2026 Dodge Charger R/T

[00:00:11] Hey and welcome back. I'm Mike Quincy. I'm John Linkove. And I'm Mike Monticello. So in today's Talking Cars, we are going to talk about the 2026 Dodge Charger. This is a blast from the past. The Mopar spirit is still kicking. I mean, this car, you got to admit, it is visually striking, but I suppose you either like it or you don't. But it's no mistaking that this thing has a presence.

[00:00:36] The big news is the Charger comes as a very lengthy four-door hatchback, as well as a two-door model, which is not called the Challenger, by the way. Both electric and old-school internal combustion power are offered. We bought an all-wheel drive four-door RT model, which comes with a twin-turbo 420-horsepower 3-liter straight six-cylinder engine hooked up to an eight-speed automatic transmission. We also added the blacktop package, which includes a whole bunch of features that I'm not going to list right now.

[00:01:06] Another few odds and ends, and the $1,995 destination charge, our car came to $57,700. So, Mr. Monticello, let's start with you, and let's talk about what you like about the new Charger. Well, first of all, how did you not mention one of the options, the Blutacrisp paint? I mean, how do you talk about options and not mention that most hilarious one?

[00:01:32] I do give the Chrysler Corporation credit for creative naming of their colors. A lot of their money goes into the marketing. You know, Go Mango and stuff like that. But yes, Blutacrisp was very creative. Yeah, but I can't, you know. So you like the color, okay. I do like the color, and I think the name's hilarious. Why not have some fun with it, right? But kind of what you already touched on, the presence and that kind of thing.

[00:01:59] I mean, remember, and you know this because you worked at Automobile Magazine, but when that magazine was founded in the mid-'80s, it was founded on a mantra of no boring cars, right? Right, and what we're seeing a lot these days are a lot of boring cars, right? And this is not boring. And honestly, that's one of the things I like best about it is that it's not a great car overall, and we're going to get into a lot of the things that are, you know, some things that are kind

[00:02:28] of not great about it, but it's not boring to drive. It's not boring to look at just the way it has kind of a fairly loud for the times startup, you know, cold startup. It announces that it's there, and it's got some presence. It's got the bulging hood. It's got the sinister headlights. You know, there's just a look about it, and just even the way it drives, and we're going to get into all that. But just, I mean, it's got some power.

[00:02:56] Not unbelievable power, but it's got some power. You really get into it. It makes some noise. And I really like that it's not boring. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the website, because I was checking out options and what's available and what's not, and it's just filled with power slides. And it's like, this is the car for a Michael Bay movie, okay? It's like, it doesn't make sense. It's like Armageddon, two space shuttles taking off next to each other. Totally doesn't make sense. Gravity on an asteroid. Sure.

[00:03:25] This car doesn't make sense, but it's entertaining. It's just like a Michael Bay movie. But I mean, cars today are, Mike, you kind of touched on this. They're safer than they've ever been. They're more fuel efficient than they've ever been. They run cleaner than they've ever been. They're certainly, cars are getting bigger. They're not getting smaller. But maybe the automotive world needs some silly cars that make no sense at all. Absolutely.

[00:03:49] I mean, look, what the automotive world needs versus what the buying public wants are two different things, yes. But that means if the automotive world will be filled with brown station wagons and, you know, with V8 engines and it needs it. But most people are just like, no, I really want my experience to be inside the car. Thanks. I mean, look at the Audi Q9 that was introduced. The Vorsprung Dirt technique is all about the in-car experience, not the driving. Right. The world has changed.

[00:04:17] I worked with an editor over 20 years ago in our Yonkers office who was so frustrated with cars and auto tests enthusiasm for it. She actually just said, well, everyone should just buy a Camry and be done with it. And so I'm glad that the world isn't just Camrys. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's true. Who knows how many they're going to sell? And they obviously will likely appeal to a fairly small clientele. You know, not huge numbers, I would guess these days, but we'll see.

[00:04:48] I mean, there are some things that you are going to have to put up with. Again, we'll talk about that and are not likes. But there's also some real positives to this car. I mean, just take the ride. The ride is quite comfortable. You know, I feel like we're seeing so many vehicles these days come through the auto test center that have pretty darn stiff rides, including luxury cars. Enormous wheels and tires. That has a lot to do with it. When you start putting 22 inch wheels and very low aspect ratio on the tires, you're asking to have a stiff ride.

[00:05:18] In this car, I mean, it soaks up most bumps that you throw at it pretty easily. I mean, these are 19s. These are the small wheels. These are actually 20s. These are 20s? Because of the blacktop package. Yeah, I think it comes with 18s. These are 20s. 255, 45 tires. Okay. So, but it actually does pretty darn well. I mean, to the point that most of the time you're not thinking about what is the suspension doing? What are the, you know, what size wheels and tires?

[00:05:45] Because that's something as soon as you start driving a test car out of here and you start hitting some of the bumps. One of the first things I think about is, oh crap. What size? How large are these wheels? It's, you know, screwing up the suspension and the ride. And this thing actually, I thought it did pretty darn well. Yeah. It's, it's, um, it's a cruiser. Yeah. You know, and I, I mean, I, one of my notes is like, you want to go from, take I-75 from Fort Lauderdale all the way up to like Valdosta, Georgia? Perfect car for it. You want to continue on to the tail of the dragon?

