joeyr

The Battle for American V8 Sedan Supremacy

By John Pearley Huffman, Contributor Email
Date posted: 02-24-2008

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...hotopanel..1.* (To see pics and a Video go to link)


Cars like the new 2008 Pontiac G8 GT and 2008 Dodge Charger R/T were once supposed to be every American's birthright. Brawny, V8-powered, relatively affordable rear-drive cruisers that can blow through a couple of big Western states in an afternoon at 90 mph — their drivers staring at the horizon through Ray-Bans, steering with one hand and smoking a Pall Mall with the other.

You know, big, fast American cars. They're not hybrids, they don't run on biodiesel and they rumble and roar through dual exhausts. And they do the sort of epic burnouts that inspire Bruce Springsteen songs.

These aren't sedans you buy for their utility. After all, any four-cylinder, front-drive AltiCamAccord6 will match them commute for commute. Nope, the new Pontiac G8 GT and Dodge Charger R/T are cars you buy because they speak to your born-in-the-USA soul. Well that, and because you can't afford a BMW M5.

So what if one of them comes up from Australia and the other is assembled in Canada with a Mexican-made engine and German transmission? One of them is the best "American" V8-powered performance sedan for about $35,000.

To find a winner we spent more than a week testing these cars in and around Southern California. They were run on the highway, in the canyons and on the test track. We used them and abused them. Here's what we learned.

The Shadows They Cast

First of all, these are not small cars. But the Charger is even bigger than the G8. Slightly.

From bumper cover to bumper cover and across its steel unibody structure, the Charger stretches out 200.1 inches long. That's only 4 inches longer than the G8, which is also built around a steel unibody. But the Dodge is also a half-inch taller and its 120-inch wheelbase is 5.2 inches longer than the Pontiac's.

On top of that, the two cars have very different proportions, with the Charger having a long hood and short rear deck in classic muscle style, and the G8 having a relatively short hood in the Euro sport sedan tradition. Also the G8 appears even lower due to its ground effects and deep front spoiler. When the two are parked side by side, the Charger appears even larger than it is relative to the G8.

It also drives bigger.

Comfort and Speed

Remember back when it was DaimlerChrysler? Well, so does the Charger R/T. There's a lot of Mercedes in the Charger's engineering, especially in its suspension. Dodge plucked its coil-sprung, short- and long-arm front and five-link independent rear suspension right from the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. As a result, the Charger rides a lot like, yep, a Mercedes.

Always composed and comfortable, the Charger R/T's ride motions are a study in control. Hit a pothole and the soft P225/60R18 Continental ContiTouringContact radials politely report back that something has been encountered and summarily smothered. Until the Charger (and its LX-platform brothers the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum) came around back in 2005, virtually no American car rode this well. Three years later we take its mannered ride for granted, even though we shouldn't.

Just because the Charger is rear-wheel drive doesn't mean it's at home in the twisties. Hard cornering in the Charger is all about plenty of steering input and body roll. The steering is relatively slow and absolutely numb, but the front tires scream and squeal enough to let you and the world know they're struggling under the weight of this 4,135-pound sedan. The Dodge's stability control system (which can't be completely turned off) is too sophisticated to ever let the car get truly out of shape, but the Charger is engineered for on-road poise, not heroic speed.

The C

joeyr

For a pontiac to be compared to a five series for ride isnt that bad. Granted next year the Hemi should have 380 as opposed to the 361 and hopefully better handling (and heres wishing, a cheaper price), it seems the update is coming just in time for for dodge.

Paladin06

Yea, but at what price???

Yankee

Well... hopefully a very minimal price, if you're talking dollars and cents.

I kinda think they should have held out for testing a Charger with the Road/Track package instead of just a standard R/T - don't know how that would have changed things but I think it would have at least given the Charger more of a sporting chance.

Hopefully there'll be a rematch next year with the upgraded 380 HP 5.7. Wonder if they'll have an upgrade for the Road/Track package as well - so far no one has said for sure yet... [&:]

joeyr

Maybe the 380 will be the R/T package; then again it might top that.

DK challenger

You could be right joeyr, thet could save the 380 horse version for the Road/Track model, and keep the price down on the regular R/T.

1 Bad Mirada

the R/T is the road & track model...thats what rt stands for..

as for the G8...i dont get why anyone buys pontiacs. all of their cars are the exact same front and rear end, with different chassis and drivetrain...and theyre all ugly. i didnt like the G8 much in pictures, and when i first saw one last year, i was FAR from impressed. im not a huge fan of the charger, but the G8 is boring, and its popularity is fueled by the rumors started by Gm fanboys.

Yankee

True, but there is also an extra Road/Track package on the R/T (confusing, I know) that has a 350 hp 5.7 instead of the "regular" R/T's 340 hp, 20" tires, rear spoiler, stiffer suspension and a few other such things - basically it's like an SRT-8 "lite".

joeyr

Motor trend did an article as well:

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...ger/index.html

RLSH700

The more comparisons I see Edmunds do on Chrysler products, the less credible I find them. I find it ironic how they are about the only ones getting times that slow on the Charger R/Ts and everyone else is getting between 5.3-5.9 secs on average. If anything, the Pontiac deserves worse criticism. Look at what Chrysler had to work with here. The transmission they are using is an old design from 1996 that yields no advantages in comparisons between it and the Chrysler sourced 42RLE 4-speed on the V6 models, yet the Pontiac has a 6-speed that was designed in 2006 (ten year difference). The Pontiac has a .3 liter/19 cubic inch advantage, a compression ratio advantage of 10.4 to 1 vs. the Charger's 9.6 to 1, its lighter and shorter. Yet in the more credible comparison, it is only .2 faster than the Charger, after they have had 3 years to perfect the car. That is pathetic. I'm looking forward to see what the new VCT will do to this comparison. I also look forward to see the Pontiac's GXP model that we all know they will offer before long.

My biggest complaint about the MT article is their complaint about the price. These guys get on my nerves about their complaints about the pricing. If the manufacturer offers the options, they must have them, then they complain about how expensive they are, then they complain if the car is cheaper that they don't have the options. Note to MT, if you can't use your wallet wisely, then don't blame the manufacturers for tempting you and don't blame them for when they don't tempt you.