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The interior harkens back to the muscle car era in that many muscle cars were born of generic sedans and had similar interiors, and so too does the Challenger mimic recent Dodge and Chrysler sedans. It appears functional and well put together, yet has the least emotional impact of any aspect of the car.To preserve the ensconced feeling the headliner is a dark material; in fact almost everything is dark. On the SRT8 we tested the monotony is broken with chrome highlights on door handles, control knobs and gauge bezels, light-faced instruments, semi-glossy carbon-fiber-look center panel trim, a big chrome band around the shifter that bounced sun glare all over, and dark orange leather stripes across the front seat backrests. Everything else inside, seats, carpet, trim, was dark. While a race-inspired interior is one of the SRT division's major criteria, the primary inspiration here is manifested in the front seats. The contrast-stitched, heavily bolstered buckets in the SRT8 with their leather outers and velour inserts do an excellent job of keeping you in place. However, unlike many so-called sport seats these do not feel overly firm: The driver lumbar can tune out some squish in the backrest. Nor are they confining: Big bodies are more prone to be comfortable here than in a BMW or Infiniti sport seat. Front-seat headrests are adjustable for height only and the seatbelt loop goes with it to avoid belt chafing. 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, ¼-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
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