[00:06:14] Not really the best thing at all. Okay. Not where you're going to have fun with that. For sure. But yeah, it just, you can lock in and just go. Now, depending on how much time you put your foot into it, you may be at gas station often, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it harkens back to the cars of the sixties and of the seventies in a sense. So big, slightly ungainly, maybe if it gets really technical, but, uh, you know, they just kind of waft down the road. And it's quiet too. Other than the engine and exhaust. Yeah.

[00:06:43] So when you said, you know, the big bark at startup, it made me think of, of the Ford Mustang GT, which has a setting where you can do a quiet startup because allegedly when they were developing the, the current Mustang, uh, one of the engineers or product, uh, planner guys was, was their neighbors complained that how loud it was when he started up. It's like, okay, maybe we can look into that. Now I'm not suggesting that the new charger is, is quite as loud as the Mustang, but, but

[00:07:11] it's just interesting that you brought it up that, that, that initial startup. I brought it up more than anything because it's, well, we do drive a lot of EVs these days. And of course there's no sound with those, but. Or, or awful fake sounds or, or the pedestrian warning sound obviously. But, um, but I, I did see some notes in the logbook where people thought it was obnoxious. I don't think it's obnoxious at all. I think it is a little bit loud. I agree. But I think it's totally fitting the character of the car. I don't think it's going to wake up your neighbors.

[00:07:40] Uh, and maybe they should be getting up and going to work anyway. I, I, I startled some people at, um, in a parking lot, remote starting it from inside. Everyone, Mozart opened the door and as it kicked in, I could see. The person, you know, either, either liking it or being offended by it. I think it was just more sudden, you know, because it is, it's very sudden. Especially if you're walking by a car, you don't see someone's foot on the pedal. You don't see someone get in it. You know, you're, you're walking up to it. But yeah, they, they definitely jerked when that, when that kicked in.

[00:08:08] Cause it does, it, it kicks in like it's getting onto full song. So, so John, speaking of kicking in, you're driving it and say you're merging on the highway. Uh, what, what did, what did you think of the, the power delivery, the response, the noise? It was, it was fine. I mean, I, I didn't. Well, no, I'm not trying, I'm not trying to paint it in a bad light. Like it, we're not getting into the dislikes. We're still in the likes. Plenty of, plenty of power. You know, I knew where the wheels were pointed, you know, and steering wasn't, you know, disconnected feeling.

[00:08:38] Now, I don't know if people were getting out of my way because it looked kind of like a, a steady car, you know, because they, some places do, some guys do in this area run dodges. I mean, it's a different grill than many of them, but a lot of people got in my way. You know, it's blue. Maybe they'll think it's a police. I don't know this. It wasn't like I was ripping down at 120 blinking my lights at them. Right. But plenty of people just got out of the way. It gets up to its cruising again very well. But it wasn't, for me, engaging, except for the sound. And the sound was fine.

[00:09:08] I didn't find myself putting it in and out of eco or sport to lessen it. It just, it just was kind of background noise. And it was enjoyable background noise. Yeah. I think what he's trying to say is, and he's beating around the bush, is that you'd think, knowing that that's 420 horsepower, you'd think it'd feel a little faster. It's fine. I don't know if that's where you're going. But for me, that's what I felt, is that I thought it would feel, when I really floor it and get into it, I thought the, and it comes on song, it's got twin turbos. Right.

[00:09:37] I thought it would feel a little quicker than it is, but it's more than enough. I mean, in terms of, you can feel comfortable that if you want to get around a car in a two-lane passing zone or whatever, you're going to be able to. I thought that, and keep in mind, it's the reason why I think it doesn't feel all that fast is it's almost 5,000 pounds. Yeah. Right. So it's really heavy. It's 4,747 pounds is our test car. So it's really heavy. So, but I'd say it's good. It's not, I wouldn't call the acceleration, you know, exhilarating.

[00:10:07] But I think there's some real positives to this engine in terms of, and the transmission. There are some real faults we'll get into. But just that it's pretty responsive. Like if you floor it, there is a little delay before it really does anything. Then it gives a quick downshift. Power comes on pretty much immediately. The shifts are very smooth and quick at full throttle. Not always at other times. And also when you do things like, and I will say part of the reason why maybe it feels exciting

[00:10:36] is that the engine's making a lot of racket when you're doing those kinds of things. But it was, it was. So first of all, I had it in the rain. It's like I had it overnight, two rainy days. So I'm not putting it in the full song. I'm not, you know, or I'm not going to floor it. I don't want to find out how good the all-wheel drive is. More than tires. Stability control. Yeah. I just, you know, we could do it on track. But the sound is equal to the performance.

[00:11:02] It's not one of these mostly EVs, but even cars, you're like, well, it sounds good, but I really don't feel like I'm going anywhere. So it's in line with the performance, I think. Okay. But there is a little bit, you're like you said, there is a little bit of a delay. It's really, it's really good when it's rolling. Yeah. I think from a stop, it's one thing. When you're, when you're rolling into your, your question onto the, from the on-ramp to the highway, you know, it's just, it's instantaneous. That I found, albeit in the rain. Okay. Okay. And, and, and so, so Monty's talked about some of the stuff that he liked.

[00:11:32] So John, let's, let's, let's look at some of the, some of the points on your list. Yes. Oh, again, we talked about comfortable ride, comfortable seats too. I found the seats. They worked for me. Interesting. Supportive. I didn't have any, any issues, a shoulder area, lower back, you know, nothing like that. Again, into that whole cruising world. I am torn on the climate controls because they're accessible.

