Miss Daisy - 2021 Dodge Charger

Picked up this 2021 Charger police from IAAI for $6939.36. That price includes all fees and shipping, the winning bid was $5150 and shipping was $480.

It has the 5.7 V8 with 55k miles and it runs and drives great.

I haven't done a full inventory yet, but damages seem to be limited to the front bumper and rf headlight. The crash bar has been marked as being pushed, but I don't see any crinkles or anything and the a/c condenser has an X around a coil but it looks to be intact. 

I titled this Miss Daisy because that appears to be what the original owners/officers named the car. Thought it was kind of neat that that is still there. 

Cursory plans for this one include fixing the damage obviously, putting in a civilian center console, leather front and rear seats, and maybe some R/T wheels.

It will obviously have a rebuilt title, but I see these listed for $20-23k and I'm going to look to get $15k for it while staying under $10k invested. 

Looks like a solid plan.

Also, nice to see it has some miles on it. Remember reading somewhere (probably here) that these engines had issues with prolonged idling, so good to know it was stretching its legs frequently.

Solid find!  

Using the windshield sticker number, I found the original listing photos.  

Airbags remain intact...great!  At least this comes with a center console and happily, it looks like "cop electronics" were not heavy handly ripped out of the dash/console.  As for replacement console, all civilian cars got floor/console shifters while cop versions got column shifters so as to leave room for "cop electronics" in the console/dash.  This may add complexity to console replacement.

At least you got a padded back seat and not just the hard plastic rear seat.

The listing photos shows a front bumper cover but the photo quality is poor.  Did this part make its way to you?  If so, can this be salvaged?  

I quick jumped onto car-part.com and for NC I did find a Front Bumper Assy from a 2016 SXT, in your color but asking $650 in Rocky Mount, NC

In reply to John Welsh :

The bumper cover is trashed. I might be able to mold it back into shape with a heat gun, but the mounting tabs for the grill got all boogered up. 

For the center console I do plan on keeping the column shift, and there are shifter block off plates available on eBay for $20 or so to neatly cover up the hole. 

Thanks for the find! There's one being parted out locally to me that I'm going to try to get everything from, but Rocky Mount isn't too far so that might work out great. 

Also looks like this car has already spent time in the civilian side, it has a muffler delete 😬

Quite a score! Here's to hoping getting the front end back together goes smoothly.

You mentioned it's been in private hands.  That leads me to wonder if it's been wrecked before.  This jives with my thought that this damage wasn't enough to total a 4 yr old, 55k car.  

But, I do know that ins companies don't like to repair cars that have been previously totaled due to the whole blurry line of what is current damage and what could be previous damage.  

In Ohio, cars like that are listed as Previous Rebuilt but that could vary by state or vary but title disclosure. 

None of this make the car bad, and it's just suspicious speculation on my part but hunt around the car for evidence of previous repairs.  

In Ohio, the title that IAA gives me provides previous owner info and I've used that to contact POs.  Other times I've found old repair invoices in the car that flat out give POs name as well as cell phone number.  

In reply to John Welsh :

I did grab a carfax for it, it's only showing the one accident that totaled it out but it is pretty much blank for the entire time the police department owned it. I think they just turned it in after going over mileage, it had 47k miles after 2 years. 

I'm sure you saw that IAAI had it listed at $15k in damages, I just don't see how they got to that number unless they were quoting replacing the frame rails. 

These are really cool looking cars. Bet it can't do a burnout...

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

Yeah, $15k of damages doesn't make sense.  Even with mechanicals, it feels to me like it would be under $8k.  Of course, these are cop cars and cop cars get run up curbs, etc.  From under is there heavy scrapping?  Is the oil pan dented (even though not leaking?)  This or similar could have lead to pricing in an "engine pull" and adding fears of mounting costs.  

I enjoy this forensics part of buying a car that "has a story" but the full story is not reveled...yet.  

