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?
Still disappointed that they are not using a milk jug and rope to simulate exhaust noise.
I dont care what kind of noise it makes. The last thing the market needs is another $80,000 electric car. Going as far back as the early 60s, Dodge was always the king of cheap cars. Even the original Road Runners and Chargers were very affordable when new. What they should do is create a good $25,000 electric car, call it the new Dart and sell a million of them. Otherwise, I predict Dodge is out of business before 2030.
I dunno man, the last car called Dart sold pretty terribly. It is crazy, but when you think about it, the best Dodge platform in the last 30-40 years has been a rebadged Mercedes platform. K-Cars saved Chrysler but they were FWD and kinda bland. I would love to see them make one more RWD V8 (with optional 6 cylinder) platform that could support a hybrid.
You’re 100% correct about the last Dart. However, it wasn’t a great car and had tons of competition from similar Ford and Chevy models. A $25,000 EV is what this country is waiting on. I don’t care what they call it. Perhaps it’s not possible to make an EV at that price, I don’t know. If not, then make it an ICE car. Right now, that category has been nearly abandoned unless you want a stripped down Maverick.
I’m imagining the sumo shout from ed edd n eddy as a horn is out?
No offense, but how is this an article? Was that your first time going on Instagram? Pretty much every Instagram comment section on anything, car related or not, is simply a bunch of 12 year olds being contrarians and spouting BS. It’s where internet trolling has gone to die.
Are the engine noises from ICE Dodges really that much less fake? If an engine makes a lot of noise but you are just at a stop light or doing burnouts, that is fake AF.
Obnoxious sounding Dodges (and Mustangs) are becoming ubiquitous. To be fair, I have a baby M that makes some fun pops/bangs if you get on it but, it can also purr like a kitten. Perhaps if the ICE Dodges had some amazing note like an Italian motor, I’d want to listen to that soundtrack all day and mourn it’s passing but, Detroit iron, overall, just sounds… LOUD.
This is Dodge’s own fault after going so hard into the “fuck off modern world” demographic. There was a time when performance models were just another trim level at Dodge, but since Mergio was so convinced full lineups were a thing of the past, every Mopar fan too young to have actually been around for the muscle car era and too old to remember how it actually was has been gaslighted into thinking Dodge=Hemi when that was never the case. I’m willing to bet far more slant-six Chargers got sold than Hemis.
Oh, and can we PLEASE lay off the whole “make EVs sound like Jetsons cars” thing? We will never have spacecars like George Jetson drove/flew. Deal with it.
WELL THERE’S NO NEED TO BE HURTFUL
I’m waiting for someone to hack it so it sounds like a 4 year old making engine sounds with his mouth. I think that is what it would take to end fake engine sounds.