[00:11:57] They're the, like, they're a touch sensitive bar at that, that Chrysler or Stellantis is moving to. And they're really accessible. You know, they're not in a screen. They're not somewhere you have to swipe and go to, but they're not great. You know, and it's kind of like, oh, fine. At least they, they put them there and they put them within reach, but it's not really the best execution. And the tactile thing. It was almost like tap. You can almost hear it. The, the, the, the, the shelf. You can see it. So that's why you want the tactile though, because you want to know that you, that it,

[00:12:26] it did what you asked it to do. Yeah. So I don't mind the tactile sensation. I like that. Yeah. But what is weird is I think what you're talking about is that no matter any of the buttons, you press the whole, the whole bar moves. And it just feels cheap and looks cheap when that happens. It's a little unnerving because I was like, is this falling apart? Is it supposed to do this? Yeah. It's weird. It's weird. We could bring it to the dislike. I didn't want to get into, you know, make it into the dislikes. That's what I'm told. I actually have that at kind of a like. Yeah. You know, to be honest with you, because all the stuff that I care about for the most part,

[00:12:56] as far as climate is there. Right. Temperature, always there. Airflow mode, always there. Fan speed is always there. So even though it's kind of a, not the best, most user friendly because it is all on one panel and you're not actually pressing a physical button that, that goes in. Yeah. The whole panel moves at least every, most of the things that I think people use most of the time with climate control is there and accessible. Right. So that is a positive. It's unconventional, but it, but it's still effective. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:25] I mean, let's go back to the seats though, because I, you seemed surprised when he said he liked it. I thought, I thought that, well, this is kind of gets into my, my dislikes. Okay. I don't want to jump the gun. Let's save that then. I'm on team, team link. Okay. Because we were divided. Which is rare. The log books divided on the front seats. And I thought, uh, I thought they were pretty comfortable and supportive. Well, I think there's actually quite good bolstering on the seat back in particular. Like if I move over slightly, the bolster is right there. Move over that way. The bolster is right there.

[00:13:54] The bottom cushion could use a little more bolstering, but it, you know, I just tilted the leading edge of the bottom cushion up and then I was fine. And also the fact that it's cloth now you can argue whether, you know, a $57,000 car should have cloth or not. I personally love cloth because it's, you know, because it's grippy and it's not super hot in the summer. It's not super hot, super cold in the winter. So I think there's real positive.

[00:14:19] So, and I just thought also that just the, the padding of the, of the bottom cushion and seat back were pretty good. The only issue I had is that, uh, I thought it just had a little bit too much built in lumbar support, but we can talk about your, the rest of the time. Yeah. I mean, the lumbar worked for me and it has a pocket. You all, you know, when you're writing, you often talk about the seat, the pocket that you sit in and it formed a nice one without, without sinking in and feeling like I was at the adult table as a child. Or without being so wide and flat that it didn't, doesn't hold you in place through corners. Yeah.

[00:14:48] What was going through my mind, those we were talking about the climate system was, were other controls. And I don't think that at Stellantis, can I say Stellantis or can I just say Chrysler? I mean, you guys, you guys know what we mean. We know who you mean. The Stellantis. The third, the third of the big three. Whatever. What we used to call Chrysler now is Stellantis. So they have had a long history of audio controls behind the steering wheel. And I don't think they get enough credit for this because I love them.

[00:15:16] I love the fact that most of the time we're, we're at nine and three and on the right side, you can adjust the volume. On the left side, you can, you can go to the next track or the next preset or something like that, or change formats. And it is so awesome. It's right there and you don't have to deal with, with anything else as the, you know, the driver. So I just, I just wanted to put, you know, a little check mark in the, in the way to go guys column for those. It's like they found what worked and they kept it instead of reinventing it just for the sake.

[00:15:45] Exactly. And, and occasionally you see some, some car companies like GM did, did some of the things, but then I think the last GMC terrain that we tested, the paddle shifters were right next to them. And I remember not being able to figure out, am I on the volume or on the upshift paddle or something like that. The EV ones have the brake buttons. Right. But, but so, so I mean, you know, give, give Dodge credit for sticking with this design.

[00:16:10] And, and, and, and if you drive these, that brand's vehicles, you will, you'll immediately be comfortable with it. It's at home. Very easy to use. Right. Right. Once you understand, once you memorize which is which. Exactly. I think the final thing, and probably you may, you may agree, you may, may not, hatchback design. It's, it certainly is different in the muscle car world like that. You know, a lot of it's traditional trunk, the last charger, you know, big trunk and such. It gives it versatility.

[00:16:36] I don't know if it's all, if it's the most versatile hatchback out there, just in the sense of how high the floor is. But yeah, it's, it's, it's different. You know what? Why not? You know, instead of having a, having design compromised by the, the rear package shelf and the seat backs and, you know, then you have, you're sticking stuff that goes far in. You've got a nice hatchback you could reach in no matter what. So give it a plus for that as well. So, so more likes and, and I, I'm really on board with a lot of what you guys said.

[00:17:05] The one thing I will add is I'm just glad that it's a sedan. So, so we get. As opposed to an SUV. Well, yeah, because we drive so many SUVs these days. And I was a little disappointed when, when Toyota dropped the Avalon and brought out the crown. And they, and they made the styling of the crown kind of look SUV-ish or big in and off and, and more ground clearance and stuff like that. And the simplicity of the Avalon was one of the things that I liked about it so much out of the low cowl had great visibility.

