While sudden unintended acceleration is often scandalous stuff, most of the time it’s simply user error. From getting a floor mat or loose object caught in the accelerator pedal to hitting the gas instead of the brake and turning a local Little Caesars into a drive-thru, human screw-ups are often the biggest factor in these incidents, but they aren’t always to blame. Several reports of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV accelerating on its own are floating around, and they don’t seem to be caused by confused drivers.
The Dodge Charger Daytona hasn’t exactly had the easiest start in life. For nearly 20 years, Dodge made a name on automotive red meat in the form of rear-wheel-drive V8 muscle cars dripping with power and presence. Then, the brand announced it was phasing out the V8 Charger and Challenger for an electric car. Selling a battery-powered vehicle to the sort of crowd enamoured with the old Charger is a risky strategy, so whatever Dodge made, it had to be good.
At first, the Charger Daytona seemed somewhat promising on that front. We’re talking 670 horsepower in Scat Pack trim, zero-to-60 mph in the mid threes, three-door or five-door liftback body styles, and a new STLA Large architecture. Then the warts started appearing. The trims it launched with can’t do a burnout, the hi-po Scat Pack model only achieved 185 miles of range in Motor Trend‘s 70-MPH range test, and the car was discounted pretty much as soon as it hit dealer lots. It quickly started to look like a compromised package, but it didn’t have any allegations of serious safety issues. Not until now, at least.
In May, Edmunds reported that it was driving its Charger Daytona long-term test car when a bevy of error lights flashed on the dashboard, and the car entered a sort of limp mode. Not normal behavior, but also not the worst sort of failure to have on the road. However, when the driver put his foot back on the skinny pedal, things got spooky:
I got the Charger up to the speed of traffic OK, but then I noticed something was very wrong when I slightly lifted off the accelerator. First, the Charger wasn’t using any regenerative braking to slow itself down like it should. (In an EV, you typically lift off the accelerator and the car decelerates without using the regular friction brakes.) It wasn’t coasting, either. It was, in fact, accelerating.
I watched the speedometer and could tell the Charger was gaining speed at approximately 1 mph per second, even though I did not have a foot on the pedal.
My son was with me, so I had him take a video of what was happening. Soon, I was approaching a stop sign. I had to push on the brake pedal harder than usual to get the car to stop, but fortunately, it did stop. (Presumably, the extra effort was required to counteract the constant acceleration.) As soon as I lifted off the brake pedal, the car started accelerating again. It was a bit like the creeping forward effect you get with a regular car with an automatic transmission, but then it just kept going instead of being limited to a 2-3 mph top speed.
How far did it keep going? Well, Edmunds reports its Charger Daytona exceeded 45 MPH on its own before aborting the no-feet unintended acceleration run, and here’s video of the initial incident.
That’s not an especially fast rate of acceleration, but it’s definitely far quicker than it should be. I could see the car creeping forward at less than five MPH being normal, but footage of that Charger Daytona accelerating on its own at a fairly normal in-town pace is cause for concern. Has anyone other than Edmunds reported this same issue?
Why, yes. There’s exactly one NHTSA complaint for the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona, and it’s for this exact issue. It was filed back in April and it details a similar pattern of limp mode then unintended acceleration as the one Edmunds experienced.
While driving, the car suddenly went into “Turtle Mode” in which the car slowed down by itself and numerous warnings on the dash board suddenly appear including “Service Electrical System”. Since I am in the middle of driving on a fairly busy street I attempt to get the car moving again and step on the accelerator pedal. The car does increase in speed but now will not stop speeding up even when I let off the gas pedal. The speed of the vehicle keeps getting faster ON IT’S OWN. I have to step on the brake and keep braking to get the car to slow down again. Then it starts to “Turtle” again and slows to a crawl. It step on the gas again and again the car starts to accelerate on it’s own even when I let off the gas pedal. I regained control using the brake alone to get the car to a safe place where I could park and turn the car off.
