So yeah... in May 2015 I bought this brand spankin' new... 4 miles on her.
Then in January 2016, I traded her for this.
And today it looks like this.
It has been a rough road. I miss that Charger almost every day. The Jeep just doesn't give me the same feeling when I look back at is as I walk away, or when I sit in it, and worse, driving it around. So why did I trade it? Well, if you look at the timing... winter. I live in Ohio, and once the days started rolling in where I could barely get out of the driveway, I was pissed. I had a car I could barely get around in. Even when it rained, the Charger was more like driving a Civic because that power isn't doing anything but trying to put you into a telephone pole.
The first few weeks, I was really happy with the Jeep. My first car (not that long go - a 2006 Jeep Commander that I got it 2011) was a beast. I could take that thing anywhere, drive it any time, and it never made me feel unsafe. I felt that again driving around in bad weather with the SRT GC, but with all the power I could want as well. But after a couple of weeks, the honeymoon phase with the SRT GC wore off. Especially once warmer weather hit... what was the problem? It just doesn't look aggressive like the Charger does. Not even close, at least from the factory. As you can tell, I did several of my own styling mods and it looks a helluva lot better than the day I bought it - but also at the tune of a lot of money. And it still just doesn't make me feel the way the Charger did. I think that's just a result of sports car vs sports SUV - nothing to be done there.
Speaking of that money, the Jeep has sucked it out of me. I said it many times, but the new 392 Chargers really don't need a damn thing done to them. The exhaust is perfect from the factory (some like it a little louder, but all that takes is a mid-muffler delete). The interior and exterior are perfect (except for interior LED lighting needing done). The performance is perfect. There was nothing I wanted to change about the car. With the Jeep, just look at my sig - I had to do all that to really get a better feeling when driving the Jeep. But that isn't to say the Jeep doesn't have positive sides. I guarantee nobody has a GC SRT that looks exactly like mine - I've done too many little mods to it. There are only a handful that sound like mine - and speaking of sound, it now sounds better than the Charger ever did (but again, at the tune of $3,000). It is much safer and more fun to drive any day where there is just a hint of bad weather. It will spank the Charger at redlight races, which is all I'd ever do anyway. When I recently moved into my first house, it was nice having something that could actually haul big stuff inside and out. The sound system on the SRT GC is substantially better than the HK system in the Chargers/Challengers (unless this has recently been fixed - shit was all screwed up in those cars) - at least in part due to interior acoustic characteristics.
Additionally, I miss a few features the Charger had - like the SRT menus with full customization of vehicle parameters - not this selec-trac crap that chooses everything for you. I also miss electronic steering because I no longer have lane-assist. The emergency braking and adaptive cruise control were a lot better on the Charger as well. And I miss the new shifter instead of this monostable junk in my Jeep. The Charger had 2-piece rotors in the front from the factory. All of these are resolved by buying a 2015+ though - but that's more than I could afford. I really wish SRT would have redesigned the dash/EVIC in a better way. It looks like total garbage that belongs in a toy car. The Chargers/Challengers have a fantastic, sexy dash, with much better menu systems. This probably won't change until the next true refresh.
Each vehicle has had its pro's and con's. If I could go back in time, I'd probably have kept the Charger and just bought spare wheels and snow tires - for some reason this didn't really dawn on me as an option, because I had always wanted to have an SRT GC too, so I jumped on that route as quick as I could. I don't really regret it, but right now the Jeep has been a pain in the ass. The transmission isn't as fine-tuned as the Charger was. My sunroof has been rattling for months, and getting a dealer to recognize and fix the problem has been impossible so far. My sunroof leaked. The driver side front suspension area is making weird noises. My passenger side headers are leaking again, which smells and sounds terrible.
At the end of the day, the Jeep is a much better vehicle suited for my needs - daily driving. I can only afford and have 1 vehicle right now. My plan in a few years, is to still have this Jeep (I bought a lifetime maximum care warranty) and buy a gently used Charger Hellcat as well. If I had kept the 392 Charger, I'd eventually had wanted the Hellcat as an upgrade - so I'd be trading another Charger for another Charger, and in no better of a position from a practical standpoint. In the meantime, I have a vehicle that is 100x more practical, and can last a long time since it has that added warranty protection. It's the best of both worlds if you can own both of those vehicles. But that's a very hard (expensive) thing to do. First world problems. In short, I miss the Charger right now, especially because I'm only 22 with no kids. Long term, this is a better decision I won't feel bad about looking back on it - it was the smarter decision.