Suburban Dad: 2007 Dodge Magnum R/T AWD

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the Magnum exists.

Yeah, it’s got a big Hemi engine, creature comforts and admirable space in the backseat, but I can get all of that in an SUV, plus I get to sit up higher.

There’s plenty of storage space in the back (more than plenty, actually – with the backseat dropped, there’s a ton of space!), and it’s got a nice low entry so people can get their dogs into the back easily. Except for me, of course; I have a corgi and no car is low enough for him.

So despite all those positives, why am I so negative? Because I sense the Magnum lacks a purpose.

For my wife, “it’s just ugly.” She really didn’t like the low roofline, which I thought diminished the visibility out the windows. These tall doors may make us safer (if you believe the automakers), but I think they’re causing a real drop in what drivers can see. Even out the windshield I couldn’t see very far upward.

The kids liked the Magnum well enough. My 10-year-old thought it was “cool,” and was happy to smash into his siblings on sharp turns. My teenage son thought the legroom was better than most cars I’ve brought home, but my tweener daughter wasn’t as thrilled with being crammed in with two other kids.

She perked up when I suggested we could leave my 10-year-old at the local supermarket and see how that felt.

The Magnum was fine to drive; it had good acceleration and was very quiet, even at decent highway speeds. The powered seats were comfortable, and the leather was nice. The ergonomics, though, were another matter altogether. The turn signals share a stalk with the windshield-wiper controls, and this drove me nuts. I’m used to having the double stalk approach. I’m not sure why they didn’t adopt this convention.

Worse, the cruise controls are on their own stalk, which sits above the wipers/turn-signal stalk. I can’t tell you how many times I hit that instead of the turn signal. It didn’t make me happy, let me tell you.

Would we buy this? No. I’d prefer an SUV, even one with less storage space, in exchange for sitting up high. I’d buy a sedan with less storage space but more modest dimensions because it’d get better mileage and I wouldn’t worry about the edges.

The Magnum stands almost alone in its category, and I think there are probably good reasons for that.