The new Dodge Charger is the second best looking Charger ever.It's a 4door

[billbuckhead]

Soon appearing at a NASCAR track near you. The new 2005 Dodge Charger replaces the once advant garde but now tired and discredited Intrepid. But the new Charger faces the daunting challenge of living up to a legend and it must do it with the handicap of being a 4 door.
The 2 door only 68-70 body style they used on the Dukes of Hazzard were the coolest Chargers ever. Steve McQueen's Mustang raced against one in one of the greatest chase scene in movies. The HEMI Charger dominated NASCAR in the late 60's turning Ford and GM into beaten dogs. They had to ban the HEMI to save NASCAR. This classic "coke bottle" shape body style defined 60's midsize Detroit iron and has become an icon.
All the other Chargers were pretty OK from the original 66 through the excessive 70's even to the little Omni 4cyl based Shelby ones in mid 80's, but none were as uber as the 68-70.

I think this new 2005 Charger is the second best Charger ever. It's loosely based on the last generation Mercedes E-class combined with a pushrod Mexican made 5.7L V8 with rear wheel drive. It's somewhat controversial that's only availible as 4 door, something no Charger ever was before. I think NASCAR dads will go to this car in droves. In an odd twist of history, consumers can now easily obtain the once hard to get HEMI, but NASCAR still bans the HEMI 20 years later.

<http://www.autoweek.com/> It's on the homepage.

[ObaMania]

1. You're serious?

Just looks like a Neon w/ mods.

[Dave Reynolds]

2. I liked my '71 with a 383 MUCH more.../nt

[Maddy McCall]

17. My boyfriend in 1980 had one...

it was fine...blue with white stripes down each side. That sombitch would GO!

[GAspnes]

3. My eyes! My EYES!

Augh, that's awful.

My '69 Charger would have eaten this thing for breakfast.

[SKKY]

4. Dude, if a Boston Terrier and a Ford Mustang fucked and had a kid...

...that would be it. Fugly.

[Wapsie B]

5. That's a Charger?

The exec at Dodge who ok'd that design should be shot. To take a muscle car like a Dodge Charger with such a great lineage and make it look like something a banker would drive is heresy. The design team needs to be sterilized so they don't reproduce and sent to Iraq.

[tuvor]

6. Kinda cool. But it's no Cruiser.

Or Prowler!

[Maddy McCall]

18. I can't stand the PT Cruisers...

they are more common that VWs were in the early 70s. And they're ugly.

[Swamp Rat]

7. My friend dusted a Porsche in a Omni GLHS-Shelby.

We had a couple of Daytonas with that same Shelby engine too, but the Omni was FAST! Great for stoplight warfare since it was so light - especially if you take out the passenger seat and replace the back window and hatch with Plexiglas. :D

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Ew - the Dukes of Hazard car was a white trash car for the kind of

people who have no taste, but couldn't afford the equally tasteless, but more expensive, thunderbird t-top.

This new charger takes all the wonderful white trashness of the dukes of hazard ones, with all the wonderful shitty aesthetics of the worst of the mid-2000s.

[Jack_Dawson]

9. It's Awful

And a 4-DOOR to boot? Do you work in Dodge's PR division?

:shrug:

[RobinA]

10. That's No Charger

It's a Volvo. My fave boyfriend ever had a '69 Charger, I know Chargers. That ain't one.

[flvegan]

11. For the same price, I could get a pristine, low mileage Grand National.

Never been another car like it...

[Rob H.]

12. I dunno.

It looks like a rounder version of Chrysler's 300C to me. Too bad they can't dust off the design of the '70 Challenger (my dad had a '70 R/T and it was the only car he's ever loved) and start producing them again. That would be cool.

[billbuckhead]

13. Just watch, this new Charger will be standard issue of NASCAR dads by

the 4th of July. Think about it, a HEMI with 340 HP and better gas mileage than the average SUV, rear wheel drive with traction control, a Mercedes automatic tranny and Mercedes suspension design, all with a fastback roofline similar to the original 66 Charger.

[cruadin]

14. You might be right, but I don't think the look of that car...

is going to catch on----no matter what they put under the hood.

[CatholicEdHead]

15. Better link

here:
http://autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=100949

[AlCzervik]

16. it looks like that ugly wagon with the back cut off

i like the old charger.

[sendero]

19. Hmmm...

.... my favorite Charger was definitely the 68. Don't think the new one changes that.

But - when you actually look at something like a 68 Charger now it is so freaking HUGE!

On a similar note - a 1971 Chevelle 4-door came through the auction the other day. It was so freaking gargantuan, I thought it was a '69 Impala or something. We're talking boat here.

I guess it is a good thing that cars have gotten a lot smaller over the years :)

[Rob H.]

20. Reminded me of this...

This concept from 1999 is also a 4-door, but IMO it looks much better than the one they're bringing to market. It has many more styling cues from the originals, too. When I saw the thread title, this is the look of the car I thought they were finally producing. (The concept had a compressed natural gas-powered engine.)

This page has more photos, taken at an auto show, if anyone'd care to take a gander.



Edit: additional link

[ekhunter]

21. nice looking car!

all future cars will be having this same shape and designs. looks good.