The mid-to-full size sedan market is no place for sheep. With volume giants like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord growing ever larger, more powerful and attractive, and domestic bruisers like the Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Taurus and Fusion prowling the tall grasses, this is not a spot for the aging or sickly. With a preponderance of stream-lined terrors out there, we have to wonder exactly how long the Charger has left before going under the knife or falling prey to the wolves all together. Our guess? Not long. Hop the jump for a look at the 2009 Dodge Charger SXT.

Dodge resurrected the Charger in 2005, and while the car was about as close to the orange missile the Duke boys favored as tofu is to turkey, it was damn stylish. Instead of churning out a car dressed in lines swiped straight from the ‘70s, Dodge incorporated design elements in a new way. The bulging hips were there along with a bold, upright grille. New, menacing black-housing headlights and sizeable 18-inch rollers threw in a splash of new design, too. Though loyalists cried blasphemy at the thought of a four-door Charger, this Mopar was a mean-looking alternative to the flat-line Japanese saloons out there.

Fast forward almost five years and the look is starting to show its age. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still get approving nods in the mall parking lot, but stick this thing next to a new Maxima or Accord and you start to realize the times have changed in a big way. If the exterior has lost some of its luster, the interior has nothing to brag about. Slide into the massive leather buckets up front and you get the feeling you’re situated in a big-body car from 1974. There’s an incredible amount of space inside, but it doesn’t exactly translate into luxury. The seats seem to be made for someone with bovine in their bloodline, making anyone who hits the scales at under 500 lbs feel dwarfed.

What’s worse, the car’s dash, center stack and gauges are nothing short of a disgrace. Ample painted plastic is meant to take the place of brushed aluminum or nickel and comes off as a Wal-Mart substitute. The climate control knobs are vague and feel loose in their bezels, even at under 20,000 miles, and the Pep-Boys esque white-face gauges are awash in cheap plastic. We miss the clean quality of the Challenger R/T we drove not too long ago.

Things don’t get much better once you’re in motion. The cabin is inexcusably noisy, thanks in part to a 3.5-liter high-output V6 engine with more bark than bite. While pushing down on the fun pedal delivers a great sound track, you don’t really get moving until the tach starts lingering at around 5,000 rpm. You can bet you’re not hitting the EPA-estimated 27 mpg highway at those reps. Though the ride is plenty comfortable, don’t expect any sort of real driving feedback from the Charger SXT. The mid-level car doesn’t benefit from any of the suspension goodies the R/T and SRT-8 enjoy, meaning you’re stuck with rental-car lean in the corners.

The Charger is actually available in four trims with as many engines. The base car is powered by a 2.5-liter V6, and our 3.5-liter tester is the next step up. The SXT boasts 250 horsepower and nearly as much torque all while bringing down 18 mpg city and 27 mpg highway when equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission. Those seem like OK numbers until you have a look-see at the next engine up – the 5.7-liter V8 from the R/T. The big Hemi gives you a tire-melting 368 horsepower and almost 400 lb-ft of torque while sipping along at 16 mpg city and 25 mpg highway. Why bother with the 3.5?

Of course, all of those gripes could be easily overlooked if the Charger was a fantastic deal. Thing is, it isn’t. The SXT carries a base price of $25,510, though ticking off a handful of options will nestle the car well above $31,000, and considering the newly-minted Hyundai Genesis Sedan starts at $32,000, that’s no steal. Chrysler’s going to need to do some serious work on the Charger if the company plans to have a dog in the mid-to-full size fight, and that means more than relying on the massive, lust worthy 6.1-liter V8 in the SRT-8 version.