Six Cylinders, Two Turbos, One Problem: What a Week in the Charger Sixpack Taught Motor1 and The Drive

The new gas Charger was supposed to be the easy sell. The Daytona EV had to convince muscle car buyers that a battery could feel like a Hemi; the Sixpack only had to convince them that six cylinders and two turbos could. After a week each with an R/T and a Scat Pack this summer, Motor1 and The Drive both came away sold on the engine and lukewarm on the car wrapped around it.

Motor1's Jeff Perez filed on the 420-hp R/T in August. The Drive's Joel Feder filed on the 550-hp Scat Pack four-door in late September. TORQFOLIO did not drive either car. This is what those two reviews found, with an earlier Mopar Insiders test for contrast.

Two outputs, one engine

Both cars use the 3.0-liter twin-turbo Hurricane inline-six and an eight-speed automatic with all-wheel drive. The R/T gets the standard-output version at 420 hp and 468 lb-ft, which Perez pointed out is 50 hp and 73 lb-ft more than the old R/T's Hemi V8 made. The Scat Pack gets the high-output version at 550 hp and 531 lb-ft. Motor1's R/T could be switched to rear-wheel drive.

The engine wins both reviews

There is no argument about the six. Perez called it "smooth, powerful, and has loads of personality, cylinder count be damned," and said acceleration is excellent for a car this size. Feder found the high-output engine strong, said it sounds great, and noted turbo response that felt close to instant. For a drag racing crowd that measures everything in elapsed time, Dodge's 12.2-second quarter mile claim for a five-seat, all-wheel-drive sedan is a strong opening number.

Mopar Insiders, which tested a Scat Pack back in November 2025 in snowy mountain conditions, went further, calling it the best-handling and most confidence-inspiring modern Charger Dodge has built. That review is older than the two covered here, but it shows how much the verdict on this car depends on where and how long you drive it.

The weight never goes away

Where the summer reviews part ways with that early enthusiasm is mass. The Scat Pack weighs 4,865 pounds, and Feder wrote that it "feels like it at all times." Perez said the R/T feels very large, with poor visibility that makes lane positioning harder, and steering that is quick but light and vague until Sport mode adds weight. Feder found the ride firm but well controlled by the adaptive dampers.

Feder also flagged a muscle car problem that has nothing to do with weight: manual shifting with the paddles often ran him into the rev limiter. For a car sold on driver involvement, that is a strange miss.

The two trims also split on the numbers that matter at a meet or a track. Motor1 lists the R/T's top speed at 127 mph, while The Drive lists 177 mph for the Scat Pack. Either way the car is big: Motor1 measured the R/T at 206.6 inches long and 79.8 inches wide, which goes a long way toward explaining why Perez found it hard to place in a lane.

The tech and the cabin

Both reviewers had trouble with Uconnect 5. Perez said the touchscreen lags and sometimes ignores input. Feder had it worse: CarPlay often failed to load, the system was laggy, and the car bricked itself three times in a few days because of a body control module software issue. He also wrote that the interior "looks slick in photos, but in reality it looks and feels like cheap hard plastic," including the backs of the optional $1,150 performance seats, and found the rear seat tight for three.

Perez was kinder to the cabin. He called it a big step up from the old Charger and Challenger, with 10.3-inch and 12.3-inch screens standard, and found the ride comfortable and the cabin roomy.

The scores

Feder gave the Scat Pack a 7.5 out of 10 and said the four-door "is playing in no man's land" between sport sedans and old-school muscle. Perez did not score the R/T, but his verdict was "After a week with the R/T, I'm still not entirely sold," and he suggested waiting for the V8 versions. Both men called the price hard to swallow once options pile on, with test cars at $65,365 and $68,320.

TORQFOLIO's read

These two reviews make the Hurricane six the best thing about the new Charger, and the car's weight, software and price the things holding it back. If you want one, the Scat Pack's 550 hp is the version that makes the mass feel worth carrying, and the drag strip is where that all-wheel-drive launch and claimed 12.2-second pass will make the most sense.

For the muscle crowd, the honest takeaway is that the Charger's reboot is still in progress. The engine is ready, and as Feder argued, it could become a legend if buyers give it the chance. The rest of the car needs software updates and a few hundred fewer pounds before testers stop qualifying their praise.