[00:17:34] And the new one really, the new, the crown and the crown insignia really doesn't. So, so, hey, yay for Dodge. You, you, you, you stuck with a sedan or a sedan like vehicle. So, so good on you for that. Yeah. All right. So this is where maybe it gets a little spicier. And let's go to the, to the dislikes column because I got a few extra of these on the like side. Who wants to, John, why don't you start, John?

[00:18:02] So before I get to the car, I want to say that I'm done with like the marketing hyperbole. And because according to Dodge, it's the world's most powerful all-wheel drive muscle car. And that's like saying we work with the world's tallest Mike Quincy who's employed with Consumer Reports. It's a one of one. Like the Mustang is not all-wheel drive. Right. There's no other muscle car out there that's an all-wheel drive car. So congratulations for that. It's a participation award and the number one spot out of one.

[00:18:32] But that aside, the rear seat's just too small as a sedan for two people, let alone three. Like it's just really snug. Hard to get in and out of, compromised headroom. No headroom. Yeah. I mean. And then like I said, the hatch floor, the rear hatch floor is really high. So I mean, it's cool to have, but you're not really stacking a lot of stuff there as the glass comes down. Yeah. The rear seat is just strange. I mean, like you can't imagine that it would be that. For such a big car. Cramped and uncomfortable.

[00:19:03] It's a big car. There's just weird connection between this very raked back bottom cushion, which usually you would do to help with under leg support. But then also what feels like an oddly high floor. So you're in this kind of strange knee bend for an adult that you wouldn't expect. Right. Yeah. And you know, and this is guess, guess, guessing on it because of the EV development. That's my guess. Yes.

[00:19:28] So remember how it used to be that you'd take a gas platform and turn it into an EV and there'd be some compromises. Well, it turns out if you go the other way and do an EV platform. There's compromises. And also just and also not helping this situation. This make that situation leads to feel uncomfortable is besides this, the bottom cushion raked high floor, but also very hardly any space for your feet underneath the front seats.

[00:19:57] Especially like for someone like me, I sit with the driver's seat at its lowest position. And so you just end up and then hardly like my head is just about into the roof and not quite there. I just it's just weird. And then even the like let the outboard elbow rest that the arm rest, my outer elbow like knocks into this piece of plastic that's on the door panel there. You know, that weird patterny thing, patterny thing on the bumps into.

[00:20:25] And they actually put a little plastic panel there for my elbow to bump into instead of bumping into the ridge stuff. It's the Monticello panel. They talked about it in development. But anyway, yeah, really weird for the rear seat to be this uncomfortable in such a big car. I mean, on the topic you brought up, the fit and finish in the trim is interesting because hit and miss. Hit and miss.

[00:20:49] Like Alex and Isaac noted, there's a weird plastic piece on the door where two pieces of trim meet. But they meet with this divider as if they couldn't get it to line up perfectly. So they'll put a plastic block in there so that your eye doesn't see that the two pieces don't line up properly. Maybe it's just a design thing, but it gives a look of like, well, I couldn't get it right. So we'll just tape over it. This stuff on the door that it's visually arresting. Your eye is drawn to it. But you touch it.

[00:21:19] Well, and then the next thing that is a human nature is you're like, well, okay, I'm going to touch it. And you're just like, oh, it doesn't have the tactile sensation that you expect from something that looks so nice. It's plasticky, a little bit rough, and just feels terrible. And it feels terrible when you rub your hands across it. And it's hollow. It's more flash than substance. I mean, it's not an area where you're like, oh, I'm driving around. Right, right, right. You're not holding it. But like you said, it's human nature to touch things, right?

[00:21:49] We touch things, yeah. I mean, at least I think it's one of those cabins that you get into it and you're like, oh, it's not too bad, actually. I mean, when you look at it, like there's this, you know, red stitching, a lot of red stitching, a lot of red and white stitching. At least they didn't use glossy black trim on the center console. There's like, Audi stole it all. There's none left for anyone else. And then I'm torn on the pistol grip shifter. From an ergonomic standpoint, I like it. And I think it looks cool.

[00:22:18] Like it actually works well with my hand. But I do know that a lot of people said in the logbook, you know, just I guess it feels there's a flimsiness to that plastic, right, that people just thought felt out of place with the car, I guess. Yeah, and it engaged oddly. I found myself often like I tried to go to park, but I was in reverse. But it kind of like locked, felt like it locked in, but it wasn't. It's just an homage to the 1970s, sort of.

[00:22:43] Oh, so it's as unreliable in the 70s as well as the look and feel. You look at a manual transmission of a 70s cooter or Challenger, and it is that pistol thing. Give me the hearse. Exactly. Yeah, and I agree with you on the fit and finish. It just, things felt loose. Because it does, it's visually arresting. But then you start touching stuff, and it's like, well, that kind of feels loose, and that kind of feels loose.

[00:23:12] And Stellantis does not have a great reputation for reliability, and some of that can be squeaks and rattles in Consumer Reports reliability surveys. So it will be very interesting to me how this holds up over time. But continue. Well, so let's get into the controls. The bar of buttons that sits below the vents. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so on the good side, they light up. But on the bad side, they're hidden under a ledge.

