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There is a stretch of the Rickenbacker Causeway where, on a clear night with the windows down, you can still hear the ghosts of Hemis past rumbling toward Key Biscayne.
For a minute there, it looked like those ghosts were all Dodge had left. The Charger got killed off in 2023, then resurrected as an electric two-door nobody wanted.
The true 2026 Charger is back as a proper four-door sedan, gas in the tank, and — this is the part that took some getting used to — no V8 anywhere in sight. In its place is a twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six that Dodge calls the “Sixpack,” making 420 horsepower in the standard-output tune you get on the R/T and R/T Plus trims.
That is more horses than the old Hemi R/T had, and it comes packaged with an eight-speed automatic and standard all-wheel drive, complete with a true rear-wheel-drive mode for when you want to remember what a Charger used to feel like doing a burnout.
I will admit the six-cylinder news landed a little like finding out your favorite Cuban sandwich spot switched to a baguette. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Dodge built its whole identity on the low, thunderous burble of a big American V8, and now it is asking muscle car loyalists to get excited about forced induction and a smaller displacement number.
But drive it, and the skepticism mostly evaporates. The power comes on hard and linear, and independent testing has clocked the R/T Plus at 4.7 seconds to 60 and a 13-second quarter mile – numbers that would have embarrassed plenty of Hemi Chargers not too long ago.
The R/T Plus trim is where this car starts making real sense for buyers who want more than the stripped-down base R/T. Step up to Plus and you get a power-adjustable steering column, a head-up display, wireless phone charging, a heated steering wheel with paddle shifters, a 16-inch digital gauge cluster, and a 12.3-inch Uconnect 5 touchscreen with navigation. There is a 360-degree camera system too, which matters more than you would think, because this is not a small car anymore. It’ is closer to a land yacht with a six-cylinder heart, and Coral Gables valets are going to need extra room to work with.
Pricing starts around $51,995 for the base R/T, with the Plus trim and its options pushing well past $60,000 once you start adding packages.
Now factor in additional features like the 18-speaker Alpine sound system that Miami’s car culture absolutely will demand and you are looking at north of $65,000 for a Dodge sedan, which is a sentence that would have sounded insane a decade ago. But this is 2026, and everything costs more than it should, from stone crab claws to Uconnect infotainment upgrades.
What Dodge got right is the shape. The design channels the Charger’s muscle-car heritage without tipping into costume territory. It looks like the car it is supposed to be, not a cosplay of one. And there still is a Scat Pack version waiting for the people who want 550 horsepower instead of 420, which tells you Dodge hasn’t fully abandoned the idea that some of its customers just want crazy power above all else.
For my money, the 2026 Dodge Charger R/T Plus is back in a big way. Give it a spin and tell me if you agree.
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