DEROIT — In the midst of another Michigan snowstorm, I slid my 2026 550-horsepower Dodge Charger onto Woodard Avenue, toggled WET/SNOW mode and churned toward Huntington Place for the Detroit Auto Show, the adaptive-cruise control system helping maintain distance to traffic ahead.

Payne, have you gone mad? Driving a Charger muscle car in the snow?

Reset everything you know about the Charger. The 2025 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year picked up 2026 North American Car of the Year to open the Detroit Auto Show, and earned its praise as I flogged it all over town during show week.

All hail the new King of the Hot Hatches, the all-wheel-drive 2026 Dodge Charger Sixpack.

Hot hatches, of course, are my favorite auto segment. Fun, utilitarian and affordable (more on that later), they are the best all-around vehicles in the industry. I owned the OG — the 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI (aka, Golf GTI) — and have worshipped at the hot hatch altar ever since. My passion has even rubbed off on my sons, who own a modern Golf GTI and Mazda 3 Turbo. Traditionally, the class has been ruled by compact cars, from the $30K Honda Civic Si to the $55K Acura Integra Type S.

Now the Charger Sixpack stretches the boundaries of hot hatch class with a full-size $50K coupe and sedan. Oh, joy.

With all-wheel drive, the Dodge delivers where the front-wheel-drive Integra Type S falls short. The Dodge matches the all-season fun of the reigning King of the Hot Hatches — the sensational, $51K VW Golf R — but with more rear legroom and jaw-dropping good looks.

If Kylie Jenner is reincarnated as a car, she’ll come back a Charger.

Discarded to the ash heap of history by draconian government emissions mandates in 2023, the gas-fired Charger has been reborn for the 2026 model year. Maybe they should have called it the Dodge Phoenix. This hellion is not just the Woodward Dream Cruise-ing, head-turning, tire-smoking muscle car of old — it is something much, much more.

Let me count the ways.

You’re right. The last-gen Charger was diabolical in the snow — or in the rain for that matter. Based on an ancient rear-wheel-drive chassis, the V8-powered beast was an earth-pawing laughfest on dry asphalt. But you had to drive it on eggshells once there was precipitation in the air. Oh, I had some lurid moments.

Toward the end of its life, the last-gen Charger birthed an AWD V-6, which was a start. But with the smooth, turbocharged inline-6 cylinder Hurricane mill, the AWD Charger is fully realized.

At a stoplight on Telegraph Road before the blizzard, I engaged launch control just as I would a Porsche Cayman. Left-foot brake in, right-foot throttle in. Wait for the revs to stabilize at 3,000 RPM. Release the Kraken.

The beast exploded forward without hesitation, the AWD beautifully translating 531-pound-feet of torque to the road with poise while the eight-speed transmission fired off buttery shifts. WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

Did I say fully-realized? The Charger will soon come with a spine-tingling Eightpack, which will also benefit from AWD. Can’t wait. But make my Charger a Sixpack.

Payne, have you gone insane? Recommending a Charger muscle car six-banger?

Not insane. With its remade STLA Large platform and suspension, the Charger is no longer a one-trick, drag-strip pony. This rodeo horse wants to run the barrel course, too — and it’ll likely rotate better with the lighter six-cylinder up front (to be fair, I’ll wait for the V-8 to render final judgment).

Through the lake-road twisties of Oakland Country, Charger Sixpack was actually fun. Not an adjective I would have used with the ol’ Charger. More like hair-raising. Teeth-gritting. Knuckle-whitening, maybe. Not fun. Sure, the Sixpack still weighs (cough) 4,800 pounds, but it’s manageable. The Sixpack is fun, fun, fun. Like a hot hatch.

And like a hot hatch, it was utilitarian when I needed it.

For an airport run, I raised its huge rear hatch and shoveled in two suitcase and a laptop bag. Plenty of room to spare. The rear seats easily swallowed my 6’5"-inch legs. And the interior design? As gorgeous as the exterior. Mrs. Payne approved.

My top-line Scat Pack Plus tester featured a hoodless instrument display and head-up display paired with crisp, horizontal dash lines. Pistol grip shifter, bolstered seats, panoramic sunroof, 168-color adjustable ambient lights (my wife likes the blue). Standard 12.3-inch digital driver display, adaptive cruise control, wireless charger and microwave (kidding about that last one). Not bad for $67K (or $57k for the standard Scat).

Payne, $67K for a hot hatch? You call that affordable?

Fair question. The king does have rich tastes. But so do the smaller, compact, front-wheel-drive $55K Integra Type S and all-wheel-drive VW Golf R. Charger’s rich taste gets you a full-size car with substantially more cargo room. All-wheel drive (which the Integra doesn’t have). Rear-seat room (which the Golf R is shy of). The Integra is only available in a manual, the Golf R automatic only like Charger. But the Charger packs two more cylinders over its turbo-4 brothers.

VROOOM!

One hundred more horsepower.

GRRRR!

And did I mention Kylie Jenner hips?

The interior is the icing on the cake. Not just the lovely design but outstanding ergonomics (check out the volume and station control buttons on the back of the steering wheel) and that head-up display, right out of a BMW M-class.

In the twisties, I toggled SPORT mode with the handy, Porsche-like MODE selector on the steering wheel and knocked the pistol shifter into manual mode. The head-up display shows a horizontal RPM bar just like a modern race car — so that I could shift gears with the steering-wheel paddles at redline without taking my eyes off the road. Genius.

Like a $82K BMW 5-series M-Sport costing 15 grand more. But the Bimmer isn’t a hatchback, and isn’t as handsome. Call Charger the upper end of the affordable hot hatch segment.

By week’s end, I couldn’t wait to get into my salt-caked Dodge each morning. Launch control. SPORT mode with rear-drive-only for drifting. Endless interior color choices. Configurable instrument display.

It’s good to hang out with the king.

2026 Dodge Charger

Vehicle type: All-wheel drive, five-passenger coupe and sedan

Price: Base $51,990, including $1,995 destination charge ($67,360 Scat Plus coupe with Customer Preferred Package as tested)

Powerplant: 3.0-liter, twin-turbo inline-6 cylinder

Power: 420 horsepower, 468 pound-feet torque (R/T); 550 horsepower, 531 pound-feet torque (Scat Pack)

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 3.9 seconds (Scat Pack, mfr.); top speed, 177 mph (Scat Pack)

Weight: 4,815 pounds

Range: EPA est. mpg, 16 city/26 highway/20 combined (Scat Pack); 91 octane fuel required

Report card

Highs: King Hot Hatch; AWD agility in the snow

Lows: Porky; gets pricey

Overall: 4 stars

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