A Full-Size Upgrade From Dodge CAR reviewers tend to have a blind spot when it comes to price. Money is a tricky issue, because what seems expensive to me might be cheap to someone else, and vice versa. But I'm having a hard time making even imaginary payments on some of the cars I've driven lately. I feel like a contestant on "The Price Is Right" who has no idea how much a gallon of milk costs - when did a Cadillac Escalade start setting you back $89,000? In the midst of the creeping price inflation that seems to afflict all cars, the Dodge Charger stands out as a notable bargain, the lone rear-wheel-drive sedan (along with its cousin, the Chrysler 300) that's priced comfortably below $30,000. Consider the base Charger SE. Add the optional 8-speed transmission ($1,000) and the sticker tallies $27,320. For that money, you've got a four-door car with the footprint of a BMW 7 Series for about $8,000 less than the cheapest 3 Series. And that basic Charger is no longer your mean rental-fleet special with a 2.7-liter V-6 and an interior sourced from the Acme Shiny Plastics Company. The entry-level motor is now a healthy 292-horsepower 3.6-liter V-6 which, when bolted to the ZF 8-speed transmission, returns a government-rated 31 miles per gallon on the highway (and a rather less impressive 19 m.p.g. in the city). And the Charger cabin, like the interiors of pretty much all recent Chrysler products, has received a comprehensive overhaul that brings it squarely within the bounds of respectability - and, dare I say, style. Call me a sucker for authenticity, but the optional zinc paddle shifters on the steering wheel are a small pleasure, an antidote to the fake wood that enthralls some foreign manufacturers. Toyota and Volkswagen, in particular, are heavily logging the faux forest. Likewise, the broad chunk of aluminum-looking material that surrounds the instrument cluster is actually aluminum. How novel. If the Charger's freshly tailored interior suffers a glaring aesthetic letdown, it's the Garmin navigation software that infects the dash's 8.4-inch touch screen with its hideous graphics. Audi is now overlaying Google Maps satellite images in its navigation displays; with the Charger's goofy graphics, you won't know whether to turn left or team up with your brother Luigi to rescue Princess Toadstool from the evil Bowser. That touch screen also controls the seat heaters, a fact I realized after about 20 minutes behind the wheel of a Charger R/T. I pushed a button on the console adorned with a heating and cooling icon, then sat wondering why my seat was still cold but my Diet Coke in the cupholder was getting warmer by the minute. While I appreciate heated drinks, I might suggest that the hard button would be better devoted to the human holder than the beverage holder. Those heated and cooled cup holders are standard on the R/T Plus, R/T Road & Track and R/T Max, as well as the SXT Plus, which is powered by the V-6. The Charger is almost like a pickup truck in terms of its seemingly endless variety of trim levels and equipment setups. With the V-6 alone, Dodge offers a rear-wheel-drive Charger with the 5-speed transmission, a rear-drive model with the 8-speed or an all-wheel-drive version with the 8-speed. The R/T pairs a 370-horsepower Hemi V-8 with a 5-speed automatic and either rear drive or all-wheel drive. Then there's the 470-horsepower SRT8, which is something else altogether. Within the basic Charger framework of four trim levels and seven total sublevels, there are also stand-alone packages to tempt and confuse. The Blacktop Package gives you a black car with black wheels, a look that's sure to endure the test of time. The Super Track Pak enlivens the R/T Road & Track with Goodyear Eagle F1 performance tires, high-performance shock absorbers and a few other things that you'd think would already be included on a car named "Charger R/T Road & Track." Other packages include upscale goods like an adaptive cruise control, a heated steering wheel, heated rear seats and blind-spot monitors. Essentially, you can have a Charger any way you want, so long as you don't want more than 5 speeds with your V-8. Depending on how you prioritize speed versus fuel economy, the $30,820 R/T might be the sweet spot of the lineup. The 5.7-liter V-8 uses cylinder deactivation often and to good effect, netting a highway rating of 25 m.p.g. The 16 m.p.g. city rating reflects the fact that this is, after all, a big hunk o" car to move off the line. While the 8-speed V-6 version makes more sense intellectually, a V-8 soundtrack seems to fit the Charger's persona better. This is a full-size American sedan, the raw material for cop cars. If you could teleport a 1960s businessman to the driver's seat, he'd feel right at home while smoking, wearing a hat and making sexist H.R. decisions. This kind of car deserves to rumble. Which brings me to the only really polarizing element of the Charger package: its styling. Dodge dialed back the aggression from the bloodthirsty rage expressed by the previous generation, but this is still a car that projects a certain disgruntled worldview. The Charger would break your face for looking at it wrong, if it weren't out on parole and trying to keep its nose clean. The car's sophisticated ingredients - a four-wheel short-long-arm independent suspension, aluminum hood, elegant suspension tuning that smothers potholes but also allows some tail-out fun on a racetrack - are at odds with the simmering barbarism of its sheet metal. Like Larry the Cable Guy, the Charger is smarter than it looks. Yet a lot of people probably pass on the Charger simply because it comes across as a meathead. But others will buy it for the same reason, for the fact that it's the last of the mainstream rear-drive American performance sedans. Cars like the Mercury Marauder and Pontiac G8 came and went, but we still have the Charger, which has raised its game even without any direct competition. If you find yourself at an airport rental counter and spy a Charger on the lot, say yes to the full-size upgrade. You might find that beneath that surly countenance, there lies a pretty sweet car. INSIDE TRACK: An attainable respite from front-wheel-drive monotony.