BLACKSRT-6,

You most certainly are entitled to voice your opinion. There is a level of frustration amongst all owners of these cars. They really do instigate a "love/hate" relationship. "I love the performance/I hate that there are no reasonable aftermarket parts!"

The problem lies with what the SRT6 truly is. An extremely sophisticated european performance, near exotic sports tourer. It is custom assembled by a European specialty auto builder with a reputation for building high quality, semi exotic superior performance vehicles. Add a hand built ultra high performance engine by a company with a long history of providing engines to these cars.

This begs the question so often mentioned. Was the SRT6 worth the $47-52K price when introduced. Personally I think the answer is an emphatic YES! Unfortunately most of the world just viewed it as an overpriced Chrysler. The Crossfire was vastly overproduced and begat models to increase sales, welcome the base coupe and roadster. Had Daimler-Chrysler controlled production and taken just a little of the money they blow each year on the ultimate waste of money as a sales success, the Viper, and promoted the SRT6, raced it and continued to refine it, they would have a worthy, competitive, european influenced sports tourer that could have been Chrysler's "Corvette".

The bottom line is that this car is a Mercedes Benz at heart and as AMG Lover has pointed out, made of not just the entry luxury performance C and SLK class but also from the top of the line S class. I don't hear any of the Porsche, BMW M, Audi S or MB AMG owners pining for, or even expecting, low cost "go fast" parts.

You cannot honestly compare the Japanese WRXs, EVOs, and Mazda Speed vehicles to the SRT6. While their performance is outstanding, even the companies admit they are starting with their economy vehicles taking advantage of their light weight and low price to add the performance parts. Starting with the top sellers and moving up the chain allows for a number of inexpensive add-ons. The less than affectionate term "ricer" is really referring to those base vehicles that have been fitted with the "looks fast" parts without truly living the role.

There is a level of sophistication given to certain marques and sub-marques. The Japanese have learned this well with the creation of Lexus, Acura and Infiniti. Look at the Civic and the Integra. Although essentially the same vehicle there is an added cache behind the Acura. Watch road racing and you will find Acuras running against BMWs, Audis, Porsches and the like. But the bottom line is that it was really a Honda Civic at heart.

I had a BMW Z4 2.5 that I traded to get my SRT6. I didn't look at the "snob" appeal of BMW vs Chrysler. I looked at the vehicle itself. I loved my Z4, but was less than enthusiastic by the lack of add-on go fast or appearance parts. Shortly before I sold it, I was contemplating a Dinan upgrade kit for $3,000 to $4,000. That kit brought horsepower up from 184 to a whopping 193. The adds touted that the car was so finely tuned from BMW that short of a completely different engine, they could only offer minor ECU tweaks. Renntech and others were developing supercharger kits for around $15K that would boost performance to just over 300 HP, but then there would be another equal amount spent on suspension, brake and wheel/tire upgrades to balance the extra power.

These prices were considered reasonable for a sophisticated european tourer. Now, finally back to the real reason for this post. If you have bought one of the "new/factory" SRT6s where you got a HUGE break on the price, be thankful. If the car doesn't have enough performance for you, take some of that money you saved and buy some of those MB mods that are available. When you look at the total cost, it will produce a sophisticated, near exotic, largely hand assembled, limited run vehicle that costs tens of thousands of dollars less than any direct competitor while performing as well or better than any of them.

That my fellow SRT6 owners is truly a bargain! Don't be confused by the price you paid or what they are selling for now, the SRT6 is a premium car, unfortunately it carries a proud but less than premium brand name.