[00:23:40] And they're buttons that you would use, such as the turning off the auto stop start. They can be low because they're not commonly used controls. That's totally fine. You know, put the emergency flashers up high. Put something that you're going to touch once down low. And having a physical button, again, kudos there. But they're hidden away, and they're low, and they're dark buttons recessed underneath a shelf. It's just a little weird. Why are they not just out? Just present them to the driver a little better. Yeah.

[00:24:09] If you have sunglasses on, you almost have to take your sunglasses off to find them. Right. And even though the emergency flashers is on its own, it's still kind of small. Yeah. And a little bit under a ledge. So it's just not the – that's something that you want to be able to press really quickly. Find quickly and press quickly. It's small potatoes, but it's attention to detail. It's that type of stuff. And you're just like, okay, doing it to be ergonomically better for the driver. Especially with everything in a screen nowadays.

[00:24:38] It's great to have buttons, but make them useful. Where's the wireless charger? For $57,000. Yeah. Yeah. So they trick you. They trick you. I couldn't even believe it. They trick you. They have these two great slots toward the front of the center console where you would put two different phones with a divider between them. And it's even in its grippy rubber base there, so they're not going to slide around. And for $57,000, you'd think you would get at least one wireless charger.

[00:25:07] It's not even two. It's probably with the power hatch button, which is in the RT+. Yeah. So that's the other weird thing. So it's great that it's a hatchback, but there's no way to – there's no button to open it on the driver's dash area or on the – sometimes it's near the driver's door pocket area. It's not even on the key fob. Right. So you have to do it only from the rear of the car, which, again, is another oddity. Can I jump on the hatchback thing just for a second? Jump on it. Jump in, actually.

[00:25:34] So I drove it on a pretty cold day. And as you know, sometimes cold weather can affect a vehicle's structure. It might accentuate some squeaks and rattles. And it sounded like the Kia Stinger that we tested years ago, which also was a hatchback design, which always had squeaks in it. And I'm wondering, you know, is that kind of – is there some structural integrity issues with a big hatchback? So you were hearing – were you hearing some rattling with the hatchback? Yeah, I was hearing squeaks and rattles from our charger.

[00:26:03] And while the hatchback is kind of convenient for hauling stuff, one of the things that Jeff Bartlett pointed out was, you know, I went to the grocery store and my groceries tipped over. And all the stuff went closer to the back seat. You can't really reach stuff because it is such a big cargo area. You might find something that moves that you can't actually get at.

[00:26:27] So the hatchback is good in some aspects, but also has a few negatives going with it too. I mean, you'd find it with some SUVs in the sense. If a three-row SUV, if you keep the second row down or something like that, but a lot of them will have a well or a lot of them have a panel underneath that you could store stuff. Okay. As a grocery getter in the house, I do look for that because the falling over groceries is, you know, and on top of the eggs is a pain in the neck. So, yeah, totally, totally. Visibility with the hatchback as well.

[00:26:56] Again, that's also one of the downsides of the hatchback. Yeah, so, I mean, I found it – it's compromised. It's very hot, kind of a high dash, angled windshield. You've got a hood scoop in the front. It's okay, but it's not great. Right. You know, they're definitely – you have a sedan. You're like, okay, a sedan could be a little better. You know, you have a hatch. You have a big, big piece of glass in the back that's not too raked. It's not like a real steep.

[00:27:25] And, yeah. The styling probably took precedence over the functionality. Well, yeah, if you look at how chopped the windows are, I mean, obviously, you know, you've got some very thick windshield pillars. Yeah. Which we're seeing, you know, obviously on a lot of cars. I'll give them credit. At least the base of the windshield pillar doesn't get crazy thick like on some vehicles. But it is a very thick windshield pillar. You have to look around. But then the front and rear side windows are just – they're very much chopped, right?

[00:27:52] And especially the rear window really has a dramatic taper. So you're losing a lot of, you know, outward views there. And then the rearmost pillars are super, super, super thick. The rear window actually is decent size and usable. But, you know, there's some huge blind spots formed by those – the huge rear pillars. Definitely. You know, I mean, the world of backup cameras standard now for a decade plus and all the sensors, you know, you're getting people now rely on that. Yeah.

[00:28:20] And I don't know if automakers think, okay, it gives them some leeway. Unfortunately, though, as we all know, backup cameras fail. They get recalled. The screen fails. And then you have a whole host of people who – and maybe it's not the easiest seat to turn around in. Maybe, you know, whatever it is, a person's not, you know, used to doing this type of thing. Now all of a sudden you don't have the visibility to back up. You know, you don't have that ability. Especially with everyone who backs into parking spaces these days. Oh, sure.

[00:28:50] You know, maneuverability, we can probably get into that. Yeah. Mike, so other negative points of this? Yeah, so, I mean, I think one of the big ones that you notice almost immediately is some rough shifts from the transmission. And I can't remember a car that – it's especially the 1-2 upshift in parking lots.

[00:29:13] Like, you know, when you just get going and, you know, it wants to upshift and you're at hardly any throttle and it's almost always really rough, this 1-2 shift. Again, we're talking parking lots, right? Right? We're going through our gates here at the test track. That's hard to fathom that that would happen. But – and I'll steal a logbook comment from you. You said hard to modulate at low speeds.

