I, like all of you, fell in love with the re-imagined and modern take on a 69 Dodge Charger that Dodge presented back in 2022 when I saw, for the first time, the Banshee prototype. I immediately fell in love. And Immediately the controversy started. Fake sounds. That's all anyone would talk about. And that it didn't have a V8. Which was always in the works as it was engineered from the start to be a multi-energy platform, BEV and ICE, but people focused on what it DIDN'T have. Not on the design. Not on the innovation. And didn't give the car a chance to stand on it's own haunches. As if that was the only thing the car did.

I've only ever had combustion V8's and V6's, over my entire adulthood, over 40 years, primarily all North American brands and mainly Mopar. My first ever being a '73 Dodge Charger with the 440 big block. I loved that car. It changed me to this day. I drove that thing and I felt like Batman. I was invincible. I was also an idiot and barely out of my teens. But I loved how that car made me FEEL.

Fast forward almost 40 years. I'm in my early 50's now. And I very intentionally and strategically bought myself a brand new 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T Plus, full load, with the Sun & Sound and Blacktop package.

I live in Alberta and I'm probably one of two people (I briefly saw another red one driving on the other side of the Stoney the other day) that drives one here. And let me tell you. This car turns heads. It has gorgeous lines and looks imposing as fuck. It's friggin fast. it takes off like a greased tank. It just launches itself every time. And you feel it. And this is the R/T, with only a measly 496HP (with the Power Shot button) on tap. It handles surprisingly well for the size of car that it is. And it's a LARGE car. The regen braking works great, I'm always on the max setting and I'm used to it now and it stops quicker than you expect it to with one pedal braking.

The UConnect system might be Dodge's best yet, BUT, it's not perfect and does need lots of improvement. It can be laggy and a little buggy at times. I have had no major issues with it, however, I don't like how I have to fish around in the menu to turn the EV sounds on and off, as I have neighbours and the initial startup Fratzonic sound can be quite loud at 8AM. There needs to be a large update to the infotainment system, yes, but overall it's very functional and the displays are impressive and expensive looking. And I actually do like driving in Auto mode where the sounds are less in your face and sort of hum in the background and the feedback feels normal after a while.

The way this car makes me feel takes me back to when I was a teenager driving around in a large V8 GT/muscle car. It makes me feel like I'm ahead of the game. The technology has been seriously understated; what Dodge has done to make this car possible shows so much promise. It's smooth, lightning quick, very comfortable, the dash is gorgeous to look at, the steering wheel in that squared off racing shape actually feels great when you drive it fast, the heated seats are the best I've EVER had, the cockpit feels modern and spacious, and the ambient lighting is very impressive, although sometimes at night it bounces off the windshield and can be a bit distracting so I have to turn it a shade or two down.

Overall I fucking love this thing. Haters be damned. Most of the bad hype comes from people who were biased to start with and never gave it a chance. Or they never even DROVE one. I've had mine for 7 months, put over 10,000Km on it. I average around 400KM on a full charge, which is what I signed up for. The R/T has the better range. I also have a Level 2 charger installed at home and I spend on average $100 a month on electricity to charge it. I was spending about $210-$280 a month prior on gas for my Jeep Wrangler Sahara.

After driving an EV now for the summer and through the winter it's been very reliable and confidence inspiring. I do lose about 20-30% of range in the winter but with a home level 2 charger it negates range anxiety. There are small flaws that Stellantis is working on with battery updates (Factorial) and level 3 fast charging but this car deserves to be test driven. Dodge has done a very Dodge thing. They came out with something very bad-ass, but different. This is like driving the Delorian from Back to the Future. Only more refined. And better looking. If you haven't driven one yet I highly recommend it. This car has been discredited for what IT IS. A new experience, better than before. This is the future. And it feels good bruh.

Dealerships are blowing these things out so don't expect great resale value. If you're going to buy one, keep it, and ensure ALL software and firmware updates are up to date and up to spec. And grab an R/T. They're 20 grand cheaper than the Scat Pack on average, are still pretty darn fast, have better range and are more rare. And there's very few left.

Great impression of driving this Jeep. Very fast and I love driving the one pedal experience.

I've owned by FWD LE BZ4X for 3 years now and am completely sold on EV's. This vehicle is very spacious, especially for passengers and is very comfortable to drive. If the RAV4 was an EV, this would be it. In 47,000 km of driving, I have only had minor issues (both rear LED turn signals burned out on separate occasions). I live in a cold climate so I love the car most of the year. When it's warm, above 10C degrees, amazing vehicle. Below that, range suffers drastically. Though most EV's suffer from range loss when it gets cold, the BZ is far worse as it's impossible to fast charge. Toyota was NOT transparent about the vehicle lacking battery pre-conditioning. In Summer, I can get over 100 kw when fast charging. Winter charging gets about 35 kw max which means it will take hours to fully charge. Buy used only if you live in a warm climate, can charge at home and are getting an amazing deal. Resale prices for this one are very low.