Core Muscle Workout: Which of the affordable American muscle cars is best?

Should you buy a Chevy Camaro, a Ford Mustang or a Dodge Challenger? The reaction to that question likely has as much to do with loyalty to one of these models as it does anything else. But let’s say you’re fresh to the American muscle car segment, ultimately ready to get rid of your faithful but sleep-inducing Toyota Camry in favor of something cool, something totally bad-ass, something that proves you are, indeed, the boss.

I hate to throw a cold, moist blanket over your sports coupe conundrum, but before you sign on the dotted line for a rip-roarin’, tire-smokin’ Camaro SS, Mustang GT, or Challenger SRT, you’d better check in with your insurance agent to see how much the coverage is going to cost. After that discussion, you might realize that one of the less powerful and more affordable versions of these cars will best fit your budget, especially if you’ve got a significant other chiming in on the decision.

Just as your core muscles stabilize your bod and provide the foundation for dynamic movement, the most basic versions of the Camaro, Mustang and Challenger stabilize muscle car sales and provide the foundation for the dynamic spectacle that drew your attention to them in the very first place. They are, in essence, the core muscle cars suggested by Chevy, Ford and Dodge.

For this “Core Muscle Workout” review, I drove three relatively basic versions of these cars, each tooled for maximum driving enjoyment:

• Chevrolet Camaro 1LT with a base price of $26,695 (including $995 for destination). It had the RS Package, the Heavy-duty Cooling and Brake Package, the Technology Package, bright yellow extra-cost paint and premium floor mats. The window sticker read $30,575.
• Dodge Challenger SXT kicking off at $28,090 (including $1,095 for destination). Enhancements came in the form of Plus trim, a Blacktop Package, a Super Track Pak, high-performance brake pads, a Driver Convenience Group, a navigation system and a premium sound system. The test Challenger’s price rang in at $35,310.
• Ford Mustang with a base price of $25,045 (including $900 for destination). Options included a turbocharged Two.3-liter 4-cylinder engine, a Premium Package and a Spectacle Package. These upgrades brought the price to $32,560.

Determining which one is best won’t be effortless. Choosing the right American core muscle car depends on who you are, what you value, what you need and your sense of aesthetics. Having spent quality time in all three of these cars, my order of preference goes after, along with my reasoning for the rankings.

Third Place: Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is the sleek and sexy core muscle car.

Sleek and undeniably sexy, the Mustang is about style more than it is substance. Deceptively elaborate design, inwards and out, is what makes the Mustang most compelling.

My Competition Orange test car looked sensational, gloss-black 19-inch wheels generously packing the car’s engorged flanks, chrome pony galloping across the grille, fastback glass tapering almost obscenely into the rear deck. You identify this car in an instant, thanks to its marriage of modern and retro styling cues, its triple-lens taillights with sequential turn signals and its unmistakable emblems. The only styling misstep is the weird body-colored lower rear diffuser panel.

Inwards, the story is the same. Occupants face a dual cockpit dashboard with large, round gauges and circular air vents. Chrome toggle switches and temperature dials add aircraft-inspired influence, as does a speedometer whimsically marked “Ground Speed.” Oil pressure and turbo boost gauges, as well as special engine-turned aluminum trim, provide a performance-oriented ambience and a plaque dutifully reminds the driver that the Mustang is the original pony car, “Since 1964.”

The Mustang’s interior looks fancy; the materials are anything but. Style takes precedence over simpleness, causing occasional driver distraction at speed.

Unluckily, much of the Mustang’s interior is crafted from low-grade plastic, presumably to keep prices in check. Front seat convenience impresses, especially given the heating and ventilation systems in the test car, but drivers wince in ache each time they throw the Mustang into a taut right-hand corner, knees braced against hard, unyielding plastic on the door panel. Viewed from the driver’s seat, the hood’s strakes make the Mustang feel long, lean, and muscular, like the driver has taken directive of a powerful brute.

