Comparison Tests
The inescapable fact is that, while you sleep, prices of new cars are rising. Take this new 470-hp Dodge Charger SRT8 we’re testing. The old one—final model year: 2010—started just below $41,000. The 2012 model, albeit with a larger engine, more horses, and more standard amenities, is $47,650. This is not the “change” we voted for!
However, also while you sleep, prices are falling. That is, on depreciating used cars. Once the plastic is pulled off the seats and the car is wheeled out of the showroom, its value-meter starts spinning backward, sometimes much more quickly than its odometer spins forward. You’ve seen the ads: former rock stars of speed, luxury, and technology, just a few ticks past their sell-by dates and available for 50 or 60 cents on the dollar in copious quantities, thanks to rampant leasing in recent years. Is there a point where a rising star collides with a falling one, such that you might have to think long and hard about which one to grab? We think we’ve found such a place.
We put in the search criteria for a suitable rival to the new Dodge, including that it had to come through a factory-certified pre-owned (CPO) program to ensure cherryness, and out popped an off-lease 2008 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG with 23,000 miles.
It makes sense: The Charger and the Benz share platform DNA. The E63’s original sticker price of $95,740 has shrunk in the dryer of depreciation to $52,000—Dodge territory. All you would need is a couple of extra platinum Visas to pay the Benz’s repair bill when the stückenthingenwirtläutner goes up in smoke for the 29th time.
At this point, you’re probably crying, “No, no, God, no!” But somewhere, deep down inside, a small voice is saying, “Maybe... "
Your social climb gets a lot shorter in a Mercedes; valets suddenly call you “Mr. Hefner” when you pull up. And this is not just any Benz. An E63 is heavily wired with German technical know-it-all-ness, and it rockets to three places left of the decimal in just less than 10 seconds, propelled by 6.2 liters of V-8 baritone hand-built with a 7000-rpm redline in the rolling green Swabian hills of Affalterbach. Compared with the pig-iron Dodge—engine trucked in from Saltillo, Mexico—an AMG is exotic stuff.
This unit, padded with $7865 in options, including a sunroof, parking assist, and a DVD/navigation package, plus $300 in Designo burled walnut trim, is also backstopped by the Mercedes CPO program, including full colonoscopy inspection and accompanying warranty [see “The ABCs of CPO”]. Tempted?
Well, this new Dodge is pretty nifty, too. The base price is well below the used Benz’s if you can do without extras such as the $950 sunroof and the $795 adaptive cruise control and safety-alarm array. One thing you can’t get out of the showroom without paying is a $1030 guzzler tax. One thing you shouldn’t leave without is the optional $150 summer tires.
New or used? Strawberry or vanilla? Yin or yang? America is about choice, so let’s choose.
