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Driven: 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:35 pm
by scottm
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Driven: 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8
http://blog.roadandtrack.com/driven-201 ... rger-srt8/
Big and brawny. That about sums up the 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8. If you want a car that blends in don’t read any further. However, if you want to make a statement, this car should be on your short list.

Normally I’d react negatively to a car with such a giant snout but Dodge’s designers have got this one right – it’s what makes the car get noticed. I got thumbs up from older guys, middle-aged women and even kids while driving.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about how today’s kids are not into cars in the way that their parents were. So, what better than to have Nick, my 22-year-old son, describe the car in his own words after I let him drive it – while he was carefully watched over by his father, of course.

His first reaction was to the way the car looks. He liked the aggressive accents, bright red Brembo fixed calipers and the “tasteful but flashy red interior”. Naturally he immediately enjoyed the performance once behind the wheel. But in many ways it was the thrill of managing a 0 to 60 mph time of 4.8 seconds as recorded by the timer in the car’s instrument pod and seeing .74 Gs showing in the displayed screen in the center console.

He summed it up saying, “this car has everything you need for that road trip to Hot August Nights or any other muscle car show. All in all for what the 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 is supposed to be, or at least what I think they were trying to convey, they’ve done the job well. You get the raw V-8 power you would expect in a full-size sedan that handles surprisingly well.”

Well there you have it. My son was enthralled by the digital information displays as much as the car’s performance and looks. I too found these Performance Pages, as Dodge calls them, fascinating. For example, I discovered the car only needs 25 horsepower to propel it at 70 mph on a flat smooth freeway with just the driver in the car. That’s partly because it’s running on just four cylinders and the transition is so smooth you’d never know apart from the shining Eco light.

Purists might complain that the 2012 Charger SRT8 has four doors, but in today’s world I would rather have a four-door sports sedan that is more practical for carrying passengers and throwing in groceries or your briefcase on the back seat. It’s hard to think of any sedan costing under $50,000 that gives you as much bang for the buck as the 2012 Charger SRT8 with its 6.4L V-8 Hemi pumping out 470 hp and 470 lb.-ft. of torque. It is a truly affordable sports sedan for everyday use as well as for those times when you want a really exhilarating ride – and I guess for today’s younger drivers, electronic gizmos are also an important element.