The Dodge Avenger Proves That A Terrible New Car Can Actually Be A Good Used Car

Menu Home » A Terrible New Car Can Actually Be A Good Used Car A Terrible New Car Can Actually Be A Good Used Car By David Tracy October 6, 2026 12:26 pm 115 Comments “In a comparison test, an Avenger SXT equipped with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine finished in last place behind a Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Nissan Altima, and Toyota Camry,” wrote Car and Driver about the heavily-criticized Dodge sedan that debuted for the 2008 model-year. Review after review mentioned the DaimlerChrysler-era Dodge’s low-quality hard plastics, weak 2.4-liter “World” engine, four-speed slushbox, lacking fuel economy and handling, and on and on. This might lead you to think: This car is terrible. And yet, it’s not. Well, it was, but it isn’t. Allow me to explain.

One thing that happens a lot in automotive media is that a car hits the market, receives terrible reviews by scores of automotive journalists, and this defines that car’s legacy forever. Similar to “the ick,” this initial reputation is borderline impossible to shed, and I myself have written negatively about cars because of those initial impressions. I’ve learned my lesson, though, after revisiting some of those cars a few years later and realizing that they now deserved an entirely new, more positive rep. But most bloggers and keyboard warriors will continue to echo those initial insults, further cementing those cars as junk in the history books.

The car I daily drive, a BMW i3, is one of the few cars that managed to get past the “ick” of its negative initial reviews, which derided its lack of range, tricky coach doors, and extremely elevated price. The Carbon Fiber Wonder from Leipzig managed to shed the ick largely because it is an engineering marvel that has depreciated extremely quickly, making it a fun and unusual used car. The Dodge Avenger is nothing like the i3, though I believe it deserves a redemption arc.

To be fair, the car I looked at was so broken that it’s the very first Trade-In Tuesday vehicle that I was unable to drive even a single foot. I suspect it has some kind of Powertrain Control Module fault, as is fairly common with these vehicles.

I realize I’m not making a great case for the Avenger, but this 2013 model had 160,000 miles on it and, ostensibly, managed to get to Galpin (The Autopian’s sister-company) under its own power. Maybe. In any case, 160,000 miles isn’t bad, and more importantly, talking about the Dodge Avenger means understanding what it meant to the hundreds of thousands of people who owned it.

Over 400,000 Americans bought JS-platform Dodge Avengers, and while many of those initial purchases may have been fleet companies, most of the vehicles ended up in private hands. That’s a lot of cars, and despite the fact that they may have been uncompetitive when new, what ultimately matters is how the cars were perceived not by car journalists but by the people who actually drove them daily.

And, it turns out, based on my internet search, plenty of people like the Dodge Avenger, a car that, at one point in time, I didn’t think had any redeeming qualities. And that’s for two main reasons: 1. They’re dirt cheap, and 2. That weak-sauce 2.4-liter engine and 4-speed automatic hold up quite well.

The Reddit post below illustrates the point I made earlier about how those initial impressions really color how a car is perceived, at least until enough actual owners who have lived with the car chime in and say “Hey, so I know this car is supposed to suck … but it’s been crushing it for our family.”

Scour Reddit and Cars.com, and you’ll see dozens of delighted Dodge Avenger owners saying things like this:

GREAT BUY! i bought a 2009 dodge avenger for 1800$ USD with 208k miles on it in november 2021, no major issues, oil changes brakes a bearing a radiator hose and that was it !!!!! i sold it in February 2024 with 254k miles in it for 1500$ USD and i still keep in contact with the purchaser and its still on the road going strong! i love tht car and i miss it everyday! one of the BEST cars ive ever had and that car is what turned me DODGE forever. Bought a 2012 Durango after i sold the avenger last yr and fell in love with the durango so much i upgraded to a 2019 one. Dont listen to the stories every car make and model has its issues , long as u take care of it it will take care of you ! i love tht car so much im thinking abt buying one for my work commute

They have a hit and miss reputation. My coworker had one for a few years, she racked up a couple hundred thousand miles on it with minimal maintenance issues

The engines (2.4l World Engine) do not see issues. My buddy is a Master Chrysler mechanic and has never had one apart with the exception of mine. The reason he had mine (2009 Journey same powertrain) apart HAD NOTHING to do with the reliability (that was at 205k miles).