Two near-identical reports of the same failure are quite the coincidence, and it doesn’t stop there. As the late, great Billy Mays famously said, “But wait, there’s more.” A quick perusal of the Daytona Owners forum returns more reports of sudden intended acceleration, one of which allegedly led to a crash.
As the first post in the thread “Accelerator problems” details, user “joe and joyce charger” reports a collision involving sudden unintended acceleration. Here’s the text:
Has any one had a problem with the accelerator engaging by it self.
I had my foot on the brake and the car took off by itself going about between 50 or 70 miles per hour. Shot us through hedges and into on coming traffic causing a three car wreck. We were t-boned, side air bags exploded and appears that the car is totaled.This is the second time our car has accelerated on its own.
While firm pressure on the brake pedal or potentially even a shift to neutral should’ve cut power to the motors, in the event of an actual sudden unintended acceleration incident, not every driver will be able to apply full brake pressure in the heat of the moment.
User “NickelScat”, who reports experiencing the same issue in their Charger Daytona, concurs that sudden unintended acceleration can be a real safety issue based on the driver’s reaction to it. Curiously, this user also claims to have some data that may paint a picture of what’s going on.
My daytona is in the service center right now because of this issue. It has a 12v issue goes into limp mode and then there is some other issue and it reads the tpm at 20% or so. It accelerates on it own with no pedal input. All you can do is hold the brakes. It happened to me 3 times in 24 hours. I called the dealer and said it must be towed. I have had multiple people say the same thing is happening to them.
Is it out of control? No. Is it a death trap? No. Will I ever let my wife who’s response of freaking out the car is driving it self and that will make it dangerous… yeah she will never drive it with this issue. Neither will my kids. That is just called being smart and playing it safe. If didge can’t fix it will I lemon law it? Yes absolutely.
The thread goes on with more posts alleging sudden unintended acceleration, including one from user “Moparnocar” that sums up the experience quickly. “My car has done this twice and almost caused an accident the first time. It’s definitely a real issue.”
Now, six or seven reports of sudden unintended acceleration that seem to be caused by electronic issues wouldn’t be a huge number of complaints on a Camry, but Dodge only sold 1,947 electric Chargers in the first quarter of 2025, so by volume, it doesn’t seem like an incredibly rare problem. Also, these are just a few reports we know about because they’re public. It’s entirely possible that more owners have experienced this glitch and haven’t gone public with their stories.
Needless to say, we’ve reached out to Stellantis about this issue and will update you when we hear back. Until then, it certainly seems like Dodge Charger Daytona EVs can, under the right circumstances, accelerate on their own when they really shouldn’t, and that could be a real safety hazard. Knowing that public reports of this problem exist, it’s likely an internal investigation is underway, and we’ll be keeping an eye on this story as it develops.
Update: Stellantis has commented on the situation stating that if pedal communication is lost, the car accelerating on its own is an intentional feature.
In the rare event of an accelerator pedal fault, Stellantis has implemented a ‘drive-by-brake’ safety feature, which allows the driver to control speed through the brake pedal. In this instance, the feature worked as intended, and the driver was able to safely maneuver the vehicle off the road. This feature has been in Stellantis internal combustion engine vehicles for many years and has been carried over to battery electric vehicles.
Top graphic image: Stellantis
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Now this is an interesting story. Usually, reports of “unintended acceleration” involve terrified drivers describing a situation where the car accelerated suddenly and violently, and the brakes simultaneously became entirely ineffective. Of course, we all know that they simply mixed up the pedals, but heaven forbid a car company accuse owners of operating their vehicle improperly. That’s a PR nightmare, as Audi found out in the late 1980’s.
In this case, especially with video evidence, we can see that there clearly is a problem. I can see this being dangerous for two reasons. First, as one of the owners mentioned, some people will freak out and behave irrationally when the vehicle does something they don’t anticipate. Second, owners needing to brake continually could experience brake fade.
What a dumpster fire of a car. I suspect this might be the first time when an honest-to-goodness design flaw created real unintended acceleration in a vehicle.
I think Stellantis may beat Nissan to insolvency.
“Unsafe at any [price]”
As soon as the general public hears about this, these will become even more unsellable.
Have they tried turning it off and on again?
“Hello – Help Desk. What’s your employee number?”
This is actually the recommended solution for when the vehicle enters limp mode. Happened to me twice, it fixed it both times. I was starting the car both times, so no idea if I would have had the auto-acceleration if I took it out of Park.
I’m weary of limp modes. I appreciate a car trying to protect itself from a serious failure but at what point does it put the driver and surrounding drivers in danger? The only time I experienced limp mode I did not have a warning or a slow degradation of power, had it happened literally a minute later I would have been merging onto a highway. Got lucky and had the time and enough thinking to get over into a different lane which was still sketchy and make it to a parking lot.
Imagine that….A Dodge with electrical problems.
I member when this type of thing almost killed Audi as a brand. Of course, nothing was wrong, it was always people pressing the wrong pedal and then blaming the car.
Chargers know the only fact about life worth knowing. If you’re not first you’re last.
They live life a 1/4 mile at a time
That’s the reason my backpacking nickname is “Fast and Furious”
Should’ve opted for the titanium valve springs… on the electric motors?
The most surprising part of this story is that there are at least five Charger Daytona owners.
I don’t think it’s that surprising… It’s actually a very nice car. I saw and test drove one.
It’s a shame about the teething issues.
What did you think of it? Anything you thought was complete crap/surprisingly brilliant?
I make fun of them because of the speaker box, but I’m kinda curious how they actually are.
The speaker box is surprisingly natural-seeming while driving. It quite nicely replicates some of the sonic feedback of driving an ICE vehicle, that I missed in other EVs I’ve driven.
But this is the first EV I’ve owned, so maybe I would have eventually gotten used to the quiet.
The startup sound and fake revving noises (when you press the accel while in Park) are just silly.
In other ways: I like that it is equipped like a regular car (one of the 2020s, anyway) and not in the minimalist style of Tesla that most other EVs mimic to some extent.
It’s comfortable, fast, attention-getting, and fun to drive.
The infotainment system is nice-looking, its reaction speed is complete crap.
When you turn the car off, the dash displays an estimated time to 80%/full charge at Level 1, 2, and 150 kw fast charge, which is surprisingly brilliant.
I test drove it back-to-back against several other EVs at the Auto show in Toronto last February. I test drove the Hyundai/Kia products, GM products and a few others. I liked the Charger the best.
But specific things I like/liked are the styling. the comfort sitting in the driver seat, how it felt going around tight turns. It definitely felt better going around turns than any of the electric CUVs.
The test didn’t include testing range or doing anything high speed as it was a low speed indoor track.
And the speaker/sound thing is fine. I felt it added to the experience… and you can turn it off if you don’t like it. I don’t see why everyone makes such a big deal about it.
Yeah, it’s a gimmick. But so what? Lots of cars have gimmicky features.
I’d rather have the new Charger with the fake sounds that is genuinely fast as opposed to the Chargers of the 1960s or 1970s with “real” sounds, but were way slower than the new Charger, guzzled gas, polluted way more and needed way more maintenance.
Is it the fastest EV? No. But in my view, the fastest EVs are waaaaay too fast. Even the base electric Charger is way faster than anyone needs in a daily driver.
In my view the only REAL problem with the Charger is the teething issues.
It’s an all-new design with an all new powertrain. I was hoping they wouldn’t have teething issues, but I know Chrysler’s/FCA’s/Stellantis’ history. And thus, I’m not surprised there are teething issues.
They’ll work those issues out over the next year or two the same way all other automakers, including Tesla, when they started building their own fully in-house BEV designs
Thanks.
My bil & I have talked about old car fast, new car fast, and EV fast. His supercharged M Coupe is quite quick, but my sister’s Polestar2 is quicker. I’m with you that I don’t need to go 0-60 in 3 seconds: 5ish is plenty quick, and 9 is fine for me in daily use.
