2020 Subaru Legacy vs 2021 Dodge Charger

The 2020 Subaru Legacy presented a conundrum with its styling. While it was a handsome car, it struggled to stand out among competitors like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. The Legacy featured sharp angles and details, but its design felt smaller and less bold. The front end, in particular, appeared compact, making it easy to mistake for a smaller Subaru model. Despite its pragmatic sensibility, Subaru aimed to go mainstream with the Legacy, but the design fell short of making a strong impression.

Inside, the Legacy boasted a massive 11.6-inch touchscreen, but many features were buried within the digital interface, complicating simple tasks like adjusting climate controls. The base trim came well-equipped with features like remote keyless entry, Bluetooth connectivity, and Subaru EyeSight driver assistance. Higher trims added more amenities, such as heated seats, adaptive LED headlights, and a turbocharged engine in the Limited XT and Touring XT trims.

The 2021 Dodge Charger continued to be popular, thanks to its variety of models, including the top-tier SRT Hellcat Redeye. Dodge's strategy of minimal differentiation between models gave it an exclusive appeal. The Charger was available in regular and widebody formats, with the latter offering a more athletic stance. The car featured numerous tire, wheel, brake, and exterior color options, with 13 paint jobs available. Standard features included halogen projector headlights with LED accents, while higher trims offered HID projector lights and fog lamps.

The Charger's interior had been updated over the years but still lacked some comfort and convenience features. The fit and finish improved, but the gauge cluster and climate controls revealed the car's age. The Charger had a fair amount of hard plastic and rubberized surfaces, making it closer to the utilitarian Jeep Wrangler than the plush Ram 1500. Cloth seats were standard, with Nappa leather available on higher trims. The car offered either a six-way or eight-way power-adjustable driver's seat, with heated and ventilated seats available on more expensive trims.

The 2020 Subaru Legacy offered a 2.5-liter boxer 4-cylinder engine in its base, Premium, Sport, and Limited trims, producing 182 horsepower and 176 pound-feet of torque. This engine was paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and standard all-wheel drive. The Legacy's powertrain was responsive, making it suitable for city driving, but it struggled to reach highway speeds without significant noise. A more powerful 2.4-liter turbocharged engine was available in the Limited XT and Touring XT trims, delivering 260 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque.

The Legacy's chassis provided precise cornering and refined ride quality, making it a pleasure to drive. However, the auto stop-start system, designed to conserve fuel, was jarring and required multiple steps to disable. The base engine achieved fuel economy of 27 mpg city, 35 highway, and 30 combined, while the turbocharged engine dropped to 24 city, 32 highway, and 27 combined.

The 2021 Dodge Charger excelled in performance, offering a range of engines. The SXT, SXT AWD, GT, and GT AWD models featured a 3.6-liter V6 engine with 300 horsepower and 264 pound-feet of torque. The R/T trim had a 5.7-liter HEMI V8, producing 370 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque, with a 1,000-pound towing capacity. The Charger Scat Pack models boasted a 6.4-liter HEMI V8, delivering 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque.

The SRT Hellcat featured a supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V8 with 717 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, while the SRT Hellcat Redeye had a high-output version of the same engine, producing 797 horsepower and 707 pound-feet of torque. The Charger offered smooth upshifts and manageable power, even in its highest performance variant. Fuel economy varied, with the SRT Hellcat Redeye achieving 12 mpg city, 21 highway, and 15 combined.

The 2020 Subaru Legacy had solid trunk space for its class at 15.1 cubic feet, though it couldn't compete with crossovers. The backseat offered impressive head- and legroom, accommodating taller passengers comfortably. The front seats were supportive, with deep door pockets for storage. However, the center stack's tray was small, making it difficult to plug in USB cables.

The 2021 Dodge Charger functioned well as a family car, balancing speed and power with a spacious back seat and comfortable accommodations. The instrument cluster varied by model, with different speedometer ranges. The steering wheel provided easy access to in-car functions, and paddle shifters were available on all but the base model. The Charger had a 60/40 split-folding rear seat, expanding the trunk's already spacious capacity.

The 2020 Subaru Legacy featured an 11.6-inch touchscreen with the Starlink infotainment system. However, many basic functions required multiple steps, making it frustrating to use. The system's portrait orientation scrunched Apple CarPlay, and the base trim's dual-screen setup had similar issues. While the system had large, easy-to-read icons and no lag, it was overshadowed by its complexity.

The 2021 Dodge Charger came with standard features like push-button start, a rearview camera, and a 7-inch infotainment touchscreen. Available features included a sunroof, dual-zone automatic climate control, an 8.4-inch touchscreen, and premium audio systems. The Uconnect infotainment system was easy to navigate, but some functions were buried in menus. The latest version of Uconnect, available in other Dodge models, addressed these issues with a larger screen.

The 2020 Subaru Legacy came standard with Subaru's EyeSight suite of driver-assistance features, including forward-collision warning, lane-departure warning, and adaptive cruise control. The system used a head-up light display for alerts and included a feature that alerted drivers when the car in front started moving. Other standard safety features included front- and side-impact airbags, traction control, a reversing camera, and a tire pressure monitoring system.

The 2021 Dodge Charger received a four-star overall safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Standard safety features included brake assist, electronic stability control, hill start assist, rear park assist, rain brake support, and a tire pressure monitoring system. Adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, forward-collision warning, lane-departure warning, and automatic headlights were available on some models.