Magnum

Anyone here bought a Magnum R/T?

What's been your experience? Any problems?

 

1) Car runs like a scalded dog.
2) Early production models pulled to the right. Fixed by dealer.
Adjusted cradle and installed new alignment adjustment bolt.
3) Center rear seat belt retractor jammed first time granddaughter sat
in middle seat. Fixed by dealer.
4) Continental tires are prone to premature wear. Wear bars showing
at 20,000 miles.

Car is fun to drive, handles great, and gets reasonable mileage for a
4,400 pound wagon. And it's FAST.

Extra storage area under false floor in back is really handy for stuff
like a small emergency kit, jumper cables, etc., or small items you
don't want rolling around.

Dan

 

Just curious what you consider reasonable mileage? I have a 300C, it has
the performance of a rocket unfortunately it also has the fuel economy of
a rocket. I'm getting less than 15MPG, 18 on the highway, my old
Concorde got 22, and 29 on the highway.

 

Good input, thanx. I am curious about the mileage. The sticker says 25
highway (I'd use the car primarily as a road car).

 

Do you have the 5.7 with multiple displacement system (MDS)?

I've got the 5.7L HEMI MDS in the RT. I get about 18 around town and
22/23 on trips. A good bit of "around town" is local interstate.
Trips have been 2 or three adults with enough luggage to fill a moving
van, driving 75 to 85 most of the way.

My milege is way better than the guys I know with the 5.7L in Dodge
trucks. I know a guy with a Magnum with the larger V-6 who says I'm
getting better mileage than he is.

Dan

 

Yes I have the 5.7 HEMI with AWD. I've got a couple of long trips coming
up in the next couple of weeks, I'll see what I get on thiose. But so far
I've been getting between 14.7 and 16.

 

Before I bought my 300C I did a back of the envelope calculation to see if
the lousy mileage would pass my threshold of pain. I only drive 12000
miles a year, a figure thats been constant for 30 years. The difference
between the 300C and something more economical like an Acura TL (which
gets 22) is 250 gallons a year. If you assume $2.5 a gallon that's around
$650, if you assume $5 a gallon then a still only $1300 which isn't much
considering that the car costs $40,000. However there is the inconvenience
of having to fill up all the time, at 15MPG the range is pretty limited.

 

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 17:32:28 -0400, General Schvantzkoph

SNIP

My Magnum RT is just rear wheel drive. I would expect slightly lower
gas mileage with 4WD, similar to the difference in gas mileage between
2WD and 4WD trucks. My kid the drag racer knows all the technical
terms to explain the difference. Something about "rotating weight" of
the drive train every time you accelerate from a stop. Anyway, 4WD
usually uses more gas.

Dan

 

On a related note- are you Magnum owners happy with the capacity of the
air-conditioning system? Especially anyone in Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona.

I've had two Magnums as rentals now, and neither one seemed to have as
much A/C power as our 1993 LH car does, or as my '66 Polara. The Magnums
both eventually got cool, but took a LONG time to get really cold and
had to be kept on "max" for much longer than I'm used to. In fact, the
second rental was in Iowa during the recent "heat wave" (although it was
only 104, and it gets a lot hotter than that at home routinely) and it
pretty much HAD to be kept on "max" all the time. If the R/T has an
equally puny A/C system, I'm afraid its right off the list of possible
replacements for the '93 when the time comes. :-(


The first rental was a 3.5L car, and I was surprised that it was
reasonably peppy. The second was a 2.7L car, and I was ashamed to be
driving it... they REALLY shouldn't offer that engine in such a heavy car.

 

Oh, AWD. Low mileage on that model is no surprise at all. I'd stick with
straight RWD.

 

I have also rented the Magnum twice and both times found the a/c to
about worthless down here in sunny Florida. Drove one of them with
the 2.7L up in to the mountains in North Carolina. I never knew an
engine could rev that high for that long.....

Steve B.

 

Never watched the Indy 500, eh?


Matt

 

Who rents Magnums?? I mean what company??

 

Dollar rent-a-car. They also rent 300's and other current Chrysler
corp products.

Steve B.

 

There is no such company as "Chrysler Corp". Hasn't been since 1998.

 

And there is no such thing as R13. Blow it out your ass Daniel.

Steve B.

 

Steve it seems like you live in Texas, RWD is fine for the South. I live
in New England, no way would I drive a RWD car here, we have this stuff
called snow.

 

That's not encouraging. The LH cars had really potent AC systems because
a) they had a ton of glass area and b) Chrysler was probably going over
the top because those were the first R-134a systems and they wanted to
be sure they got a reputation for good cooling (they cooled GREAT, but
the evaporators rotted away). I'm afraid that SOME engineer or
bean-counter somewhere decided they could cut way back on the LX
platform AC because of the smaller windows. Big mistake, if they did...

The 2.7 is an embarrassment.

 

Dollar Rent-a-car is an all-Chrysler fleet. Thrifty and Enterprise both
have a lot of Magnums as well.

 

Well, you really should do something about that. Wouldn't tolerate it,
myself..... ;-)

But what's the hangup with RWD in snow? Everyone drove RWD in the snow
until the 80s (and yes, I've driven both FWD and RWD cars in the snow on
rare occasions too... I don't do ALL my driving in Texas after all)

I'd take RWD with traction control over FWD without it in the snow ANY day.