2005 Dodge Magnum Test Drive

Fierce Family Car

A fierce, fast and fun family car? You bet. Here's another hit for Chrysler.

From the Driver's Seat

The FedEx guy pulled up to my house to deliver a package, took one glance at the Magnum, stopped dead in his tracks, then did a full, slow, slack-jawed walk around the slate gray machine, and at last strolled to my door. He handed me my box, looked me in the eye and pronounced: "That thing is Nast-EEE! I love it!"

It helps that this "thing" rides on huge, 18-inch wheels that fill the wells and makes it especially imposing, like a hunched animal. Also, when you view the Magnum from the side about two-thirds of the body is metal, with the windows only carving out fairly narrow slits. This furthers the tough disposition (the same idea works on the Hummer H2), but also serves another purpose: Narrow windows make a vehicle like a wagon look a lot more sporty than it would with a tall greenhouse.

Unfortunately, inside, the tough theme falls apart.

Four white gauges with black lettering nest on the dash. They're ringed by chrome-look plastic; a similar material is used on two of the four steering-wheel spokes and also on the door levers and the shifter for the five-speed automatic transmission. But otherwise, the brightwork is totally absent. In fact, there's almost no flare to this cabin whatsoever.

The Magnum's sister vehicle from Chrysler, the 300, has a more attractive interior by far. Sure, that car is meant to be more luxe while the Magnum's all about bad-boy swagger, but where's that in-your-mug attitude inside this vehicle? The best you can say: There's been a great deal of restraint exercised here. Or maybe the argument is that, like the Dodge Ram, DaimlerChrysler's goal with the Magnum cabin is to appeal largely to men through utilitarian design language.

To that end, we can at least praise the function of this cabin. HVAC controls all use readily understandable dials that can be quickly accessed without too much distraction. Similarly, audio functions, seat heaters, and headlights -- pretty much every cockpit switch is where it should be and works without fuss.

More about function: The rear hatch opens wide, and the door itself actually cuts into the tailgate roofline so that you can lower most items, like bags of groceries, straight down into the back, rather than having to crouch down and heft heavy items forward. One thing, however: The effort required to close that rear hatch will probably have a lot of women upset that they didn't test-drive this car along with their husbands.

Still, both genders will probably dig the concealed cubbies under the load floor that can fit smaller items, like tools or valuables. And on either side of the load floor there are a few deep wells that'll hang onto your groceries -- a better idea than cargo nets that are more often a nuisance than an aid.

Flip the rear seats forward and this wagon is pretty big, swallowing more than 70 cubic feet of belongings. There is a problem, though. Even with that wide-opening hatch, the low roof of the cabin means that any tall objects that can't lay flat simply won't fit into this vehicle. The Magnum's low ceiling creates access problems that other, crossover-style vehicles -- think Lexus RX330, for instance -- don't have.

And, in fact, driving the Magnum, with its limited greenhouse, can also be a challenge. At a stop (unless you're exceptionally short), seeing the light change is very difficult, since the rake of the windshield is steep and the opening is quite small. You have to lean down and forward toward the wheel in order to look up at the light.

When you're actually moving, the Magnum proves its worth by being a muscular thrill to drive, having sharper handling than its Chrysler 300 sibling and being plumbed with badder exhaust roar as well -- and that's just for starters. The Mercedes-derived suspension design is stiffly sprung, so the Magnum doesn't roll much into corners, and although this car has Mercedes' ESP stability control, it allows enough latitude to let the rear-end chirp a tad on takeoff, just in case you want to lay a little rubber. Acceleration is scorching, and on the interstate, passing just about anything this side of a Corvette is a neck-snapping breeze.

The only performance note that's a bit off key is the steering effort, which by our likes is too light and a bit vague as well. It loads up eventually, when you're really pushing, but because of the extra power steering boost there's a little less driving pleasure when you're just playing behind the wheel, not heartily hucking your Magnum through bends.