When the Dodge Hornet launched, it almost seemed like a cut-priced Porsche Macan for the rest of us. For its first mainstream crossover sold in America since the Journey, Dodge swiped Alfa Romeo’s Tonale off the windowsill while it was still cooling, then disguised it as Auburn Hills’ own cooking. Unfortunately, the Dodge Hornet is currently living up to Italian car stereotypes, as owners on the dedicated Hornet forum seem absolutely livid.
In case you’ve never been on a new model-specific car forum, they’re typically self-defensive circlejerks of unhealthily obsessed individuals vigorously edging over options sheets until some registered flex offender comes bearing the rarest example of all, at which point the biscuit, as Fred Durst would say, gets limp. And being made up of people who spent enough money on a car they joined a forum about it, they are often knee-jerk defensive critiques of said vehicles. Needless to say, broader forums are often more fun. Ask anyone who was on VWVortex for the “hit two a crub and 2 fents” incident.
However, the Hornet owners forum is even more entertaining than that, because it’s full of Hornet owners shitting all over Stellantis.
A common thread is electrical issues. From dashboards that go blank to blinded adaptive cruise control, owners are reporting all manner of miscellaneous errors wreaking havoc with basic functions. Oh, and as the complaints roll in, a mountain of evidence continues to pile up. Sure, you can buy a Dodge Hornet off the dealership lot right now thanks to a 517-day supply, but after reading what owners have to say, would you really want to?
While the jokes write themselves, they certainly won’t help troubled Hornet owners. Take this owner, for example, who claims to be on a schoolteacher income and is absolutely beside themselves with how unreliable their new crossover is.
I purchased my Dodge Hornet September 9, 2023 and it has already broken down. I had to have it towed Monday to the Dodge dealership and the mechanic just called me and said that there are 200 different codes going off. I am so upset and scared that I was sold a lemon. … This was the first vehicle I purchased on my own and now I am so disappointed. … My parents live in Michigan, are extremely worried about me, my safety, and the cost and inconvenience this is causing me.
If you’re buying a new compact crossover, you shouldn’t have to worry about backup transportation, or the presence of a purported 200 codes. I’ve seen tenth-owner Bangle-era BMWs with fewer stored codes, and this is a brand new car!
Oh look, another Hornet owner claiming electrical issues. Constant cruise control deactivation is aggravating, random triggering of the alarm system is a surefire way of making all your neighbors hate you, and heated steering wheels shouldn’t get too hot to touch. On the plus side, this owner by the username Merlyn might not be a Hornet owner for much longer. As they wrote, “Ah HA – so the [lemon law] buy back is FIVE TIMES!!!! I do believe I’m on the 4th time.”
First little trip, cruise control kept malfunctioning – popping out and I had to keep messing with it to activate it – it did this every 10 miles or so. The all warning lights came on – alarm sounds off for no reason when doing simple errands. Service said – it pops out of cruise control to “make sure you’re paying attention” LOL – alarm – … he said, “maybe a loud Harley went by triggering the alarm” – It’s in service for the 4th time today. It won’t stay in cruise control for even 2 miles … The crash warning starts beeping for no reason also, which is a bit startling. The heated steering wheel got way to hot to touch twice. Ah HA – so the buy back is FIVE TIMES!!!! I do believe I’m on the 4th time.
This owner has it particularly bad, since they claim “Of the 14 days I have owned the vehicle it has been in the shop for 4 full days and should have been in longer.” Ouch. As is starting to seem typical from this little crossover, a single issue isn’t the culprit, but multiple problems from the hyperactive alarm system to malfunctioning power mirrors seem to be at play.
While coming over an over pass, my dash lit up and I lost all acceleration. … my adaptive cruise control had failed. I am so grateful I was driving the vehicle not my new driver son. He would have ended up in the ditch. … I noted my sideview mirrors are not opening every time the car powers on. The car has 2 different alarm sounds and it went off intermittently. The front and rear collision system lights continued to go off … The service tech advised there is not currently a fix for the issues, but Chrysler engineering has assured there will be something in Q4 of this year … Of the 14 days I have owned the vehicle it has been in the shop for 4 full days and should have been in longer. My dealership has advised there is no way to cancel the deal or reverse it, no but back option, and my only recourse is to complain to Chrysler Customer Service and hope they will offer some discount to apply to a trade in on a different vehicle.
