3. Dodge Charger SXT
Here’s one for people who refuse to age.
Granola and prune juice? This car is for those planning to die with a Glock in
one hand and a jalapeño double cheeseburger in the other. This is old school
done as if there were never a new school.
Compared
with the 300, the Charger is stiffer and sportier, with a little more zest to
its directional changes and more crash in its suspension
Compared with the 300, the Charger is
stiffer and sportier, with a little more zest to its directional changes and
more crash in its suspension. It feels much too large to throw around, but it
does move its tonnage, the test max at 4122 pounds, with controlled aplomb.
What the V-6 lacks in Hemi punch, it makes up for in (somewhat) better fuel
economy and reasonable refinement. The eight-speed automatic with its
electronic T-bar selector is sophisticated German-car technology, though it
sometimes feels a little slow to deliver the shifts.
Driving into the retirement home in a
rear-drive ball-breaker with a spoiler on the trunk is an enchanting dream, but
the reality does have warts. For starters, as with the 300S, there’s not much
payoff for the rear-drive. The Charger has numb steering, and you need the Hemi
if you want to roast the inherent understeer into a tasty drift. We expect
rear-drivers to be automatically and radically better, but the
superior-steering Avalon proves that there’s no immutable rule.
The
Charger’s seats were despised by all, mainly for the way the upper backrest
falls away, leaving behind some fatiguing pressure points and a vacuum of
support
Also, you pay for rear-drive in interior
space. Not necessarily in overall measurements, but in the way the transmission
tunnel crowds the gas pedal and in the old-fashioned rear floor hump. The
Charger’s seats were despised by all, mainly for the way the upper backrest
falls away, leaving behind some fatiguing pressure points and a vacuum of
support. And, as in the 300, the back seat is comically tight for such a large
car.
Don’t wander into a Dodge showroom
expecting the same Epicurean pampering that Kia and the others strive for. The
Charger’s interior is a stark, dark cave of mostly hard plastics, though the
giant snowplow blade pressed into the dash as decoration livens things up.
However, many of the options packed into the $37,810 as-tested price, including
blind-spot detector, a power tilting and telescoping wheel, power-adjustable
pedals, and a sunroof, mean that the Charger scores well in features content.
You’ll always be young in the Charger,
which is great as long as you don’t mind putting up with some inconveniences
that didn’t bother you in your youth.
Dodge Charger SXT technical specs
·
Price: $37,810
·
Length x Width x Height: 199.9 x 75.0 x 58.3
inches
·
Wheelbase: 120.2 inches
·
Engine: DOHC 24-valve V-6 220 cu in (3605cc)
·
Power: 300hp @ 6350rpm
·
Torque: 264hp @ 4800rpm
·
0-60mph: 6.4sec
·
Top speed: 121mph
·
Curb weight: 4122 pounds
·
EPA City/Hwy: 19/31mpg
2. Chevrolet Impala LT
GM almost hits the big-car bull’s-eye with
the Impala. Sure, there are things we would change, such as the interior,
which, despite the 1001 ideas thrown at the dash, still man-ages to seem less
than deluxe. Otherwise, the Chevy puts the pickle in the Wellville barrel with
a spacious car that steams along quietly and smoothly and looks like a
four-door Camaro.
GM
almost hits the big-car bull’s-eye with the Impala
GM assumes you want big iron because you
need space. The Impala’s cathedral-sized trunk is the largest, at 19 cubic
feet, and it’s accessed through a clamshell lid that looks like it’ll take a
pair of skis sideways. The front interior volume is the largest in the test,
and the folding rear seats (the Charger, 300, and Azera also have hinged rear backrests)
don’t pinch, either, offering ample head and knee clearance.
Two
things we’d ask for are more steering feedback and better brake feel
The 3.6-liter V-6 purrs quietly and hits
the high notes with a minimum of buzz, making for competitive acceleration
times, albeit in a field where the 60-mph sprints are separated by only half a
second. The pavement stickiness is solid, making for fast passage through
corners, and, compared with the Korean twins, the Impala feels as solid as an
S-class. The body soaks up pavement blows better than any car in this test,
offering the best ride. But the Impala is no floater. It leans and pitches no
more than necessary and feels tied down in fast twisties.
Two things we’d ask for are more steering
feedback and better brake feel. The pedal pushes through a lot of sponge before
finally finding brakes to engage. Perhaps this is why the forward-collision
warning, a line of red LED lights on the dashtop, goes berserk at the merest
hint of an approaching object (it’s part of the Advanced Safety package, or
$890 you’ll spend to drive yourself crazy with alarms).
The
Impala’s interior is a mish-mash of clashing colors and textures
The 2LT trim amps up the luxury with
ornamental topstitching across the dash and up the upholstery seams, which on
the seats are also accented with bronze piping for good measure. On the dash,
rings and dabs of chrome, inserts painted with gray metal-flake, and planks of
burled wood like plastic compete for your attention.
However, they can’t distract you from the
yards of black blow-mold that drag the interior down to lower tax brackets. On
the closed driver’s door, the arc of the trim line missed its counterpart on
the dash by a quarter-inch, a wince-inducing mismatch. The touch-screen
nav/info screen ($1095) is the latest version of Chevy’s MyLink system and
proved a little fussier to program than the others. However, it motors up to
reveal a USB port and a handy hideaway safe for valuables.
The Impala checks most of the boxes for
this segment, and it is one likeable car, but others, especially the Koreans,
put more love into their interiors.
Chevrolet Impala LT technical specs
·
Price: $35,770
·
Length x Width x Height: 201.3 x 73.0 x 58.9
inches
·
Wheelbase: 111.7 inches
·
Engine: DOHC 24-valve V-6 218 cu in (3564cc)
·
Power: 305hp @ 6800rpm
·
Torque: 264hp @ 5300rpm
·
0-60mph: 6.0sec
·
Top speed: 149mph
·
Curb weight: 3823 pounds
·
EPA City/Hwy: 19/29mpg
