Good afternoon.
A prelude..
I had always driven pickups (except a '61Corvette back when I was single) but around 1998, my wife bought an '84 Pontiac Fiero. Then I bought one, then another, and we eventually had 5 Fieros, including 2 Indys and 1 '88. Absolutely loved them. So, we were used to small, low sitting vehicles. But, the day came when I was tired of low powered 30 year old cars, and, it got hard for me to crawl into one and harder still to fall out. The Fieros had to go and a new car acquired... (I kept my pickup truck)
We bought our Dart new, with 28 miles on it right off the dealership lot in Liberty County, City of Cleveland Tx, 40 miles North of Houston. Wife drove several different make & model vehicles before she settled on the Dart including a new Avenger, but it was one of those. "I want this one!" as soon as she made her Dart test drive, with the salesman in the passenger seat and my 6'4" 210 lb body pretty comfortable in the back seat.
Overall, it has been a great car. (Keep in mind, those '84 and the '88 Fieros had a 2.5, 92 hp 4 banger in them, quick, kinda but certainly not 'fast') Never did I think that little 1.4 turbo Dodge engine would crank out almost twice the HP without a bit of strain, And corner like a banshee too. We made trips from near Houston Tx, up to extreme NE Texas, down to Corpus Christi, up to Little Rock Ark, and all over everywhere in between. Texas, has a lot of highways. Good mpg, & a smooth ride for the most part.
We did have some trouble with it early on.
1. The transmission started acting a little flaky in late 2014. Dodge replaced the transmission under warranty.
2. The well known shifter bushing recall, which we had to wait on but I had cobbled together a fix for it so we could still use it while we were waiting for dealership to get a bushing in.
3. A couple of some kind of software updates were needed..I don't remember what they were now.
We also had a self inflicted problem...Don't ask how, but my darlin wife broke the turn signal stalk off. We had it replaced, and that wasn't cheap since it was out of warranty and wouldn't have covered it anyway. I 'think' it has around 128,000 on the odometer..I'll look later. (Wife has been the principal driver for the last few years)
It's easy to keep clean with just a little effort.
Things I REALLY liked.
1. The seats. So comfortable to sit in on a long trip. There is nothing like leather, I don't care what the plastic people say.
2. The little 'ski' door in the back seat. We didn't ski but I did put my fishing rods tru it sometimes.
3. Trunk size. For a smallish car, it holds a lot, and carries weight without notice to the way it handles.
4. Engine reliability. Looking back, it was 11 years before we decided it might need the plugs changed. (we kept the oil and filters changed religiously.)
5. The large view screen and Navigation. Sure came in handy finding our way thru DFW and San Antonio.
6. Of course the backup camera which is something I had never seen in any of our vehicles and I'm 75 now.
7. It's a good looking car. Even today, all cleaned up, with 100,000+ miles I still admire it's look.
Things I did not like..
1. (And this is a big dislike from me) Road noise. It comes from 2 sources. The tires and the fact that it sits so low to the pavement. Those short height tires just transmit road noise worse than any I ever drove. Granted, part of that is Texas roads being predominantly chip & seal. They lay down a substrate base, then spray a layer of tar and the spread a layer of chipped limestone directly on the hot tar. Might do 2 layers of that but the results are the same. Little sharp rocks sticking up out of the hardened tar. Cross a county line where the road is asphalt or get on the interstate that's concrete, the noise diminishes significantly but it's still louder than I'd like.
2. That big undercar fiber board that is supposed to keep the bottom of the engine clean and keep air flow in place as well as having the cat heat shield incorporated. Too flimsy and it just doesn't do it's job. 1/2 the low riding cars I see has it torn off.
3. The extreme slope of the rear window. Almost impossible to clean the inside of it where it comes in contact with the area behind the rear seat.
4. The air conditioner. It may work well up north where the summers are milder, but even tho we've had it checked several times, here in Central Texas and over in East Texas the air conditioner struggled and it took a long time to cool, especially the back seat area.
But, if they were offered again, I'd look hard at them as her next new car. I know she really loves her Dart and is gonna be really down when it leaves our garage for the last time.