Great to hear it felt good in turns because I like twisties. EVs will likely never feel like the lightweight shitboxes I cut my teeth on, but a heavy vehicle can be fun if it feels reasonably planted. As far as the speaker goes, if it can’t be turned off, I would want the Jetsons’ flying car sounds—but that’s just a matter of twisted personal taste.
I do appreciate your response
There are at least twelve of us in my city alone! (metro area of over a million, something like a 12 or 15 CDJR dealers in the area, so still…. pretty bad numbers)
I mean, it’s called the Charger. It’s not like Dodge was burying the lede.
Sounds to me that the cruise control has been somehow enabled – so that it will accelerate to whatever speed it thinks it’s been commanded during the “all lights on” scenario.
Probably a simple reprogramming is in order.
The actual reprogramming is simple. Finding the cause of the issue in the hundreds of thousands (or more) of lines of code and fixing it is not so simple.
An a related topic: the whole “automatic transmission creep” thing should have died with the traditional slushbox. There’s simply no reason for this to be replicated in an EV, DCT, or anything else.
I use “auto-hold” on my DCT to stop myself from letting it creep. It’s really bad for your clutch packs.
I thought the same thing till I drove an EV without creep, its nearly impossible to move the vehicle just an inch, especially when you’re on any sort of incline (like loading onto a trailer)
Anyone who has ever operated a vehicle with a manual transmission will vehemently disagree with you.
I drive a manual, its quite different
I leased a 2015 Fiat 500e with that “auto transmission creep” feature and it’s so much worse than pointless. I was stuck in very slow moving traffic one day, the kind where in an actual auto trans car you’re riding the brake to get the right speed and in a manual car you’re slipping the clutch. Letting it creep on it’s own was too fast, but any application of the brakes would instantly disengage the creep and slow me to a stop. So while everyone else was just maintaining that ~3mph walking pace, there I was doing a constant 0-5-0-5-0-5 like a psycho.
Yes! It’s so annoying in traffic! Stop and go traffic that lasts for a long time is still easier in an automatic because my left leg will get tired after 30 minutes of constant clutching, but for less severe traffic, I actually find manuals easier.
Funny story, the first time I ever drove an automatic, I almost rear ended a car at a stoplight. There was a car in front of me and we were both stopped at a red light. The light went green. I let my food off the brake and the car moved forward, totally freaking me out! Thankfully my mother pulled the parking brake. I didn’t expect the car to move without throttle on a flat surface, and I’ve hated that auto creep you get from automatics ever since.
AAAAAAAAaaaaaannd this is why I tell people to never buy a Chrysler product. I was just looking at NOS Challenger RT 6 speeds the other day. Had to slap myself.
“When I say ‘whoa’, I mean WHOA!” -Yosemite Sam
This is user error. They all hit “Skip ahead” on the Infotainment ads. Which, unfortunately, is just a hidden drive mode button.
Well “I am Dodge Charger Daytona” doesn’t roll off the tongue and sound as good “I am Audi 5000”
missed opportunity to add Gonzo to the lead image.
weirdo
Did Lucas provide their throttle module? Were they hurt by all those George Washington Super Bowl ads a decade ago?
Back when all the Toyotas were reportedly accelerating unintentionally my Taco decided to join the club. One day while cruising down the freeway I noticed it wouldn’t slow down when I let off the gas and was picking up speed by about 1mph every minute. I could tap the brakes and drag it back down to 60 then let it slowly climb back up to 70. I wasn’t worried because unlike these Daytonas I had a device called a clutch pedal which assured me I could stop when I wanted to.
When I got home the culprit ended up being a cotter pin that secured the cruise control cable to the throttle body. It had come halfway out and was jamming the throttle cable which held the throttle body valve about halfway open. Much easier to fix since anyone could literally see the problem vs whatever electrical or coding gremlins are causing this problem in the EVs.
I was afraid of something like this happening when I hooked up the throttle cable in my Fiero to the cruise control throttle on the Honda K20 I put in it. The cruise once is a different size to the gas pedal one and it worked better from a tension standpoint. No issues so far, but long term I want to clean it up so there is no potential for things to go wrong.
