STYLING | 8 out of 10
Expert Quotes:
No other car’s styling says, “Don’t f*&!
Car and Driver
All the body panels are new and pay homage to 1968-70 Chargers with their strong character lines and 3D scallops.
Autoblog
Dodge designers call the 2011 Dodge Charger's front fascia "Superman's Chest." We, on the other hand, can't stop seeing visions of Brian Wilson's black beard when we walk up to this car.
Edmunds' Inside Line
We fell instantly in love with the rear view of the car, largely because of the very cool, full-length LED taillights found out back.
Winding Road
the redesigned 2011 model raises the sedan's meanness factor
Cars.com
The styling of the Charger was already neat and notable when it was reintroduced in 2005, but the current version's gone overboard to play up its American bona fides.
The body's now inspired by nothing less than a Coca-Cola bottle, with a classic crosshaired Dodge grille grafted on the front end and lots of LED bulbs glowing around its rear end. The Charger's flares and filligrees pop on camera and in person, striking a masculine nerve. It's a commanding shape that looks as ready to attack the road as any supersedan--especially when it's an SRT8, when the grille turns into a gaping maw, when the body add-ons drop as low to the ground as possible.
Spin to the side and the Charger's bracket scoops do plenty to relieve its tall sides--while they also remind us a lot of the Buick Regal, even the 2012 Ford Focus. It reads "forward thrust" even in Braille, and particularly in dark metallic orange, but it's almost a non sequitir. The now-pinched roofline has shades of zombie Pontiac in its angled window cut.
At the rear, 164 LED taillamps comprise a racetrack of rear lights that spans across, and the squarish tail is topped off with a spoiler on some trims.
The treatment inside is way less flamboyant, but we like that. With big dials hashed with red markings, and the former dash reshaped into a rounded, more driver-oriented piece with a little bit of squish. The dash is covered with metallic-printed plastic with some wide, unused stretches, which gives it the look of a brisk remake, but the fit and finish are much improved, and materials are well-coordinated.
Conclusion
The 2012 Dodge Charger is commanding, almost predatory, on the outside; yet inside, it's function over form.
