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If there's one thing life teaches you, it's don't, whatever you do, buy the first generation of any new car on the market. Inevitably, they have been built to hit an on-sale deadline, which doesn't allow for a proper fettling of the thing. If you wanted to be cynical - and accurate - you'd almost say the companies do it on purpose, so that the second generation can herald thousands of improvements that should have probably been on the original.

Take the 2008 Dodge Challenger as an example. When the 6,400 people who ordered the first run of the all-new Dodge Challenger climbed over each other to get their name on the title of one of the first cars, they probably didn't pay too much attention to the spec of their new-old ride. They were one of the first to own one, and that was all that mattered.

They'll have known they were taking delivery of an SRT8 version - the highest state of tune in the Dodge hierarchy, after the mid-range R/T and base V6-powered SE variants. They'll have taken comfort from the 6.1-litre V8's 435bhp and five-ish second 0-60mph time. And they'll have thought they'd got a bargain.

But the purists can't have been anything other than a little disappointed to have a five-speed auto as the only gearbox option. They don't want to go cruising in the Challenger, they want to go for a Vanishing Point-style blast. And for that fully authentic thrill, you really need a manual gearbox - and the original pistol-grip shifter.

So the news released at the New York show in mid March that the second batch, all R/Ts and SEs, will have not only a six-speed manual gearbox with pistol-grip shifter option, but also a limited-slip diff and tweaks to make the suspension better, will have probably spoilt several hundred people's day. At that drop-the-mug, sonofabitch moment, it seems fair to say their super-exclusive '08 car became the how-can-I-offload-this-one-and-get-an-'09-model-instead...

While it might seem like detail freakery to worry about such things, I'm afraid it really does matter on cars like these. The five-speed auto box might do a great job at slurring between the gears, and its semi-auto mode might work well, but it just isn't any real substitute for the full manual experience. On third, or even fourth, cars like this Challenger (after his car, her car, the kids' car, etc.), it's the detailing that makes all the difference. They are being bought as full-scale toys, not transport.

Which is why the interior is one of the key moans with this car. Having driven the fabulously detailed concept a couple of years ago, the updated take on the original inside was one of the standout features. That clearly didn't make the cut as, short of a couple of minor detail changes, it's almost exactly the same as the rest of the big Dodge models. It's all nice and comfy, with music hard drives, satnav and buttons galore, but the Challenger is about raw detailing, not electrickery.