Menacing, sinister and pouncing. Three adjectives used by Dodge to describe the claimed muscle car heritage in the Avenger’s styling, a heritage most evident in haunches that rise out of its rear doors to flow into the wings, their original inspiration being the 1966 Dodge Charger.
In fact, the Avenger is much closer to resembling a shrunken version of today’s four-door Charger, which isn’t sold in the UK. Of course, hunched rear wings are suggestive of power unleashing through the rear wheels, but in this case they do no powering at all because the Avenger is front-wheel drive. Despite this conceit, its proportions work quite well, even if there’s too much front overhang.
The Avenger is, of course, primarily designed for the American market, where it will become vastly more common than it ever will in Europe. Yet its size and mechanical layout are pretty similar to your typical European Mondeo-class saloon or hatchback. The Dodge’s engines sit transversely to drive the front wheels, and it is suspended by MacPherson struts up front and a multi-link set-up at the rear, both ends mounted on subframes to improve road noise suppression.
In America you can have V6 petrols, but here we’re offered a 154bhp 2.0-litre petrol with five-speed manual gearbox, a 138bhp 2.0-litre VW turbodiesel with six-speed ’box and a 167bhp 2.4-litre petrol with a CVT auto. Mildly unusual engine line-up apart, this is a completely conventional car, its main points of difference being styling (good) and standard of finish (not good at all).
