This isn't just the end of a single car model - it's the finale to an entire era of performance. Sure, there are still plenty of V8 cars on sale, but the 2023 Dodge Challenger is an icon, a true American muscle car, and no car like it may ever exist again. Both the Challenger and its four-door sibling, the Dodge Charger, are officially out of production as we know them, and a new breed of electric muscle car is waiting in the wings, possibly even with combustion power - but the V8 is gone.
Before retiring these historic nameplates as we know them, Dodge sent off the Challenger and Charger in style with seven Last Call special editions, each with a V8 engine and varying levels of unique touches. Though these cars are no longer rolling off the assembly line, we wanted to have one last drive in the iconic V8 muscle car that has defined the Dodge brand for 15 badass years. Dodge sent us the keys to an eye-searing green Challenger Swinger Edition for a week so we could say our final goodbyes. What a goodbye it was.
Exterior: An American Icon
It may be built in Canada, but the Dodge Challenger looks more American than a bald eagle eating a Big Mac. There's nothing tame about its design, especially done up in this Swinger Edition guise. The uninitiated might wonder why Dodge named a special edition after the act of partner swapping, but the name actually comes from a Dodge Dart model built from 1968 to 1972, and at that time, the word "swinger" was a symbol for hip, fashionable, and fun.
Dodge only built 2,000 Swinger Edition models, 1,000 of the Charger and 1,000 of the Challenger. Three colors were offered, including White Knuckle, F8 Green, and the outrageous shade of Sublime that was sprayed on our tester. You won't find any pineapples, pink flamingos, or color-coded loofahs on this Challenger, but each Swinger Edition gets a black stripe on the trunk, special 20-inch wheels painted in a color called Gold School, a gold grille badge, gold shaker intake, and gold Scat Pack badge. This special edition also gets the Widebody kit, which is an important option on any Charger or Challenger. It may not be our favorite name of the bunch, but the Swinger Edition is easily one of our favorite Last Call models along with the Charger Super Bee and the frankly insane Demon 170.
Interior: Old School Charm
Dodge did it's best to keep a 15-year-old car relevant to the very end, but this interior was really showing signs of its age. That's not to say there aren't plenty of things to like about it. Dodge's performance seats are some of the most comfortable we've ever tested with strong heating and ventilation that can burn your rear or eliminate back sweat with a few taps on the touchscreen.
Speaking of the touchscreen, it's a relatively small 8.4-inch unit running an older version of Dodge's Uconnect 4 software. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are present, but neither runs wirelessly. It also has a backup camera that looks like it came from the flip phone era, which is to be expected considering that this car originally came out around the same time as the first iPhone. Inputs from the screen aren't nearly as fast as the latest Uconnect 5, but it gets the job done for your multimedia needs.
The Swinger Edition gets a few special touches inside, including green switching, aluminum trim that looks like wood, white gauges, and a Swinger plaque under the passenger air vent.
Practicality: A Huge Coupe
Whoever said a two-door coupe can't be practical has clearly never been in a Dodge Challenger. Since the Challenger shares a platform with the four-door Charger and is less than an inch shorter, there's tons of space inside relative to other coupes. 33.1 inches of rear legroom is better than you'd find in most two-door cars that don't have a Spirt of Ecstasy hood ornament - you can actually fit three passengers in the back of a Challenger.
The trunk feels reminiscent of a Town Car, jutting from the back of the car to provide a gargantuan 16.2 cubic feet of trunk space. To put it into perspective, a Toyota Camry's trunk holds less, maxing out at 15.1 cubes. You can also fold the rear seats down to get more space, making the Challenger the king of two-door practicality.
Performance: Last Of Its Breed
Every Last Call model is powered by a V8 engine, but we believe the Swinger Edition gets the best one, Dodge's 6.4-liter Hemi V8. It may not have as much power as the Hellcat, but the Scat Pack motor doesn't emit that supercharger whine that gets tiresome after a while - just a good old-fashioned V8 rumble. The Hemi shucks out 485 horsepower and 475 lb-ft, numbers that highlight how perfectly capable this car is of lighting up the rear tires when asked to.
