Dodge is shifting (not literally, as in gears, mind you) into an entirely new era with its Charger Daytona. As the brand creeps closer to production and release of the new EV musclecar, Dodge wants fans to get excited. And so, it dropped a new clip of the car driving through a tunnel with its Fratzonic “exhaust” on display. Mopar fans are freaking out over it but it’s probably not the way Dodge hoped they would.
We’ve covered the Fratzonic exhaust in depth earlier this year. In short, it’s a series of technologies that come together to make the new all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona sound and even feel less like a battery and motors are doing the work and more like a muscle car with a combustion engine sending power to the wheels.
Frankly, the new clip showing the system roar (if we can call it that) through a tunnel isn’t even all that terrible. Does it sound like a genuine HEMI? Not really but the fact that it sort of sounds like a performance combustion engine at all is noteworthy.
Unquestionably, a lot of engineering, time, dedication, and other resources went into designing this system. It’s unique among the electric vehicles out there that offer some sort of augmented sound experience too. Does it appear as though hardcore Mopar fans care about any of that?
Nope.
These three might not even be the most brutal comments either. Others say things like “So i checked multiple times if my speaker is death [sic], even with the headphones i hear nothing???? a mowing machine is louder.” The message from fans to Dodge seems clear, this wasn’t what the market desired.
The comments are so plentiful that we could fill this entire post just with things people are saying about how unhappy they are with this clip and the direction that the manufacturer is going. Sadly for Dodge, it appears to have brought this on itself with ads that link the brand exclusively to gas-burnin’ he-man engine power, like this one:
For well over a decade, this brand has marketed itself as a fuel-swilling power-hungry muscle car maker. What other brand teamed up with stars like Vin Diesel and Bill Goldberg to promote high-horsepower low-mpg vehicles in the same way? None.
Even when Dodge finally decided to switch gears (again, not literally, you cannot have a manual transmission in a Dodge anymore) it tried to lean into the idea that muscle was still on the menu. In a lengthy ad that ended up being more awkward than inspiring, former CEO Tim Kuniskis prides his team on finding the loopholes to keep making muscle cars despite electrification.
Essentially, Dodge fed its fans years and years of counter-culture machismo only to ultimately cave to the electrification wave faster than rivals at Ford and Chevrolet.
Don’t forget that both of those other brands still make high-horsepower V8 supercars and sports cars. Will Dodge recover its reputation among die-hards or will it have to build a new position with a new reputation? There are still tens of thousands of people who liked the post, versus the people who took the time to be upset online, so perhaps there is a market. Otherwise, what’s the point of Dodge?
End fake engine sounds.
It just doesn’t bother me. If I found it offensive I would just turn it off. Problem solved. BTW, it sounds pretty good.
well, personally I would leave it off except for situations like car shows – but I have a long time passion for British sports cars and I have spent a lot of money getting them vroomy exhaust systems, so I understand the concept completely. There have, however. been a lot of trips in MGs and the like where I wished I could turn the darn thing down for awhile.
Those muscle car fans are right, that fake sound is dumb. I don’t want fake engine sounds in my EV, and I don’t want fake (or even real) engine noise pumped into the cabin of my ICE vehicle either. They sound like they sound, no need for anything else.
This reminds me of people who set their cell phone ring tone to mimic the old Bell telephones of my youth.
When I was a kid, my dad had a 12″ LP record that was nothing but sound recordings at a drag strip. I used to listen to it on the regular and it was pretty worn out. That sounded better than this AND had more purpose in the universe…. somehow.
My uncle had an LP of train sounds. When his neighbors in the trailer park were annoying him he’d put in his custom fit earplugs and crank it.
He particularly liked that one because it could stretch his Klipshorns range all the way down.
My dad had an Little Richard 8-track he would blare out the windows when the neighbor kids were listening to rap music in the 80’s
Good. If the typical people who bought the Hemis hate it enough to not buy them, then I won’t have to listen to them blaring up and down the streets at all times of the night and I say that as someone who lives off a cul-de-sac surrounded by woods.