[00:29:41] So, besides this 1-2 – rough 1-2 shift in very, very low speeds, even just starting from a stop, I found it a little bit hard to modulate. Unless you're super, super gentle with the throttle, it actually takes off with a little bit of a lurch, right? Kind of an abrupt throttle delivery. And then you've got this – usually, not always – pretty rough 1-2 and then pretty noticeable 2-3 upshift. So, just as you're getting going, you're like, man, this car feels a little bit crude. Yeah.

[00:30:11] That said, I feel it kind of fits the character of the car a little bit. It wants you to go fast. It's like someone really jamming the gears home. And so – Don't go slower than this. Here's what I would say. You know, I will ding it score-wise when we actually get into the true testing of this car. It has to be dinged for that as far as it's powertrain, right? But I feel – but it didn't bother me that much. And it does fit the character of the car a little bit.

[00:30:35] And I will say that there are a fair amount of times once you get beyond the 2-3, the rest of those upshifts are usually pretty smooth. And some bumpy downshifts are in there. But it's just that very low-speed stuff that just kind of could – you've got to be willing to put up with that. And I think a lot of people won't be expecting that. Do you agree with that? Well, I didn't like it with the rain, thinking, is it going to break – you know, what's going to happen? Is it going to break loose or something? Starting up and turning. Yeah. You know, again, pulling out into traffic and turning.

[00:31:04] Like, that was – it's like – I mean, I joked here. It's like a new driver with a clutch for the first time. Yeah. You know, they're missing something. They're not engaging the clutch properly. And what's really funny is that we're looking at cars for my daughter who's getting her license soon. And one of the things was a 21 – no, 22 Volkswagen Tows. I know. No one needs to tell me the Consumer Reports stuff. But we're looking at different cars and I'm getting ideas for her.

[00:31:32] And it's got that bad – you know, it's got the drivability issues. This reminded me of driving the Tows. The Tows reminded me of driving this Charger. The low-speed drivability. With the low-speed drivability. It was just like, oh, my gosh. They're so similar. So you have a teenage daughter who is always torturing you. Now you want to torture her back by putting her in a Tows. Oh, no, no, no, no. The new ones are better. Yeah. I also think – I'm not bothered that the engine and exhaust are kind of loud.

[00:32:01] I'm a little bit bothered that they don't sound great. It's – you know, I think leave it to Stellantis to somehow take an inline-six, which is known as one of the smoothest engines that's ever been created. And twin-turbo charge it, okay, which also usually helps things as far as noise, as far as, you know, helping to muffle sound. To somehow make it gritty and rough-sounding.

[00:32:26] Now, I will say on the bright side, you're not – you'd think you'd be feeling all kinds of vibrations coming through the steering wheel and the floorboards, you know, and the pedal. But you're really not. But it just has this – as you're accelerating, this rather gritty sound to it that just – it's loud. I didn't mind it, but I don't think it sounds great. It should sound way better. They should have been able to tune it to make a more exhilarating, more invigorating note, I think. Right. Yeah. Could be for the top package or something. You just got to pay more for something.

[00:32:55] It's hard to even say what it sounds like. It's just so kind of – It just, for me, blended. It's just loud. Yeah. It blended into all the noise. It doesn't make you want to, like, roll the windows down and turn the radio off and listen to it like some cars. Yeah. I still want to – I still get into it a lot because I enjoy, you know, feeling the acceleration and I don't mind making a little bit of noise on occasion. I just wish it was a much more invigorating sound, that's all. So – and before I forget, you guys were interested in my reaction to the seats. Yeah.

[00:33:22] So, my notes are, like, they just felt too soft and flat to me. I appreciate the comments you made about the bolstering and stuff like that. And what I haven't done with this car yet is taken on an extensive road trip. So, I'm going to say for the experience that I've had so far, I wasn't thrilled with – I didn't hate the seats, but I wasn't thrilled with them.

[00:33:44] That kind of – you guys covered all – most of the other negative aspects as far as I'm concerned, unless there's any other ones. I mean, I found a few driving position quirks that I know – I think you also found that the left foot rest or what we in the industry call the dead pedal. It's kind of angled away from you, which is weird. And so, I couldn't really use it quite as well as I wanted with my left foot. That was a little bit annoying and strange.

[00:34:13] A fair amount of center console intrusion with your right knee. That said, it's – I think it's still plastic, but it's a weird almost soft plastic. It's not like it's really a layer of vinyl or leather, but there's something there that makes it a little more palatable than just plain plastic. But it is going to hem in your right knee for a lot of people. I didn't think either one of the armrests were great. I sit kind of closer, as I think you do as well, Quince.

[00:34:40] So, with both hands on the steering wheel – I'm trying to do it here. Both hands on the lower part of the steering wheel going down the highway. My right elbow is almost always about to fall off because it's too far rearward, the center one. It has a cutout also for the button, for the latch. To open it. Exactly. Instead of having it on the passenger side. Because this is like an airplane. Passenger doesn't get the center. That's true. Driver gets the center in the door. Passenger gets the door, and that's how the world operates.

[00:35:11] So, the cutout is right where the driver would put the rail bow. And then, just getting to that, if you open up the center console and reach in, it has this cheesy claw latch right where you would reach through. That'll just scrape you up. And because the lid doesn't go back super far, you end up hitting it. It's little – again, just like the buttons. But it's little things that make the day-to-day living with a car somewhat annoying. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:35:40] And last thing on the driving position, the floor is kind of high. The seat's kind of low. Even with the adjustments, it felt like you're dealing with an EV platform, which has a higher floor overall. So, listen, it's clear that this is, as you mentioned, it's anything but boring. You're going to drive this car. You're going to have an opinion about it. It's not going to be one of those things that you completely forget about the second you walk away from it.