And the 40/41TES is a super reliable transmission. Took Chrysler til about 2000 to get them right, but they are right. My 40TES in my Journey has 254k miles and still shifts perfectly. All I did was change the fluid and filter every 30-45k miles. (Filter every other change)

Common Powertrain issues: Engine (2.4l) Cam Phasers, leaking timing chain cover gasket, exhaust manifolds are weak.

Transmission: leaky solenoid packs/gasket

These are all low cost issues for the most part.

Bought the vehicle used with 90,000k. At 147,000k now for 3 years. Mostly highway driving. Downsides…Bad battery placement, poor alternator design, had to replace due to the pulley clutch. My 4cyl. Is a dog; way underpowered. The main power and is around 4,000rpm. That’s really pushing this little 4 banger. The engine struggles over almost any grade in the road, especially in cruse. There are huge blind spots at the rear A pillar. The unprotected wires for the airbag sensors under the seats cause the airbag light to come on. Now the upsides. Best looking sedan in it’s class, hands down. Alloy wheels, steering wheel controls, lighted cup holders, clean interior. Relatively comfortable seats. Excellent gas mileage (23-28mpg). The 6 speed automatic transmission makes the dogish 4cyl make the car driveable, as well as the slap manual for shifting. The radio has a HDD drive that holds a gig of music storage. Excellent sound system. Large trunk, rear seat access through the armrest. Overall; with preventive maintenance, driving responsibly, and regular oil changes/tune-ups I would expect another 100,000k (knock on wood).

To be sure, there are some criticisms, like this one:

Shitty car. I’ve had my 2014 dodge avenger SE since 60k miles. I’m almost on 210k now. Before 100k miles I needed 2 batteries and an alternator. I’m not sure if my specific model is just fucked but my front brakes go bad every 10k miles which is annoying and no one seems to know why.

After 100k it just started to fall apart. I’ve done so many little repairs it would take time to remember them all but the hoses constantly going bad are the most memorable as they leave you temporarily stranded.

Recently I got my heater core replaced at 200k miles. (apparently they go bad way sooner for everyone else) and I believe it because the brand new one is clogged as of today. Not even 10k miles later. Which is causing my car to overheat and I have no heat

I was 19years old financially illiterate and got a 20% interest or I would’ve gotten rid of this thing a long time ago.

I can’t imagine getting one with 150k miles already. Get a Honda , Toyota or Jetta

EDIT: if there ain’t at least a 392 in it it’s safe to dodge the dodge

EDIT 2: Just google how to replace 2014 Dodge Avenger battery to see why it pisses me off I needed two so quickly. I forgot to mention my radio also randomly stopped working after the second battery and I couldn’t find a code or anything to get it to work

Besides another radio randomly dying everything has been alright. I have another vacuum leak but I’m too lazy to find it.

It’s paid off and I pay $250/month insurance (ATLANTA PRICES ARE DUMB) so I’ll be keeping it until the engine or transmission fail.

But the point is, for some people, a $2000 Avenger that lasts them five years with basic maintenance isn’t a bad car at all; in fact, even though there are better cheap-car options out there, the Avenger can be a solid car, no matter what Car and Driver said a decade prior.

The Avenger trade-in that Galpin took in for a low 3-figure sum was clearly beaten to within an inch of its life. The engine cranked, but would not start, with the OBD reader telling me there was a PCM fault.

The front bumper was being taped up to the grille, the hood and roof were badly dented, and the windshield was cracked.

This being a 2013, the Avenger received the Fiat Chrysler-funded interior update, so the cabin didn’t look too bad:

For someone, this was basic transportation. And while, unfortunately, many first-owners of some of these cheaper Chrysler products took on subprime loans at absurd interest rates, for second, third, fourth, and even fifth owners of these cars, they can be a godsend — a cheap way to get some wheels that, with some basic upkeep, keep spinning for hundreds of thousands of miles. In that context, the Dodge Avenger isn’t a bad car at all.

I had an 08 R/T that was a former rental car. It felt like it was falling apart when I traded it in at 160k 5 or 6 years later and the dealer apparently knew it from a mile away.