A back seat sits underneath the Mustang’s phat rear window, serving as a frying pan for gams. Not that anybody might rail back there except for youthful children, and since you’d rather not subject your offspring to first-degree burns, it is a good idea to keep a towel in the car for such occasions. Trunk space, at 13.Five cubic-feet, is remarkably generous, clearly enough for a duo on a long road tour.

For 2016, the Mustang gets Ford’s fresh Sync three infotainment system. Quicker response, improved graphics, upgraded voice recognition capability and a capacitive-touch display screen summarize the highlights of the fresh system. Smartphone projection technology arrives for 2017.

Ford also offers several driver assistance and collision avoidance systems for the Mustang, however none were on the test car. Automatic emergency braking is not one of them.

For more horsepower, lots of torque and better fuel economy, upgrade to the optional turbocharged EcoBoost 4-cylinder engine. Then add the Spectacle Package.

A 300-horsepower, Trio.7-liter V6 engine is standard for the Mustang. My test car had the optional twin-scroll turbocharged and direct-injected Two.3-liter 4-cylinder engine, paired with a 6-speed manual gearbox.

Tooled with ten more horsepower and forty extra pound-feet of torque made at lower engine rpm, this EcoBoost engine is also claimed to be more fuel efficient. I averaged 22.Four mpg on my test loop, falling brief of the EPA’s estimate of twenty five mpg in combined driving.

With slew of hiss and snap, the EcoBoosted Mustang supplies sturdy power and its tuned harass sounds as aggressive as it can without resorting to caricature. Normal, Sport+, Track and Snow/Humid driving modes aim to please a range of driver and weather requirements, and the transmission features relatively brief throws and positive engagement. Know how to heel-and-toe? It’s not a problem in the Mustang.

The Mustang’s best angle exposes a dramatically tapered fastback design and heritage triple-lens taillights with sequential turn signals. But yuck, that ugly orange plastic thing under the bumper looks like a skid plate.

Tooled with the optional EcoBoost Spectacle Package, the test car liked a long menu of hardware upgrades. A thicker radiator, a limited-slip rear differential and summer spectacle tires accompanied the steering, braking and suspension enhancements. Naturally, the switches made the Mustang treat beautifully while hustling the car on mountain roads near Los Angeles, but this enhanced talent in the twisties came at the expense of highway rail quality. Unless you request maximum response and grip, you might choose a kinder and gentler version of the car.

Why is the Mustang ranked third?

With the Mustang, Ford has created an alluring and athletic automobile. It demonstrates enough sense of heritage to appeal to older customers combined with slew of the modern touches and technology desired by junior buyers. Plus, you can option one with nothing more than the turbocharged engine and the Spectacle Package while keeping the price well within the field of affordability.

For me, the emphasis Ford places on interior design over usability, combined with the preponderance of cheap plastic within the cabin, is a turn-off. Additionally, visibility limitations combined with the sense that the car is longer and broader than it actually is makes exercising the Mustang on canyon roads marked by blind kinks, taut corners and steep cliffs a more thrilling experience…for the wrong reasons. Add a rear seat that is largely futile for anything other than baking cookies, and the Ford Mustang chalks up too many compromises compared to the Camaro and Challenger.

It looks indeed damn good, however.

2nd Place: Dodge Challenger

Almost a decade old, the Dodge Challenger is about as close to a factory-built restomod as you can buy.

Restomods are old cars tooled with modern mechanicals. Classic car purists detest them, but I love the idea of driving an old car with the latest engine, transmission, steering, braking and suspension components. Just take a look at the Dodge Challenger and attempt to tell me it’s not the closest thing to a factory-built restomod that you can buy.

Bold and brash, the Challenger actually is an old car. It’s been almost a decade since it reappeared, and in that span of time the Mustang has been redesigned once (2015) while the Camaro has been redesigned twice (2010 and 2016). The Challenger is big, too, sitting on a shortened version of a platform it shares with the Chrysler three hundred and Dodge Charger full-size sedans. Of this trio, the Challenger is the equivalent of a fullback, large yet athletic.

