2014 Dodge Challenger
This year drew an ordinary 146 complaints for a Dodge Challenger — the model's median is 78. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.3% of them mention alternator, against 8.8% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Dodge Challenger, which began in 2008. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 146 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 78 |
| Involving a crash | 16 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- alternator — 25.3% of this year's complaints, against 8.8% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: alternator, notice, p60, june.
- leaking — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the model's other years (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: leaking, filter, housing, oil filter.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
MOPAR SAFETY RECALL FOR ALTERNATOR DIODE IS NOT BEING CHECKED OR REPAIRED BY MY LOCAL DEALERSHIP. FUEL LEAK: I HAVE NOTICEABLE AMOUNT OF FUEL LEAKING FROM BENEATH MY CAR. I BROUGHT THE CAR INTO THE LOCAL DEALERSHIP AND ARE TELLING ME THAT A NEED A NEW FUEL TAN…
while driving at 40 MPH, she smelled a burning oil odor. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact was able to continue to drive the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the oil filter housing adapter was lea…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V018000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18E053000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 17V435000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V741000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V634000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Dodge Challenger was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2014 Dodge Challenger? What happened to yours?
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