Hello all. Im in the market for a new car, well my wife is actually. When Dodge announced their lifetime warranty deal I figured even if I spent just a little more than I planned, that the warranty would be worth it. I have been a huge Pontiac fan all of my life and have owned Pontiac since I could drive with two exceptions, a Ford Focus and a Dodge Neon.

I currently own a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP (supercharged V6) and my wife has a Pontiac Grand Am that has finally died after nearly 11 years and 200,000 miles. We are wanting to replace her car, but she likes my Grand Prix even though she would like to have a small SUV along the lines of the Saturn Vue, which I think would be comparable to the Dodge Nitro. The big factor here I gues is mileage and responsiveness. I get 30+ mpg out of the Grand Prix on the highway and with the blower its plenty responsive. Its spoiled me as it is the first forced induction vehicle I have owned.

If the wife does end up taking the Grand Prix then Im going to want something really comparable to that. There is plenty of room, plenty of trunk space and Im running 14's in the 1/4 at nearly 100mph (98 mph to be exact) the last time I was out. I was unaware that Dodge had brought back the Avenger and was even more suprised at the R/T version with the 3.5L V6. Naturally aspirated and it comes in just 5hp under what the Grand Prix does with a blower at its stock rating. Ive looked at an Avenger, but havent drove one yet. Looking at it, It seems a bit smaller on the interior than the Grand Prix but nothing I dont thing couldnt be dealt with. Fuel economy rating is a little lower, but again not so drastically so that it would be a major hit.

One of the managers at work has a Charger Daytona R/T that I like but I just have problems buying a Charger with a V6, its just seems, well, wrong (no offense to anyone, just my take), LOL, and I dont want to take the fuel economy hit for the Hemi engine and unless there were some major incintives I think it would put it out of my payment range.

So Im looking for some owner experience with the Avenger R/T, if you owned a Grand Prix GTP in the past and can draw some comparisons on that, PLEASE speak up. I think I could give up Pontiac for a Dodge (not that I have anything agains Dodge, Ive just always stuck with Pontiac) with the lifetime warranty, but they are definitely going to have to appeal to the performance side of me. I might take an Avenger to the track just to see what it could do, but buying brand new I think I would give up the track as well since I dont think Dodge would smile on that with the lifetime warranty and the track aint worth giving up the warranty to me.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. If the wife doesnt take the Grand Prix, maybe I can 'convince' her that she needs an Avenger instead, LOL.

 

Hello,

I own the R/T version of the Avenger. You'll find the Advenger running around 0-60mph in the 7 to 7.2 second range. Not super fast but good for a 3.4L V6. The car is built solid and there is more than enough room inside. I alsofind the trunk big enough. The Avenger is very throttle responsive at all speeds. I've never been at wide open in my Avenger, but I will when I have a few thousand miles on it.
I like the looks and the build of the Avenger, and the greathandling is a big pluse. I do not need big raw power for day to day driving. But, when I need to pass someone quick, the Avenger R/T makes it look easy. Once the aftermarket picks up on the Avenger, than things will start to be fun.

 

Thank you sir for your reply.

In looking a little closer at the differing engines for the Avenger, I noticed something else. You have to get the R/T in order to get the 'slap shift' option, which sucks in a way because if I did decide to get a lesser engine then it would have to be the CVT trannie because the wife doesnt know how to drive a standard. Personally, Im not a huge fan of the CVT trannies. But I would be willing to bet that the R/T trannie is a CVT trannie with the slap stick option. I know on the Grand Prix to get the TAP shift (essentially the same thing as the slap shift) that tranny has a different valve body and some changed solenoids and then the PCM programming. All of this may be a mute issue too with the lifetime warranty. If it breaks, oh well.

I dont necessarily need big raw power for day to day driving, in fact Im positive I could do without it, but that just ramps up the dull factor for me. The V6 seems to be a decent compromise between performance and responsiveness and fuel economy. If money and fuel economy were less of a concern then Id be running down an Super Bee, GTO or the like.

regandon, Im curious as to what fuel economy you are seeing in the R/T. I think the sticker said something along the lines of 26 mpg highway? The Grand Prix's sticker was 28 mpg highway if I remember correctly, but Ive tweaked on it enough and played with the PCM fuel tables, timing, shift points, lock up point and so on to do substantially better than that now.

