Dodge Charger Widebody (2019-2023) review

Just in case you are starting to think the US is one long stream of autopiloted Teslas and Uber-driven Priuses, Dodge is here to remind you that the country’s thumping, red-blooded heart is still alive and well. While almost everyone else is worrying about how they can do more with less, Dodge is still on a headlong quest to give you more bang for your buck than ever before.

In the past few years, that mission has been focused on the two-door Challenger. The formula has been relatively simple and massively effective: create almost mythical halo cars that sell the lesser cars in the range.

To this end, we have seen the Scat Pack, supercharged Hellcat, Widebody Scat Pack and Hellcat, Hellcat Redeye and, the king of them all, the Demon. It’s worked, too. Sales of the big cars are gravity defying – rising every year for the past decade to more than 80,000 last year.

So now, quite logically, it’s the four-door Charger’s turn to get the full treatment. And Dodge isn’t about to mess with the winning formula. So these are the widebody versions of the previously only narrow bodied Scat Pack and Hellcat versions. You don’t need to be a clairvoyant to see what’s coming next – yep, there’s sure to be a Redeye version in the pipeline. Oh, and don’t think the Demon isn’t going to get an equally evil four-doored sibling.

Rumours fuelled by social media posts from the shooting of Fast and Furious 9 show a black widebody charger wearing a set of Demon wheels suggest a headline figure of 1,000bhp – or more. The Demon, you will recall, made its global debut in Fast 8. So there is form there.

Is there another four-door saloon which offers more – space, performance, fun – for less? Nope. The addition of the widebody to the range has done for the Charger what it did for the Challenger – expand its abilities and make it a more usable car everyday. It’s fractionaly down on top speed, but it’s faster accelerating, has more lateral grip and stops in a shorter distance. That sounds like a fair trade off, right?

Even though we are magnetically drawn to the Hellcat, it’s the Scat Pack car that is the conspicuous bargain here. It’s more than $20k less than its supercharged big brother, has better handling balance and, well, you can get close to really using all its talents. It lacks that addictive forced-induction whine, but it’s our pick of the bunch here.