If you want a pretty spacious four-door full-size sedan with more than a hint of style and desirability thrown in, you could do a lot worse than a Dodge Charger or a Chevrolet Impala. There's a lot to like about these two if you need to carry up to five people on a regular basis, so let's take a closer look at the 2018 Dodge Charger and the 2018 Chevrolet Impala to see which is the better option.
Exterior styling
The Coke-bottle overall shape of the Dodge Charger has stayed pretty much the same for a decade now, but you wouldn't know it to look at it as the front fascia that was restyled a few years ago is as fresh and menacing as it was when we first saw it. The Dodge Charger really does look every inch the four-door muscle car, and that's before you get to what's available under the hood. The Chevrolet Impala is probably a little less blue-collar than its rival here from Dodge Canada, so it's a more subtle design with no hint of muscle whatsoever. It's definitely sleek, stylish and handsome, but it falls heavily on the side of sensible rather than being the guilty pleasure the Charger could undoubtedly be seen as.
Interior
You won't find anything particularly retro inside the cavernous interior of the Charger as it's very much in line with the current FCA styling universe. The high window line does limit outward visibility to some degree, but it also delivers a feeling of being cosseted and looked after when you're sitting inside. The quality of trim and soft touch materials is very good, and all but the base model get an 8.4-inch screen integrated into the dash. The cabin of the Impala could do with a makeover, but this time with just one person in charge as the current look definitely appears to have been a group effort where everyone was allowed to have at least one of their ideas included. It's still quite comfortable, but it's too busy and fussy and nowhere near as inviting as the Dodge.
Engines and performance
Do you want a lot of power, an awful lot of power or an almost ridiculous amount of power under the hood of your Charger? And that's because those are effectively your choices. The baby of the engine lineup is a 300 horsepower 3.6-litre V-6, and then there are 5.7-litre and 6.4-litre Hemi V-8's. Of course, if you want to go off-the-scale, performance-wise, there's also the ludicrous 707 horsepower 6.2-litre supercharged Hemi V-8 in the SRT Hellcat. All the Impala can offer as a retort are a 2.5-litre inline-four and a 3.6-liter V-6 with a maximum rating of 305 horsepower, so this section is an absolute walkover for the Charger.
Fuel economy
In its most frugal form you can get as good as 7.8 L/100 km on the highway and 12.4 L/100 km in the city from a Dodge Charger. As you'd expect, the four-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive versions of the Impala are a lot more fuel efficient than the Charger as you can get and as good as 7.9 L/100 km on the highway and 10.9 L/100 km in the city.
Conclusion
If you were going to make a sensible decision about your next four-door sedan, you might want to go for the conservative styling and frugality of the Chevy Impala. But how many of us let our heads rule our hearts when it comes to choosing a car if we are offered a choice like this? Anyway, even in its most ludicrous SRT Hellcat form, the 2018 Dodge Charger is still a very practical five-seat family vehicle that's perfectly good as a daily driver. Of course, the fact the Charger in all its forms goes like an absolute rocket and looks like mean enough to scare small children, also helps make it our winner here by some considerable margin.
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