Junkyard Gem: 2008 Dodge Avenger R/T

Keep in mind the Dodge Avenger? In fact you do, as a result of FCA did not get round to discontinuing it till 2014 (although new Avengers have been nonetheless being bought as late as 2018). It was based mostly on a Mitsubishi Galant-derived platform that received DaimlerChrysler-ized previous to being dragooned into the far-flung Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino Imperium, making it a superbly serviceable midsize sedan that lacked solely a splash of AMC/Renault and maybe Simca DNA to be the consultant of each firm with which Chrysler did enterprise throughout the 1980-2010 interval. What a few of us might have forgotten was that there was an R/T model of the Avenger, and I’ve managed to seek out a type of uncommon machines in a Colorado boneyard.

The second-generation (2008-2014) Avenger bought very nicely as a fleet automobile, so many of the examples you may see are low-spec automobiles with the bottom engine and exteriors executed up in Soporific Silver or Tedium White paint (not the precise names for these colours). This one has shriekingly brilliant Sunburst Orange paint with graphics that would not have appeared misplaced on the automobiles of Chrysler’s Lysergic Period.

The record value of a base-grade 2008 Avenger SE was simply $19,640, whereas the front-wheel-drive Avenger R/T had an MSRP of $24,220 that 12 months (that is about $27,555 and $33,985 in inflation-adjusted 2022 {dollars}). You may get an all-wheel-drive ’08 Avenger R/T for a further two grand.

The SE got here with the two.4-liter World Engine four-banger, a powerplant developed by a Hyundai-Mitsubishi-Chrysler partnership that made 173 horses in 2008. The following step up was the two.7-liter V6 engine initially designed to be used within the Chrysler LH automobiles, after which there was the R/T’s mighty 3.5-liter SOHC V6 (seen right here dangling out the underside of the automotive as a result of some junkyard shopper yanked the transmission individually). You bought 235 horsepower in your ’08 Avenger R/T, which was non-shabby for a automotive that scaled in at about 3,600 kilos. Later Avenger R/Ts received a 283-horse Pentastar V6, which should have supplied some front-tire-shredding, torque-steery enjoyable.

Somebody purchased many of the entrance physique elements earlier than I received right here.

I anticipated to see an angrier air freshener right here.

The later Avenger R/T was a reasonably highly effective and well-equipped automotive for the worth, however sedans simply do not promote nicely in our present truck-crazed century and the Avenger needed to go.

It might play Deep Purple on the dyno!