2018 Dodge Challenger T/A 392 Test Drive

Justin Pritchard puts a 2018 Dodge Challenger T/A 392 through its paces for AutoTrader Canada, opening with a Call of Duty comparison that’s since become one of the most quoted lines in the car’s comments. Owners weigh in on second-gear thrills, twisty-road composure, and where this trim sits against the pricier Hellcat. A currency mix-up over the car’s roughly sixty-one-thousand-dollar price tag adds its own twist. Watch to see why so many buyers call this the sweet spot.

Justin Pritchard opens his review of the 2018 Dodge Challenger T/A 392 with a Call of Duty analogy that’s since become one of the most quoted lines in the car’s comment section — comparing it to always grabbing the rocket launcher instead of the sniper rifle. It’s a strange way to start a test drive video, until you realize exactly how deliberately this car is built for people who feel the same way about horsepower. AutoTrader Canada put roughly sixty-one thousand Canadian dollars on the table for this particular T/A 392, and by the end of the video it’s clear Pritchard isn’t entirely sure that number is even the point.

The Line Everyone Quotes

Pritchard’s Call of Duty line lands because it captures something specific about the T/A 392 that a spec sheet alone can’t: this isn’t the most track-focused Challenger Dodge sells, and it isn’t the most powerful either, but it’s the one built for buyers who want maximum drama with fewer compromises. Commenters have latched onto the line for years afterward, quoting it back in videos that have nothing to do with this specific car, which says plenty about how memorable AutoTrader Canada’s delivery style has become among Canadian car shoppers looking for a reviewer who talks like an enthusiast rather than a spec sheet.

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What T/A Actually Means on a Challenger

T/A stands for Trans Am — specifically referencing Dodge’s 1970s SCCA Trans-Am racing homologation package — and on the modern Challenger it signals a specific trim tier that sits between the base R/T and the more track-oriented Scat Pack and Hellcat models. The 392 badge refers to the 6.4-liter HEMI V8’s displacement in cubic inches, a naming convention Dodge has used consistently across its modern muscle car lineup to signal exactly which engine sits under the hood without buyers needing to memorize liter figures. It’s a small piece of badge literacy that ends up mattering a great deal on the used market.

The 392 HEMI, Explained for Buyers Cross-Shopping the Range

For Canadian shoppers trying to decide between Challenger trims, Pritchard positions the T/A 392 as the practical ceiling before diving into supercharged territory. It delivers 485 horsepower from the naturally aspirated 6.4-liter HEMI, offers a genuinely usable manual transmission option, and avoids both the fuel economy and insurance premium jump that comes with stepping up to the 707-horsepower Hellcat. It’s the version built for buyers who want serious performance without turning daily ownership into a financial or mechanical commitment, which is exactly the pitch Pritchard keeps circling back to throughout the review.

Rear-Wheel Drive, As God Intended

One comment praises Pritchard’s line about the Challenger being rear-wheel drive, as God intended, a small aside that resonates specifically with muscle car purists wary of all-wheel-drive creeping into the segment through rivals. It’s a subtle dig at where the broader performance car market has been heading, and viewers clearly appreciated a reviewer willing to say the quiet part directly rather than dance around it.

The Currency Confusion in the Comments

Several commenters initially balked at the roughly sixty-one thousand dollar price mentioned in the video, until others pointed out the figure is in Canadian dollars — visible from the Ontario plate and the .ca web address in the full review — which converts to something closer to forty-eight thousand US dollars. That currency confusion has become its own recurring thread under the video, a reminder that a review built for one country’s market doesn’t always travel cleanly online.

Second Gear Is Where This Car Lives

Multiple owners commenting on this video agree on one specific detail: the T/A 392 is at its best winding out toward redline in second gear, where the 6.4-liter HEMI’s mid-range torque and exhaust note both peak at once. One owner calls that combination — along with the deep highway cruising rumble at low RPM — nearly perfect, ranking it just behind tossing the car through tight corners at a weight nobody expects a forty-four-hundred-pound muscle car to handle as well as it does.

Twisties, Weight, and Why It Still Works

That handling comment isn’t hyperbole. Despite a curb weight north of four thousand pounds, the T/A 392’s chassis tuning and wider Scat Pack-sourced wheels give it composure through corners that older Challenger generations couldn’t have matched, a detail Pritchard highlights as one of the more pleasant surprises of the test drive. It’s proof that Dodge’s engineers spent real effort tuning the chassis to match the engine rather than simply chasing a bigger horsepower number.

The Pistol-Grip Debate That Never Dies

In the comments, at least one owner wishes Dodge had offered a pistol-grip shifter on the modern T/A as a nod to the 1970 original — a detail purists have wanted restored for years and one Dodge has never brought back on the current-generation car. It’s a small omission, but for buyers steeped in Challenger history, it’s exactly the kind of detail that keeps the debate over ‘true’ muscle car authenticity alive on a brand-new car.

Why Buyers Keep Calling This the Sweet Spot Challenger

Owners who bought their own T/A 392 after watching reviews like this one keep describing the same thing in the comments: it was the deciding factor between trims, and more than one calls it the best choice for buyers who can’t quite justify a Hellcat’s price or insurance bill. That recurring sentiment — practical enough to daily, dramatic enough to satisfy — is exactly the reputation Pritchard’s review helped cement for this specific trim within the modern Challenger lineup.

What Owners Say After the Honeymoon Period

Long-term owners commenting on this video echo a common theme months and years after their purchase: the T/A 392 hasn’t lost its appeal the way some performance cars do once the novelty wears off. Between the exhaust note, the manual shifter option, and a chassis that still rewards spirited driving, it’s a car several commenters describe as getting more enjoyable the longer they own it, not less. Enough owners have echoed that exact sentiment months apart that it reads less like marketing enthusiasm and more like a genuinely consistent pattern among people who actually live with the car day to day.

Watch the full video and drop your thoughts in the comments below.

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