2008 Dodge Charger Base review from North America

No special things went wrong when I had it.

I leased a Charger 2007, base model and 2.7L engine, for a while.

Car looks very aggressive, and very eye catching. I love its look. This car is too big, like a tank, but this size has its own fans.

Interior is quite plain and simple, not only it is not as eye catching as the exterior, but also some how disappointing. I need to emphasize that I had the base model, but the base model is still a Charger and almost an expensive car, and the interior should not be so cheap.

Interior is very roomy. Seats are good, but not very comfortable. I used to drive a Buick Regal, and in comparison to my Buick, the seats are not very ergonomic and comfortable.

A/C seems not to be very efficient, but OK. Sound system is weak, and when you play songs it sounds artificial.

A large blind spots, but not a big deal.

Small 2.7L is unable to give this beast enough acceleration, you need to push the pedal all the way down to let the car have acceptable acceleration.

A strange problem with this base model: it seems that engine and transmission of this car are so that car has two states; first state is when you push the acceleration pedal until half, in this state the car is pretty slow and lazy. Second state is when you push the pedal all the way down; in this state the engine sound changes and goes very loud, and car suddenly jumps forward and gets a good acceleration, but it can be a bit dangerous because it happens suddenly and you may hit the cars in front of you. The problem is there is no intermediate state between these two states!

The other problem is with the rear mirror. It has a control that you can change it from day mirror to night mirror, which reduces the reflected light from rear cars when it goes dark. Night mirror is too dark for me, and rear cars seem hazy and unclear; the lack of a sophisticated autodim mirror is obvious.

The other problem is with steering wheel, I think it is not in the correct place and angle. You can change the angle of steering wheel, but it's still not very comfortable. All Chrysler and Dodge passenger cars seems to have small steering wheels; I prefer to have a bit bigger steering wheel with a bit more ergonomic design.

Beside the steering wheel itself, the car's steering system is very responsive and the driver can easily control it.

Overall, a nice car, very classy, but if you want to purchase a 2008 Charger and probably pay something more than 15K, spend some more money and purchase higher models, not the base model.