Although the pillars are on the wide side, you sit far enough away from the windshield to avoid forward blind spots. With the seat positioned low to the glass line, you can see most of the hood. The view to the rear is fairly good, too, because the side glass goes well back and the rear window's as big as the mirror view. However, the wide rear pillars block your view when backing out of parking spots. We'd prefer wider rearview mirrors to show more traffic behind and to the sides. Here, the Mustang has it over the Challenger.
A manual tilt/telescope steering column allows plenty of adjustment and a view of the instruments but its overly generous diameter is more appropriate for a small power yacht than a sporty car. The fingertip button arrangement is good.
Lights and the trunk release are to the left on the dash, and the single stalk on the left shows evidence of Dodge's old relationship with Mercedes: It has auto-blink signals (one touch gives 3 blinks) and high beams/flash-to-pass, plus wash/wipe controls that require you to take your hand off the wheel to activate them. Cruise control is on a smaller stalk to lower right.
Gauges include fuel on the left, which descends progressively more quickly as the tank is consumed, tachometer, speedometer (140, 160, 180 mph on SE, R/T, SRT8 respectively) and numbered coolant temperature. On the SRT8 these are light-faced with dark numbers and blue-green illumination that matches the various digital displays.
Standard on SRT8 and available on R/T is a message center in the tachometer that does the display work for 128 functions from radio station to performance data; you can do your own 0-60, 1/8-mile, ΒΌ-mile, braking distance and lateral acceleration. It does fuel economy, too, but you don't need that reminder.
Also available on some models is keyless go, a no-ignition-switch setup that uses a simple pushbutton to start the car. However, unlike every other similar system we've tried the Challenger does not have a lock/unlock touch surface outside, so you still have to use the key remote to lock or unlock the doors, essentially defeating any convenience aspect.
Below the center vents is the audio/navigation syste Next Page