Dodge Charger

Which Dodge Charger years should you avoid?

Going by 5,738 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Dodge Charger years to avoid are 2006, 2011, 2012, 2008 and 2007.

• 20061,294 complaints, 7.1× a typical Charger year, most often about the engine.
• 2011695 complaints, 3.8× a typical Charger year, most often about the electrical system; and 2.5× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (64 fires, 25 crashes).
• 2012648 complaints, 3.6× a typical Charger year, most often about the electrical system.
• 2008609 complaints, 3.3× a typical Charger year, most often about the electrical system.
• 2007554 complaints, 3.0× a typical Charger year, most often about the transmission.

1 more year cleared the same bar; it is marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2021, 2018 and 2017 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2026 and 2027. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →