Faults:
The list would be shorter if I told you what has not gone wrong with this car.
5,500 miles, windows quit working, dealer replaced all motors.
9,600 windows quit again, replaced motors with second generation motors according to dealer.
15,000 miles electrical problems start. Lights flicker, headlights blink on and off. People are constantly thinking I am flashing lights at them.
22,000 the A/C goes out on the car. Dealer replaces the evap. coil. I am thanking god I got a Factory Extended Warranty from the dealer.
At 27,000 the A/C goes out again. Dealer replaces the entire system this time.
At 33,000 miles the front seat breaks and causes the back of the seat to fall all the way back while I am driving down I-95 at 70-75 miles per hour. We cross the center line almost hitting North bound traffic head on with my children in the car. I stopped at the first dealer, they refused to come out and look at it, instead sent me on my way telling me to call my regular dealer and make an appointment to have it repaired. I filed a complaint with the Federal Highway Safety Commission and Dodge. No response from anyone, but see 3 years later it becomes a recall item.
At 63,000 miles the engine starts knocking. I am told by the dealer the engine is blown. They rebuild it.
At 63,300 miles (Three Days Later) the engine blows again. I take it back and the dealer refuses to fix it. Seems I was not sold a Factory Extended Warranty, I was sold a insurance policy. The company blames the dealer for faulty work, the dealer says they did what they were told by the insurance company. My car sat there for 3 months while we fought with them. We called Dodge and was told, we do not get involved in dealer / customer warranty disputes.
I had to finally pay $9,600 dollars for a new engine.
63,313 That's right 13 miles back to the shop again. The dealer left the trunk open and the battery went dead. They jumped the battery and blew the starter, but failed to tell me this before letting me leave the shop. The car sat in my driver for two days and they finally came and towed it back to repair it.
78,000 miles the A/C goes out again. I go to a A/C shop only to find that the fans do not work. All the relays are burned out. When we replace them the wiring catches on fire. We find a screw put in from the factory that went through the wiring harness from the factory. This caused the wiring to short out different things in the car. We repaced this wiring and now the A/C works great, the engine has no more problems with sludge buildup, the flickering lights stop flickering. The shop feels the car ran hot for years due to this defect and that is what caused my premature engine failure.
At 110,000 the transmission speed sensors went out.
At 138,000 the entire transmission went out and had to be rebuilt.
At 168,000 I had to rebuild the front end, replace the starter again, and other electrical items.
At 168,500 after replacing all the items recommended by the dealer the water pump went out. In order to correct the water pump you must tear down the entire top of the engine, replace the timing chain, guides, pull the heads, cams, and the entire front of the car. The water pump cost $40 dollars. The labor cost and associated items to go along to replace it $1400 dollars.
I driver the car on the highway with very little city mileage. I use it about 90% highway. So far I have spent over $17,000 in repairs on a vehicle that I spent $21,000 on the purchase price when new.
23rd Jan 2007, 19:12
I've owned 4 Dodges and only 1 Avenger ES had problems. This one had the Mitsubishi engine and electronics. This is where it went bad. My other 3, "All American" Dodges were flawless even after high miles: 166,000, 100,000 and 19,000 current model.