Owners report that last month, an update came out for, among other things, the adaptive cruise control system. Could this be the cure Hornet drivers were waiting for? Well, yes and no. While the consensus is that the updates have made adaptive cruise control better, it still reportedly gets foiled by something everyone experiences: direct sunlight.
Of course, some owners are going beyond expressing concern over specific issues, giving it a little bit of vitriol without any semblance of pushback. As forum user rachelg wrote:
This is by far the WORST investment I have ever made in my life. HUGE HUGE fail on Dodge’s part. Releasing a vehicle without even making sure the damn interior lights work not to mention all the other electrical issues on top of that?
Can not wait to get rid of this piece of crap car.
Good luck to everyone else, cause I can guarantee if you don’t have issues now, you most certainly will!!”
And forum user G-Mann takes a surprisingly meta approach, writing that:
I have purchased 5 different vehicles over the last 3 years and on all the forums and I have never seen a forum like this one riddled with problems and issues galore. It won’t be long before the car magazines & internet articles start pointing it out and resale value kaput.
Unsurprisingly, many of the issues owners complain about are backed up by technical service bulletins–manufacturer communications for common problems. Care to guess how many technical service bulletins apply to the Dodge Hornet? That’s right, 67, for issues as varied as prematurely worn spark plugs and imperial speed limit signs being incorrectly translated to metric units. Curiously, the vast majority involve firmware-related or software-related issues, which certainly doesn’t alleviate Italian car electrical system stereotypes.
One of my favorites is a technical service bulletin claiming that the adaptive cruise control system somehow requires defined road markings to work, otherwise an “ACC Temporarily Blocked” message displays on the instrument panel. While it would make sense if poor road markings affected lane-centering assistance, adaptive cruise control should only control vehicle speed and following distance, so it’s a little strange that worn road markings would render the adaptive cruise control inactive. There are plenty of cars that don’t have this issue because they can follow the lead car.
We are currently living in the era of what manufacturers call the software-defined vehicle, in which a substantial chunk of a vehicle’s identity and experience comes through software, graphics, and gizmos. While cars have featured firmware in their powertrain computers for more than 40 years, and software for cabin technology for decades, modern advancements like integrated modems and over-the-air updates have quickly put software at the front of the conversation. While this has enabled automakers to offer slicker interior electronics, it also means more code to write, test, and revise, and that it’s possible to push cars out the door before they’re digitally finished under a “fix it in post” mentality.
Back in 2013, Jeep delayed delivery of its Cherokee crossover because the ZF nine-speed automatic transmission wasn’t calibrated to an acceptable consumer standard. The hardware was all there, but the firmware wasn’t. Judging by issues owners are having with the Dodge Hornet, Stellantis may have been wise to pay attention to its history and pump the brakes until the majority of electronic bugaboos are worked out. Granted, Dodge needed this car since the rest of its lineup consists of emissions-intensive bruisers, but the Tonale that it’s based on has been on sale since 2022. Oh, and of this is before we even get into the fire-risk recall affecting plug-in hybrid models.
Judging by owner reports and the sheer number of technical service bulletins out there, the Achilles heel of the Dodge Hornet is its own electronic suite. While it’s theoretically possible for many of its issues to be fixed or mitigated with time and updates, it doesn’t seem like owners feel their problems have been resolved. Until then, be cautious. If you need a compact crossover that simply works and offers a little bit of fun, a Mazda CX-5 probably remains your best bet.
However, all these issues haven’t stopped a tiny number of Hornet owners from viewing things through rose-tinted spectacles. As Hornet Owners user ralplpcr wrote:
Thank you for writing this post! I was honestly getting somewhat tired of all the negative “horror stories” and complaints. It’s good to see someone saying positive things about our cars!
Like many, I have a few gremlins with my Hornet. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not perfect….but I really like it a lot in spite of all that! It is fun to drive, and definitely gets a lot of attention when cruising around.
Yes, I have some annoying issues with the ACC randomly turning off. Yes, my heated seats/steering wheel will sometimes refuse to turn on. But none of this prevents me from being able to enjoy driving it – – it’s mostly an inconvenience, and since I’ve never had these features in a car before, it’s not as though I can’t live without them?
Spoken like a true Alfa Romeo owner.