If it looks like it is one thousand nine hundred seventy one again on the outside, the Challenger’s interior is clearly rooted in the 21st century. Driver-oriented, “high-sill” center console design aside, a glance at the Challenger’s intuitive control layout, 8.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system, electronic shifter and appealing materials confirms that it is a (relatively) modern car.

Big cars contain big seats, and the Challenger’s interior can legitimately hold four adults. Attempt that in a Camaro or Mustang. The trunk is yam-sized, too.

Broad and comfy seats accommodate overfed Americans like myself, and while Dodge characterizes them as “sport” designs they do a terrible job of holding the driver secure behind the steering wheel when pitching the Challenger into a turn.

This is a broad car with lots of interior space, and the rear seats can actually hold adults. The fact that you can cram four friends into a Challenger is a major selling point, and it also means that someone with up to three children can credibly sell this Dodge as a practical and useful 2nd car to a skeptical spouse.

Plus, the trunk is yam-sized, measuring 16.Two cu.-ft., which is more space than most midsize family sedans supply. The liftover height is aggressively high, tho’, so pack those full-size suitcases lightly. Interior storage space is also the best of this trio, adding to the Challenger’s real-world practicality.

Dodge’s Uconnect infotainment system features large virtual buttons and clean graphics, and the Challenger comes with separate stereo and climate controls to minimize interaction with the touchscreen display. An available Wi-Fi hotspot is 3G instead of 4G, tho’, and the system lacks safe teenage driving technologies as well as smartphone projection capabilities. Dodge resolves some of these shortcomings with an update for the two thousand seventeen model year.

Unexpectedly, the Challenger can be tooled with a longer list of driver assistance and collision avoidance systems than can the Mustang, however automatic emergency braking is not on the menu.

Tooled with a V6 engine, the Challenger SXT boasts almost flawless front-to-rear weight distribution. The test car had the Blacktop Package and the Super Track Pak, helping it better manage its heft.

Like the Mustang, the Challenger is tooled with a standard V6 engine. It’s a slick and refined Three.6-liter, one making three hundred five horsepower and paired only with an 8-speed automatic transmission featuring die-cast metal spanking paddle shifters. If you want a manual gearbox in a Challenger, you need to get a V8 engine.

One benefit of the V6, however, is less weight over the car’s nose. In fact, this Dodge boasts an amazing 52:48 front-to-rear weight ratio. This balance, in combination with the optional Super Track Pak’s suspension, steering and wheel/tire upgrades, produces remarkably adept spectacle.

Proving more than a match against the turbocharged 4-cylinder engines in the Mustang and Camaro, the Challenger’s V6 engine supplied rapid acceleration and returned 21.9 mpg in combined driving, falling a bit brief of the EPA rating of twenty three mpg.

Despite component upgrades, however, the Challenger is the least athletic of the trio when the road commences to writhe. You don’t carve a corner in a Dodge Challenger, even with the Super Track Pak’s spectacle steering tuning. Instead, you turn the wheel in the general direction you wish to travel, making adjustments as is necessary, all the while attempting to anchor your figure in place using the steering wheel.

The Challenger looks like an old car, and it drives like one. Nevertheless, unexpected levels of convenience, refinement and interior quiet make up for its two left feet on twisty canyon roads.

The Challenger’s girth also reduces the margin for error, narrowing lanes and limiting options when encountering obstacles in the road and inattentive oncoming drivers. At the same time, the 20-inch wheels and gooey summer tires give the large Dodge slew of grip, and the remarkably affordable spectacle brake pads effortlessly haul the strong car down from speed.

It rails stiffly, too, frequently exposing the Challenger’s structural age, but the cabin proved the quietest of the group.

Why is the Challenger ranked 2nd?

People want their cars to be stylish and joy, but at the same time they need their cars to be useful and practical. Amongst this group of American core muscle cars, those added qualities apply only to the Challenger.

