2006 Dodge Charger: Performance Heritage in New Sedan!

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Summary

While its namesake was a two-door hardtop, and commonly, if not completely accurately, referred to as a coupe, the all-new Charger is a four-door sedan, albeit styled somewhat deceptively to diminish that fact. The new Charger illustrates just how multi-talented and accomplished today's high performance cars are compared to the uni-dimensional hot rods of yesteryear. The Charger has all the pavement-ripping, gut-thumping power of the old muscle cars, but is packaged with modern creature comforts and tempered by startling levels of handling competency.

Full Review 2006 Dodge Charger

Trims and 2006 Styles

The 2006 Dodge Charger comes in one body style, a four-door, five-passenger sedan. Three engines are available, a 250-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6; a 340-hp, 5.7-liter V8; and a 350-hp, 5.7-liter V8. The entry-level Charger is the SE, fitted with the V6 ($22,320). Cloth upholstery is standard, but the SE isn't lacking in creature and driver comforts. Among them: air conditioning; cruise control; tilt-and-telescope steering wheel; soft-finish urethane-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob; floor mats; power door locks, outside mirrors, windows and remote trunk release; two power points; driver and passenger lumbar adjustment; and AM/FM/CD stereo with auxiliary input jack. Steel wheels with bolt on covers wear black sidewall, all-season, P215/65R17 tires. The Protection Group ($590) adds front and rear side-curtain airbags, cabin air filtration and self-sealing tires. SE option packages: The SE Convenience Group 1 adds an eight-way power driver's seat and adjustable pedals ($505).

The Charger SXT ($25,320) comes with the V6 and upgraded features: An eight-way power driver's seat, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, 60/40 split folding rear seat with fold-down center armrest, Boston Acoustics stereo with six speakers and 276-watt amplifier, fog lamps, trunk cargo net and cast aluminum wheels. Options include leather-trimmed seats ($640), a power sunroof ($950), power adjustable pedals ($125), six-disc CD changer and MP3 capability ($400), satellite radio with one-year subscription ($195), rear-seat entertainment system ($1150), Bluetooth capability ($360). Also available: 18-inch polished aluminum wheels with P225/60R all-season tires coupled with a sportier suspension ($325). In addition to the Protection Group and Smokers Group, there's a Comfort Seating Group with heated front seats, leather-trimmed bucket seats, power adjustable pedals and 8-way power front passenger seat ($1395).

The Charger R/T ($29,320) is a V8-powered, high-performance model. A speedometer reading to 160 miles per hour replaces the 140-mph unit on the SXT and SE. Front brake rotors add an inch in diameter to the SXT's and SE's 12.6 inches and spin between twin-piston calipers, and rear discs are vented. A tire pressure monitoring system appears, and the 18-inch, polished aluminum wheels become regular issue. The fuel tank gains capacity, to 19 gallons. Behind the fun tab of the option book is the Road/Track Performance Group, what some who remember the ultimate stealth muscle car of the 1960s might call the Road Runner Edition, as in, more go, less show: unique aluminum wheels with black accents, sportier steering, self-leveling shocks, sport seats, performance suspension and, the kicker piece, a tweaked V8 making 350 horsepower ($1600).

Exterior Style and Design

Knocked off from the 1966 Dodge Coronet, and despite its fastback, two-door hardtop styling, that Charger was somewhat blocky, with squared-off front end, superficially sculpted slab sides and equally vertical backside. Not until the 1968 model year was any attention paid to moving the car rapidly through the air with minimal disturbance. The 2006 Charger starts at much the same place on the automotive styling evolutionary curve.

The same design team that parented the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum birthed this new Charger. The Charger is built on the same platform as those two, but is three inches longer overall. The Charger reportedly was planned all along to be a sedan version of the Magnum.

The trademark Dodge crosshairs, chromed on the SXT and R/T, body-color in the SE and SRT8 and flat black on the Daytona, dominate the front end. Fog lamps on the SXT and higher models fill small, sculpted insets at the lower corners.

Hmmm. Oh, well. The beltline arcs softly back from a slight droop over the headlights to about midway in the rear side window, then kicks up over the rear quarter panel, visually bulking up the car's already hefty haunches. The rear perspective shows a tall, almost vertical backside, with large taillights draped over the upper corners. On the SE and SXT a single exhaust tip exits beneath the right-hand side, while the V8-powered models sport chrome-tipped, muscle car-idiom, dual exhausts.

The Charger's styling is loosely reflected on NASCAR's Nextel Cup cars, primarily seen in the crosshair grille and the painted-on taillights.

Styling and Interior Features

The steering wheel, too, comes directly from the Magnum. Air conditioning registers fill the top of the center stack, above the stereo/navigation display, with the climate control panel properly positioned beneath that, all intuitively arrayed and outfitted and within easy reach of the driver and front seat passenger. Ex-navigation display center stacks have a small, horizontal cubby below the air conditioning knobs and buttons.

Steering column stalks are imported from the Mercedes-Benz parts bin, including their awkward positioning. Headlight switch and dash light rheostat are located in the dash next to the driver's door, with the remote trunk release below. Thankfully, Dodge has not adopted the Mercedes-Benz practice of parking the power seat adjustments high up in the door panel but has placed them, much more intuitively, on the outboard side of the seat bottom. The standard, fabric-covered seats are comfortable, with adequate thigh support and side bolstering. Thanks to the sedan-spec wheelbase, there's plenty of rear seat room, too, even with front seats at their rearmost positions. No head restraint for the rear center seat is provided, however, making this car better for four adults than five.

Visibility from the driver's seat is good, but suffers a bit from safety measures and styling dictates. (The A-pillars are the posts between the windshield and front side windows: the C-pillars are the posts between the rear windscreen and rear side windows.)

The entertainment system installation takes a novel, but extremely well-integrated approach. The screen hides beneath a cover on the front center console when not in use, then pivots up between the front seats for viewing.

2006 First Drive Dodge Charger

The 2006 Dodge Charger is a fun drive, especially considering its size. It's a big, heavy, full-size sedan.

All three engines deliver power smoothly. Our biggest concern while testing Chargers on North Carolina interstates was how readily we settled into an 80-mph cruise. The Charger is quiet at that speed, with very little wind or road noise. The Charger handled well along the winding, two-lane back roads around Virginia International Raceway in southern Virginia even when carrying speeds substantially in excess of the posted limits. The Performance Group comes with fatter, stickier tires (P235/55R18 Michelin MXM4s) and suspension tweaks that combine to reduce body lean in corners and quicken turn-in response. The AutoStick transmission works equally well in either Automatic or Manual mode. In Manual mode, the transmission holds a gear to red line before shifting up a gear (unless you shift sooner, of course), which then becomes the selected gear. The Charger's brake hardware is shared with Mercedes-Benz, but the software code for the stability program, brake assist and traction control systems is written by and for Dodge. Mercedes engineers could learn something from Dodge.

2006 Conclusions

The 2006 Dodge Charger is the latest in a remarkably long line of certain hits from the Chrysler Group. Style-wise, it's hard to identify a better looking car says the AutoChannel.com.  The CarConnection.com praises the Charger for its exciting style. The new Charger has all the necessary ingredients, from an impressive line of engines to state-of-the-art electronic technology to the right mix of suspension and wheel-and-tire componentry to stand-out styling. So what if it isn't a two-door coupe? We like it and think Dodge will sell every one it can build.