Car Review: 2006 Dodge Charger
Posted by Patrick on Friday, December 16, 2005The other day my co-worker Ray comes into the office and is like "I have a new car," and I didn't find this surprising; he'd been talking about replacing his worn out Saturn for a while, maybe with a Honda Civic or some other practical, economical vehicle. So I ask him what he got:
"Come down to the garage and see," he says.
"Gimmie a hint," I insist.
"No."
"Front-wheel or rear-wheel drive?"
"Just come see."
Fine. I grab my jacket and head downstairs, expecting to see something like this, when in fact he had purchased this instead:
A 2006 Dodge Charger. A very, very nice car in person. He made the crazy purchase, and we were all very proud of him at work. He got the V-6 model, which I assume isn't as neck snappingly-powerful as the V-8, but it still moves right along. How would I know this?
Well yesterday was our group's Christmas party and as we were getting ready to head out the door, I insisted on riding with Ray in his fancy new car. I hopped in the passenger seat and we were off into the city. What a sweet car on the inside - very simple gauge setup, plus it had an audio connector port so you could plug in your ipod or whatever music player suited you (this feature should be standard in cars in the future!).
About a quarter of the way there, he pulls over suddenly and says "Want to drive?".
I'm thinking, clearly you know the answer to this question already. We jump out, switch seats, and I take the wheel. First off, this car is huge! Huge! I'm use to the Celica, which is much smaller. I was kind of intimidated by the size the car. Parking was scary.
Taking off was fun, largely due to the fact that there's crazy amounts of power in the engine. While it doesn't have the Hemi V-8 made popular by the commercials, it does just fine moving the car quickly from stoplight to stoplight. It's an automatic transmission, kind of a drag... but the only option availble to him for that model. It has some sort of autostick shifting option, so you can manually change gears without the need for a clutch. Ray only had 350 miles on it, so I didn't feel the need to red-line it on him just yet.
It also has an "Electronic Stability Program" button right on the dash, which turns on when you start the car. Make no mistake, this button's sole purpose when dis-engaged is to allow huge rear-wheel-drive burnouts. Ray did not think it was a good idea to get in that habbit so early in the car's life, so we left it on.
It was a fun drive to the restaurant, despite being kind of terrified the whole way there that I'd wreck his car or blow up the engine or something. I can't say I'd buy one myself... I kind of need good gas mileage to commute to work, and don't have 27k just hanging around... but it's certainly an entertaining vehicle. Some people, cough **dad** cough, don't care much for this car, probably because it bares little resemblance to Ye Olde Chargers, but I still like it.
Large photos of the Charger here.
Labels: Automotive
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