At $14,999, Is This 2006 Dodge Magnum SRT-8 A Hot Hemi Deal?

Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Magnum takes its chassis from Mercedes, its brakes from Brembo, and its Hemi engine from Mount Olympus. Let’s see if the price tag makes it more than just the sum of its parts.

Is the Dodge Magnum the Last Cool Wagon?

There’s a joke in the 1986 Francis Ford Coppola movie Peggy Sue Got Married in which, after traveling back in time, the main character, Peggy Sue, warns her sister not to eat red M&Ms but can’t explain the reason lest she divulge her time traveling escapades. Mars removed Red M&Ms from the market in 1976 due to a public perception that they contained a red dye that was thought at the time to cause cancer. The holiday-hued M&Ms returned to the candy aisle and grateful consumers’ taste buds in 1987, after the health furor had died down. The kicker is that the candy never even used the kind of dye that was thought to be harmful. In the very same year that Red M&Ms made their triumphant return, the also red Honda Civic Si we considered yesterday hit the streets. At 216,000 miles, it’s hit a lot more streets since then. Those show in the car’s faded paint and somewhat tatty interior. A non-operational registration caused extra concern, clouding opinions on the $4,500 asking price. In the end, the naysayers won out, leaving the Si with a 59 percent No Dice loss.

You know, it seems like Mopar and Hemis go together like M&Ms and a good time. The Pentastar brand first started playing around with Hemispherical combustion chamber designs for aircraft engines all the way back in the 1940s. The company’s first automotive endeavor with the half-round heads appeared in 1951—a 331 CID engine dubbed the “Firepower” V8. The Hemi name gained prominence in the ’60s, and after a long hiatus to accommodate technology catching up with fuel economy and emissions requirements, again in the early 2000s. These engines remain in production to this very day.

One of the hallmarks of the Hemi design is its ability to make gobs of power, and Mopar made use of that in recent times with a series of SRT (Street and Racing Technology) models built around the Hemi V8. The SRT name would filter down to smaller, non-Hemi models, too, but today, we’re going to focus on the V8 powering this 2006 Dodge Magnum SRT-8.

Dodge introduced the Magnum in 2004 as sister car to the Chrysler 300C, with both cars sharing a platform derived from Mercedes’ W211 E-Class provided by then-partner owner Daimler. The Chrysler featured a gangster-style sedan design, while the Dodge went for a surprising cool-suburban wagon appeal.

The SRT-8 came about in 2006, offering bigger wheels and tires, more capable brakes sourced from Brembo, a faster steering ratio, and, most importantly, a Hemi V8 that had been bored out by three and a half millimeters per pot, bumping displacement from 5.7 liters to a whopping 6.1. That boosted output to a heady 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque. Relatively heavy at around 4,400 pounds dripping wet, the Magnum can still do zero to sixty runs of around 5.1 seconds thanks to the monster Hemi.

This one comes in stealthy black over a leather and suede black and grey interior. The ad boasts that the car “runs and drives straight and smooth” and claims that everything on it “works as it should.” It comes with a clean title and a Mama Bear 145K on the clock.

Transmission duties are handled by a Mercedes 5G-Tronic five-speed automatic, which powers the independently suspended rear wheels. As noted, the brakes are Brembo discs all around, and the wheels are 20-inch SRT exclusives.

Aesthetically, this Magnum seems to still bring home the bacon. Aside from some scratches on the corner of the rear bumper, there are seem to be no major flaws in the paint, bodywork, or trim. The shiny wheels also seem free of curb rash. The cabin is just as nice and features a slew of comfort and convenience features, including a fairly large for its time center stack screen. The only bugaboo in here is the aftermarket steering wheel cover with its stitched-in hand holds annoyingly askew. The car is claimed to be FSBO and the asking price is $14,999.

What’s your opinion about this wake-you-up wagon and that $14,999 price? Does that feel like a solid deal to get a Hemi fix? Or does that price make you an SRT-Hater?

You decide!

Atlanta, Georgia, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Don R. for the hookup!

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