Anyway. The Dodge dealership emailed me today so I think I may head to the dealership and give an R/T a test drive.

 

Welcome to the forum! The 2008 Dodge Avenger has the new 2008 EPA standards for MPG and is slightly low than it would have been if it had been a 2007 car.Here's two links for you in case you didn't know about it http://www.vmrintl.com/new_mileage.htm http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/regulations.htm

 

The R/T Avenger does not use the CVT tranny. Follow this link to the tranny being used. http://www.allpar.com/mopar/transmissions/62TE.html

 

sorry about this post. I posted the sametwice.

 

Yeah, the R/T's dont, but the 4-cyl's do. I could be wrong about that obviously, but it looks like the 4-cyl's use the CVT trannie, but that also means I would be in something other than an R/T. But I was thinking from the wifes perspective and she would be less interested in performance and such and more interested and focused on the long term reliability.

 

The 4-cyl uses the 40TES tranny and not the CVT. From ALLPAR.com : the drivetrain choices are the four-speed automatic transmission with the 2.4 World Engine (40TES automatic) or the 2.7 V6 (41TES automatic; standard and flex-fuel versions);

 

First of all, welcome to the site SyntheticShield. Now I would like to answer some of your questions,the Avenger does not use any CVTs (thank God) in any models, that mistake was limited only to the Caliber. The 2.4L "World Engine" is matched up to a 4-speed unit as regandon sighted the 40TES which is a significantly upgraded version of the 41TE.The "slap-stick" transmission offered on the R/T is known as the autostick that was originally offered on the 1996 Eagle Vision (the sister car to my Intrepid) and has now been used a variety of transmissions. The transmission is known as the 62TE which is a 6 speed automatic (not a junky CVT) and should have some room allowing performance upgrades as it is being used on some more powerful engines such as the 4.0L V6.

Now back to the R/T model, the fuel economy should be similar to your 01 Grand Prix. The reason why the new Avenger R/T has a lower sticker rating is due to the2008 fuel economyrating standards. If you lookup your supercharged 01 Grand Prix on www.fueleconomy.gov, you will see that according to the new standards, your Grand Prix would have been rated at 26mpg as well. Under the old ratings both cars would have received a more accurate 28mpg. I can tell you that getting over 30 mpg is not hard to achieve on my 3.5L powered Intrepid that was rated at 26mpg under the old rating system (24 mpg according to the new system); therefore, getting over 30 mpg should be a simple task as well on the more fuel efficient Avenger R/T.

Secondly, your performance concerns will most certainly be addressed with this model. Although the hp is slightly less as well as the torque, the Avenger R/T offers a performance advantage with havinga six-speed automatic. Some magazines have pegged the 0-60 acceleration time to about 6.8 secs which is similar to what your GTP does it in.

Thirdly, if long-term reliability is something you are concerned about, the 3.5L engine is actually the one you want. The 3.5L has the longest history out of all of these engines (began production in 1993) and has developed a good reputation. My 97 Intrepid has the first generation 3.5L and I have over 150K and it has been excellent in both reliability and fuel economy (over 30 on the highway). I have plenty of friends who have had this engine as well and put over 200K on them before they decided to retire the car (and they were still running at that time). The 2.4L I4 on the other hand has just been released in the Caliber, so it is hard to tell at this time about the long-term reliability; also the lifetime warrantee should take care of this anyways.I don't recommend the 2.7L V6 as it has developed a bad reputation, plus it doesn't feel much stronger than the 2.4L and doesn't get as good fuel economy.

Fourthly, the interior is actually much larger than it appears. When I test drove an R/T model Avenger, I was shocked how much room they actually had in the cabin. I can tell you that the seats in the Avenger are a lot more comfortable than those found in the G6. If you want to convince the wife about the Avenger, you might want to suggest she tries one out with the heated and cooled cup holders and show her the "Chill Zone" found on the dash.

Out of curosity which engine didher Grand Am have in it?