2011 Dodge Challenger
This year drew an ordinary 193 complaints for a Dodge Challenger — the model's median is 78. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.1% of them mention alternator, against 9% 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 | 193 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 78 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- alternator — 31.1% of this year's complaints, against 9% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: alternator, diagnosed alternator, lights came, smoking.
- window — 11.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the model's other years (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: window, under recall, caused vehicle.
- smoke — 7.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: smoke, hood, coming out, driving 2011.
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
ALTERNATOR DIED SUDDENLY OUT OF THE BLUE WHILE DRIVING. A LOUD WHISTLING NOISE STARTED COMING OUT OF THE HOOD WHICH GOT PROGRESSIVELY WORSE, AND THEN THE ENGINE LIGHT STARTED FLASHING. ONLINE THERE ARE REPORTS OF MANY ALTERNATORS DYING [VIN] IN THIS MODEL OF D…
WHILE DRIVING MY 2011 DODGE CHALLENGER R/T ALL OF A SUDDEN ALL OF THE INTERIOR LIGHTS JUST LITE UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE. I WAS ABLE TO SLOW DOWN AND STOP THE CAR AND THEN I PROCEEDED TO TURN OFF THE CAR. AS I WAS TRYING TO DETERMINE WHAT HAPPENED I THEN OPENE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V018000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V435000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V021000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V352000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V118000 AIR BAGS 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 2011 Dodge Challenger? What happened to yours?
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