2016 Dodge Challenger
This year drew an ordinary 78 complaints for a Dodge Challenger — the model's median is 126. What they were about is the unusual part: 20.5% of them mention headlights, against 7.9% 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 | 78 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 126 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headlights — 20.5% of this year's complaints, against 7.9% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: headlights, wiring, intermittently, fuse.
- local dealer — 10.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (4.5×). Owners wrote it as: local dealer, failure assistance, vehicle sustained.
- head — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the model's other years (5.7×).
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
The wiring to the headlights are getting hot and visibly showing burn Mark's to the wiring and fuses to the headlights (not halo lights). It is causing the headlights to come on intermittently. Sometimes they come on at night and sometimes they don't. Sometime…
Tipman module is melting and has a burning smell and black marks where there has been spark. Fire hazard. Draws too many amps from headlights. Drivers side seatbelt won't register and seatbelt airbag light is on.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18E053000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V332000 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 2016 Dodge Challenger? What happened to yours?
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