I mean that it has been a miserable sales failure at least means Dodge doesn’t need to do a lot of research.
Buddy I hate to break it to you, but that is the DEFINITION of an out of control vehicle, and when it sent someone else into oncoming traffic, that is also the definition of a death trap.
I agree, any un-commanded acceleration is an out of control vehicle, no matter how slight the acceleration is.
Makes me think of the video I saw years ago, a blower car rolled on the drag strip and kept accelerating, cause the throttle got jammed wide open when it rolled and smacked the blower hat. I wish I could find the clip, but Google is absolute shit at searching these days.
It’s pretty ironic that the company that founded its empire on a search engine now has a search engine that’s so ensh*ttified that it’s nearly useless.
IT’S LIKE RAIIIIIIINNNN, ON YOUR WEDDING DAAAAY.
Doesn’t look exactly like what happened in this clip, but this one does show a wild stuck throttle on a vintage dragster happen after the burn out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czuG0zgcK4Q
BTW, duckduckgo.com is your friend if your sick of google’s rampant paid search results.
The fact that every other case was very mild acceleration, then this one dude rapidly accelerated when he pressed the brake? Sounds like a case of pushing the wrong button to me for that one. There’s still a massive and dangerous issue here, but that one case does appear to be user error based on the info we have to go on here.
Generally I would agree, but if the dealer in the case of one car was reporting a throttle position measurement issue, it’s certainly possible that it could be a bad design or bad batch of variably unreliable sensors. If one car is reading 20%, another car could be 30%+, and depending on drive mode, could result in a reasonably large amount of power being delivered. Not saying that’s what happened, but if it’s a bad sensor design that’s failing, it’s not a guarantee that every car will fail in exactly the same way.
“As the late, great Billy Mays famously said, “But wait, there’s more.””
Just a note that this is not true, if you were there, you know.
Billy Mays always spoke in all caps: “BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!”
Are you aware of Stellantis’s ability to develop cars?
I will keep repeating it. Stellantis has zero ability to develop an even halfway decent product. Everything they make is complete garbage. The only products that could be considered passable are the ones they inherited, which themselves were inherited, which were based on parts from Mercedes during their worst era.
There is nothing about Stellantis worth saving.
The family member of someone I know well (and trust their technical knowledge above my own) used to work at Stellantis in functional safety for their electrified products (4Xe, etc) and has made it abundantly clear that their safety systems, control loops, and programming is incredibly subpar and nowhere near rigorous enough. I had been hearing for at least the past 2 years that things were quite bad, and there was speculation it would lead to lawsuits. This article and similar ones like it are bearing that out in record time. I truly would not trust a single Stellantis product to protect anyone I care about, and doubly and triply so their Hybrid and EV products.
If it makes anyone feel better Ford and Gm also have continuing issues with cars. Mavericks catching fire, Broncos dropping valves, GM v8’s also dropping valves and grenading even when the DFM is sort of working.
Honda is not infallible either. Engine sludging most recently.
Certainly this is why I would only ever consider a first year vehicle as a Lease in most cases, if at all.
Everyone has some issues, to be sure. However, Stellantis has not had a single success. Honda sludge issues, or Toyota issues due to starting a new production line, seem to be well within the normal range. Ford and GM are in the red zone, and Stellantis is off the charts.
I agree that avoiding the first year or two of anything is a good idea.
I agree with the general rule of not buying the first year of a car. However, back in 2001 model year, we bought the first year of the Highlander after I read that it was using a stiffer frame that would be used on the Lexus equivalent. We are still driving it. It has relatively low miles, <170K.
I believe the kids call it “enshittification”. That is, something starts off great but gets worse over time as corporate greed settles in.
Like how Netflix was great at the beginning then they raised prices, booted non-local accounts, added commercials, added autoplaying title cards, etc.
What we’re seeing is not a result of poor work or inability to build things that are durable. It is nothing more than corporate greed and the cost cutting that cheapens the product and ruins the experience.
