Dodge Demon Gets High Honors in Kelley Blue Book Long-term Review
After a year of ownership, KBB’s publishing editor loves his Dodge Demon, although he has hardly driven it.
The folks at Kelley Blue Book just finished up a year with the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, so they have issued their long term review wrap-up video for their company YouTube channel with input from publishing editor Karl Brauer. Brauer claims to be the owner of the car in the video, having spent a year driving the car and racing it, but based on his input, we have to wonder if there is a bit of bravado inserted into this review. If nothing else, Demon owners will be quick to refute a few of his claims, especially those relating to tires, but this is still a great clip chock full of Demon sights and sounds.
Long-term Demon
In the case of many “average” vehicles, an outlet like KBB will be given a car for a year to review. The idea is that in having the car for a full year, they will put real-world mileage on the car and in doing so, they will have to deal with any problems that come up and any costs associated with the repairs. However, with a limited edition car like the new Demon, the automaker doesn’t hand them out for year-long testing. As a result, KBB’s executive published Karl Brauer had to purchase a Demon for their long term test.
Perhaps that is why they hardly put any mile son the car, with Brauer racking up just 3,946 miles in a year, but he claims that he was dedicated to racing the car. He made four trips to the track in a year, making his comment about being dedicated to racing laughable at best, but it gets better. During the review video, this dedicated racer includes video of his Demon storming down the track (below). The only problem is that it is not a Demon, it is a Hellcat Challenger with an array of options that differ from Brauer’s Demon. You would think that someone who is that dedicated to racing would be able to produce at least one video of his car on the track, especially when claims to have made 60 to 70 passes during those four trips to the track.
He also claims to have run a best time of 10.23 at 135.27 miles per hour, which isn’t a bad time for a new driver, but in getting 60 to 70 runs, he probably should have run a little closer to the nine-second range. Maybe he didn’t have the race gas PCM or the other crate items installed, or maybe he was driving a Hellcat on the track.
All Upsides
While Brauer has some odd input on the new Demon, he does have plenty of nice things to say about the car. He loves the fact that he can “drive to the track, yank the skinny front wheels out of the trunk, put them on, race, put them back in trunk and drive home” without any sort of support vehicle. He gushes about the interior, calling the leather some of the best that he has ever seen, and he likes that in a year, he only spent $230 on maintenance. However, in driving only 4,000 miles in a year, we can’t imagine that many brand new vehicles would come with a big maintenance bill.
He also raves about the stock Nitto drag radial tires, going so far as to say that owners would be able to get “hundreds” of runs before buying a new set, but any Demon owner or any active drag racer will confirm that claim to be nothing short of absurd. He points out that the tires are hardly worn at all after 4,000 road miles and 60 to 70 track passes with burnouts, but in speaking with a few Demon owners, none of them agree that the stock Nitto tires would get anywhere near 100 passes with proper burnouts. Either he doesn’t know anything about drag radials or he has an unreal grasp of how his tires are wearing, but in either case, the discussion on the tires should be taken with a grain of salt; or a tablespoon of salt. At least he includes video of an actual Demon doing a burnout, as shown below.
The video closes with a rundown of the key fuel mileage numbers, driving home the idea that KBB isn’t the best outlet to review such a vehicle, claiming to have averaged 12.14 miles-per-gallon over 4,000 miles while getting a worst figure of 8.88 miles-per-gallon. Those trips to the track, especially when he had to be hot-lapping to make 60 to 70 runs on four trips, should have yielded much lower fuel economy numbers on the low end, but again, maybe he was actually driving a Hellcat on the track and he just didn’t know any better.
In the end, Brauer likes his Demon and after seemingly babying it for a year, he states that it is “easy to drive, easy to race, easy to live with; nothing but upside and fun to the Dodge Demon”. Imagine how much fun he would have if he actually got the tires hot and made a good track pass.
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