Britain has never looked short of sensible performance cars. We can supply hot hatchbacks for damp B-roads, fast estates for Labrador owners and enough German super-saloons to make every motorway slip road feel like a qualifying lap. What we have lacked is a new Dodge Charger the size of a small parish. That shortage is over: the American bruiser is coming to the UK, and it starts at £69,995.
A £6,000 decision that answers itself
Unity Automotive lists the 420hp Charger R/T at £69,995, with the 550hp Scat Pack at £75,995. Stock is expected in October. Those numbers create the sort of showroom dilemma that lasts roughly as long as a green light: if you have already persuaded yourself that an enormous imported muscle car is a sound use of seventy grand, another £6,000 for 130hp feels less like extravagance and more like completing the order properly.
That leaves the R/T in a peculiar spot. It is hardly timid — 420hp would have been supercar territory within living memory — but Dodge has placed it beside a version with nearly a third more power for a relatively modest premium. In a range built around excess, choosing the restrained one feels like ordering sparkling water at a barbecue.
Muscle without eight cylinders
The inevitable argument will concern what is missing. Under that vast bonnet sits a 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six, rather than the old-school V8 that many people hear in their heads whenever the word Charger appears. Nostalgia will grumble. It always does. Yet the SIXPACK engine is no apology: Dodge quotes 420hp and 468lb ft for the R/T, while the high-output Scat Pack reaches 550hp and 531lb ft.
Both use an eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive, but the system can send everything rearwards when the occasion — and preferably a private circuit — demands it. Dodge says the R/T reaches 60mph in 4.6 seconds, with the Scat Pack cutting that to 3.9. More interesting than the stopwatch is the engineering attitude: secure traction when Britain is being Britain, then rear-wheel drive when the tyres have volunteered as entertainment.
The new car also has a hatchback hiding beneath its coupe profile and space for five. Dodge’s own figures claim as much as 1,064 litres behind the front seats. That practical streak matters. A Charger should look faintly absurd outside a village shop, but it need not be useless once you have bought the milk.
An imported indulgence, properly done
This is not a grey-import adventure assembled through optimistic emails and a shipping agent. Dodge’s European operation appointed KWA as official importer, with an authorised dealer network handling orders. The wider European range covers petrol SIXPACK and electric Daytona versions, each offered with two or four doors. That gives the new Charger a welcome air of legitimacy, even if it will remain a gloriously rare sight here.
The price still bites. Ford currently advertises the V8 Mustang GT Fastback from £58,670, so the entry Charger asks roughly eleven thousand pounds more while arriving with two fewer cylinders. The Dodge counters with standard all-wheel drive, much greater cabin and luggage space, and the novelty of appearing at a cars-and-coffee gathering without immediately vanishing into a row of identical rear lights.
The real rival is hesitation
Judged like an ordinary coupe, the Charger is too large, too expensive and too determined to make an entrance. Judged as a piece of American theatre that can carry people and luggage, it makes far more sense — emotionally, at least. Nobody needs one. That is precisely why its arrival is cheering.
Dodge has brought Britain a car with presence, power and a refreshing refusal to shrink itself for our narrow lanes. The R/T opens the door, but the Scat Pack is the one that fits the joke. If you are going to park a Charger outside the local, you may as well give everyone something worth turning around for.
Sources
- New Dodge Charger muscles in with £70k starting price
- Charger Sixpack 2026
- Dodge opens orders for the next generation Charger in Europe
- Dodge Charger: the heart of muscle, reborn for a new generation
- Ford Mustang
Image credit: Dodge/Stellantis
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