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Old 10-12-2012, 03:18 AM   #1
robg
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Rented a charger..better than I expected

Took a long road trip (LA to SF) and the rental company had a choice of Altima, Camry or charger. Had to go with the charger!

Love the looks of the latest gen version and have always been a bit curious. Being a rental this was the base v6 with a rather archaic 5 speed auto. But the interior is nicely done (and much more solid than any recent BMW). No rattles and everything works well. Very nice plastics with real aluminum trim on the dash (better than audis fake trim in the a4)

The steering felt like good old hydraulic rack and pinion with good on center feel (let down only by the rental spec 65 series tires).

Granted the car is enormous. I started laughing at what a boat it is. But even on the twisty pacific coast highway the solid Mercedes Benz
Underpinnings held their own.

Also liked the surprising amount of info available from the center screen including total engine hours and individual tire psi (again BMW wtf).

The trunk is fully finished and the lid opens fully by double clicking the trunk button on the fob. Again it's ridiculously huge.

The only thing that outright sucked were the seats. These were the base 6 way jobs and weren't very supportive or comfortable.

Given that I'm not impressed with recent German efforts, im kind of tempted to pickup a v8 version of one of these. With better seats, and a nice hemi sound-track for around 30k it's kind of hard to beat.
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Old 10-12-2012, 06:40 AM   #2
JST
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I had a rental one of those for a few weeks earlier this year, and generally agree. It's a lot of car for the money.
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Old 10-12-2012, 11:14 AM   #3
John V
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I can't imagine driving one of those things daily. They're enormous.
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:56 PM   #4
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I rented one last year (around this time) when I when back to NJ for my class reunion.

I liked it. It drove very similar to the new Camaro, imo. It's probably one Dodge product I would consider buying.



Oops, that was a Challenger I rented....
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Old 10-13-2012, 08:59 PM   #5
SARAFIL
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It's nice but way too big. They're working on a smaller RWD platform for the new Barracuda (to be sold under SRT brand) that will replace the Challenger and that should be promising. I wonder if they'll do a sedan on that platform as well for Dodge?
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Old 10-15-2012, 02:08 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SARAFIL View Post
It's nice but way too big. They're working on a smaller RWD platform for the new Barracuda (to be sold under SRT brand) that will replace the Challenger and that should be promising. I wonder if they'll do a sedan on that platform as well for Dodge?
It's big, and it is overstyled, in the sense that it's bigger on the outside than it is on the inside. There's a lot of wasted space that comes from the design.

But as a full-size car, it's not so bad. It's no bigger than a Taurus on the outside, at least from a perception standpoint. It has lots of space inside, both in the back seat and in driver/passenger seat. For carting around three kids, it would be a nice alternative to the typical two-row SUV.

I'd like to drive a 300C SRT-8.
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Old 10-15-2012, 01:55 PM   #7
blee
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I was riding in a rented Charger about a year ago. There were four of us in there, going thru downtown San Antonio, when we went over a speed bump. WHOMP! We must've popped the bolts that attach the manifold to the rest of the exhaust, because that thing sounded like an angry walrus for the rest of the trip. I'm glad the rental wasn't in my name.
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