[00:36:07] But the final question about the Charger is, like, it's clear that this is targeted to, you know, people like us. You know, I don't know. What do we call it? Mid-age guys? Older guys? I'm 37. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, you're 37. I'm 27. My God. No. So, would you buy this car or would you recommend it to a friend? If you're starting with me, like I said, I don't mind driving. Actually, I kind of enjoy driving it. Okay.

[00:36:37] So, that's number one. But would I want to own it? No. I wouldn't want to put up with a lot of the quirks of the car on a regular basis. And I don't need a car that's that large or want a car that is that large. I would tell a friend, like, look, you're going to enjoy, if you like driving and you, you know, which we really didn't talk about the handling. But I think that's because it's really blah. But it's not, it's for cruising, not the tail of the dragon. No, Junior, we're talking about the tail of the dragon. Yeah.

[00:37:08] There's certain aspects that are fun about this car, for sure. That it does have good acceleration. It does make some noise. And it's reasonably comfortable in terms of seats and ride. But you are going to put up with a lot of quirks and a lot of things that you'd have to put up with day to day. If it were me, I would. And, of course, you never know what the reliability with Stellantis products. So, that would be something that would give some, I would give someone else pause. Think about that if you're buying this car.

[00:37:37] And also being a brand new car. So, if it were me, I would, if I wanted, say, a four-door, I would lean more towards something like a Subaru WRX. Something that is considerably cheaper. You can get it with a manual gearbox. It handles way better. It's more space efficient. Makes way more sense. It's a fair amount cheaper, which means then you would have enough money left over to put in some, you know, maybe engine, exhaust, suspension mods.

[00:38:08] Make it more your own. Not a wing. But I'm just saying that, and you would have way more fun driving that car than you would driving, at least I would have more fun. Just the manual drivers. One would make it. So, that's what I would do. You'd have all this money left over to really make that car unique and make it even better than it is stock. And it's pretty darn good stock. And kill the warranty. But, by the way, guys. You don't have to kill the warranty. You don't have to go crazy. You can do mods without going berserko. You can buy STI-approved mods. Yeah.

[00:38:38] From the Subaru. There you go. You just, you got to be practical about it. But you can have a little fun. Make a car unique. Yeah, I don't know what you do about the styling. That's another story. You're inside the car. You're not looking at it. The point is, you would have way more fun driving that car. If you like driving a manual and you like handling, you have way more fun driving something like a WRX than you would this thing. This thing, like you said, is kind of for cruising. John, would it be in your bucket list? So, I'm not a Mopar guy. So, I don't have this long-lost love. I don't look back and be like, oh, nostalgia or anything like that.

[00:39:05] And I didn't do that when the Challenger and the Charger, you know, were resurrected. I think it's such a polarizing vehicle because it attracts Mopar people like, you know, flies to honey in that respect. I mean, you know, people see it. They want to pull up. We've had logbook comments of like, oh, this guy in the Charger. This guy in the Challenger. And there's, you know, someone in a Dodge Avenger. Okay. You know, but, you know. A Dodge Avenger? Came up to see it, you know. So, yeah. If someone came up and was just like, this is my bag. I can't dissuade someone who already has their heart set on that.

[00:39:35] But it's not for me. Right. It's not going to go in my garage. Right. I'm much more, whether it's the vet or it's like more like Europhile type stuff. Yeah. That's my thing. We all like silly cars, which is why we do this. And, yeah, for me, I'm going to go for a Mustang GT or a Miata because we've talked about Miata. So you're comparing a Miata to a Charger? I'm thinking that it's – Two could fit in it. I'm thinking that in some ways it's kind of a silly car. Ah, okay. Okay.

[00:40:02] The whole premise of this Charger, it's kind of silly. Yeah, I don't see people cross-shopping the Charger. I'm not saying you cross-shopping. But the WRX is like right there on their shopping list. This is a four-door. Or I'm categorizing it as just kind of a silly car, which I think this is. But so I'm going to probably choose something else. Actually, I was a big fan of the previous edition Charger and Challenger. I like V8s and rear-wheel drive, and that's something that this vehicle is obviously lacking.

[00:40:31] So I'm just going to kind of put it out there that you guys are right. This will attract a crowd, and it definitely makes a statement. Is it right for you, for others? Chargers? I'm not sure. I think those old, the last generation Chargers have a presence that this lacks. Yes. It just is. And because it was an EV initially, and it had an EV, and EVs are supposed to be different, and the other ones had this just butch bravado, and they still do when you see them on the road.

[00:41:01] And they're off reintroducing the Charger as an EV probably just took the wind out of the sails of a lot of the previous buyers. Yeah. That's what I'm guessing. At least they're offering it with gas. And now they've got to build it back. So just a reminder, this is our first impression of the new Charger. Check out Jeff Bartlett's first drive and consumerreports.org for more information. And that is going to bring us to our questions. We love your questions. Keep them coming. Text, 30-second videos.

