I have debated posting this because I think I know all the answers. Regardless, here I go...

I have a pristine and wonderful 2004 Red Coupe with 7K miles (6 SPD) (see my gallery). I have owned it about 4 months and have loved it. My only mod has been the brake pads which I replaced with Akebono ceramics (mostly for dust reduction, but there is no noticeable stopping performance)(I felt the ceramics were better, performance wise than the Rotex).

The recent availability of new SRT-6s (2005) at un-godly inexpensive prices (for what you get) has put me back on the market. I have not pulled the trigger yet, but have a friend who is the GM at a dealership selling Chryslers and he is offering me an outstanding deal (I won’t get into specifics, but it is a much better (several thousand) deal than the other “new” 2005 SRTs being posted on this forum as available at dealerships. He is willing to find the color (I'm leaning Black and maybe Aero Blue) and options that I want.

I have driven (within the past week) a “new” 2005 SRT-6 and therefore obviously compared it to my 2004 coupe. My overall experience/comparison is that the SRT-6 is a very different car. It feels much heavier, less tossable, yet incredibly more powerful and frankly smoother. It seemed much more of a boulevard cruiser than my 2004 which always seems to be light and ready to be pushed to the limit. Notwithstanding this, when the SRT-6 was pushed it responded incredibly well, almost like you have awaken a sleeping giant. The last tidbit of concern is the very debated (on this forum) manual vs. automatic conundrum. I enthusiastically love the 6-spd (although it is clearly bulky and not the smoothest tranny around) and ripping through gears, holding gears, deciding when to shift etc. Conversely, it is nice sometimes to “wedge” a starbucks in the cupholder (wow, who designed that & yes I know some like the cupholder design?) and simply drive a car without having to shift. Also, with the exception of DSG, the auto was one of the best “auto-sticks” I have driven...but its still an auto.

BTW, the comparo written up by pelked1 (Crossfire SRT to non-SRT comparison) was invaluable, great job and my test drives have divulged little, if any differences than he identified.

I am debating all of the issues that any Xfire fan would if considering a move from up to an SRT from a manual “normal” Xfire.

I’m not even sure there is a question in here...any thoughts?