Upon posting the Top 5 Vehicles the Police Should be Driving, The Good Car Guy quickly discovered that regular consumers are quite interested in the choices police departments make. It’s true that the Dodge Charger and Dodge Magnum weren’t included in that Top 5, but that’s only because cops had already taken a liking to their benefits above and beyond those offered by Ford’s Crown Victoria.
More recently, Chrysler announced that Kuwaiti officials would be purchasing 150 Dodge Chargers for their police service. That’s basically a drop in the puddle – Dodge is recalling 20283 Chargers and Magnums that had been outfitted with the police package and column shifter.
These Recalled vehicles are from model years 2006-2009. Column shifters, not a feature associated with regular Chargers and Magnums, “may become disengaged from the steering column mounting bracket and cause an incorrect transmission gearshift position display”. Obviously the danger revolves around inadvertent vehicle movement.
Dealers, NHTSA says, will add a locking mechanism to the gearshift cable to “ensure proper retention and shift linkage function”. Apart from added weight and the (sometimes) lack of a V8, the Dodge Charger driven by The Good Car Guy was, to say the least,a decent value. Check out that review here.