Weird electrical gremlins as stated and the passenger side heat had stopped working. We suspected a clogged heater core, but it was in the engine bay wedged between the 3.6L and the firewall to where it didn’t seem like you could get it out without pulling the engine.

0 Member Cranberry 2 hours ago That’s how I see the ‘24-‘25 bZ4X/Solterra. Solid car, especially poor fast charging at launch both in speed and amount allowed before throttling but improved enough after its first year to be solid at the right price.

Then it becomes a Toyota-philosophy car, which goes both ways but generally you can expect it to be solid. Normal door handles too.

1 Member Parsko 6 hours ago Hand me the keys to a free one and you will see me hand those keys right back to you.

1 Space 4 hours ago Reply to  Parsko You must be rich, the $300 I could get from scrapping one would make a huge difference.

0 Astrass 7 hours ago Not sure if it still is, but for a long time, the phrase “good used car” was the best way to describe American brands’ passenger cars. Half-assed efforts that were never competitive with foreign makes when new, but would readily serve as a cheap beater that thrives on neglect for hundreds of thousands of miles when a few years old. The Dodge Avenger is a perfect example; the interior might be crap and falling apart, but most examples will get you to where you’re going. “Good used car” damns them with faint praise.

1 JokesOnYou 8 hours ago i don’t know the used car parts market for these things, but the person who traded it in MIGHT have gotten more if they parted it out rather than limp it in. I’m sure they got no more than $300 for the trade in.

0 Space 4 hours ago Reply to  JokesOnYou The parts market on the engine/transmission is as good as it gets. Plenty of available parts, they would probably get more but might not be worth the effort.

0 Member Sofonda Wagons 8 hours ago Hate me if you want, but I still want to find a low mile Dodge Caliber. Don’t know why I like them, but I do, the style just worked for me, and will not apologize for wanting one!!!! This from the person that would crap coming across a 15k mile purple PT Cruiser. Make it a convertible one and my 401 has just been drained , ha, ha ,ha!

2 Admin David Tracy 8 hours ago Reply to  Sofonda Wagons You are likely going to end up with the cheapest low-mileage car ever.

1 Member My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot 8 hours ago Here’s a quick question (or question of the day if someone wants to use it)

The Dodge Avenger and Dodge Journey are probably too old and used up now, but what’s a more current vehicle that would be an underrated, but affordable ‘disposable transportation’ in the mold of the Avenger?

1 FuzzyPlushroom 6 hours ago Reply to  My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot This feels like it might be Mitsubishi’s niche-ubishi.

2 Space 4 hours ago Reply to  My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot I hate to say it but it’s probably a Tesla.

0 Member G. K. 3 hours ago Reply to  My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot A final-generation Chevrolet Malibu.

0 Azrael 9 hours ago My brother somehow managed to put over 300,000 on an Avenger with the 3.6, despite his usual care and treatment. Which included multiple trips to the local race track. He ultimately traded it in for a can of Dr Pepper (which is all it was worth at that point), but it served him pretty well driving all over the south eastern US.

It wasn’t trouble free miles, but at least it made it there eventually, which is more than I’ll be saying for my mom’s Charger of a similar vintage. It was at least far better than his PT Cruiser, which had the rear bumper melted off by the exhaust, had the engine rebuilt twice, and had so many electrical gremlins it was featured in a WWII Looney Tunes short.

Yes, he has horrible taste in vehicles. A few years ago he bought a 2nd gen Dakota, which was so rusted out that the bed fell apart on it, and he discovered that he could poke his finger through the metal of the frame. He paid $8500 for it. Wasn’t even a V8, just the 3.9l. At least he was able to weld it back together enough to use around his land.

1 Member Rod Millington 9 hours ago I still think this series is best summed up as “Michigan man amazed at driving any car that is not riddled with rust”.

2 The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years 10 hours ago Lol. Lmao even.

1 Member G. K. 10 hours ago This is also a compounding problem, because these unloved-but-decent cars will also be the cheapest on the market, relative to their contemporaries. That means they’ll fall prey to the worst owners who don’t take care of them and who (whether by circumstance or negligence) let them fall into major cosmetic and mechanical disrepair. Even a robust, difficult to kill car is much less solid when it’s been subjected to multiple 25K-mile oil change intervals and thrashed to within an inch of its life.

