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| (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) |
Tech-wise, it looks a little rough, but it is feature rich. We didn't like using the graphical interface for the navigation system, but voice command worked very well. iPod and phone integration also did their jobs.
The good: Retro looks that echo the early 1970s get the 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8 grins from bystanders, and the engine rumbles out its 425 horsepower. The voice-command system was very accurate, and the Kicker audio system delivered finely detailed sound.
The bad: Poor fuel economy earns the Challenger SRT8 a gas-guzzler tax. The navigation system is slow to calculate routes or respond to voice command inputs.
The bottom line: The 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8 looks good, goes fast, and handles well, while offering useful and modern cabin tech features. Just expect frequent, expensive trips to the gas station.
Review:
Looks and power. These ingredients make the magic that is the 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8. Its retro cool design made people, mostly gray-bearded guys, look over and grin. And the 425 horsepower burbling out of the engine leads to some interesting moments in car control, feathering the gas pedal in a turn to help the Challenger SRT8 keep its nose pointed in the right direction.
The Challenger looks perfect on a sunny day with the California coast in the background.
Retro, but not old
Despite its retro design, the Challenger SRT8 does not shy away from technology. Witness the standard keyless, push button start. The voice-command system let us dial contacts by name through the standard Bluetooth phone system, and proved very accurate, if slow, in recognizing street address inputs for the navigation system.
The round cursor on the map moves very sluggishly.
The look of the interface graphics on the touch screen was a little cartoonish, with big bevels and bright colors, and the buttons were not intuitively organized. It took us a while to find the audio settings screen. As we've mentioned before with this Chrysler/Dodge head unit, its hard buttons are not ergonomically organized. For example, instead of residing on the steering wheel, the voice-command button is on the right side of the touch screen, far away from the driver.
On the positive side, Dodge complemented the unit's bezel-mounted USB port with a dedicated iPod cable in the car's console, which meant we didn't have a cable hanging off the dashboard. We were very pleased with the responsiveness of the iPod interface. The navigation system's hard drive also has space for music. The hard-drive library uses a similar interface as that of the iPod library.
The voice-command system let us place calls by speaking the name of a contact.
Doing a good job complementing the car's horsepower was an optional 522-watt Kicker audio system. With 14 speakers, including a subwoofer, this system not only delivered resounding bass beats but was also delicate enough that we could hear details in complex, layered tracks. Vocals came through with well-balanced purity and the clarity of the highs belied the ugly black plastic grilles covering the tweeters.
With the Challenger SRT8's navigation head unit, we would have expected a backup camera, but none is available.
What the car does have is a built-in performance computer, with its display at the base of the speedometer showing quarter-mile and zero-to-60 mph times, braking distance, and skidpad g-forces. This performance computer speaks to what the car is all about.
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