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America’s Only Four-Door Muscle Car Drives Into 2022, Here’s What’s New

The Dodge Charger is one of the few survivors of the many muscle cars that were made here in America starting back in the 1960s. True, its current form is completely different from what it originally was, but that makes it even more special, as the car is, for all intents and purposes “America’s only four-door muscle car.”
2022 Dodge Charger 126 photos
Photo: Dodge
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Now, it’s true that the number of doors is not exactly the main trait customers consider for a vehicle in this segment, but Dodge sure takes pride in this configuration, and customers seem to appreciate the body style enough for the model to be kept into production, with just a couple of minor interruptions, ever since it came to be in 1966.

And it will be around for some time more as, on the first day of September, Dodge announced the changes to the Charger for the 2022 model year and, even if they’re not all that great – after all, you don’t go repairing something that's not broken – something is there, and it’s time to learn all about that.

And we’ll start with the things that make the Charger the monster it is, namely the engines that keep it moving. There are no less than five of them on the table for 2022, going from naturally aspirated to supercharged, and all with incredible power levels, spread across no less than eight distinct models.

At the bottom of the list, if you can consider it bottom, is the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 powerplant fitted under the hoods of the SXT, SXT AWD, GT and GT AWD models, and developing 300 horsepower. It is followed by the 5.7-liter HEMI V8 in the R/T models, rated at 370 horsepower.

2022 Dodge Charger
Photo: Dodge
Mid-list we find the 392 HEMI V8 (6.4-liter) rated at 485 horsepower and fitted on the Scat Pack models (the most horsepower per dollar of any sedan in the industry, as Dodge says), and the 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI SRT Hellcat V8, good for 717 horsepower.

At the top of the food chain sits the beefed-up version of this engine, the 797 horsepower monster that makes the SRT Hellcat Redeye “the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world.”

No matter the engine choice, Dodge throws into the mix as standard the TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission to handle all that power.

But a muscle car, and a unique one with four doors at that, would be nothing without high-impact visuals. That’s why Dodge will continue to offer the Widebody and Daytona packages, accompanied by various stripe and graphics upgrades.

For the new model year 13 exterior colors are available, from the F8 Green and Frostbite to the Triple Nickel and White Knuckle. Inside, Chargers can be specced in one of six variants, all of them sporting black to some degree.

2022 Dodge Charger
Photo: Dodge
And now comes the highlight of the Charger novelties for the new model year, or actually the single major change made, if it can be called that: as of now, the Deluxe Security alarm is offered as standard on Scat Pack, SRT Hellcat and SRT Hellcat Redeye models. For the SXT, SXT AWD, GT, GT AWD and R/T models, it is included in the Driver Convenience Group.

At the time of writing Dodge has not announced if there will be any price changes for the slightly upgraded range, and the configurator still lists the 2021 model year as available.

For reference, the cheapest four-door muscle car you can get your hands on now is the SXT, selling from $30,755. At the opposite end of the spectrum sits the SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody, which goes for nearly three times as much, namely $81,455.
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Editor's note: Gallery also shows the Challenger.

About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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