Gadgetory

new face hood and rump for the 2011 but the most interesting stuff on the Dodge Charger now has the number eight attached to it let's drive the 2011 Charger Rallye plus and check the tech now based on this rally plus trim level charger is this 8.4 inch LCD one of the biggest out there big square thing really responsive touch controls I like that and you get this even if you don't option nav if you do option navigation though you do get this Garmin powered unit which as you can see has a familiar interface but I find the roads to be almost oversimplified and the little car icons kind of cartoony the whole thing smacked of fisher-price to me a lot of good audio sources on this guy as well we've got our USB port here which also handles our iPod nicely Bluetooth audio streaming standard aux Jack's over here as well optical drive is here an SD card slot I would trade that in a minute for HD radio instead and there is no drive space here to store your music I have no problem with that available our adaptive cruise control and collision warning those two together nine hundred and twenty-five bucks add the confidence package for fifteen hundred dollars if you're missing self confidence and get blind spot technology also cross path detection for backing into traffic as well as rear parking sensors and a backup camera which you'll want when backing up this run pay shipping and our car has smart beam headlights from that package as well it's interesting the car always puts the high beams on and ducks them instead only when it sees oncoming headlights or get this taillights in front of you it's also got a technology where it can swivel the lights up and down based on what it sees on a camera here in the mirror so that it can change its beam cut off really advanced lighting Oh check this out not just cupholders not just cooled cupholders heated and cooled cupholders that's what sells cars now at this level of charges Hemi in it there's a Pentastar v-6 in it 292 horsepower 260 foot-pounds of torque it's this kind of porky 4,000 pound car up to 60 in about 7.3 seconds while delivering 18 27 mpg out of an automatic no manual is available let's see how it works on the road okay underway in our charger you know right away you're not driving a Hemi but this v6 is no pig in a poke it's got good power especially if you're on gear or on cam which is a little difficult because this five-speed well let's face it we're spoiled now with six 7s and 8's these days it kind of want another gear in between - from time to time but the power comes on pretty evenly smoothly and the whole car feels really well screwed together and I can't get over how much they've improved the quality of the interior materials it gives you a good feeling and let's face it you spend most of your time looking at the inside not the outside of any car you buy okay my bottom line on the 2011 charger Rallye plus goes like so not a pretty car to my high but way prettier on the inside where you actually spend your time good work on the cabin the centerpiece of that is where our story of the eighths begins that eight plus inch display is great responsive big and bright but the nav hey I'd skip back now the other eights are the lack of an eight under the hood I'll be okay with that when and if they add direct injection to this v6 I would also wait and buy a 2012 to get an 8-speed transmission