Charge the Road with the Charger

The 2009 Dodge Charger is a modern muscle car with style and power.  Its design includes a high beltline, an aggressive front grill, prominent wheel arches, and a sloping fastback roofline and sheared-off cam tail, which provide outstanding aerodynamics for a more efficient ride. Charger is all about making your road experience as enjoyable as possible. An excellent feature offered with the 2009 Dodge Charger is its Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC).  This system offers a long list of valuable data including average miles per gallon, compass, distance to empty, and maintenance intervals.  The Charger SRT8 also displays 0-60 MPH time, braking distance, 1/4 mile and 1/8 mile intervals, as well as friction speed and drift angle. Its main competitors are full-size American sedans like the Chevrolet Impala, Ford Taurus and Pontiac G8.  For 2009, the Charger gets an available all-wheel-drive system that now includes an active transfer case designed to maximize fuel economy. Rear-wheel drive is standard, but SXT and R/T models are available with all-wheel drive.  Also, the 5.7-liter Hemi engine was reengineered to increase fuel economy and power.

Lineup for 2009

The base Dodge Charger SE comes standard with cloth upholstery; air conditioning; interior air filter; cruise control; tilt/telescoping steering wheel; driver and passenger lumbar adjustment; AM/FM/CD stereo with auxiliary input jack; power windows, locks and mirrors; remote keyless entry; and P215/65R17 tires on aluminum wheels.

The SXT ($25,510) adds an eight-way power adjustable driver's seat, a 60/40 split folding rear seat with fold-down center armrest, a 276-watt Boston Acoustics stereo, power-adjustable pedals, heated mirrors and  fog lamps.

The R/T ($31,860) upgrades to leather upholstery, dual-zone automatic climate control, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, heated front seats, eight-way power front passenger seat, folding heated mirrors, automatic headlights and 18-inch tires.

 The SRT8 ($38,670) adds dual-zone automatic climate control, automatic headlights, remote engine starting, interior air filter, heated front seats, a Reconfigurable Display with performance pages, performance-tuned suspension, sport bucket seats, functional hood scoop, rear spoiler, a reprogrammed ESC system, Brembo brakes, Goodyear Supercar F1 tires on 20-inch forged aluminum wheels and a 180-mph speedometer. The Super Bee buzz model package ($1900) comes with Hemi Orange paint, a serialized dash plaque, a special wheel design, silver Brembo brake calipers, UConnect Tunes hard-drive radio, orange seat accents, and hood and rear quarter panel decals.

Powering the Charger

The 2009 Charger's engine lineup is the very essence of performance. All of the Charger's powertrain options not only deliver plenty of power, but also excellent fuel efficiency.  Transimissions include a smooth shifting four-speed automatic and a five-speed AutoStick®, which allows you to switch from automatic gear selection to manual operation with one simple move of the gearshift. The 3.5-liter V6 Charger produces 250 horsepower.  The 5.7-liter V8, updated for 2009, makes the Charger R/T a real muscle car. Horsepower is up from the previous 340 to 368 hp, while torque increases from 390 to 395 pound-feet.  The 0-60 mph acceleration test drops from about 6 seconds to the mid-5-second range, a significant increase.  For 2009, Dodge has added an ECO light in the electronic vehicle information center to indicate when four cylinders have been shut down.

Cabin Features

The Charger sits two inches higher than the industry standard, giving you performance-geared comfort with a view. The available eight-way power-adjustable driver's seat and available heated seats are comfortable. The standard center console adds to the convenience and provides easy-access storage, while backseat passengers have an available rear-seat armrest of their own. Surprisingly, rear-seat room is plentiful, thanks to the long wheelbase.  The Charger's dashboard is largely plastic, and a bit cheap for a car that quickly tops $30,000.  The big, round speedometer and tachometer share the top half of the steering wheel opening, with fuel and coolant temperature gauges down in the left and right corners. Entertainment features are plentiful. In addition to an AM/FM/CD stereo, buyers can opt for Dodge's UConnect Tunes or UConnect GPS systems. Both have 30 gigabytes of hard drive space to hold music and picture files, but the GPS version also includes a navigation system with real-time traffic and voice activation.

Design for 2009

The Charger is a stylish and smooth vehicle, with plenty of unique features to make it stick out in a crowd.  From the rear the 2009 Charger gets a tall, almost vertical backside, with large taillights draped over the upper corners.  A modest, Kamm-like lip stretches across the trailing edge of an expansive trunk lid, atop which sits a lift-suppressing spoiler on the Daytona and SRT8. The SE and SXT get a single exhaust tip which exits beneath the right-hand side, while the V8-powered models sport chrome-tipped, muscle car-idiom, dual exhausts.  You know this is a Dodge because of the trademark Dodge crosshairs, chromed on the SXT and R/T, body-color in the SE and SRT8.  The Charger gets compound halogen headlights and a thin, trifurcated air intake across the lower portion of the front bumper.

Charger Drive

The Charger delivers superb handling and control. The Electronic Stability Program senses when a vehicle is starting to oversteer or understeer, and attempts to correct the vehicle's course by automatically controlling the throttle and applying the brakes at individual wheels.  The available all-wheel drive (AWD) and available antilock brake systems improve overall traction and directional stability on the 2009 Charger.  The Charger is quiet, even at highway speeds, and cruises along well with ease.  The 3.5-liter SXT model is in its element on the bumpy surfaces.  Steering in the SE and SXT models can be over-assisted at times.  2009 all-wheel-drive models come with Active Transfer Case and Front-axle Disconnect. When all-wheel drive isn't needed, the system automatically disconnects the front axle and opens the transfer case to reduce friction and rotational mass.


Summary

The Charger is a fun and sporty muscle car that is nothing but modern.  For any muscle car enthusiast the Charger will provide excellent performance and experience, for more information on pricing and specs click here.  The Charger has improved fuel efficiency, including on the performance model SRT8.  It also has good rear seat space compared to its competitors.  The only downsides to the Dodge Charger are its sometimes limited forward visibility, and the fact that ABS and side airbags are not standard.  If you are interested in reading another review, Motortrend Magazine gives more insight to the 2009 Dodge Charger.