2023 Dodge Charger Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The last Charger is little changed from 2015, when the big sedan received a sleeker, slimmer nose and sharper LED taillights with more pixels. This is a car that last was new for 2011, and by new, the bones underneath dated to the 2006 Charger which borrowed from the Mercedes-Benz E-Class—from 1996. We've accepted the age, because Dodge goes Plum Crazy on this car (which is one of many vibrant exterior colours in the Charger's palette). It looks so distinct and remarkably modern next to the Accord, Altima, and Camry, all of which have gone through several redesigns during the Charger's tenure. A base Charger is a bit drab on small skinny tires, but few people outside rental-car agencies buy that version. Any Charger with a V8 looks the business.

Our Swinger is a Dodge Charger Scat Pack with the widebody kit, which includes a flat-bottomed steering wheel and outrageously flared fenders to contain 305-mm-wide tires on 20-inch wheels, front and rear. The large hood scoop balances the four air intakes and brake cooling ducts in their black honeycomb pattern, while deep-dish bronze wheels pushed to the far corners of the body are perfectly stanced. Even the side profile is distinguished by oversized front doors and notably smaller rear doors. The tail, with enormous exhaust pipes and a matte black decklid spoiler, has the classic full-width Dodge taillights that form a loop and is meant to evoke a racetrack. The Swinger adds black brake calipers, and against the bronze wheels and F8 Green paint, it's almost tasteful. Not so fast. There are hokey decals spelling "Swinger" on the rear flanks in a 70s-style typeface and cartoony badges (the Gold School Bee) on the fenders, trunk, and grille.

The interior is straight from 2011. It's dated not by the chunky front seats or analog gauges—which look good—but the small touchscreen and plasticky knobs and old-school switches that feel lifted from another era. You won't find top-notch materials, and even with our car's Nappa leather and Alcantara seats, they don't feel upscale. It's not the lowest quality interior, either. The Swinger includes green stitching on the seats and dash, green Dodge stripes on the seat inserts, and a Swinger badge on the dash. Else, it's a basic and adequate space from which all mayhem is made to break loose.

Everyone forgets the Charger comes standard with a V6 engine because it's terribly boring and Dodge doesn't waste money advertising it. The 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 is shared with Stellantis’s Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler brands. It’s an old minivan engine with all the performance metrics that title brings, with power specs of either 292 or 300 horsepower depending on trim and 264 pound-feet of torque. It's also the only engine that pairs with all-wheel drive (AWD), available with the Dodge Charger SXT AWD or Dodge Charger GT AWD trim levels. In our testing, however, Dodge's AWD drivetrain reacts too slowly to be of real use in winter or wet climates. The front tires spin when they should be locked to the pavement, since it's adapted to a rear-wheel drive (RWD) car. Dodge never tuned it quite right. What Dodge got right out of the box is the ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, which is exceptional in smoothness and quick shifts. That it suits all V6 and V8 models and can quietly deliver fuel economy as low as 7.8 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway is a huge merit.

Every other Charger comes with a Hemi V8 engine. Charger R/T models have a 5.7-litre powertrain with 370 hp and 395 lb-ft of torque, and even this rumbling old block of iron can shut down half its cylinders for a 9.4 L/100 km highway cruise. Scat Pack models like our Swinger have the 6.4-litre V8, which is properly menacing: 485 hp and 475 lb-ft of torque. Of all the Chargers, this is the right-sized engine. Its deep bass idle and muscle car roar pull all the theatrics without losing traction every minute like the Hellcats. Acceleration is so satisfying, in any gear, and mostly because the soundtrack and the aggressive downshifts in Track mode are heroic. You'll feel tingly at 70 km/h.

The Charger SRT Hellcats are truly devilish. In the wrong hands, their power is deadly and not to be trifled with for Instagram likes. Jailbreak is in the car's name, for goodness sake. This supercharged 6.2-litre is legendary. The Charger Hellcat was making more power than a Lamborghini Aventador when it came out and is still capable of well over 300 km/h—how exactly, without steering into a ditch, we're not sure. There's 717 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque, or in the Redeye Jailbreak, 807 hp and 707 lb-ft. At speed, even in third gear, you can lose traction with the traction control engaged. It's an outrageous decision to send all that thrust to the rear tires, and so in drag races, Hellcats regularly get beaten off the line. But once hooked up, almost nothing on the road at their price can outrun them. The only issue is their range, which is worse than most EVs. You'll get about 370 kilometres on a tank if you slam the gas pedal, at a 19 L/100 km rating for city driving.