(Photo credits: Dodge, Hornet Owners)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
America Has A 517-Day Supply Of Dodge Hornets
-
Why A Car Designer Thinks The Dodge Hornet Is Such A Lazy Rebadge Of The Alfa Romeo Tonale
-
The 2023 Dodge Hornet Is Here. The Electrified Version Gets A Tiny 1.3-Liter Engine And Makes A Ridiculous Amount Of Torque
-
This Might Be The Upcoming Dodge Hornet Compact Crossover
-
The Jeep Renegade Was The Fiat-Based Jeep The Brand Needed After Bankruptcy. But It’s Time For It To Die
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
Welcome to “minimum viable product” folks. It’s the future.
To be clear it’s also the present and the past.
YES! The future is now. And it was also yesterday.
I wonder what the malaise era would have been like with internet. I kinda think: sorta like we have now. Just with more vinyl.
This one isn’t even viable!
So what I hear is that in a year when all the issues are resolved and the magazines all dump on it, I can pick up a hornet for cheap. I still drive a 2014 Avenger RT. Magazines had nothing positive to say about it, but I have found it to be a good reliable car. Before that I had a 2006 Grand Prix GT with the supercharged 3800. Magazines had nothing positive to say about it, but I enjoyed that car. Point is, buy like Warren buffet. Look for things that are undervalued by most and pay accordingly. Value from a vehicle is obtained by racking up miles and having a long time with it being paid off. Trade in or resell”value” is a trap.
The Dodge Hornet is an Alfa dog.
Ouch.
Sometimes I don’t understand this stuff. The adaptive cruise works great in my 2021 RAM, so I wouldn’t expect this many problems with it unless they started using a totally different system and programming. It does seem like Stellantis has more technical bulletins and recalls than many manufacturers. My only experience with them has been my truck, but there’s been a heck of a lot more recalls than I expected, especially since it was the 3rd model year of that generation of truck. I think I’ve had 5 or 6 in 2.5 years, plus an extended warranty announcement for the CHMSL
To be fair, the car is named the hornet- that bitchass bee wanna-be with a painful sting. In this case, on their wallets.
This is why automobile companies love over the air software updates. At the release date, you can ship it half-baked and fix it later.
Do problems that are finally solved by over the air updates count towards lemon law incidents?
If the problem is solved in time, I would expect it not to count. It really isn’t any different than have the firmware updated at the dealer. Not sure if the law is that explicit.
If OTA updates work in the way cellphones do. My wife would NEVER update a vehicle if it has the ability. For some reason is incapable of clicking “yes install update”
“ Yes, I have some annoying issues with the ACC randomly turning off. Yes, my heated seats/steering wheel will sometimes refuse to turn on. But none of this prevents me from being able to enjoy driving it – – it’s mostly an inconvenience, and since I’ve never had these features in a car before, it’s not as though I can’t live without them?”
Man, that’s some serious Stockholm syndrome. I’d be livid if either of those things occurred with a brand new car I’d just plunked down $40,000 for.
Meanwhile, my wife and I tote our two kids around in a 2016 Mazda CX-5 that is rapidly approaching 100,000 miles and its heated seats/cruise work fine. Not to say the CX-5 as a model hasn’t had issues, but damn.
Right? I heard an occasional faint knocking sound from around the passenger side A-pillar on my brand-new 2014 Mazda3, I made the dealer take the whole front end apart to find the culprit (a design flaw that had a TSB–the solution was to cut a notch in a metal mount). Broken heated seats would lead to an immediate dealer visit.
When I got my 2002 Mustang new, I brought her in for every single thing I could identify while she was under warranty, if only to document that I tried.
I was well aware of her, er, antiquated nature, but figured it couldn’t hurt to have it on the record, just in case. 20 years later, the transmission still clunks into 2nd… 😉
My ’78 front and rear heated seats still work. This isn’t hard.
What had rear heated seats in ’78? I am intrigued! Oldest car I had with a heated seat, just the driver’s, was an ’82 Volvo.
450SEL 6.9. German excess to the max.
There are obviously issues going on with this model, but I can’t help making fun of this example a bit:
If your new driver would have thrown the car off the road because the cruise control turned off and the car began slowing, they should not be driving at all. Even with little experience, there are a lot of options between that and a crash.
Well, at least we car guys and gals and other can be happy about one thing. At least Stellantis is making sure our numbers don’t dwindle.
Clarkson
Or tried to own an Alfa Romeo.
Hey! That HURT!
Smiley Face Emoticon
Dodge is following the ol’ “Release it now, we’ll fix it with a patch” method that video game companies seem to follow.
Pray for me fellas, I have to sell these for a living.
