasts, and with it, these cars became part of our culture, our politics, and indeed our lives. When such automotive giants pass on to that big assembly line in the sky, I think it’s important to pour a quart of 5W-20 motor oil out in celebration of what they meant to so many of us. Sadly, they are not the only icons going away over the next year or two due to government regulations. More on that later…
I am admittedly biased in my affection for these cars. I have now owned six of these cars since 2006: five Chrysler 300C’s with the legendary Hemi V8 (a 2006, a 2008, a 2009, a 2011, and a 2015) and one 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT. I’m grateful to still own the 2015 Chrysler 300C Platinum and the 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT, and will proudly drive them as long as I am alive or as long as the government allows us to, whichever comes first. My dad fell in love with my Challenger the moment I took delivery at the dealership, so much so that he decided to order his own 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 392 a few weeks later, which he still owns to this day. It’s definitely a special experience going to car shows together in our matching Mopars. My older brother even joined the “club” getting a 2016 Dodge Charger AWD Police Pursuit. The Hemi gene clearly runs strong in this family!
Part of the reason I’m drawn to these cars is that growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, older muscle cars from the 1960s and early 1970s with big V8s and rear-wheel-drive were somewhat plentiful. They weren’t particularly refined and didn’t handle particularly well, but they sure were fun to drive! Having a dad who would occasionally pick up one of these old beasts at an affordable price, I was lucky to have tasted this blessed vehicular fruit that was quickly becoming forbidden. Affordable new cars with rear-wheel-drive and V8 engines were becoming rarer and rarer during that time, as government regulations (sound familiar?) made it difficult and cost-prohibitive for automakers to build these vehicles without paying huge fuel-economy fines to the government. By the early 2000s, with few exceptions, middle-class car folk had to turn to either full-size trucks, which didn’t handle particularly well, or European vehicles which cost 2 or 3 times what they could afford to get a vehicle with the drive wheels and engine configuration they craved. Having a car that you were actually passionate about became simply unattainable.
Chrysler 300C
Enter the Chrysler 300C, which entered production in 2004 as a 2005 model. Developed with help and parts sharing from Chrysler’s corporate partner at the time, Mercedes, the 300C had a thoroughly modern platform and fully independent suspension, rear-wheel drive, a 340 horsepower V8 engine, and one of the coolest, almost concept-looking designs ever to come out of Detroit. There are a few memorable automotive launches in history. The Mustang is one, the VW Beetle is another, and then there was the home run that was the Chrysler 300.
Among the automotive press, it was the most awarded “Car of the Year” ever. Culturally, the 300 became the darling of every rap video, song lyrics, every car customizing shop, hit TV shows like “Desperate Housewives”, and movies. Politicians in both parties embraced the car as a symbol of American strength and pride. Even Barack Obama, when he was a U.S. Senator on the rise to become a nominee for U.S. President, famously bragged about owning a 2005 300C.
But what was most important was how it was received by the American car lover, and with them, it was a runaway hit. Chrysler couldn’t build them fast enough, selling more than twice as many as originally planned in their first two years, and it became not just a phenomenon in America, but also in Canada, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. For the first time in decades, or perhaps ever, a person of middle-class means could afford a car with a similar performance, features, and gravitas that was previously only afforded to those with the means to purchase a BMW or Mercedes. Suddenly, the rest of the Big 3, Europe, Japan, and South Korea were scrambling to offer affordable rear-wheel-drive, V8 options to compete with the success of the 300, and for a window in time, rear-wheel-drive V8 cars became mainstream again! By sales and by heart though, the American “forgotten man” had already found his car, and it was a Chrysler!
These cars had become such a phenomenon that they spurred on several successful iterations on the same platform with available V8s, including the Dodge Magnum station wagon, the Dodge Charger sedan, and the retro-styled Dodge Challenger coupe. What made each of these cars successful is that the styling, interior, and feel of each was very different from the others so they didn’t negatively impact each other’s sales, and that they all unabashedly, proudly, and brashly, showcased chiseled, American muscle. But just as the models multiplied, the political and economic world began to change.
When the economy collapsed in 2008, the political Left came into power and quickly united around the concept that “green energy” was the way out of America’s economic quagmire and would also save the environment. It wasn’t and still isn’t. Remember the Obama Administration poured billions into failed “green” ventures like Soyndra during that era, and now the same thing is happening again under the Biden Administration with solar, and wind power, and subsidies for the unsold electric vehicles that are piling up on dealer lots. As presidential candidate Obama in 2008, he traded in his Chrysler 300 for a sad Ford Escape Hybrid. Car folk the world over yawned at this obvious display of virtue-signaling, and it was becoming clear that the rest of the political Left was now coming for the internal combustion engine, especially anything with a V8.
Hellcat
However — and I really love this part — in 2015, Dodge sensed there was still enough rebellion and independence left in the American spirit, that they decided to give a flying middle finger to that sentiment in the form of a loud, 707 horsepower, supercharged, Hellcat Hemi V8. To put those numbers in perspective, the Hellcat made the Charger the most powerful production sedan you could buy, at any price, anywhere in the world, yet it cost just under $60K. It produced numbers and fanfare on par with elite supercars, yet was also attainable for many middle-class and upper-middle-class car aficionados. To get a coupe on par with the Challenger Hellcat, you had to look at top-end Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and other exotics that cost $250K or more. In its final 2023 iteration, the Challenger Hellcat 170 became the world’s fastest production car in history, doing a 0-60 in 1.66 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 8.9 seconds.