Handling is actually a Charger high point. It's poised, has good front-end grip, doesn't roll much and has enough steering precision (with multiple steering efforts you can choose) to convince you to take the corner faster. It's best to avoid doing that, since it's a large brute of a car that doesn't respond well to mid-corner corrections. But it can dance better than it might appear, and the ride quality is agreeable. Braking is also exceptional, as it should be, with six-piston front and four-piston rear Brembos on Scat Pack Widebody trims and above.

For a big car, the Charger is rather tight inside. Headroom for the author's 5-foot-11 frame is fine, given there was no sunroof on our Swinger. But the footwells are cramped, the transmission tunnel robs rear passengers of legroom, and headroom in the rear seats is lousy. For a car meant to be a cop car, perhaps that's on purpose to make perps feel uncomfortable. Considering it's based on an E-Class sedan, the Charger doesn't feel all that spacious. At least the trunk is large, at 470 litres.

The Charger's controls are a godsend in 2023, when nearly every car is deleting buttons and switches to save money and appear as if placing them inside a touchscreen improves the experience. Thankfully, the dual-zone climate control, lighting, and audio system controls are large and easy to find. Plenty of extra features are integrated into the touchscreen and central screen on the instrument panel, but they don't require any deep digging. When you get inside a Charger, it's familiar and not distracting. There's little to relearn.

The latest Uconnect infotainment system found on other Stellantis vehicles is not here. Neither are the niftiest driver-assistance features that self-steer and change lanes. Big screens? Over-the-air updates? Starting the car with a phone? Look elsewhere.

The 8.4-inch touchscreen, while small and square, redeems itself with fast, logical menu structures and clear legibility. There's wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, plus a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot, voice recognition, and SiriusXM. The real technology is within the Charger SRT Dashboard, an app that allows full customization of the throttle, steering, dampers, transmission, shift paddles, stability control, and on Hellcat models, the engine's total output. A sophisticated launch control lets you set the exact revs to hold the engine, while a line lock will engage the front brakes so you can roast the rear tires—essential for the drag strip and pure tomfoolery on the street. When selecting Performance Pages, the Charger shows real-time curves for power and torque, plus nearly every sensor's measurement such as the intake air charge. On SRT Hellcat and SRT Hellcat Widebody models, there's a separate air conditioner for the supercharger, and to keep things extra cool, another function runs the intercooler pump and radiator fan after shutting down the car. It's all accessible in the touchscreen. Try getting that technology in your fancy BMW.

Considering its age, the Charger does quite well on crash tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It receives four out of five stars for driver and passenger in a frontal crash, four stars for the driver in side barrier and pole intrusion tests, and five stars for the rear passengers in those side tests. Still, it's four out of five stars overall when most cars get the full five. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) scores the Charger based on crashing a 2015 Chrysler 300, which should not be used as a reference even though it's technically the same chassis. It receives the top "Good" ratings in many categories, but we doubt how well this actually carries over to the Charger.

No major safety features come standard other than rear parking sensors and a backup camera, which is fuzzy. Forward collision warning with emergency braking, lane-departure warning with lane-keep assist, and adaptive cruise control are optional on all grades. Blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert is optional on Dodge Charger Hellcat models and on some lower grades via the Daytona Edition package.

In Canada, the 2023 Dodge Charger starts at $43,795 for the SXT and ends at nearly $120,000 for the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody Jailbreak, not including destination and other fees, which vary across the country. That's quite the price spread. It's a poor value by itself, given how new performance sedans at this price have better technology, safety and almost equal speed (such as the BMW M340i). But in reality, the Charger doesn't compete against other makes. It's against itself. The Hellcat models have especially high resale value—they are true investments driven by enthusiasts. The Charger may be leaving, but with so many sold, you'll be able to buy one for years to come. The Swinger’s get-down fun isn't going anywhere.

Note: Images show a US model.