I wonder if the union issues caused these issues.
Given that the Hornet is assembled in Italy, UAW membership would have pretty much nothing to do with this car’s issues.
Thanks I didn’t see any mention of build site. I agree not a union issue except maybe not using the union workers. Yes I am open to the possibility union is better.
They are union made, but these are not build quality issues. These all sound like half-baked software issues. Been dealing with this crap all year on Wagoneers. Had one come in last week, with a module randomly waking itself up, staying awake, and draining the battery to the point where the vehicle wouldnt start.
All over a module who’s sole purpose is to tell the Jeep smartphone app where the car is sitting. Dumb as hell.
Indian Software programmers are unionized now?
Dude read it was shown 2 hours ago the union was not involved and I stated maybe that was the problem. Maybe read stay up to the matter or shut up.
Found the Indian Software Programmer!
mr. sarcastic haz a sad
genuine lol
Not sure if serious
he/she is absolutely serious
Why am I not surprised the Hornet is now getting any attention it can get?
I mean, I’m not gonna sit here and act like I expected it to work well right out the gate. It’s an Alfa Romeo with a late rebadge to sell it as a Dodge. What’d you expect?! For it to work right the first time? When has any Chrysler product in the past 30 years been a homerun hit and worked properly?
This. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid had an ad in my Facebook feed yesterday and I was startled to see it had 1.3k user comments. Almost every single one was an owner complaining about their van/vans being troublesome and in the shop and/or letting them down multiple times. God Bless the poor Chrysler social media rep that was patrolling the comments.
I feel bad for all the brands media pages. They get all the flack for something out of their control, since Stellantis/FCA were hell bent on not doing anything to win customers over.
Oh well.
Are problems more generally attributed to the hybrid? A relative has been using a 2017 (I think) Pacifica as their family minivan and I don’t think they’ve had any particularly severe problems with it
Pacificas in general are very troublesome (way more so than the Town & Country they replaced), but yeah, the hybrids have more electrical and computer-related issues from what I’ve seen. My wife rented a nearly-new Pacifica Hybrid for a road trip with her friend that has mobility issues, and the van acted up on them before they even left Enterprise’s lot.
I saw somewhere that the Pacifica hybrid tanked the CR reliability ratings for the entire minivan segment because it was so horrific.
I owned my own delivery company and I used Ford E Series trucks. Ford built these forever, always in the same reliable old school everything. But like passenger cars the manufacturers want to stuff new unproven unreliable stuff in them every year to stimulate rollover purchases. It is wrong to buy a new tech 1st year car, I myself prefer multiple years before I buy. Sure I don’t have the newest but as they say let someone else deal with the issues.
I had a ’97 conversion Econoline-150 for 7 years, starting around 2012. The thing only left me stranded once (serpentine belt snapped, which, in better circumstances would’ve been preventable, I admit), but it absolutely nickel & dimed me to death with smaller repairs, even ignoring the gas cost (which I begrudgingly concede was actually reasonable for a brick on wheels).
The vapor can vent valve got clogged twice and I couldn’t fill the tank to full til it was replaced, which required dropping the tank.
The ball joints were expensive to replace, and it ate front brakes (and I’m sure the rear drum brakes weren’t contributing much to stopping force).
Probably a dozen other little, unexpected problems.
The best thing I could say about it was that in the whole time I owned it, the 4.6l Triton and 4-speed transmissions were not among its problematic features. Rock-solid transmission and engine.
Reminded me I was driving over 1200 miles a week. The small 5.2 I think had a real issue with short spark plugs. Blow one fix it blow another. Finally did all of them. Sure it needed regular repairs but at over 60,000 miles a year rust wasn’t an issue. Funny thing was it was a 2007 I bought in 2017 with only 1,800 miles total. The tires looked brand new but were dryrotted.
We rented a T&C in 2014 to move all the valuable stuff that doesn’t go in a moving van.
It refused to start when we got to he first night’s hotel.
This was not the first of Chrysler/FCA rentals with which we had trouble. I will never buy a Stellantis product.
I own one *shrugs*
What, the Viper? The car most “enthusiasts“ hate, and people barely bought?
It pains me to say any of this, since the 5th gen is my literal dream car, but that’s it? A sports car no one bought? That’s not good.
I think over 30 year mark not sure and it was a rebadged Mitsubishi
I didn’t realize Chrysler made bicycles.
Well one of their few humerus was minivans. Not sure might be over 30 years. The 300 close.
