We Are Baffled By This 1-Mile 2009 Dodge Challenger
It's for sale. No, you can't test drive it.
With a paltry one mile showing on its digital odometer, this 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 can likely claim the title of lowest-mile muscle car on the planet. The orange Challenger is currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, packing a pre-Hellcat 6.1-liter Hemi V-8 and a six-speed manual transmission. Too bad nobody has ever driven it.
Logically, it had to be driven, at least a little bit. Cars exiting the assembly line are driven some distance to a loading yard, where they are driven onto either trucks or trains for shipping. Eventually, they end up on a truck to reach the selling dealership, typically accumulating a handful of miles in the process. It sure looks like this Challenger took the most direct route, because photos with the auction show a lone mile on the digital odometer. Sadly there's no readout for the tenth digit, so we have no idea if that's 1.1 or 1.9.
As you might imagine, the car looks brand new. That is, until you peruse photos showing the undercarriage. It looks very clean for a low-mile car, but this is a one-mile car. Axles and some fasteners show surface rust. We see corrosion on aluminum components. There appears to be rust bubbling through painted suspension components, and that sure looks like some dirt in the fenders. But the yellow Bilstein shocks look pristine, as does everything under the hood.
According to the auction description, the Challenger has had three owners over the last 16 years. The first owner took delivery without having any pre-purchase inspection done, presumably to keep mileage as low as possible. Subsequent owners "have maintained its single-mile odometer reading." In the comments, the seller explains the underbody corrosion as coming from one of the earlier owners who didn't keep it in a climate controlled garage. The seller also states "dry icing would go a long way as it's just surface stuff."
Does the one-mile odometer reading make this car more valuable that other low-mile Challengers? As of January 14, bidding sits at $19,009 with seven days left in the auction. If mileage is indeed the deciding factor for the buyer, here's hoping it doesn't click over to two while being loaded onto yet another truck for delivery.
Source: Bring A Trailer
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