At 467L the boot is big enough to swallow their too, though the shrouds that protect your luggage from the hinges eats into the space a lot. As a result, the Chevrolet Impala boasts 65L more room. My daughter delighted in the generous legroom, and the internal size of the Charger was deceptively large. It wasn’t until my daughter’s stuffed toy flew across to the other seat that I realized how much size there is back there. I reached back to get it for her (while stopped at a traffic light) and found I couldn’t actually reach the back seat. This is rare in a lot of the cars I test, and while SUVs pack bigger passenger volume numbers, a lot of that is in height, here, it’s all length.

The Charger is a substantial 1,900 kg of which only 100 kg can be attributed to the AWD system. Most of it is just largess. Dodge doesn’t visually shrink their cars, shirking that industry trend in favour of raw, unbridled size. The bonnet is long, as is the trunk lid, the fenders are wide. Even the polarising coke-bottle indent in the side of the car adds to its visual scale. Personally, I’m not a fan of that design detail, though I know many are.

The 19-inch wheels fitted to this tester don’t quite fill the wheel arches properly either and that further exaggerates the Charger’s bulk.

There are advantages though: the heft and long wheelbase combine to create a relaxed and gentle ride even over rough pavement, the car soaking up the bumps in the road. The suspension is well damped, never pogoing, always returning to its normal setting quickly and without fuss.

And yet the Charger still maintains some athleticism. Not enough, frankly to justify the ultra-nimble sounding “SXT Rallye” naming, but enough to make the Charger one of the more enjoyable large sedans to drive. It will turn in fast, hold a line cleanly and provide good feedback through the wheel. Sweeping corners are admittedly more fun than tight, sharp things, but again, this isn’t a rally car. It’s a large sedan.

The RWD-based driveline (rather than FWD) helps inject that fun too. In fact, on the highways the Charger decouples the front axles, and in most full-throttle applications most of your torque and power is arriving into the world via the rear tires. This is fun for a number of reasons.

It also sets the Charger apart in the US and Japan-heavy family sedan market. It’s the only RWD mainstream sedan we see here, with the soon-to-be-discontinued Chevrolet SS only available in the USA. Indeed, when Australian plants shut down production of the SS (AKA Holden Commodore) and the Ford Falcon in 2017 there basically won’t be any RWD sedans left in the non-luxury market. Just this one and its stablemate the 300C.

This being Canada and all, a lot of people will be taking a look at adding AWD to the Charger though. I have strong thoughts about why you should not AWD all the things but some people prefer the grip and control afforded by AWD in Canadian conditions over going sideways.

But is it worth it? It costs an extra $1,800 to turn the $37,895 SXT into an AWD edition though curiously that jump is only $1,200 if you want to turn the base model SE into an AWD. Once you’ve selected AWD you get a $700 discount on the Premium Group package that includes brake assist, ventilated front seats, rear-seat armrest, illuminated rear cup holders, auto-dimming mirror, heated mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, GPS, power front seats, heated rear seats, lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, radio/driver seat/mirror memory settings, automatic highbeam, FWD collision with active braking, heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, UConnect 8.4-inch, 10-spaker Beats by Dre audio plus a power tilt/telescoping steering wheel. That package is $5,995 on RWD models and $5,295 here.

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