Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (2016)

Test Drive Notes Library

Pros
It’s not too late. If you didn’t have the coolest car in the high-school parking lot, you have another chance.
Is your Prius feeling a little pokey pulling away from stoplights? How about something with a 700 hp V8?
No waiting! It’s silly. It’s gross overkill. It’s gaudy and ridiculous. You’ll be shunned in your Whole Foods parking lot. But it is kinda fun to touch the gas and have your head slam back against the headrest.
If you always wanted a classic American muscle car, this is an updated version of one, very true to the original, obnoxious spirit, complete with burbling exhaust. It looks like one of those Hot Wheels cars you played with as a kid, minus only the slicks. And it may be the last gasp of American gasoline monsters.
It’s actually a comfortable car. Based on the old Chrysler 300 chassis, the car rides well, and is roomy inside. It’s an old-style, large sedan. There’s even room in the back seat.
Controls are clear and intuitive. The Charger has straightforward heating and ventilation controls, refreshingly old-fashioned volume and tuning knobs (plus finger controls for volume on the back of the steering wheel, right where your fingers naturally rest), and a good, clear infotainment touch screen that works well. The shifter is straight forward, and has a manual mode with paddle shifters.
The steering is intentionally heavy at low speeds. But at higher speeds it feels about right.
The car mostly handles well. We felt some occasional wheel squirm, from what we’re not sure. Could have been tires. But the car goes where you point it, and has considerably more grip than its muscle car ancestors, which were only designed to go fast and straight.
A surprisingly good and comfortable highway cruiser.
Very good and effective brakes. You’ll need ‘em.
Good selection of safety equipment, including the important ones; forward emergency braking, rear cross traffic alert, and blind spot monitoring.

Cons
It’s obnoxious. Especially as tested in “Pimp Purple" paint (actually called Plum Crazy Pearl by Dodge). It’s loud sounding, loud looking, and loud driving. You have to crave attention (and it tends to generate male attention, and female fear). Granted, in a less gaudy color, the “look at me” factor might be turned down to only mildly narcissistic.
You can practically hear the “glug, glug, glug” of the engine drinking gas. We got 12.7 mpg in mixed stop-and-and go city driving, and short highway commutes. EPA claims 16 overall. Good luck getting there.
If your neighbors don’t hate you now, wait until you wake them up at seven a.m. every morning firing up in this slightly muzzled Gatling gun. On start up, it revs a little north of 2,000 rpm for a bit, just to be sure nobody ignores you.
It’s really too much power. On a rainy day, we tapped the gas to pass a slow moving truck on the highway, and the back end momentarily broke loose and fishtailed. And there’s really almost nowhere you can even step all the way down on the gas within the boundaries of civilization. It’s admittedly (and embarrassingly) kind of fun to have that power at your disposal, but it’s hard to even use it.
If there’s an extended warranty on the drive train, you might want to pick it up. Seven-hundred plus horsepower is going to pound the transmission in this car.
This fantasy will cost you 70 grand. And you thought the big hurdle was going to be getting your wife to allow you to get the purple one.