So the ones that are surviving aren’t necessarily representative of the best examples or situations. if that makes sense.

As for the Avenger in particular, I think it would have been easier to forgive the car its faults if it weren’t so ugly. The Sawn-off Charger styling didn’t exactly do it any favors..especially after the Charger itself received a major re-skin and revamp for 2011 and moved away from this blocky, unsophisticated theming.

2 Member John Beef 10 hours ago Maybe next time we could have a different reviewer when a Chrysler product is going to be featured on TiT (heh)? I love David’s writing and have been following him for years, but as a Chrysler fetishist, he’s going to try to find the smallest of upsides to the shittiest of shitboxes – like this article! This post is brought to you with the warmest love and respect.

1 Admin David Tracy 9 hours ago Reply to  John Beef I have zero loyalty to Chrysler products and have often been their biggest critic, but I get why people might think otherwise given that I used to work for them. Not much I can do on that front.

In reality, I’m an AMC-era Jeep man.

3 Member Chevy Cruze Gang 10 hours ago Needed cheap wheels during Covid and was able to scrape together enough cash to buy a salvage titled 2010 Avenger SXT, 2.4 with the 4 speed auto. According to CarFax it had been an Enterprise rental car before it was in a severe rear end collision and thus retired and auctioned off. Someone fixed it back up (not very well I may add bc the bodywork was mediocre at best with paint peeling and wavy panels) but it surprisingly drove well and was very reliable during its near 4 year tenure with me. It got good gas mileage, had a damn good radio and I’ve never had a car that drove as well as it did in the snow, even with the Douglas all seasons it was riding on. Not saying overall they’re not shitboxes and my 2014 Cruze I have now is definitely the better car, but I look back very fondly on the ole Avenger, dare I say I even kinda miss it sometimes. But only kinda lol

2 Admin David Tracy 9 hours ago Reply to  Chevy Cruze Gang Here here!

1 Bizness Comma Nunya 10 hours ago Compass/Patriots had CVTs. They didn’t put CVTs in Avengers (or 200’s). Which is maybe the only point going for these shitty sedans? Rented enough of them, and I actually preferred the Compass/Patriots over Avengers/200s….but that’s not saying much.

0 Andy Individual 10 hours ago I had a coworker who inherited a nearly new fist generation Dodge Journey. It was visibly in good shape. It was a really bad car, mostly due to a very vague notion of build quality at the factory. He ultimately got about ten years of use out of it. He didn’t enjoy it, but it still served him.

Upon disintegration, he bought a new Jeep Wrangler. In just about every way, outside of being able to trample nature, which he doesn’t do, it has been a worse vehicle. He described the Journey as being tolerable to drive and the Jeep as a chore. Then there’s the cost of ownership… As a ‘put people and things in it and get somewhere’ car, he still talks about that Journey positively, which he was happy at the time to be rid of. He always described it as a ‘poors’ vehicle, he was never a poors, just too cheap to not use up a free car. I think he said something about just getting a Corolla the other day.

Also, most of us at some point in our lives are going to need a rental car, so The Avenger exists for a reason too.

3 Member G. K. 10 hours ago Reply to  Andy Individual There are certain automakers who seem to historically do well when they make inexpensive, unimpressive machinery. As soon as they begin making aspirational products that try to compete on paper with everything else by adding gadgets and gismos galore…quality and longevity slips.

I’d say Chrysler (across its various names and corporate entanglements) is one of those automakers. FoMoCo and Volkswagen also have this issue at times.

1 Member Get an E-bike 10 hours ago I was most taken by the guy who said an Avenger made him a Dodge for life guy. He has had two Durangos.

Dodge for life. A ‘60s slant six, maybe.

3 Elhigh 10 hours ago In what world is 28 mpg “excellent?”

If my truck gets mileage that bad, I check the tire pressure. If my RAV gets mileage that bad, I check whether all the tires are still there.

2 Admin David Tracy 9 hours ago Reply to  Elhigh It’s really not.

1 Member Drive By Commenter 9 hours ago Reply to  Elhigh Maybe if coming from 10 mpg. That’s about 7 fewer gallons of fuel every 100 miles.

