CarComplaints.com Notes: The first year of the new Dodge Dart had a rough start, with owners reporting a disproportionate number of engine and transmission problems.
For transmission, the main complaints are transmission failure & rough shifting. So far, average mileage for transmission failure is 25,000 miles. Not good.
For engine problems, it usually starts with the engine light coming on for any number of reasons: bad sensors, ignition coil replacement, bad wiring, faulty gas cap ... dealers are replacing various components with varying degrees of success, or telling owners they can't duplicate the issue.
8.7
pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$7,000
Average Mileage:
15,150 miles
Total Complaints:
3 complaints
Most Common Solutions:
not sure (2 reports)
new knuckle, control arm, axle, cross-member and wheel (1 reports)
On June 17 I was driving my car through a parking lot going roughly 25mph, when front passenger side axle snapped in half causing everything to basically fall apart on that side of the car. There was absolutely NO IMPACT to the vehicle. In fact, I do not recall ever hitting anything with the vehicle.
At the time of the incident the vehicle was not even 18 months old and only has 38,000. We purchased the car new and we purchased the extended warranty. In fact, there is so much damage to that area of the car that the axle snapping is the dealerships best guess as to what happened. We were assured that this would be covered under the warranty, so we started the claims process with Chrysler.
They sent an inspector to look at the vehicle and on July 22 we received a decision from the Chrysler legal department. They determined that it was not a manufacturing issue. When we called to request a copy of the report they used to determine their decision, they said we could not have a copy, it is proprietary to them. The beginning estimate to fix my car is $7,000, but that is before they have even begun to take anything apart. The estimate right now includes:new knuckle, lower control arm, axle, suspension cross-member and new wheel. That's just the beginning.
Ripples or ridges in the road, cause a banging noise in the front end like the strut mounts are loose. It is a hard knock that sounds metal to metal and it comes from the left and right hand side. It has done it ever since I bought the car at the end of September 2012. I regretted buying this car ever since I drove it off the lot and the only reason I haven't taken it for repairs is because of the distance to the dealership and I'm afraid that I will just get lip service.
My wife was driving home and hit a pothole. The tire blew out and the tie rod was bent. The control arm might be bad and the struts is bent. I live in Michigan and we have a lot of pot holes. I've been hitting them my whole life. I never, ever have I seen a car with this much damage after hitting a pothole. The car is parked because we can’t find a tie rod. I suspect there is a shortage on tie rods because this issue is wide spread. We were watching the news in our area and some lady had a Dart that got so much damage from potholes she had to stop driving it. She had a list of receipts from repairs she had to do on her car. We hit 1 pothole and have probably over a 1000+ in damages. This isn’t right. I think Chrysler has a design issue and either they don’t know about it or haven’t admitted to it. We are sorry we bought this car and tried to trade it in but we would be too far underwater to do that.
- froman12x,
Warren, MI, US
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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On June 17 I was driving my car through a parking lot going roughly 25mph, when front passenger side axle snapped in half causing everything to basically fall apart on that side of the car. There was absolutely NO IMPACT to the vehicle. In fact, I do not recall ever hitting anything with the vehicle.
At the time of the incident the vehicle was not even 18 months old and only has 38,000. We purchased the car new and we purchased the extended warranty. In fact, there is so much damage to that area of the car that the axle snapping is the dealerships best guess as to what happened. We were assured that this would be covered under the warranty, so we started the claims process with Chrysler.
They sent an inspector to look at the vehicle and on July 22 we received a decision from the Chrysler legal department. They determined that it was not a manufacturing issue. When we called to request a copy of the report they used to determine their decision, they said we could not have a copy, it is proprietary to them. The beginning estimate to fix my car is $7,000, but that is before they have even begun to take anything apart. The estimate right now includes:new knuckle, lower control arm, axle, suspension cross-member and new wheel. That's just the beginning.
- Sarah L., Gainesville, GA, US