2019 Dodge Charger Scat Pack: Fire Damage, Unknown Everything, $27K Ghost

A 2019 Dodge Charger Scat Pack is a real car. Not a rental-spec V6 with a spoiler — a 392 cubic inch Hemi, 485 horsepower, Brembo six-piston brakes, performance-tuned suspension. These things sell used, clean, for $27,000 to $32,000 all day. The ACV (Actual Cash Value — what it was worth before the fire) sits at $27,300. Current bid is zero dollars. For one brief, irresponsible moment, you do the math and think: what if?

The primary damage is listed as BURN. Not smoke. Not heat. Burn. Fire reached this car with enough conviction that an insurance company looked at a $27,000 muscle car and said "total loss" rather than write the repair check. Think about what that means. Insurance companies do not give up on $27,000 cars because of a little scorching around the hood latch. They gave up because the cost of finding out what the fire destroyed — wiring, fuel system, brake lines, interior, structural adhesives, the ECU (Engine Control Unit — the computer that runs everything) that lives in the firewall — exceeded what the car was worth. The title is unknown, which means we don't even know if the salvage title (legally declared a total loss) has been processed yet, or if this thing is floating in some insurance purgatory where you can't register it in half the states in the country.

Fire damage on a modern performance car is not a cosmetic problem. The 392 Hemi runs a network of wiring that controls variable valve timing, fuel injection, the eight-speed automatic transmission, the electronic limited-slip differential, and the Brembo brake system. Heat destroys wire insulation at temperatures the interior of a car fire exceeds by a factor of three. You cannot see damaged wiring by looking at it. You find it when the car dies on the highway, or when it starts again on its own in your garage at 2am. Wiring harness replacement on a Charger Scat Pack runs $3,500 to $6,000 for parts alone, not counting the 40-plus labor hours to route it through a car that was designed to be assembled once. Add fire-damaged brake lines at $800, a fuel system inspection and likely replacement at $1,200, interior gutting and replacement at $4,000 minimum, and a structural inspection for heat damage to the unibody at $500 just to find out if it's even worth continuing. That's $10,000 before you've confirmed the engine block didn't crack from thermal shock. Mileage is unknown. Keys are unknown. Run/drive is unknown. You are bidding on a photograph of a car that used to exist.

Somebody is going to win this auction for $3,800 and spend the next two years and $19,000 trying to resurrect a car that the insurance company already buried. Danielle in Knoxville is going to pull into the driveway with a burned Scat Pack on a flatbed and tell her husband it's a project. The Hemi is not worth it. Nothing with an unknown title and primary damage of BURN is worth it. Walk.