Dodge Dakota

Which Dodge Dakota years should you avoid?

Going by 6,488 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Dodge Dakota years to avoid are 2005, 2000, 2002, 2001 and 1999.

• 2005470 complaints, 2.3× a typical Dakota year, most often about the airbags; and 2.3× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (27 fires, 30 crashes).
• 2000806 complaints, 3.9× a typical Dakota year, most often about the suspension.
• 2002678 complaints, 3.3× a typical Dakota year, most often about the suspension.
• 2001678 complaints, 3.3× a typical Dakota year, most often about the suspension.
• 1999641 complaints, 3.1× a typical Dakota year, most often about the suspension.

2 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

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 →