You could literally pile your family into this Dodge, pack the trunk with slew of provisions, and take the retro-themed Challenger on the wistfully nostalgic good American road journey. That would never, ever happen with the Mustang or the Camaro. And while it is true that both the Ford and the Chevy are available with a convertible top, the dangers of sun exposure to the skin and your health are incontrovertible.

Beyond the Challenger’s practicality, it is immensely comfy, relatively quiet, decently efficient and rather refined. Plus, it is joy to drive, in part because it’s like getting into an old car that is actually a fresh car underneath the sheetmetal.

It sure helps that Dodge will, if you want, sell you a 707-horsepower version of the Challenger. But that’s a story for another day.

Very first Place: Chevrolet Camaro

If the Camaro looks familiar on the outside, don’t assume it amounts to the same thing on a different day. What’s tucked underneath the styling has utterly transformed the driving practice.

Before spending time with this bright yellow base Camaro, I hadn’t driven any version of the redesigned two thousand sixteen model. I had read, however, disparaging reviews about the turbocharged drivetrain, which is essentially lifted from the dynamically gifted Cadillac ATS with which the fresh Camaro shares a platform.

Just goes to demonstrate that you can’t believe everything you read.

Taut, lean and athletic, the Camaro looks familiar. An evolution of the well-worn previous-generation design, itself a modern take on the 1967-1969 Camaro, the latest version of Chevy’s sports coupe likely disappoints people wishing the company had taken a more dramatic styling departure. I like the fresh Camaro’s appearance, but I don’t love it.

Inwards, the twin-binnacle spandex hood above the instrumentation and the clean, minimalistic dashboard punctuated by nothing more than air vents and the infotainment system also evolve from the previous Camaro. For a serious driver, tho’, Chevrolet’s purposeful treatment is far preferable to Ford’s comparatively gaudy Mustang.

Unluckily, Chevy seemingly contracted with Playskool for the Camaro’s interior plastics. Gloss and glitter levels are gratefully minimized, however, and the places where the driver and front passenger might brace their gams in corners are shaped for maximum convenience. Optionally, you can even get soft padding strategically installed in specific places.

When you’re driving prompt, instrumentation and controls must be effortless to find, see and use. Chevrolet screws it with the delightfully simplistic Camaro.

Front seat convenience is exceptional. The test car had cloth seats (recall those?), packaged in fabric that looked good and felt durable. Ideal bolstering, soothing hip support, and a decently sized and shaped steering wheel all signal the enjoyment a driver derives from the Camaro.

Don’t plan on taking more than one extra person along for the rail, however. The Camaro’s rear seats are absolutely inhospitable to adults, and even children complain. My own kids, ages five and 8, had to sit criss-cross-applesauce for a post-dinner ice fluid run. Puny windows and high sills make matters even worse for little ones, tho’ the back seat doesn’t bake in the sun like the Mustang’s does.

Even if a Camaro could reasonably carry more than two people at a time, the petite 9.1 cu.-ft. trunk would limit long-distance travel. On a positive note, the cube-shaped cargo area can treat a duo of full-size suitcases gingerly loaded through the high and puny trunk opening. You could throw a few duffel bags in there, too. Too bad the cabin’s almost non-existent storage space is not modeled on a similar theme.

Chevrolet has done an outstanding job with the Camaro’s instrumentation and controls. Simpleness and legibility are the rule, making it effortless for the driver to quickly reference engine revs, speed and other significant data.

The MyLink infotainment system is excellent, too, featuring colorful graphics and a responsive touch screen. A stereo volume knob flanked by tuning buttons is located right underneath the screen and the virtual buttons for the radio station pre-sets, a layout that facilitates effortless scanning up and down the radio dial. Not into old-school local or satellite radio? Smartphone projection provides quick and intuitive access to key Apple and Android apps.

Another cool thing about the Camaro is how the climate system’s temperature controls are integrated as rings around the lower center air vents, a surprise-and-delight design element that is also thoughtful and functional.

What’s not so cool is how the OnStar subscription service buttons, which are mounted to the car’s rearview mirror, use crimson and blue illumination, in turn forcing dual takes and heart palpitations in drivers who abruptly and mistakenly think that a police car is swift approaching from behind.