This is what happens, though, when a company markets an image as much as a product to a specific demographic that will either age out to not be replaced in large numbers by following generations who are attracted to that image (Harley) or, as in this case, left in a difficult situation when the market itself changes due to outside forces and adaptation means abandoning much of what that image was based on. Now they have to get new people, but their poor reputation for reliability and craftsmanship is going to keep some people back and the stink of association to antisocial people within that former demographic and insurance costs still lingers. At least, though, in a segment devoid of personality and style, they still could have a chance to pull people looking for something with at least some personality. Problem here is that there are still ICE alternatives (even their own).
Stop wasting time on this nonsense and give Dodge fans what they all really want.
Bring back the Grand Caravan, you cowards!
You can still get a Grand Caravan in Canada, on a technicality: It has a Chrysler badge, and it’s just a Pacifica with less stuff.
Dodge is dead with the death of the hemi.
The only selling factor was the sound the hemi made. They had enough problems making gas cars, I wouldn’t trust them with electronics and electric cars.
In my opinion, Dodge is among the walking dead. Sound choices aside, this will be a huge cost center replacing a former profit machine that was the old Challenger/Charger line.
On the sound, I guess that I just don’t get it… ::shrug::
A big part of Dodge’s brand legacy was trucks. And that goes right back to the 1910s
And thus, if the dipshits at Stellantis want to revive Dodge, they should put the vehicles under Ram back under Dodge.
Splitting out Ram from Dodge was one of the dumber things Mergio Sarchionne did.
And I don’t see why they couldn’t keep at least one variant of the Hemi around to keep the traditionalists happy.
In my view, they would have been wise to make an updated and up-sized version of the 6.4L Hemi to compete with the Ford 6.8/7.3L V8 in both the Charger as well as in trucks.
But I think the root issue is the people sitting at the top in Europe don’t really understand the main stream North American vehicle market.
The Mercedes side of DaimlerChrysler had the same problem.
The funny thing is that, in spite of the change existing for over a decade, I’ve never met a single person who doesn’t call it a Dodge Ram. Hell, one of the Ram dealers where I live is actually called “Dodge City.”
Hell, *I* still call it a Dodge Ram. I had actually completely forgotten they split.
Sergio did the split in a panic move, anticipating that should things go south very quickly that he could sell off RAM and keep Jeep. The problem was that with the way financials work, the per division losses were so much lower that he kept RAM a separate brand even after 2015. And the longer the separation continues the more damage it does, due to the trio of CAFE standards, divergence of resources and engineering, and brand recognition.
Regardless of what the money says short term, long term the correct decision is to fold RAM back into Dodge. Dodge is dangling from RAM by a thread, while RAM is speeding headlong into the giant concrete median that is the 2030 CAFE targets. Without the EV Charger and the rumoured EV hatchback coming RAM will absolutely not meet fleet targets and will spend enough money buying credits to offset what it makes selling the trucks.
Wow, that sounds awful.
I don’t get it. You have an entirely new push for performance EVs and you’re trying to make them sound like ICE vehicles? If you’re going to put speakers on them, make them sound futuristic. It seems like a weird holdover from the death of their performance sedans. They have such a great opportunity to make a unique, cool sound to go with their supposedly unique, cool new electric muscle cars.
Double related post: Futuristic car noises AND a bmw i3!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgSZ8sjDgU
I can see the reasoning behind piping fake engine noise into the interior. I’m not sure I like it, but I can understand it. Piping fake engine noise to the exterior? Anti-social. One of the things I’m looking forward to with electrification is the lack of fart can exhausts and straight piped trucks driving past my house at 6 AM.
I was all prepared to argue with you but, you’re right….
Dodge no longer has a reason to exist. The only interesting thing done by Dodge since the Viper is these new era muscle cars. How they think there is an overlap in a market that will buy a Demon and the market that will by and EV is beyond me. I think that has to be the smallest market cross section known to man. EVs are the future, but this is the same level of stupid as GM using the Hummer name for an EV.
