Fiat 500 in my local Dodge/Chrysler dealership

So I took my '00 300m to my dealer to get an emissions test - another
waste of $35 I spend every 2 years for no good reason:

40 km/hr speed:
HC ppm: 13 (pass = 54)
CO%: .01 (pass = .3)
NO ppm: 0 (pass = 396)
Dilution: 14.31 (valid)

Curb idle:
HC ppm: 23 (pass = 150)
CO%: .18 (pass = .7)
NO ppm: (no reading?) (pass = no reading?)
Dilution: 13.56 (valid)

Talk about a f*ckin reliable car. Best 30-odd K I ever spent.

Still have the factory original battery in the car. 11 years, 4 months
old. How's that for battery life? I will admit that the car spends
practically every night for the past 11 years in an insulated garage,
never drops below 40f, and I have put the battery on a charger overnight
about once night a week for the past 2 or 3 months. Still have the same
K&N air filter that I clean and oil once a year that must be 8 or 9
years old by now.

Had a look in the showroom while I was waiting for the emissions test to
get done. Saw a Fiat 500 (1.4 L engine, manual transmission). Base
price was $18k, with options it was like $21.5k. These are Canuck bucks
- worth about 3% more than your Yankee bucks these days.

I had a look at the Chrysler "200" (the car formerly known as Sebring).
I asked why this car was getting all the press, and not the new-look 300
(which they didn't have in the showroom or anywhere else I could see).
They said the new 300 isin't available yet - they were expecting it a
few weeks ago. Hmmm...

The base price on the 200 is something like $22k. Who would get the
Fiat 500 when the faux-sebring is like basically the same price?

One thing I absolutely HATE about the gear shifter for the auto trans in
the 200 is the zig-zag gate pattern. I hate those when I get them in a
rental car - I practically break my wrist dealing with them. I love my
straight-line gear shifter in the 300m.

They had a "392" (?) Challenger (6.4 L hemi, 6-speed manual trans) -
white with blue racing stripes and blue-trimmed bucket seats. Base
price + options came to $57k. Like I said before - I'd buy the
Challenger to replace my 300m, but only if it came as optional FWD
(which bonehead Chrysler didn't do).

Zombywoof unnecessarily full-quoted:

> > Like I said before - I'd buy the Challenger to replace my 300m,
> > but only if it came as optional FWD (which bonehead Chrysler
> > didn't do).
>
> Why optional FWD? Nobody is buying these for MPG reasons. I sure
> as hell didn't.

If I had a 3-car garage, then yes - I would own a V8 RWD Challenger -
and drive it in the spring / summer / fall.

But I don't have a 3 car garage. So the car that's going to be parked
beside my Dodge Ram truck in my garage needs to have front wheel drive
to deal with my winter driving conditions as my daily driving car.

So because the Challenger doesn't come with a V6 / FWD option, then I
have no use for it.