It’s crazy to me that we have cars built in the last year that have major mechanical engine issues, like GMs V8s shitting the bed. The designs have been around a long time, the knowledge of how to manufacture them is equally old. Now we even have detailed telemetry about how each part is made, where it went, the torque values for each bolt since a machine likely put them together. Even with all of that, we still see catastrophic engine failures.
Same for software, but worse. It is easy to forget that for a LONG time many computers were standalone; there was no way to issue a patch unless you were there to actually install it. Countless systems operated for years and years without fail because the expectation was that they had to get it right the first time. Think of all the ancient banking systems, ATMs, elevator control units, HVAC systems, etc. These systems have been in place since the 70s and 80s, doing their thing. Sure, they appear simple by today’s standards, but for the time, they were high-tech, cutting-edge systems. The only difference is that it had to be right the first time and you couldn’t do stupid shit like “fix it in post”.
This is nothing more than a drive for continued shareholder value, profit, and growth at the expense of quality.
As a consumer, you have few choices. Most people need a new car every few years and they aren’t going to be well served by something that predates the current software-heavy car. They don’t know how to fix it, maintain it and now they’re potentially trading punches with cars that are far faster, heavier and have more airbags. I would not want to be in an accident driving a mid-90s anything if I got hit by a current F150, or even a heavy BEV.
Yeah, I don’t know where I was going with this so I’ll just stop now. Sorry.
I think a lot of it is the emissions requirements and technological know how to meet a lot of them. Think the 70’s and the gas crunch. add in the requirement of catalytic converters and you get the massive issues of the 70’s cars in general. Now move that forward to the mid to late 80’s and computing getting to be as good as it was, which was really not much, but still far better than the early eighties attempts at electronic fuel injection. took time to get past the teething problems, but eventually it became a no brainer to ditch a carb and get a basic TBI style system on older cars simply because they work better usually.
GM has tried the whole 4-6-8 thing since the early eighties and it has always had some long and short term issues. The current issue seems to be poorly designed connecting rods, but the oil viscosity is a magic fix if they have not already failed? What? lifter failure from the oil issue maybe, but honestly it just feel like the variable pressure oil pump along with the unnacceptable oil change recommendations are as much to fault as anything. but in the end it all still seems to revolve around trying to gain half a MPG by overcomplicating a system before it has been properly long term tested.
You nailed it with that last bit. Lack of long term testing. That costs money and if they properly invested enough, they COULD make these things work properly. We can see that isn’t happening anymore.
I don’t mean to pile on someone who has been in a serious wreck, or deflect from what certainly seems like a big problem with this car, but this is so far from the Edmunds description (and the other NHTSA claim) that it seems much more likely to have been a mistaken accelerator and brake pedal situation (like most of the Toyota unintended acceleration claims ended up being)
No car on Earth can overpower its brakes to that extent from a dead stop. These old folks hit the wrong pedal and are trying to find a scapegoat.
I agree on this one. All the others seemed to be slow acceleration and the brakes were more than capable of reining it in, this one is the outlier.
And Audi before that. I’m not saying I totally agree because I hate to speculate, I just don’t want to see people pile into some kind of class action when their specific incident was user error.
While we’re on the topic, this is something that bugs me about driver training, and potentially with EVs in general: I have an emergency procedure ingrained in my head for how to handle a stuck throttle. I’ve practiced it in real-life driving (alone, quiet roads)…slam into neutral, engine off, then learn to steer and brake without power assistance. Restart the engine in neutral and put it back into drive.
I have no idea how that works on EVs with their various combinations of CVTs and “no transmission” setups, though. In any event, I would expect there to be a 100% failsafe override with the brake for the average Joe to panic and bring the car to a stop. So it’s definitely concerning.
I was taught the same but without turning off the engine. Let it rev to the moon, but keep your power steering and power brakes. If you’re in neutral and no longer accelerating, then turning off the engine only makes it more dangerous to stop.
Absolutely agree. I was just taking the extra step to save the engine if time and panic allow for that 🙂
But YMMV depending on vehicle type. Losing power hydraulics on a modern 5,000#+ vehicle is no joke, especially at low speeds. Practicing this in our minivan is a little hairy.