Ehhh… I think you’re wrong. EVs can be fun. So far they’ve either been commutors, or performance oriented, but they haven’t really scratched that brutish musclecar itch yet. If anyone can make an unrefined EV musclecar, it’s dodge.
I agree with you that they can be fun, but I don’t think most of these are used as designed. I doubt many Demons have ever went down a drag strip. It is the machismo, the sound of the V8, the feeling of an old muscle car, with the convivences of a modern vehicle that people buy. If fun while driving was the reason people bought these cars, there are a whole lot of other options that do a better job. In most cases, I think people buy the swagger, not the car.
I love a good exhaust note, and some V8’s just sing. But, this synthetic exhaust sound isn’t bad. It’s more normal than what I remember in the previews. Oddly, I kind of want it to sound more fake. I’d take Tie Fighter or Jetsons any day of the week, but I think Audi E-Tron hands down makes the best EV sound. My neighbor has one, and it sounds like the future. Its bright yet deep sounding. Easily heard but not stupid loud. It sounds like a nice spaceship. A stark contrast to some of the answers from Toyota and Hyundai/kia that I find sound like the digital version of a dragging brake caliper.
TIE fighter scream is the answer. Every time I hear that weird “heavenly” sound from the Honda hybrids backing up, I wonder if aliens finally found Earth and have come to probe me.
An imitation will always be an imitation. Why not let people choose? Tie fighter would be a great choice. I would also be happy with the sound the Jetsons car made. How about the swoosh that Kitt made in Knight Rider?
It’s just heritage. The prototype 1914 Dodge Brother’s cars had a mechanism to replicate the sound of a horse galloping. Levers on the dash could be pulled to neigh, snort, or drop dookie on demand. Social media posts in the day presented it echoing through a covered bridge as a Model T owner looked on with something on his shoe.
The suckers actually thought that it was about the sound! ???? How clueless does your market research team have to be?
Yeah riding the last 20 years on “its a Hemi” and then the rising roar of Hellcats and Demons approaches a fevered pitch then…this. Think they should’ve come out with the straight 6 first, and showed it sounding ok and doing burnouts and what not, then done the EV, since they’re doing both.
Also Hyundai is pulling this gimmick with the Ioniq 5 N, but the Ioniq 5, or even most Hyundais were never really muscle cars(maybe Tiburon?) so not really apples to apples.
I’d rather just blast Dokken or Cinderella.
I wasn’t going to comment on this, but I came Back for the Attack
Stellantis would only allow this In My Dreams as I cruise down Gypsy Road.
Who knew that Dodge Breaking the Chains of a V8 would throw them this far Into the Fire?
I might be Alone Again, but You Don’t Know What You’ve Got (till it’s gone).
If any of you are like me and have kids who are late teens to mid 20s and are into cars, you know they didn’t grow up wrenching on a clapped our Chevelle in their driveway (for the most part). They grew up playing Forza or the like and working on/tuning small 4-cylinder engines. I have no doubt my kids would not be fazed at all by the “V8” sounds this thing makes and would love the style and performance and the range of other sounds it could potentially make. Their relationship to the look, feel and smell of cars is different from ours.
Dodge is looking to the future enthusiast with this.
They should just roll with it and make the motor as loud as possible. I’m talking extreme whine through the range. Although, as a mopar, it’ll probably end up doing that anyway.
Anyone who cries about Hemi’s and four door Chargers were never Mopar fans anyways, and they only bought one product at most in their lifetimes.
I find it funny though.
Simple solve is to give drivers a few options to choose from… fake engine is there, but also include “Jetsons spaceship”, “TIE Fighter” and “only what NTSB requires”
Good call on the tie fighter sound. I forgot about that one
And ‘Chinook turbines spooling up’ for fighting traffic exiting a music festival
Fake exhaust sounds are horrible. If they want to build drivable refrigerators then just own it and dont pull this bullshit. Make sound like the jetsons mobile, or a dyson vacuume, or some other electric appliance
*Hitachi Magic Wand sounds*
Seriously LOL’ing..