0-60 mph takes around 4.2 seconds with the optional eight-speed automatic transmission, or a bit slower with the six-speed Tremec manual. There are less powerful cars that can get to 60 mph more quickly, but they are lighter and more modern than the Challenger. Through the quarter-mile, it will run a respectable 12.4-second time. As you'd expect from a V8 muscle car, fuel economy is pretty atrocious at 14/23/17 mpg city/highway/combined - or just one mpg better on each cycle with the automatic.
Driving Impressions: Big And Brash
Driving a Dodge Challenger always reminds us of NFL linemen: they look like the biggest and slowest guys on a football field, but they'd beat the majority of the population in a 40-yard dash without breaking a sweat. That's how I'd describe the Challenger - a surprise athlete. There's no getting around the fact that this car weighs 4,223 pounds, but sticky Pirelli tires, a Widebody kit, and six-piston Brembo front brakes help the Challenger remain composed even when the road has a corner or two.
Is this the most composed sports car we've ever driven? Not by a long shot. But wrestling with a 485-hp V8 and a tough-as-nails Tremec manual transmission is its own kind of fun. All of the controls are heavy and provide the same satisfaction of bashing a nail down with your boot heel because a hammer wasn't available. You don't glide the ball shifter into the next gear, you slam it in there... the Swinger way.
Despite how it looks on the outside, the Challenger is capable of being a livable car, albeit with an ever-present V8 rumble. It's not too loud when you start it up, and unless you put it into Sport or Race Mode, the V8 can putter along with its gobs of torque without making a fuss. The suspension is even pretty compliant so long as you don't put it into the Track setting. Of course, when it's time to get rowdy, the Challenger deploys all 485 horses in the loudest manner possible, without compunction.
Not only do we prefer the sound of the Scat Pack motor to the Hellcat, but we are also partial to how it delivers power. The Scat Pack more readily deploys its V8 grunt without losing traction, something that is nearly impossible in a Hellcat. Launch Control helps manage the throttle for a fuss-less start, but you can also adjust the starting rpm if you prefer to make a smokey spectacle. There's also a line-lock mode that spins the rear tires to warm them up, just in case you don't know the proper procedure to do it manually. We have no doubts that Dodge will find a way to replicate (and surpass) this level of speed with an electric powertrain. But will the same lunacy carry over? That remains to be seen.
Pricing & Verdict: A Time Capsule
A conventional Challenger R/T Scat Pack could be had for $48,265, but the Swinger Edition adds pretty significantly to that price. The Swinger Package itself costs $5,590, but it requires the Widebody kit for an additional $5,995. With a few other extras like the Plus Package for $3,485, the Technology Group for $495, and navigation for $995, the total price of our tester came to $66,815, including a $1,595 destination charge and $1,000 gas guzzler tax. This all assumes that you can get a Dodge dealership to sell you one at MSRP because many of them have been marking up the Last Call editions.
With the Camaro also out of the picture, the Ford Mustang GT is the last of the V8 American sports cars left on the market. The Mustang, while great, doesn't offer the same practicality and original muscle car feel, in our opinion.
Dodge's electric replacement should have no issues beating the gas-powered ones in both speed and refinement, but maybe that was never the point of these cars. Maybe the point was lunacy for lunacy's sake, and to heck with how quickly you can lap a race track. When everything does inevitably go electric, we will look back nostalgically on cars like the Challenger and remember the fun time we had driving them.
It remains to be seen if Dodge can convince its loyal owners that an EV will provide the same thrills as their big V8s. We are excited but skeptical to see what Dodge can do, but it's nice to know that cars like the Swinger Edition will always be there on the used market to remind us of the old days.