A prelude..
I had always driven pickups (except a '61Corvette back when I was single) but around 1998, my wife bought an '84 Pontiac Fiero. Then I bought one, then another, and we eventually had 5 Fieros, including 2 Indys and 1 '88. Absolutely loved them. So, we were used to small, low sitting vehicles. But, the day came when I was tired of low powered 30 year old cars, and, it got hard for me to crawl into one and harder still to fall out. The Fieros had to go and a new car acquired... (I kept my pickup truck)
We bought our Dart new, with 28 miles on it right off the dealership lot in Liberty County, City of Cleveland Tx, 40 miles North of Houston. Wife drove several different make & model vehicles before she settled on the Dart including a new Avenger, but it was one of those. "I want this one!" as soon as she made her Dart test drive, with the salesman in the passenger seat and my 6'4" 210 lb body pretty comfortable in the back seat.
Overall, it has been a great car. (Keep in mind, those '84 and the '88 Fieros had a 2.5, 92 hp 4 banger in them, quick, kinda but certainly not 'fast') Never did I think that little 1.4 turbo Dodge engine would crank out almost twice the HP without a bit of strain, And corner like a banshee too. We made trips from near Houston Tx, up to extreme NE Texas, down to Corpus Christi, up to Little Rock Ark, and all over everywhere in between. Texas, has a lot of highways. Good mpg, & a smooth ride for the most part.
We did have some trouble with it early on.
1. The transmission started acting a little flaky in late 2014. Dodge replaced the transmission under warranty.
2. The well known shifter bushing recall, which we had to wait on but I had cobbled together a fix for it so we could still use it while we were waiting for dealership to get a bushing in.
3. A couple of some kind of software updates were needed..I don't remember what they were now.
We also had a self inflicted problem...Don't ask how, but my darlin wife broke the turn signal stalk off. We had it replaced, and that wasn't cheap since it was out of warranty and wouldn't have covered it anyway. I 'think' it has around 128,000 on the odometer..I'll look later. (Wife has been the principal driver for the last few years)
It's easy to keep clean with just a little effort.
Things I REALLY liked.
1. The seats. So comfortable to sit in on a long trip. There is nothing like leather, I don't care what the plastic people say.
2. The little 'ski' door in the back seat. We didn't ski but I did put my fishing rods tru it sometimes.
3. Trunk size. For a smallish car, it holds a lot, and carries weight without notice to the way it handles.
4. Engine reliability. Looking back, it was 11 years before we decided it might need the plugs changed. (we kept the oil and filters changed religiously.)
5. The large view screen and Navigation. Sure came in handy finding our way thru DFW and San Antonio.
6. Of course the backup camera which is something I had never seen in any of our vehicles and I'm 75 now.
7. It's a good looking car. Even today, all cleaned up, with 100,000+ miles I still admire it's look.
Things I did not like..
1. (And this is a big dislike from me) Road noise. It comes from 2 sources. The tires and the fact that it sits so low to the pavement. Those short height tires just transmit road noise worse than any I ever drove. Granted, part of that is Texas roads being predominantly chip & seal. They lay down a substrate base, then spray a layer of tar and the spread a layer of chipped limestone directly on the hot tar. Might do 2 layers of that but the results are the same. Little sharp rocks sticking up out of the hardened tar. Cross a county line where the road is asphalt or get on the interstate that's concrete, the noise diminishes significantly but it's still louder than I'd like.
2. That big undercar fiber board that is supposed to keep the bottom of the engine clean and keep air flow in place as well as having the cat heat shield incorporated. Too flimsy and it just doesn't do it's job. 1/2 the low riding cars I see has it torn off.
3. The extreme slope of the rear window. Almost impossible to clean the inside of it where it comes in contact with the area behind the rear seat.
4. The air conditioner. It may work well up north where the summers are milder, but even tho we've had it checked several times, here in Central Texas and over in East Texas the air conditioner struggled and it took a long time to cool, especially the back seat area.
But, if they were offered again, I'd look hard at them as her next new car. I know she really loves her Dart and is gonna be really down when it leaves our garage for the last time.