A Hybrid in neutral is same as a normal car in neutral. The issue is finding it, my daughter’s Prius has an odd “shifter” whereas the one in my Hybrid Camry is perfectly normal. Also, power steering and brakes on a hybrid are electrically powered.
I’m glad to see column/knob shifters making a small comeback. I’m even okay with dials. I just don’t like the push-button ones, I find them really unintuitive.
Second the odd shifter on Prii. In the Gen 5, Toyota had to move it from the dash where it had been traditionally, to the center console. Although this is my 3rd Prius, there was a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to put it in neutral.
She has a Gen 2 2008. It is a learning curve.
On Audi’s it was real thanks to their hydroboost system where the accumulator would bleed down over night and the power steering had priority over filling the accumulator. So rock hard pedal that didn’t actually activate the brakes.
That is a legitimate issue, thanks for sharing.
Plus their primitive fuel injection had an extra cold start injector and a Fidle valve (fast idle) that just opened all the way if the coolant temp was below a certain point. So warm weather and you could have a very high idle speed since it was set to keep it going in very cold temps.
I never knew the full story. The older Ford MFI setups had a similar issue with the pintle valve on the EGR sticking open leading to a fast idle.
In a conventional car with a direct link between the brake pedal and the master cylinder, yes. However the Charger is brake by wire per their website. “The central module of the brake-by-wire technology in the Next-Gen Charger continuously monitors input from the driver and sensors in the vehicle.” https://www.dodge.com/charger/performance.html You’ll find it at the bottom of the page. So yeah “I’m sorry Dave I’m afraid I can’t do that”
They could not have screwed this car up more if they tried. For a while I had a tinfoil hat theory that they intentionally made it shitty so they could sell more of the upcoming gas model but the issues are getting so egregious that there’s just no way that’s the case. And the inline 6 version that could swoop in and partially save the day is basically vaporware right now.
If they don’t find a way to cram a Hemi into this thing in the next 6 months I think it’ll be a dead car walking. It’s hard to wrap your head around how profoundly they fucked this car up. At this stage you’d almost think they could’ve fluked their way into a win or two with this platform but Stellantis uh…finds a way.
Couldn’t agree more, and I would love to pick one up very lightly used for like $10k in a couple years once they’ve worked out the innumerable kinks
Modern Stellantis cars are really beginning to outshine malaise-era GM vehicles in the “how bad can it really be?” department. There’s a good reason that they won’t sell this terrible vehicle anywhere else besides north america. They must think we’re stupid or something.
Stellantis vehicles were bad even before Stellantis. My parents bought a full size Dodge passenger van in the pre-minivan era. That thing was a real CF.
The last good’ish Dodge that my family owned was a 2000 1/2 ton pickup. The 318 Magnum engine was a reliable workhorse even if the transmission never spent more than 0.5 sec in 3rd gear for some reason. The rest of the vehicle was only okay. The electrical wasn’t Lucas bad, but over the years small electrical germlings matured and multiplied. Almost every plastic hose under the hood cracked. The dash disintegrated in 6 years flat. I would probably rate it worse, but I did get lucky in it once, thus it gets “good memories” points.
The last great Dodge was a 1983 1/2 ton pickup. We sold it at 140k miles after 27 years. Even ran the 318 engine with no oil for 10 miles and didn’t kill it. Had the usual water pump and fuel pump replacements, but nothing major. A pretty good achievement for an early 80’s Dodge product.
My father always bough cheap to save money. He’d buy a new Harbor Freight cordless drill every year because he couldn’t stomach buying a good Y, R, or B brand. My father finally stopped buying other pisser-bad Daimler, Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth products and wrapped up his final years in a ‘regular maintenance only’ Honda, at my insistence (because I was his free on-call mechanic).
This is pretty easily the most disastrous new car launch I can remember. At this point I think they’d be best served completely pulling it from market and bringing it back as a ’27 with the inline 6 and V8 options available from day one.
This whole car has been an own goal. This doesn’t help.