A Chevrolet Camaro with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The future hybrid-electric Ford pony.
Y’know, any muscle automotive obtainable with a V8 that instead features a not-V8.
I’m speaking from expertise, here. the primary time I offered the keys to my 2019 Dodge Charger SXT tester to our videographer Clayton, he flat-out refused to urge behind the wheel.
“But Clayton, it’s got all-wheel-drive!” He shakes his head. “Clayton, it’s the Blacktop package!” Crosses his arms.the sole manner he was getting in a brand new Charger was if it had eight cylinders underhood. ideally eight that worked along to deliver, say, 707 H.P..
I was coming back from the alternative direction. My weekend toy – well, my solely automotive – could be a 1971town compact steam-powered by the known Slant Six. I knew primary that notwithstanding they weren’t all thrill rides, six cylinders delivered, at the smallest amount, adequate power.
(So, yes, full revealing, I’ve a small pro-Chrysler and pro-six-banger bias.)
In the case of our tester, we’re talking a couple of six with a bit additional output than my car’s a hundred and tenponies. The 3.6-litre Pentastar within the 2019 Charger, mated to the company’s TorqueFlite eight-speedautomatic drive, is rated at three hundred H.P. and 264 pound.-ft. of torque. Or “not enough,” as Clayton place it.
Fed up together with his nay-saying, I piloted the Charger from Toronto to Quebec City and back to search out out if the automotive very was lacking for power. Spoiler: it wasn’t.
Helpfully, the Charger SXT comes with a setting that shows you the period H.P. output on a digital screen rightwithin the middle of the gauges. In town driving, it instructed regarding fifty H.P. being tapped to try and do the work. road cruising didn’t take rather more.
The only time I may unleash all three hundred horses was throughout some, uh, spirited on-ramp acceleration.fulfill it to mention, the Charger gets up to hurry while not issue.
The trade-off V6 cars square measure imagined to work a surplus of power is desirable fuel economy, however on the long trek out of the province, I averaged regarding ten.6 L/100 km, totally on highways—not unhealthy,however not stellar.
The car’s road manners quite created up for it, though, with a suspension sander even than some premium sedans I’ve tested recently. Potholes I instinctually braced for were absorbed with relief, and overall the Charger SXT AWD squared-toe the road between stiff and soft excellent.
Taking on wintry conditions, the AWD with active transfer case supplementary a sense of surefootedness, with mixed-surface ice and pavement showing ME no problem. the automated system disconnected the front driveshaft once it wasn’t required, in an attempt to higher that fuel economy.
And speaking of the season, i used to be glad over and over for the 2019 Charger currently being createdobtainable with a chilly Weather Package—heated driver and rider seats stayed on [*fr1] the time, and therefore the heated handwheel worked well, too.
For the type of itinerant i used to be doing, those seats were comfy – four-way adjustable body part support helps – and overall work and end was on par. Trunk area was plentiful, tho' it’s not atiny low sedan; and there was aexcessiveness of pockets and storage areas up front to form the road trip even easier.
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Apple CarPlay and humanoid motor vehicle each came customary, and a Sirius satellite radio subscription wasplace to sensible use. The navigation system was typically too straightforward to trip up, taking United States of America off-course and indicating we have a tendency to were within the middle of bush despite the road tarmacunderneath our tires.
But those quibbles floated out of my ears as shortly as I stepped out of the automotive and took a glance at it. Sure, the refreshed-for-2019 face on the SXT AWD trim isn't as aggressive because the performance-spec SRT Chargers, however I let it slide for the retro-throwback F8 inexperienced metallic everywhere the automotive.
The deep metallic inexperienced hearkens back to late ’60s Chargers, and created ME fall gaga with my testerwhen I walked up thereto. I detected it turning quite a couple of passersby’s heads, too. The aforesaid Blacktop Package, a dress-up cluster Chrysler has been kicking between models for a couple of decade, now, sees the grille, wheels and different bits darkened, that positively supplementary to the killer look.
img 1035 automotive Review: 2019 Dodge Charger SXT AWD
The 2019 Dodge Charger SXT AWD Blacktop St. Nicholas Maronese / Driving.ca
Making your Charger SXT a Blacktop adds $595 to the lowest line; the F8 inexperienced $245, on a automotivethat came total to $53,055—that seems like loads, or a minimum of quite I expected. however the premium on the paint was worthwhile.
I think it had been the color that eventually got Clayton to come back around and provides the Dodge Charger SXT’s V6 an opportunity, and once he did, he had to admit it offered an honest quantity of oomph, that his needfor power was satiate , notwithstanding he’d still be happier during a V8.
After 1,600 metric linear unit within the driver’s seat, would I want the three.6-litre Pentastar six over a additionalenthusiast-minded 707-horsepower Charger SRT disagreeable woman muscle car? i would got to attempt one in every of those next to search out out for sure. ideally in inexperienced.
