The Dodge Challenger is a model whose recent to-do list has included becoming lighter, tauter, smarter, more user friendly, more high tech, and easier on the eyes. Updates for 2015 have aimed to maintain Challenger’s persuasive position in the face of increased heat from Ford and Chevrolet, while advancing the machine’s muscle-car feel on all fronts.

And it’s a true muscle-car feel: on offer from the only throw-back model from the big three that still feels, in a charming number of ways, like an old-school hot-rod. Your writer came into existence decades after the muscle-car era, though numerous friends older than I own new Challengers because, they say, the styling and feel most closely remind them of the old ones.

Challenger is a big-guy coupe. Seats and door openings are big-guy friendly, trunk capacity rivals family sedans, and drivers sit behind a mile of dashboard, and another mile of hood ahead of that. Rear seats are comfortable once settled into, and even the driving position seems fine-tuned for relaxed cruising with room to spare. If you’re so inclined, Challenger encourages sitting back, one-handing the steering wheel, and feasting on a pail of deep-fried poultry. The roofline is still low, and the windows are still narrow, but the spacious feel and coupe-ish outward view remain alive and well.

The visible parts of the cabin are all new, with a slick and high-tech interface in the instrument cluster, and another in the centre stack, bringing the on-board infotainment in line with other Chrysler products. New textures and trim are flaunted, and the super-slick UConnect infotainment system takes centre stage, providing easy navigation between hundreds of functions without causing frustration and getting users Russian-level angry.

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