Forget the Bronco & Wrangler- A Cop Car Is Your Next Off-Roader!

This is a Dodge Charger police car and this one's special because it has the V8 and all-wheel drive and the simple question we're going to answer today is it good off-road? Probably not but we're going to find out anyways. Now immediately I'm going to assume that ground clearance will probably be a challenge here but maybe I'll be surprised. You know the police version has upgraded brakes, upgraded suspension and in a pursuit what happens if the bad guy goes up an articulated trenches course. Scraping a little bit in the front already. Come on Charger, let's do it. It's stuck. We're spinning tires. I'm gonna have to give it a little bit of a bump here I think. Two wheel in the Charger. Oh there we go, there we go. Come on buddy, come on buddy. I'm staying in There's the traction off button. Let's see if that'll help us. There we go, there we go. Come on, come on. You got this Charger. Made it up trenches. So pretty good traction and you can see even in tough terrain this all-wheel drive system does pretty good even though it's not meant to. So clearly the Dodge Charger is an all-wheel drive beast but what happens if the perp you're chasing goes into a large semi-manicured field. Oh look at that. This thing's a beast. What a rally machine. Comes around beautifully. Look at that. The perp isn't getting away from me in this car, not today. Incredible dust storm behind me but this car is a lot of fun actually in the dirt. If I had to get like a super cheap rallycross racer this car just might be at the top of the list. All right for this next test we are heading down into Nathan's crack. We've got this marshy bog and we're gonna see do I have enough approach angle to get us out of this. So far it's not looking so good. All I see is dirt at this point. Let's see. Is it climbing? Oh my gosh the Charger with the push bar. Way more capability than I would have ever guessed. Even with just a couple inches of ground clearance. Oh boy can we get out of it though? Come on Charger. Come on. Come on buddy. Show me that torque. Beautiful. Look at that. I didn't think it was gonna do that. This Charger it's like it's like a like a snake just slithers its way through any and all obstacle as long as that obstacle is less than five inches tall. Amazing. So we have proven that the Charger is not only an all-wheel drive traction beast as well as a drift monster. I'm not a drift monster but the car is okay. Now we're gonna take it on safari through the deep shrubbery going places where no Charger has gone before. Really can feel the prowess of this 5.7 as we navigate through these big weeds. Wow what a machine. The push bar doing its job. Really cop cars are set up perfectly. Perfectly for this kind of thing because they have that big push bar in the front of them and it just cuts through the tall grass like no other vehicle I've ever experienced. For the next test we're going to find out what happens if your friend in the Jeep Wrangler were to get stuck off-road. So we're going to try to tow this built-out Jeep Wrangler up this steep gravel hill using nothing but the V8 of the cop car and of course squirrel and gerbil. Very handy the cop car actually has a tow hook for this exact purpose. Okay maybe not to tow off-road but to tow folks stuck you know in a ditch out of a ditch. This hill doesn't look very steep on camera but it's a good probably 15-20 degrees of really loose gravel. Let's see if the all-wheel drive system and these granted kind of crummy all-season tires can pull up Brendan who's in neutral behind me in that Jeep. All right let off the brake my friend. All right it's all the Charger come on buddy. Come on. Dig Charger. Dig. I've got traction control off. Come on Charger. It's working hard. Come on Charger. We're moving. We're moving. Come on V8. You got the torque. You got the torque to pull them. No. Dang it Brendan. All right let's back it up a little bit. We'll try from the flatter portion. All right my dude we're gonna try it one more time. Give it a little bit of a running start. I wish I could turn the traction control fully off in this thing. That's what's killing me a little bit but we're gonna we're gonna give it another go. Are you ready? Come on V8. Let's see what you got. Dig buddy. Dig. Got that little bit of momentum we need. Just need a lower first gear. Come on V8. Show me what you got. Show me what you got. Oh yes. That was awesome. This thing is a beast. Love this Charger. I wish they sold this body style with the V8 and all-wheel drive to the public. But of course we have the five-speed automatic which definitely hurts a little bit. But that was a ton of fun. This thing rocks and it's got a tow point. A little tow hitch. So this is perfectly safe-ish. Don't try this at home. It's safe-ish-ish. Now obviously this was just a super fun video right? There was no purpose to other than to see preliminary how does this Charger perform in light to moderate dirt and I have to say it's pretty cool. You know the ground clearance is the big limiting factor. However between the torque of that 370 horsepower 5.7 liter V8 and the all-wheel drive system I think with the lift kit this thing could be pretty fun out in the dirt. Now I have found lift kits for donks which are where folks put huge rims or huge wheels on the cars and very thin tires but I'm wondering if we put a donk lift kit on this could we fit a nice set of mud terrains under this Charger? But seriously guys I mean that would be a lot of fun right? All-wheel drive. Now I will say from an all-wheel drive standpoint it's not amazing. So it allows too much slippage and not enough torque distribution to the front axle. So it's kind of like all-wheel drive light at least compared to a Subaru or any modern crossover. But you got to understand that this is still a big rear-wheel drive sedan that's super comfy and even with what five six inches of ground clearance we were able to do a lot more than I thought. Partly because of this push bar just kind of pushes all the obstacles out of the way and partly because I really don't care because this is a $9,000 Charger that we bought from a police auction a little while back. And quick update on this Charger in case you've been wondering we've driven this thing close to 3,000 miles at this point. Everyone said it'd be a disaster because um you know police use heavy use a lot idling. I will say it feels a little tired a little loosey-goosey behind the wheel. It's probably lost a few ponies under the hood but it's just great. You know no check engine light so far granted only 3,000 miles I'll let you know at the end of the year. But good power, decent transmission, very comfortable interior. I mean if this was a civilian version with this 5.7 and of course rear-wheel drive it would probably be $15,000, $17,000, $18,000. This car though pretty high mileage $149,000 now $150,000. We're looking at you know $9,800 we paid and I'm very impressed. So guys this could be a fun little project. If you want to see more actual off-roading not just driving through fields and stuff let me know in the comment section below. Maybe I can convince my dad to give me the budget to put a lift kit on this and a nice set of medial trains instead of What are these Chinese tires? Good tire? No. Moomom? No. Mojave? I was close the first time. Mojave CUVs. Not a great tire. But guys let me know what you think in the comment section below. As always I've been Tommy behind the camera today Brendan helping out. We'll see you in the next video.