I'm ready to place an order for a Magnum R/T tomorrow. We have twins, still young enough to be in car seats (not boosters) and a third on the way. I can fit three seats in my F-150 Crew no problem but the wife won't drive it. So, we went off to look at minivans, boy was that depressing, if I was to buy one, it would be the Toyota, but talk about boring. Down the SUV path... to get car seats three across, you need a full size SUV (too big for the wife) and forget climbing to the third row in a Durango/Explorer/etc when there are two seats in the middle row. Then along comes the Magnum, with three functional teather/latch attachment points, that is more than in a Honda Minivan. I test drove one and tried out seats, and with the right car seats, I can fit three across. Hooray. A family hauler I can take to the drag strip, and my kids won't grow up in a minivan (boring).

So this is one Ford family (we have owned several SVT vehicles) that will be ordering a Magnum tomorrow. We are thinking Blue R/T, with electronic, safety, cargo and comfort group. If I'm feeling reckless, the nav system too. One thing I really want is the tow package, mostly for the assumed heavy duty cooling and electric, as well as the ability to us a hitch mount bike rack, I'll use my truck for any actual towing.

Questions....

Anybody know if he lead times are as bad as rumored?
When is the hitch available, dealers seem a touch clueless.
Are we all paying up near MSRP?
How come all the dealers have SXT's on the lot, but no R/T's?
Anybody else stuff car seats in the back yet? How about three of them?
Any issues other than pulling to the right and the ultra-scary gas pedal thing?

 

lead time is as bad as rummored, expect near 3 months from order date.

no clue when the towing package will actualy be avaliable.

most seem to be paying MSRP, I payed MSRP for mine, heard as high as 5k over MSRP, some have gotten for under MSRP though, mostly people who know someone at the dealer.

more SXT's were made so far than the RT's cause I belive they are putting more of the hemi's in the 300 ATM, and the RT's that did go to the dealers sold quick, the dealer I bought mine from got 2 RT's in in the morning, one was sold that day before I even called and I bought the other, so they don't stay on the lots long.

no clue on the baby seats.

i've had no issues with mine, not really even the right pull, it pulls slightly to the right with the crown of the road, but no worse than any other vehicle i've owned.

 

I suspect some of the complaining on the pull is people driving cars with wide, low profile tires for the first time. Even the SXT has a pretty wide tire compared to the typical car on the road.

 

yeah, that's posible, for me the magnum has narrow tires, my previous vehicle was a dakota R/T which had 9" wide rims with 255/55's R17's on it, the magnum only has 7.5" wide rims with 225/60 R18's, the dakota pulled more to the right than the magnum does.

 

Dealers here (on LI) all have RT's. Guy closest to me has a Blue one (like we want), but no convenience group. Other dealer has one optioned right but is black. Wife is willing to wait.......

 

I just put a tow hitch on mine today, 290.00 inst. took my guy about two weeks to get the hitch in, i think it was through drawtight, it needs some kind of modular for the wiring, so it does not cause problems with the computer, that is what the hitch maker recommended. I put three kids in the back seat all with booster seats(new Illinois stupid law), they are 2, 5, and 7 years old, I traded in a mini van for this car, they fight no more or no less then they did in the van. I saw a semi rear end three cars at a stop light one day, happened right in front of us, after that I told my wife no more seats right on the *** end of any car we own, that is why BMW does not offer any kind of third row seating, safety reasons. I notice the R/T's are staring to show up more by my house, and Bettenhausen Dodge in my area, sells them at 1% over dealer invoice no haggle pricing even on the Hemi. Go to the Dodge site, it will let you search dealer inventory, and veiw the window sticker. Also, I had the gear thing happen once, it was not THAT bad. The car is well worth it, you will laugh at all the attention you will get in this car, my wife cracks up, she calls all the guys starring Dork's(girl what can I say). I am pulling a jet ski with mine.

 

I have an RT on order now and talked to my dealer today, he thinks that 6-8 weeks is optimistic but says that dodge is shooting for those kind of lead times. It didn't sound like he expected it to be too much longer than that but we will see. Regarding MSRP...I have a friend at chrysler who gave me an employee discount number to use, the first dealer rejected the idea but the second said no problem.

 

Mine wasn't an R/T, it's the SXT. My window sticker said $28,225 and I paid $27,199. The dealer, Gunn Dodge, also does a "One Simple Price" deal. No haggling in price.
It's the SXT with G package, Roof Rack, Smoker's Group (which I'll never use), sunroof, in-dash 6 cd mp3 player, and the boston acoustics speakers with amp. $625 destination charge.

Oh, I bought mine the day it came off the train. They hadn't even cleaned the rail dust off it yet, let them keep it over night and took delivery the next day so they could wash it It was the only black SXT within almost 100 miles

 

i have been reading all the posts here and in other forums. I am in love with the Magnum and in the market to get rid of my problem prone subaru. I test drove the sxt twice and the RT once and am heavily contemplating the SXT, BUT after buying the first 2001 Subaru off the truck - and reading about all these first assembly problems. I am trying to be patient and wait for the kinks to come out while I test drive other cars to make sure the magnum is the one for me. Here is my question, what is the average age of the magnum owners here and why would you want to buy a car with so many first run problems? Wouldn't you want to wait and let the rough edges get cleared first. I have to say I am quite scared to buy a magnum right now until DOdge admits it has an acceleration issue and fixes it. with Two kids, the last thing i would want is an accident from mechanical failure because the manufacturer is trying to cover up their mistakes. Also many of you here state how the paint is chipping easly and seems thin. IT seems to me Dodge is going to be met with many quality issue problems on this new concept car because they tried to rush it out. call me frugal - but if I am going to pay 30K for a car - i'd want it perfect, not with known imperfections and possible mechanical issues.

Im waiting (its hard) to see what the AWD 5 speed Auto will be like and hope by then Dodge will make up for its shortcomings. I have a caravan now and have seen the quality of it go down drastically since 99, but I still think Dodge is the better of the American Manufacturers.

 

I'm getting close to 40, a couple years off still. I guess I offset the risk of problems against the "have it first" thrill. I've purchased several first or second year cars (94 Mustang GT, 04 F-150, 89 Probe, 93 Probe GT) the only one that was a real problem was the 93 Probe, the only one without problems is the 04 F-150.

I also purchased an '01 Durango R/T, against the advice of many, and then drove it for 50k troublefree miles before selling it. The front sway-bar bushings started squeaking just after the warranty expired, and the Dodge dealer fixed it for free. Can't complain there.

I've had eight Mustangs, four of them the current bodystyle, one of them was kind of a dud, It was a 2000, a carry-over year. I had the transmission out of that car four times in the first 5k miles to chase down a clutch problem, the windows scraped, the alingment was off, wheels were out of balance, doors out of alingment. Sometimes there are just bad examples of otherwise good cars. Ford took care of it, and me, so I have no complaints there either. Alot depends on the dealer and your attitude when things start going wrong.