$650 for a used bumper cover.  That gives me a little sticker shock seeing that I buy '09 Prius covers for $100-200.  

How difficult is your state for allowing you to bring this car back to roadworthy status?  

In reply to John Welsh :

The underside is perfect, which is perplexing because the Carfax says front end/undercarriage in the accident. 

I'm in Virginia and the process seems relatively simple, but it will take a couple months. 

After I have the car rebuilt and it passes the state safety inspection I have to take the title and mail it in with a request for a rebuilt vehicle inspection. When it gets it's inspection I have to have before/after pictures and receipts for all parts used. After that they'll issue the rebuilt title and registration. 

Mailing in the title to a DMV office while it isn't in my name and I have no easy way of getting a duplicate gives me the heeby jeebies, but there's literally no other way for me to get it titled in Virginia. 

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

Hot tip in case they lose your docs;  make high resolution color copies of all of your docs before you send them out.  Take a pic of the FedEx envelope with tracking showing your docs going into it.  All of that will prove helpful should docs disappear and you need to go to a supervisor for help.

First piece of the puzzle in, picked up a new Chinesium headlight from ebay for $74. I can see that the DRL strip is a little different from the OEM headlight on the drivers side, so I may end up getting one for that side as well. 

Also I ordered a new unpainted front bumper from a company out of Chesapeake, VA for $243 (free shipping!). I'm not sure if I'm going to paint it myself or have my local maaco paint it yet, but I'm hoping to come in under the $650 that these bumpers seem to go for used. 

On the interior front I was searching for used leather seats and I came across this listing for replacement covers:

I've had good luck with covers like this in the past so I scooped these up as well. I'm hoping the "rebuild" portion of this can be done by the end of this month!

Is this model AWD? And/or were all police models AWD?

In reply to budget_bandit :

This one is RWD. I know they're available with AWD though. 

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

If you do another one, I've purchased these painted to match bumper covers for a Malibu and Ford Flex.  I've been very happy with this seller:

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

AWD versions are equipped with the V6, a worthwhile trade off if you're needing the traction and don't mind the performance loss. 

The covers were delivered a little while ago and unfortunately they won't work. I guess the police seats are slightly different than the civilian models. 

CaprockFabShop said:

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

AWD versions are equipped with the V6, a worthwhile trade off if you're needing the traction and don't mind the performance loss. 

deleted inaccurate comment because i hate being wrong more than i love berkeleying with AI 

I was under the impression that AWD and Hemi versions do exist?

In reply to budget_bandit :

They do. I think the civilian versions are only awd with the v6 though. 

Bumper cover just straight up doesn't fit. I'm going to just try and snag a used bumper from a salvage yard, no more chinesium stuff for me. 

Also arguing back and forth with the sellers of the seat kit, they offered a $30 refund which doesn't do me any good. Then asked for me to take pictures of the covers installed which I finally did today. 

This is the cover FULLY installed and shocker, it doesn't fit. Maybe the police cars get less bolstering or something but the cover is basically just sitting on there. 

John Welsh said:

I quick jumped onto car-part.com and for NC I did find a Front Bumper Assy from a 2016 SXT, in your color but asking $650 in Rocky Mount, NC

Thanks for this find, bumper acquired

If anyone was curious, you can fit a 16-23 Dodge Charger bumper into a VW ID.4, but it has to occupy the front passenger seat. 

I need to finish putting in the wheel well liners and the under tray but the bumper is bolted up! Everything lined up great. I was a little worried with how poorly the aftermarket bumper fit that there was frame tweakage that I just wasn't seeing. 

Great.  Not having to paint is well worth the travel and potential extra price.  Even if you had 4 hours into just driving, 4 hours of paint prep wouldn't get the job done as well.  

I'm seriously considering having the back window replaced instead of picking away at this tint. In Virginia tint has to be 35% or higher to pass inspection and I'm guessing this was at 10% or less so it has to come off. The door windows came off no problem but this is nonsense.