The minivans were 40 years ago. I would imagine the biggest hit in the last 30 years for them are the LX cars. Charger/Challenger/300.
Yes I said I wasn’t sure thanks for the facts.
About as often as a Ford has.
Wouldn’t the 300 be considered a hit?
A hit doesn’t get discontinued, does it?
I mean it’s been in production for 18 years. It is stupid to me that they don’t have a replacement ready for it.
For my sake, it’s been in meaningful production for 14: 2004-2018. After that, it’s just been there since because it makes profits on the little amount they’ve sold them.
The first one’s were a definite hit at first, but like all good things Chrysler, it didn’t really last. The Charger took over and most people don’t like that.
If I used Harrisburg, PA as a barometer pre-pandemic, I would’ve assumed the 300 was way more popular than it probably was. There’s a lot of those around here. I legitimately think they look classy, although I can’t comment on anything else about them.
> the past 30 years
Try 50+ years
Since road marking might be used to sort out which of several vehicles is being followed, it is not unreasonable that an ACC system would require well-marked roads. Imagine using ACC in the left lane of an expressway bending to the left. You wouldn’t want it reacting to a slower car ahead in the right lane, which it might do if the system ignored lane markings and only strictly “looked” straight ahead.
Good thing the Hornet comes in yellow, since it’s a lemon!
(I’m here all week.)
Dodge owners getting a taste of that Italian car experience…ouch
A friend was recently shopping new small CUVs and she asked my help with some good choices. Like any good autopian, nobody needs to ask me twice to offer opinions on automobiles, so…
On the list was the Jeep Renegade (my secret choice for her as it’s a cool vehicle with some style). And while I try to be objective/not succumb to blindly repeating stereotypes, I did feel compelled to flag “yeah, it is made in Italy.”
There are always those who think things are bad so might as well make them worse.
I all the years I have owned my best car I have no electronic problems whatsoever.
There seems to be a lot of fancy features on the base model of this car that don’t seem to have been coded well, and probably should’ve been dropped to make a cheaper starting trim.
Taken from my comment yesterday (which had bullet points that broke after posting????):
Maybe keep that 12.3″ dash display, you’re gonna need every inch to fit in all those dummy lights and warning messages ????
A sign what self driving cars could experience if every code upgrade isn’t rigorously tested prior to release. Any good programmer will tell you an upgrade may solve one issue but cause 10 new issues maybe worse.
my emojis show up as ‘????’ LOL
Looks like Mr Lehto is about to get a lot of business.
He really needs, or I’d like to see, a guest column from him on this here Autopian about lemon law, or his take on buying a new RV. Would love to see Mercedes take on Lehto’s RV one.
I avoid all this by sticking with vehicles that are so obscure that there are no owners forums.
Or at the very least the other owners aren’t telling me about the forums.
Honestly, it is better for these problems to happen now, when the car can still be lemoned, than a couple years down the road.
Having all their problems just after the warranty period is what we like to call “Ford Country”…
Stellantis/FCA/Chrysler/Dodge/DaimlerChrysler…they can change ownership and the names all they want…it’s still the same damn company and the same crap vehicles.
But it’s several DIFFERENT crap companies who make crap in a variety of different ways! It’s like a Voltron of unreliability.
Seems like we’ve got Dart 2.0 here. This does not bode well for Dodge.
At least, for the common persons sake, these aren’t filling up the lots with a transmission no one wants anymore.
None of the malfunctioning features are necessary. Strip it down and put crank windows on it.
That would be one way to fix the problems, do that to a Giulia and I’d buy it right now
A Giulia with cloth seats, crank windows, no nannytronics, and a six-speed manual. Oh, and it’s reliable.
Now that’s a dream car.
Buying a parts bin Italian Dodge seems like a bad idea.
Hey if Italian Spiderman worked out okay, why can’t an Italian Dodge?
Yeah that’s about right. I had an ’18 Giulia for 2.5 years and it spent four or five months at the dealer. It definitely did turn heads, though.
Maybe take an ugly reliable Stellantis product and slap a beautiful Italian body on it?
In young Frankenstein putting Abbie Normal brain in a new body didn’t work so why should it work now?
So, in other words, the experience of a proper Italian luxury car for the price of a Dodge – they could spin this as a positive in their marketing. Assuming they care to actually start marketing the Hornet, that is.
There’s Hornet ads posted on all the bus stop canopies around me in PHL.