And speaking of reviving popular old car names, Chrysler group is doing that with a new Dodge sedan based on the also-new Chrysler 300 sedan chassis.
But calling it a Charger apparently is upsetting some of the diehard Charger fans who revere the muscle cars from the late '60s and '70s.
The industry weekly Automotive News reported recently that Chrysler is even getting "hate mail" over the plans to call the new sedan a Charger, primarily because the car will be a sedan, and not a coupe as the original Chargers were.
Still, Dodge plans to roll out the new Charger in January as an early
2006 model, and it will sit in the lineup beside the Dodge Magnum, which essentially is a wagon version of the new Charger (even though the Magnum came first).One thing that will remain true to the early Chargers is the availability of a Hemi V-8 engine in the new model, as is offered in the Chrysler 300 and the Magnum.
The car will get the same 5.7-liter, 340-horsepower Hemi V-8 that is used in those cars as well as in the all-new 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
As with those other cars, the Hemi in the Charger will have the cylinder-deactivation feature that cuts out four cylinders during highway cruising to increase fuel economy.
That was definitely not offered on the early Chargers, which could be notorious gas-guzzlers.