The manufacturer

Dodge police vehicles

Eighty-three entries — and a twelve-year hole in the middle where Chrysler stopped building police cars altogether.

Ford and Chevrolet have turned up to every Michigan evaluation in this archive. Dodge has not, and the reason is not that the books are missing.

After 1989 Chrysler simply left. No Dodge patrol vehicle appears again until 2002, and nothing competitive until the Charger in 2006 — which then took the top speed record in its first year.

The fastest Dodge in every test

All 83 entries are in the filtered table.

The quickest-topping Dodge each year, with how many Dodges were tested that year. Braking changed from twelve stops to twenty in the 2012 book; figures either side of that line are not directly comparable — the later ones come from a harder test.
YearVehicleType0–60 sTop mph60–0 ftDodges tested
1978Dodge MonacoSedan117.41
1979 — book not located
1980Dodge St. RegisSedan11.53122.7163.54
1981Dodge DiplomatSedan12.84116.34
1982Dodge DiplomatSedan12.19115.44
1983Dodge DiplomatSedan12.81118.84
1984, 1985, 1986 — book not located
1987Dodge Diplomat 318-4 †Sedan116.94
1988Dodge DiplomatSedan11.551172
1989Dodge DiplomatSedan11.84119.11
1990 – 2001 — no Dodge patrol vehicle. Chrysler left the police car market after the M-body and did not build another one for twelve years. The only Chrysler products Michigan tested in that period were Jeep Cherokees
2002Dodge IntrepidSedan8.72135149.43
2003Dodge IntrepidSedan9.14136145.11
2004Dodge IntrepidSedan8.56135137.41
2005Dodge MagnumSedan9.1117143.41
2006Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMISedan6.52150133.56
2007Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMISedan6.53148132.87
2008Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMISedan6.24148143.76
2009Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMISedan5.96146135.23
2010Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMISedan6146143.43
2011Dodge Charger 5.7L HEMISedan6.24146133.93
2012Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.65 axle)Sedan5.951526
2013Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.65 axle)Sedan6.12152129.15
20142014.5 Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.65)Sedan6.12150126.54
2015Dodge Charger 5.7L (3.08 AWD)Sedan6.32149131.45
2016Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)Sedan6.48150125.85
2017Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)Sedan6.17149123.24
2018Dodge Charger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)Sedan6.31150134.44
2019Dodge Charger 5.7L AWDSedan5.87149133.85
20202021 Dodge Charger 5.7L RWDSedan6.061491296
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 — book not located
2025Dodge Durango 5.7L AWDSUV7.3130139.93
2026Dodge Durango Pursuit 5.7L AWDSUV7.24130141.13

The twelve years

This is the only gap on any manufacturer page that is not an archive problem. The books for 1993 and 1995 to 2001 exist and are transcribed here. Dodge is not in them.

What Chrysler did bring in that period was a Jeep Cherokee, in 1993 and 1998 — a sport utility that never broke 113 mph and was there to be measured rather than to win. For six of those years the company had nothing in the test at all.

The cause is the end of the M-body. The Diplomat and its Plymouth twin finished in 1989, and Chrysler’s replacement sedans were front-wheel drive and not offered as police vehicles. The company that had built the fastest police sedan in American history in 1969 had no police car to sell for over a decade.

Chrysler invented the modern pursuit sedan and then spent twelve years not building one. Ford took eighty percent of the market in exactly those years.

What the gap cost, and what ended it

Those twelve years are precisely the years the Crown Victoria ran 128 to 130 mph without ever getting faster, because there was nothing to be faster than. The Caprice was gone after 1996 as well. Ford had the sedan market almost to itself.

It ended in 2006. The Charger Pursuit recorded 150 mph in its first Michigan test, beating a Chrysler record that had stood since 1969 — on the same proving ground where the 1969 car set it.

The Charger then went on to hold the shortest stopping distance and the highest deceleration rate of any car in this archive, both in 2017.

Two disqualifications, both in one year

Dodge entries that failed a minimum standard and could not be bid.
YearVehicle
1987Diplomat 318-4Michigan raised the qualification bar that year. A quarter of a second ended the M-body’s bid, two years before Chrysler stopped building it
1987Diplomat

Fewer disqualifications than Ford’s five or Chevrolet’s four — but both of Dodge’s are the same car in the same test, and they come at the end of the line rather than the beginning.

Where Dodge sits in the record

Best Dodge figures across all 83 entries.
FigureVehicleYear
152 mph — fastest Dodge recordedCharger 5.7L (2.65 axle)2012
5.81 s — quickest to 60Charger 5.7L AWD2020
123.2 ft and 31.44 ft/s² — shortest stop and highest rate by any car to 2017; the 2026 Mach-E betters both in this archiveCharger 5.7L (2.62 RWD)2017
No Dodge entry carries the source’s limiter footnote

That last row matters. The Charger’s top speed sat between 146 and 152 mph for fifteen years, and in 2016 one needed 13.28 miles to reach 150 where the following year’s car needed 1.45 — which looks like a limiter. Michigan never marked it as one, so this site treats it as evidence rather than documentation.

Sources. Every figure transcribed from the Michigan State Police Police Vehicle Evaluation for the year shown and linked to that year’s page, and compiled by script from those pages. The 1990–2001 absence is the company’s, not the archive’s: the 1993 and 1995–2001 books are held here and Dodge does not appear in them. The 1990–92 and 1994 books have not been located, so the absence is stated for the years that can be checked. Figures are drawn from the test results table, published under CC BY 4.0. See how this site is researched and corrections.