[00:41:31] Just go to talkingcarsaticloud.com. That's talkingcarsaticloud.com. And if we use your question on the podcast, we'll send you a T-shirt, some groovy automotive auto test swag, or something like that. So we have a question from Kirk from Gilbert, Arizona, who writes, I've been subscribing to Consumer Reports since I was 18 years old. I am now 70 years young. I was recently driving through Pine, Arizona on my way to a camping location and stopped for gas.

[00:41:58] I noticed a gas pump stating racing fuel for $10.99 per gallon. I asked an employee who it was for and was told people use it on boats, motorcycles, chainsaws, ATVs, and vehicles, saying customers claim the engine runs cleaner and increases engine performance. Besides draining my wallet if I use this racing fuel, what would happen if I used it in my 2014 Subaru Crosstrek XV?

[00:42:25] Is it true that it increases the performance of the engine? So in this day of increased gas prices, this is a pretty critical situation that people have to kind of decide how much they're going to want to spend putting fuel in their car. So, Mike, I'm going to start with you. What do you have for Kirk? Well, so if the question is what would happen if he did this, the answer for Kirk is that very little would happen other than draining your wallet. That's basically what's going to happen.

[00:42:55] His Crosstrek was designed to run on 87 octane fuel, regular fuel by Subaru, and that's what it's designed to run on. Putting higher octane in your car does not immediately mean more power. There are reasons, and the reason why it's called racing fuel is there are reasons why an engine could take advantage of the higher octane, but it usually means you've tuned the engine specifically to run on that higher octane. You've probably changed some internal components of the engine.

[00:43:25] You've given it a higher compression ratio. Quite often, turbocharging, you would be able to do that. But without a specialized tune, you're not going to hardly make much gain at all, and to the point that you probably not notice it by the seat of your pants, right? Now, that said, there are reasons to use expensive fuel, and for some of the ones that Kirk mentioned or that the gas station person mentioned,

[00:43:55] and that would be to get ethanol-free fuel. And I will say I am one of those people that does that. I buy VP Racing fuel. Now, it's not for the race aspect of it. It's just VP Racing makes this ethanol-free fuel. It is 94 octane, but it has nothing to do with the octane. It's all about not having ethanol in that fuel because ethanol really hurts the lifespan of the fuel. It degrades it faster.

[00:44:23] And when it's ethanol-free, you can last like two or three years, they say, without it going bad. And when you have, so for instance, I use this VP, this ethanol-free fuel in my chainsaw, in my generator that I use at home, and as well as in my two carburetor. I have two dirt bikes that are carbureted. Ethanol really gums up the carburetors, and so you don't want that in there.

[00:44:48] So by using this, unfortunately, it is pretty expensive, but it's worth it if it means you don't have to keep doing carburetor rebuilds, or the engine doesn't start when you need it to, and it's just knowing. So basically, you're using it for items that the fuel, like take a chainsaw, you know. They have tiny little gas tanks, right? And they're pretty fuel-efficient. But you say you make a gallon or two gallons of, you know, you mix that chainsaw fuel because it's two-stroke. You might have that for years.

[00:45:16] You don't want that going bad, so that's why a little bit of this VP racing ethanol-free fuel goes a long way. Yeah. John, do you have experience or thoughts about, you know, beyond premium fuel? No, he covered it. Yeah. I mean, so, and just to that extent, so my track motorcycle, my sport bike, is designed to run on 91 octane. So, of course, around here we have 93 octane.

[00:45:42] But putting racing fuel in that bike is not going to do anything for me other than spending a whole lot of money. Like, I would never put this ethanol-free fuel in it because I know that that bike gets used pretty regularly. And then, you know, I just use fuel stabilizer over the winter. Right. But I know that during the summer when I'm using it continuously, I'm not going to be pouring that crazy expensive ethanol-free fuel in there.

[00:46:03] But I'm not going to put racing fuel in it either because without having, you know, some internal engine modifications done, I'm not going to be getting the benefit of that 100 octane fuel. Yeah, you're not going to hurt it. It's just not wasting money. You might as well buy premium at $6 a gallon and burn the other $4 a gallon just for the hell of it. And you actually will probably, you'll be fine. Yeah. Right. I mean, Consumer Reports has talked, has published about this fairly extensively about how most consumers don't need to put premium fuel.

[00:46:32] We're not even talking about racing fuel. We're talking about premium fuel. And like you, I put premium fuel in my small engines, my chainsaw, my string trimmer, my lawnmower, stuff like that. But I would never even – there's nothing in my life that requires racing fuel. But I will put premiums in the small stuff. But in people's day-to-day cars, and we've talked about this extensively, if the manufacturer does not say it is required, you're not really gaining anything just by using premium.

[00:47:01] So – and we're going to be talking about the price of fuel in future podcasts. So definitely stay tuned if you're curious about whether or not premium makes any difference for fuel economy or performance. And in most cases, we will just say save your money. Yeah. And before we wrap up, if you're watching this on YouTube, we recently added a donate button to our page. Consumer Reports is a nonprofit organization.

[00:47:27] So if you're able to help us keep doing this important work, like talking cars, we always appreciate it. And that will about do it for this episode, which was masterfully orchestrated by super producer Dave Abrams and expertly edited by Andrew. I still play hockey, Belize, and of course, Anatoly, the great Shumsky. As always, check the show notes for more information on the vehicles and topics we discussed. And just a reminder to please keep your questions coming. Go to talkingcarsaticloud.com.

[00:47:56] Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.