I read today that August 08 will be the end for the Dodge Magnum. Chrysler said poor sales will force them to end production.
I think they are pretty good but I can't get over how small it looks in the rear area. My wife thinks they look like a coffin. It's too bad we can't market GM, Ford and Chrysler wagons in the U.S. profitably. We may see a resurgance when the new mpg standards get closer to reality. Those SUVs will soon be hard to sell profitably. 35mpg is going to be tough to accomplish.
Poor sales? I see tons of them around here. Wierd. But then again I also see tons of towncars- and Ford is axing them also
I guess the poor sales means the Hemi R/T and the SRT8. all I ever see is the V-6 cars. They also lack poor headroom and leg room for a family,kind of hard to call them a wagon more like a 4 door hatchback.
The Magnum a 4 door hatchback? Poor headroom and legroom? Say what? Sure the Magnums give up a little vertical space in the back because of the sloping roof line, but still alot of cargo space with the rear seats down. I'm 5' 10" and I can lay back there fully stretched out. Try that in a compact wagon. Sure the Magnum isn't as big as one of the old big wagons, but since the demise of the Caprice wagons, it's still one of the biggest built since. Head and legroom is comparable to sedans in it's class also.
Yep I'm 6'4" so I can say poor headroom and leg room. and the rear isn't all that big. But all the newer cars that have a wagon looks more like a hatchback. But I wouldn't mind a Hemi Magnum if I could get the seat relocated a inch more to the rear. No one in my family could fit the rear seat.
Sounds like you and your family would have trouble fitting into any car then, because the Magnum is no smaller then say, a Taurus or an Impala (FWD). I owned a 2001 Dodge Intrepid before the Magnum. The Intrepid was a big car for it's class. 6 inches longer and .5 inches wider than the Magnum. The Magnum has a little less rear legroom... maybe a few inches, but headroom is about the same. When I sit in my Magnum, my head is many inches from the ceiling. You want small? Try sitting in a Scion TC. I test drove one with the seat all the way lowered and my head was like 2 inches from the ceiling...tops. Wouldn't want to be in a rollover in one of those. (something which the Magnum is quite good at as some overzealous Magnum drivers discovered) As far as to being a Magnum .... Don't think Dodge ever designed the Magnum to be a wagon from the onset. They even avoided calling it a wagon. They called it a Sport Tourer or something like that. Even so, it still has more cargo space than alot of the compact wagons that WERE designed as wagons. I love the space.
I am thinking about trying to get one later and have the seat relocated. With all the suspension parts they have for the Magnum roll over shouldn't be a issue? And yes we have a hard time with newer cars period which is a pain. I have great respect for fuel inection since I got my F150 which is a 85 model and first year for EFI.
Well the Magnum was criticized by some for not having a 3rd seat ala Chevy caprice. But what the hey, neither does a Subaru Outback, Ford focus, the Volvos, to name a few. Lets face it, the new wagons are no where near the big wagons of the 50's, 60's, and 70's. The Caprice was probably the last of the real big wagons. You can find good used ones with the 5.7 v8 on Cars.com or Autotrader.com. They got some pretty good power and mod potential with the 5.7. Only problem is you're going to pay with gas mileage. I have the 3.5 V6 in my Magnum (RWD). It's still got 250 hp which is pretty respectable. I can still blow off most V8 powered SUV's, and V8 4x4 pickups ... even kept right up with a co workers RWD 360 V8 Dodge Ram pickup. Funny, he thought I had the Hemi and was suprised to find it was a V6. And still average 25 mpg on the highway. Not bad. As far as rollovers... I belong to www.lxforums.com and a few members got the speed bug at the wrong time and rolled thier Magnums. Some posted pictures. The roofs are quite solid.
