Several months ago, we told you why we thought the Dodge Charger R/T AWD was the best all-round muscle car in our opinion. Well now with the cold winter weather here, we figured we would give you all an update on our long-term 2014 Dodge Charger R/T Plus AWD Sport.
This past month, we have racked up well over 1,200+ miles (1,930+ kilometers) on our Charger R/T AWD Sport doing events we have covered here on MoparInsiders.com. The car didn’t travel too far from home when we went to the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) for the launch of the new 2019 Ram Heavy Duty lineup, but it did shuttle us to Chicago for the Chicago Auto Show and across the border to Toronto, Ontario for the Canadian International Auto Show.
With about 58,000 miles (93,340 kilometers) on the clock, we did experience our first major issue with the car. The check engine light came on, and our oil pressure would consistently read 100psi. It didn’t matter if the car was doing a cold start, running for long distances or traveling only a few miles from home. The car ran fine with the engine light on. However with the engine light on, the car’s remote start would turn off upon start-up with the indicator coming on. This proved to be an issue with us wanting to warm the car up in the cold Michigan weather.
We ended up taking the car to Parkway Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Clinton Twp, Michigan for service in which they found out it was a bad oil pressure sensor (which was obvious by our indication). The service department had the parts in-stock and returned the car to us in about 5 hours. The total of the bill was about $150.00 USD, and they also did a software calibration from a past recall.
On our way to Chicago, the 5.7-liter HEMI V8 got about 29 mpg (8.111 l/100km), not too shabby for a full-size V8 sedan. On the way back to Metro Detroit, we ran into intense wind across the state of Michigan with gust up to 45mph winds along with showers of mixed rain and sleet. The car had no issues handling in the wind, and we made it home safely.
The following week, we took the car in for its routine 3,000 mile (4,828 kilometer) oil change. Even though the oil change indication had yet to come up in the Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC), we always change the oil around that mileage religiously. Also gave us time to check our Speedlogix oil catch can and empty that out, before our trip to Toronto. We also took off our Mopar cold air intake (CAI) which is part of our Scat Pack Stage 1 performance kit and gave it a healthy cleaning as well.
After crossing the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan on our way to Toronto, we encounter near white-out conditions at several spots on the 402 outside London, Ontario. We were delayed when traffic came to a halt, because of a multiple chain reaction accident involving several semi-trucks and passenger vehicles. The terrible road conditions put the Charger’s all-wheel-drive system to the test and the car again performed flawlessly even though we were exhausted driving to our hotel.
During our trip to Toronto, Ontario, we had to of course check out the birthplace of our Charger at the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Brampton Assembly Plant. While we did top off our tank in the suburbs of Toronto, the Charger R/T AWD Sport only used about 3/8th of a tank of gas from Metro Detroit to the Toronto suburbs. A lot of this was because of the extra caution we used driving slower on the highway in the dangerous winter weather.
On the return trip, the Charger R/T AWD Sport felt at home on the highway for long distances. The R/T Sport AWD suspension soaks up bumps, while in regular mode the car acts like the perfect boulevard cruiser. We were lucky to get some beautiful blue skies and sunny weather on our way back to the states. The 5.7-liter HEMI sipped on the gas getting about 30.9 mpg (7.588 l/100km) on the return trip. This was in part to the highway speeds in Ontario being 100 kph (62mph). But never-the-less we weren’t going to complain.
So while it’s been a busy month for the 2014 Dodge Charger R/T Plus AWD Sport, she still is tending to our daily-driver routines. This past month has even proven more to us, that the Dodge Charger R/T AWD is still the best all-around muscle car. Are you listening Dodge? You need to bring this car back!
