MotorWeek announces its 2026 Drivers’ Choice Awards including Best of the Year: Dodge Charger

OWINGS MILLS, MD, Feb. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MotorWeek, television's original and most-respected automotive video series, today announced its annual Drivers' Choice Awards, highlighted by 2026 Best of the Year winner – the Dodge Charger.

The slate of 2026 Drivers’ Choice Awards presented by MotorWeek, now in its 45th season, consists of winners in 12 consumer-driven categories. The timing of the MotorWeek Drivers’ Choice Awards announcement continues a decades-long tradition of coinciding with the opening of the annual Chicago Auto Show, America’s premier consumer interactive motor show.

MotorWeek’s production team evaluates more than 150 cars, trucks, and sports utility vehicles every year. Drivers’ Choice Award winners are selected based on driving performance, technology, practicality, fuel efficiency, and value for the dollar.

“Our category winners this year cover a wider array of vehicles than ever, not only in vehicle type but in capability and price. Plus, as the award’s name says, we love driving all of them,” said MotorWeek Creator and Host John Davis.

The Drivers’ Choice Awards selection show is now available to watch at this link or MotorWeek.org.

The award-winning vehicles will also appear on a special episode of MotorWeek (episode #4523) airing on public television stations across the country beginning on February 7. The episode will be available on MotorWeek’s YouTube channel on February 15.

Best of the Year winner, the Dodge Charger, earned a 2026 Drivers’ Choice Award in the Best Sport Coupe category. The MSRP for the gas-powered Charger starts around $52,000 before incentives. Last year, the all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona was selected by MotorWeek in the same category. It is also included in this year’s honors.

Going back to 1998, when MotorWeek started naming a Best of the Year winner as part of its annual awards program, many automotive nameplates have been honored, but this is the first year that a Dodge vehicle has garnered the top prize.

“In the annals of American automotive history, there is no more sacrosanct genre than that of the Muscle Car,” noted Davis.

“In the 2026 Dodge Charger, Stellantis, through its hallowed Dodge brand, has reaffirmed the core values of Detroit’s finest for well into the future times two. Using imaginative engineering, while staying tied to what made muscle cars such an international icon in the first place, Dodge has managed to use a single chassis, with the same two- and four-door bodies – something muscle cars typically do not offer – to please the tire burning desires of both contemporary buyers that see the promise of electrification and the legions of fans that want only gasoline running through their veins and their cars,” explained Davis.

“The new Dodge Charger represents the next chapter of American muscle, and it’s an incredible honor for our next-gen muscle car to be recognized by MotorWeek with both Best of the Year and Best Sport Coupe awards,” said Matt McAlear, Dodge CEO. “This recognition validates the Charger’s uncompromising performance, unmistakable design and cutting-edge technology, while staying true to the Dodge DNA our enthusiasts expect.”

Davis said the Charger stood out among the vehicles the MotorWeek team tested because, in part, of its advanced engineering that allows it to seamlessly accommodate both powertrains while retaining the iconic sensory aspects and performance of the American muscle car.

“The Dodge Charger Daytona showed that being a battery electric vehicle can actually enhance street-legal high performance, while still appealing to all the senses. But to then follow that effort with the Dodge Charger SIXPACK, and its twin-turbo straight-6 powerhouse, shows that from the first concept to this real deal duo, the designers never strayed from their responsibility to preserve, while adding to, the driven history of the American muscle car,” explained Davis.

MotorWeek and the 2026 Drivers’ Choice Awards are nationally sponsored by Auto Value and Bumper-to-Bumper, and TireRack.com.

2026 MotorWeek Drivers’ Choice Awards

Best of the Year - Dodge Charger

Drivers’ Choice Individual Category Winners

1. Best Family Car Kia K4

2. Best Luxury Car Audi A5

3. Best Sport Sedan Audi S3

4. Best Sport Coupe Dodge Charger *

5. Best Performance Car Porsche 911 Carrera GTS

6. Best Small Utility Toyota RAV4

7. Best Midsize Utility Subaru Outback

8. Best Large Utility Hyundai Palisade

9. Best Luxury Utility Mercedes-Benz GLC 350e

10. Best Small Truck Ford Maverick

11. Best Fullsize Truck Ram 1500 *

12. Best EV Cadillac OPTIQ
Nissan LEAF
Porsche Taycan

* Denotes Repeat Winner from 2025

About MotorWeek

Maryland Public Television produces and distributes MotorWeek nationwide and overseas. The series airs on 90% of PBS stations nationwide. Viewers can find the days and times their local public television station airs MotorWeek by going to the station listings page on motorweek.org.

The show’s most current episodes can be viewed online at pbs.org/motorweek and streamed 24/7 on PBS Living, a Prime Video Channel, as well as viewed on smart devices through the free PBS app. Past seasons of MotorWeek episodes are also available on the free streaming services Tubi, Roku, Pluto, Plex, and Xumo. Spanish-language viewers can also catch MotorWeek on V-me.

Program excerpts covering all segments, including road tests, are available at MotorWeek’s YouTube Channel, youtube.com/motorweek, with more than 530,000 subscribers and upwards of three million views per month. Viewers can also follow MotorWeek on Facebook and Instagram, and download complete shows on iTunes. In short, if you have a screen, you can watch MotorWeek.

For additional 24/7 access to all things MotorWeek, download the show’s free app with its unique “POWER” tab, offering specifications on all alternative-fueled vehicles, both new and used, on the market today.

Attachments

Tom Williams
Maryland Public Television
4105814031
tomwilliams@mpt.org

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