0 Member Dogpatch 7 hours ago Reply to  Elhigh Curious what kind of truck you have?

2 Reasonable Pushrod 4 hours ago Reply to  Elhigh What truck could you possibly have?

0 Space 4 hours ago Reply to  Reasonable Pushrod It’s either the Diesel Chevy or the hybrid Maverick, I think those are the only ones that significantly beat 28mph.

0 Member My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot 10 hours ago Car magazines can’t account for discounting/depreciation, they gotta look at MSRP. And at MSRP, the Dodge Avenger was not a competitive car.

The Dodge Avenger wasn’t a bad car under a very narrow set of conditions.

If you bought a used one from 2012-2015 as fleets were just dumping them en masse, you got the benefit of not eating someone else’s horrible depreciation whilst getting an indifferently assembled car that hadn’t entered later entropy stages of life.

Voila: a cheap transportation appliance that could be treated with the same indifference with which it was designed and assembled. I mean, an indifferent-quality car in the 2000s is probably alright in the grand scheme of things, provided you got the right drivetrain. The World 2.4 and 4-spd were pretty well sorted by this time. Dump it after using it from 30k miles to ~110k miles (say years 2-8), extracting most of the value along the way in thankless commuting.

In later life, the indifference in engineering and assembly quality reveal themselves as entropy starts to set in. A Honda or Toyota well in its second decade and well into the six digits keeps entropy at bay more effectively, whereas the Avenger of this era looks something similar to the one on the Galpin lot.

1 Member Grey alien in a beige sedan 11 hours ago That giant piece of awful plastic on the C-pillar… gonna fall off like the do on the Buick Rendezvous.

0 Member G. K. 9 hours ago Reply to  Grey alien in a beige sedan It is said that the Daimler side of DaimlerChrysler told the Chrysler side to cut 15-20% out of the production costs of its upcoming vehicles. The Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger were early victims of this, and one of the places I think that was apparent was that they both had these cheap, unconvincing plastic pieces at the trailing edges of their rear greenhouses, instead of fixed glass. Their 2011 redesigns, which put glass back in those areas, look like what the designers intended and would have done in the first place.

For its part, the Avenger was styled to look like a junior version of the original, cheaper-built 2006-2010 Charger. Had that earlier Charger been a premium or attractive vehicle in the first place, this wouldn’t have been a bad thing. However, since the Charger did look cheap, so did the Avenger, along with having the added demerit of gawkish transverse-FWD proportions. And it inherited those plastic fixed pieces on the rear-greenhouse sections.

0 Member KGurrier 11 hours ago Textbook example of “damning with faint praise.”

The premise is totally accurate, after the market takes on price correction. There’s some great workhorses out there, but I don’t know if the Avenger is one of them.

3 Cody Pendant 11 hours ago This is funny. I thought this was going to be another trade in review, instead it was: people hated this car, but it’s great. Look at all these comments. And ends with: I can’t drive this traded in one because it doesn’t run. That is not how I was expecting this review to turn.

3 Admin David Tracy 9 hours ago Reply to  Cody Pendant Gotta switch it up every now and again.

0 Goblin 11 hours ago I really had huge hopes for the Dart when it was released – it just showed well in those “Imported from Detroit” ads back then. Then 10ish years later I got into an Uber one, and oh my. Still looked good on the outside, but drove like a brick running on other bricks.

Not sure if the Avenger shares anything with it, but it didn’t get me too hot for the Dodge brand.

2 Member Tim Connors 11 hours ago Everyone on those Reddit threads is saying these are good except for a bunch of stuff I’ve never had to deal with in my equally ancient Toyota.

I think the bigger truth is just that sometimes people love the thing that happened to be there for them when they needed it.

10 Member Argentine Utop 9 hours ago Reply to  Tim Connors I think the bigger truth is just that sometimes people love the thing that happened to be there for them when they needed it.

2 Member Tim Connors 5 hours ago Reply to  Argentine Utop We are talking cars, but other stuff too!

0 Member Freddy Bartholomew 11 hours ago This is one of the few times since I’ve been reading The Autopian to read a paragraph or two and then immediately jump to the comments to see if I agreed with the consensus the car was and is “crap.” It seems I’m not alone. Of course, if I had a choice between walking 10 miles to a job or driving this vehicle, I’d drive.