1200 mile Magnum Review...

[MagnumFreak]

That is really about all that needs to be said about this incredible car. I picked the car up about 10 days ago. She had 8 miles on her when I drove off the lot and now she is fast approaching 1300 miles (about 1265).

I have yet to find so much as one problem with the car. Maybe I am not looking hard enough or maybe DC finally has it right. Speaking of right.... absolutely no right pull. Slight crown sensitivity but very minimal. Rides smoother than any other vehicle I have owned. If there was a problem with this car that would be it. It rides so smooth you don't realize how fast you are going and that can get you in trouble (hasn't yet but I am sure it is coming).

Performance to this point is better than expected. I don't remember the dealers RT accelerating this hard. She will chirp the tires at will with the ESP on. Turn it off and watch them smoke.

Gas mileage is better than expected also. Even with some rapid acceleration she is getting about 22 mpg back and forth to work. My trip to work and back is mostly highway with about 10 percent stop and go. Took her on a little weekend trip to the mountains and FROM my house, to the mountains, driving around the mountains and back home again she got 21.4 mpg. Definitely no room to complain here either, especially considering the number of people I introduced to the HEMI along the way. 8)

Nav system is worthy of a topic all itself. When we were up in the mountains we decided we wanted to visit some of the guided caves. Punched in the name of one we liked and it was in the database! Hit the call button and it called them through the uconnect and my cell phone. I wanted to see if they were still open and they were. Once the call was done clicked on the button to map the route and off we went. Incredible!! Thought it was going to just be a toy but it has ended up being the second most impressive thing about the car (next to the HEMI of course). On long back road trips it really takes the pressure off of the driver. You no longer have to remember where to turn or when to turn you just let the Nav system announce the turns and all you do is enjoy the drive. It actually picked out a route that we had never been on before and saved us about 20 to 30 minutes of drive time.

Stereo is great. Not much of an audiophile so the factory system is more than enough for me. I may upgrade the speakers later but that is not very important to me. When I run out of other cool things to do I may consider doing the speaker upgrade. I would rather hear the HEMI than the stereo anyday!!

Fit, finish and paint are incredible. As many of you know I spent a great deal of time polishing the car when I first got it. This gave me many opportunities to examine the paint. I have yet to find a visible flaw.

Now that I have the first 1200 miles out of the way. It is time to start modifying the car. She is great now, but she will be incredible once all the performance mods are done. I have purchased an accelerometer to test the modifications out and prove their worth or their lies. Although I am not a scientist I will try to be as scientific with regards to the tests as I can. Of course I will be sure to UPDATE this GROUP on what is being done and what the results are.

Is the car worth it?? Absolutely! This vehicle is one of the most undervalued cars on the market right now. The quality of this car stands as a testiment of the great folks who built her. Three cheers for the crew at the Brampton facility. GREAT JOB!!

[davidl13]

i have no idea how you are getting that good of gas milage... is that what the computer says or are you doing the math by yourself?

i am getting about 15 mpg avg...

i wonder if my MDS doesn't work?

[MagnumFreak]

It is what the computer says and what I am getting by calculation (give or take 2 or 3 tenths). Not sure how it is happening but I won't argue with it. :D

Some of the mods that are coming up should actually push this even higher. We shall see. CAI and exhaust mods will be the first performance mods to happen.

[Bob W]

Nice review. I have 2765 miles on my black RT and like you have found zero to complain about. On my 25 mile drive to work each day my mileage is running 18.5mpg and on a recent 350 mile trip I got 24.7mpg going and 21.7 on the return trip (uohill) (Took my mother home Reno to Fresno). My 76 year old mother was amazed over the NAV system and even I was impressed how good it actually worked. The only minor problem I have is an ever so slight pull to the right however the dealer ordered the extra long bolt required to adjust this and the car goes in for that service next week.

What bluetooth phone and service provider do you use?

[MagnumFreak]

Motorola V710 with Verizon. Great phone. Never use the camera portion of it other than when I took a picture of my car to use as the wallpaper, but other than that the phone is actually better than the Kyocera SE47 that I had before and much more suited to my big hands (Kyocera was one of those slide phones). i seem to get better reception with the V710.

[Bob W]

Motorola V710 with Verizon. Great phone. Never use the camera portion of it other than when I took a picture of my car to use as the wallpaper, but other than that the phone is actually better than the Kyocera SE47 that I had before and much more suited to my big hands (Kyocera was one of those slide phones). i seem to get better reception with the V710.

That's the same phone and provider I was considering. Do you get the caller ID and all the other information displayed with the V710?

[MagnumFreak]

Yup. It shows up in the nav display and the EVIC display. There is a slight delay FROM when the phone starts to ring to when Uconnect announces the incoming call and displays the information. Not enough to be a hassle though. The only thing that doesn't display is the battery and signal strength indications (on the nav and evic it is on the phone). FROM what I understand they are working on a software fix for this. No estimate on when though.

[schmeky]

I've got nearly 11,000 miles on my RT. Mileage is steadily improving, last long trip it averaged 21.5 to 23.0 at 65 to 78 mph.

[DMAG]

Great review!

[PropMan]

I have 2400 miles on my RT. I have had ZERO problems. The car is great and the performance is terriific--I too can smoke the tires with the ESP off with no effort at all (not even a chirp with the ESP on unless you torque-brake it).

Gas mileage? On a trip with a constanr 65-75 mph over 180 miles I got 20.2--thats with NO flooring of the pedal at all. This is meaured the old-fashioned way, pumping the gas and doing the math! My average MPG is right aroung 16-17 with a mixutre of fwy cruising at 70-75 (50%), stop-and-go hell (35%) and surface streets (15%).

It seems like both performance and gas mileage results are ALL OVER THE MAP with the RT. I wonder why? Some here say they can't spin the tires AT ALL and some are claiming 24-26 mpg on the highway. I don't get it . . .

[Bob W]

I have 2400 miles on my RT. I have had ZERO problems. The car is great and the performance is terriific--I too can smoke the tires with the ESP off with no effort at all (not even a chirp with the ESP on unless you torque-brake it).

Gas mileage? On a trip with a constanr 65-75 mph over 180 miles I got 20.2--thats with NO flooring of the pedal at all. This is meaured the old-fashioned way, pumping the gas and doing the math! My average MPG is right aroung 16-17 with a mixutre of fwy cruising at 70-75 (50%), stop-and-go hell (35%) and surface streets (15%).

It seems like both performance and gas mileage results are ALL OVER THE MAP with the RT. I wonder why? Some here say they can't spin the tires AT ALL and some are claiming 24-26 mpg on the highway. I don't get it . . .

On my 350 mile trip I calculated the mileage which came out slightly better than what was being reported on the display.

[BrilliantBlackHemi]

My display is also showing worse that real mileage by at least 1 mpg sometimes more depending on highway vs romping on it around town. 8)