Sharing a platform and powertrains with the Cadillac ATS, the fresh Camaro is a neat package that is lots of joy to drive on narrow mountain roads.

Thanks to its basis on the same platform that underpins the Cadillac ATS, the fresh Chevy Camaro demonstrates a level of dynamic competence that the Mustang and Challenger cannot match.

Get situated behind the thick-rimmed steering wheel, look out over the scalloped fetish mask, and you’ll instantaneously notice how much more of the road you can actually see. This, combined with the Camaro’s noticeably tidier dimensions, bodes well for driving pleasure.

Fire up the turbocharged Two.0-liter 4-cylinder engine, which makes two hundred seventy five horsepower and two hundred ninety five lb.-ft. of torque, row through the manual gearbox’s six brief throws, and it is visible that you’re in a different kind of American muscle car. So tooled, the Camaro channels Audi or Volkswagen more than it does the more powerful but less refined Mustang EcoBoost engine, willingly and sleekly revving to redline without the pomp and circumstance displayed by the Ford. The Camaro returned 21.9 mpg on the test loop, falling brief of the EPA’s rating of twenty four mpg.

Aside from 20-inch wheels, summer spectacle tires and upgraded brakes, my 1LT test car was bone stock. The steering proved almost Germanic in terms of feel and response, with just a hint of on-center lightness in Tour mode. Sport mode added appreciable heft, but it proved bothersome at low speeds. The brakes performed beautifully in late summer fever, suffering little fade after slew of manhandle.

Better still, the treating is downright transcendent…for a Camaro. From the driver’s seat, the Camaro feels like a much smaller car than the Mustang or the Challenger. Tooled with a sturdy structure, a deftly tuned suspension and astounding grip, the Chevy doesn’t feel broad, mighty or slow-witted. Instead, it is a freshly sharpened driving instrument in which you can confidently travel as hard and as swift as you dare to go, making the Camaro a genuine thrill rail for all of the right reasons.

Consider the Camaro to be a 2-seater, because the torturous rear seat and relatively little trunk limit the car’s practicality.

There are a duo of concerns here, tho’. Very first, the test car periodically displayed a steep fall-off in power when shifting up from very first to 2nd gear. Peak torque is on tap from Three,000 rpm to Four,500 rpm, but Chevrolet says 90-percent of the engine’s twist should be available from Two,000 rpm to Three,000 rpm, so I can’t figure out why the stumbles occurred. I was incapable to consistently duplicate the driving condition that caused it.

2nd, road noise is utterly earsplitting and rapidly grows tiresome. The nonstop tire sizzle, road rumble and suspension racket is the worst thing about driving the Camaro and almost generates enough irritation to head over to the Dodge store for a cushy and quiet Challenger.

Why is the Camaro ranked very first?

Stated in the simplest terms, I choose the Camaro because I love to drive, and the Chevy is the most engaging car of the trio. From its thrilling powertrain and rock-solid structure to its deft suspension tuning, acute steering and indefatigable brakes, the Camaro is about getting you from where you were to where you are going with the largest possible smile on your face.

Not only that, I choose simpleness and minimalism, and the Camaro’s styling and design exhibits both characteristics. It has the best seats, the best driving position and the best visibility over the bondage mask. Plus, the instrumentation and control layout emphasize ease of use over glitz and glamour.

Undeniably, the Camaro is imperfect, most notably with regard to the ridiculous amount of road noise that continuously pummels your ears.

Furthermore, a test of V8-powered models could produce a different result than this test of basic versions of the car.

Ultimately, while the Camaro, Challenger and Mustang rival directly with one another, they are distinctly different vehicles when you get behind their respective steering wheels. As I stated right up front, choosing the right model depends on who you are, what you value, what you need and your sense of aesthetics. When compared in basic format, my dearest is the Chevy Camaro.

Pass the ear ass-plugs, please.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the “Join the Conversation” buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.

Related movie: