In Defense of the Dodge Avenger

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
12/20/2016 at 11:56 • Filed to: avenger, dodge avenger, fast not loud, rant, dodge, chrysler, boring cars

Time has been unkind to the Dodge Avenger. Though, to be fair, so have most things. Chrysler’s mid-sized ‘sports’ sedan offering hit the new car market in 2008 and was produced until 2014. Sporting an un-sporty front-engined front-wheel-drive layout motivated by an equally yawn-inducing variety of four and six-cylinder engines the Avenger was meant to be a successor to the Dodge Stratus, itself a successor to the original Dodge Avenger coupe from the 90s. The new Avenger adopted the face of the Dodge Charger on an economy sedan platform so Daimler-Benz could capitalize on the popularity of the now-dead Dodge Neon and siphon as much money from the rotting corpse of Chrysler as they possibly could before filing bankruptcy and getting bought by the Italians.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

From an enthusiast perspective the Dodge Avenger is Beelzebub itself. The antithesis of what every car enthusiast wants to wake up to see in their driveway. Four doors, performance that comes nowhere near living up to the promises made by its styling, an automatic transmission, and such dad-friendly headlining features such as heated and cooled cupholders or a refrigerator in the glove box. Ask any enthusiast about this Chrysler entry to the American car market and you will usually receive something along the lines of “I forgot those even existed” or hate similar to that displayed for the PT Cruiser or the Sebring convertible. Famously the Dodge Avenger was brought back into the enthusiast conscious when it was roasted in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by RegularCarReviews, calling the Avenger “the car for people who’ve pretty much had it with cars”.

But that’s not fair.

Chrysler, and the Avenger, deserve more.

As a younger Jake, I often looked at the family’s rapidly-aging and oil-leaking 1990 Chevrolet Lumina with its peeling clear coat and rattling door handles and wondered why boring cars had to look boring. Why had nobody taken a car like the Lumina and given it styling from a Camaro? Why were those with little money forced to look like they had no style? The Avenger isn’t usually accused of being a head-turner, but all of the correct styling cues are there. Aggressive hips, hard edges, a front fascia that looks like the scowl of a man whose son struck out at Little League, meaty five-spoke wheels. A car for the responsible mid-life crisisee.

Is it reliable? Who cares! If you’re in your 40s with a family and you’re buying a Dodge Avenger in the late 2000s it means you’re buying new . And new means warranty, and warranty means reliability doesn’t matter because your Local Friendly Chrysler/Dodge Dealership has loaners! Loaners that might even be Dodge Chargers that you can drive and try as hard as you can to keep feeling like you made the right choice.

As enthusiasts, we often forget what makes a car. It isn’t excitement or performance, it’s four wheels and an engine that moves people around. And for this, the Avenger finds its place. It is a car. It is car . It stands out because it tries to appeal to the emotions of a consumer and for that it is heavily criticized.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Dodge Avenger is, in essence, a Dodge Charger consolation prize. It’s the looks-like-a-muscle car you bring home without hearing the heavy sighs of your significant other. It’s the appliance that gets you to and from your nine-to-five. Eventually it fades into the background of your life until the lease runs out and it goes back to the dealership. Maybe by then you’ll be able to afford the American automotive dream with a big V8 and rear wheel drive. Or maybe you’ll leave with a Town and Country because the missus is pregnant again and a man has to do what he has to do. Either way, the Avenger existed as all boring cars have existed, but is condemned to an unfair legacy because it tried to be less than boring.

But it did not fail.

Like this? You can read !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and more like it on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an occasionally-updated automotive blog of reviews, rants, and opinion pieces about the automotive hobby and industry.

DISCUSSION (55)

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 11:59

The designers and builders weren’t even kind to it. What a piece of shit.

Rainbow > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:01

I worked at a movie theater when Age of Ultron came out, and my manager said that we could wear any Avengers-related shirt instead of our uniforms for opening week. I printed some iron-on patches of various Dodge Avengers and put them on a t-shirt. He wasn’t very happy, but let me keep it anyway.

EL_ULY > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:02

V6 Avenger.... the perfect troll beast rallycross build!

jasmits > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:09

But you hit the problem on the head in the last sentence. It really doesn’t try to be less than boring. An aggressive grille doesn’t make a car interesting, it’s just writing checks that it can’t cash. The designers and engineers put no effort into the car besides slapping the Dodge family grille on the front.

Keep in mind that at the time it fell into the same class as the Honda Accord, which came with bland but reasonable styling, a well balanced chassis, a lovely engine, could be had with a fantastic manual transmission and high quality materials everywhere you look and touch no matter what trim.

BigBlock440 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:09

Chrysler’s mid-sized ‘sports’ sedan offering hit the new car market in 2008 and was produced until 2014. Sporting an un-sporty front-engined front-wheel-drive layout motivated by an equally yawn-inducing variety of four and six-cylinder engines the Avenger was meant to be a successor to the Dodge Stratus, itself a successor to the original Dodge Avenger coupe from the 90s.

Couple of things, I don’t think it was ever meant to be seen as a “sports sedan” or anything other than a decent looking econobox. The Avenger was the successor to the Stratus, yes, but the Stratus was not the successor to the Avenger, at least not the sedan that preceded this Avenger. Both the 1st gen Avenger and Stratus were released in ‘95.

It went:

Coupe: Avenger > Stratus Coupe > gone

Sedan: Stratus > 2nd gen Stratus > Avenger

Steve in Manhattan > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:10

Rented one once - months later National (I think) tried to rent me another, and I said I’d take anything else.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > EL_ULY
12/20/2016 at 12:13

Honestly the Pentastar seems like it’d be reasonably fun in one of these. Doubt they sold many, though.

Arrivederci > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:14

There is no defense of the Dodge Avenger.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Arrivederci
12/20/2016 at 12:16

It’s a car. It does car things. There’s something to be said even for shitboxes.

cletus44 aka Clayton Seams > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:17

The Avenger is a pathetic phoning-it-in car that was bought only by people who knew nothing about cars and didn’t cross-shop. It is an unforgivable, steaming turd.

and 100 more > EL_ULY
12/20/2016 at 12:23

235 hp in AWD trim, so yeah!

Or, 283 hp (not a typo) if you can make a FWD hustle in the dirt.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
12/20/2016 at 12:24

Everyone says that, nobody says why

Bytemite > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:25

There is no defending this thing. A new car being just a car is not good enough. I can’t believe some of these things even sold. That means people spent close to 20k of their hard earned dollars on something without ever cross shopping.

cletus44 aka Clayton Seams > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:28

I drove one. It has an outdated engine, drum brakes in rear, the door locks sound like a plane crash, there are sharp casting lines all over the shitty plastic interior panels, it understeers, it drones, it’s slow, the stereo is bad it’s bad it’s bad.

shop-teacher > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:31

I don’t hold it against cars when they aren’t designed for enthusiasts. I do hold it against cars when their quality is so ghastly, they seem to have been assembled by the Soviets. Avengers were garbage.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:37

The 2012(or was it 11)refresh really did make a big improvement. The styling went from out dated in 2008 to sort of fresh. The interior got leaps and bounds better, still not great but not Chrylser Pacifica bad. And what really made me not hate the Avanger as well as the Chrysler 200 was the Pentastar V6. All the sudden you could have 270hp and 240ft/lbs of torque in the little chap sedan.number that rival an or beat anything in the mid size market, in what is really a smaller car.

The shame is the face lift was too late, they still LOOKED old. So even though a Chrysler 200 with a V6 was more comfortable and way more powerful than an equally priced Ford Focus, it lost because it didn’t LOOK as fun.

jimz > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:40

The 2007-2010 Avenger is indefensible. mostly because any time you get in one you have to sit in this:

Kinja'd!!!

just a sea of flat gray hard plastic.

The emergency surgery for the 2011 did wonders; the new interior, mild restyling and (most importantly) the Pentastar turned it into a car worth considering. Unfortunately its name was mud already.

Kinja'd!!!

you can easily tell they still had to work within the constraints of the existing dash structure, but at least the materials were agreeable and it was much more comfortable. I remember going to NAIAS the first year these were out and being rather impressed they were able to fix the interiors in the Avenger, Sebring 200, Wrangler, Charger, and Caravan/Town & Country, and launch massively improved 300, Grand Cherokee, and Durango all at the same time.

the sad thing is, due to typical automotive development timelines, work was started on all of that while still under Daimler. So Daimler’s last bit of malicious mis-management was to toss all of that in the bin.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:40

Kinja'd!!!

It was the car you got when you wanted to look cool but didn’t want to make any of the compromises that come with an actual cool car.

Bourbon&JellyBeans > cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
12/20/2016 at 12:43

That sounds like the time I drove a Dodge Caliber. Just awful. It would have been considered a crappy economy car back in the 1980s, and that says a lot.

Bourbon&JellyBeans > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 12:45

That defense could be given to literally every car ever.

bob and john > cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
12/20/2016 at 12:51

*cough Matt cough*

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 13:00

One of my college roommates, around 2013 maybe, had his parents offer him a new car of his choice when he left for college. He picked an avenger. Or so he claimed, I never saw the car cause he didn’t actually bring it with him. His reasons for picking it were fuel economy, interior space, and “sportiness”. He insisted he picked it, not his parents, and that they went to a bunch of dealers. I don’t know what he was cross-shopping, but I’m not convinced all the dealers were new car dealers or in the better parts of town...

Rykilla303 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 13:04

I’m with you. I have a non-enthusiast friend who still raves about his old avenger.

The things I would find annoying are unimportant to him.

El Rocko > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 13:26

I used to sell Sebrings - I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why anyone would buy them. They felt cheap inside and out, they were noisy, they drove like they were built in 1985. The used Avengers on our lot were just as bad but had the disadvantage of being fugly.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 13:50

See the biggest issue with accepting the Avenger is that there are other MUCH better options in the same class as this car. This car is no more/less exciting than a Toyota Camry but the Camry will hold up far better over the years. Then you have something like the Mazda 6 or Honda Accord that actually look nice and drive significantly better. And if you have to stay domestic the Ford Fusion or even a Focus is far better than the Avenger. One could also make the argument that one of the competitors from a early-mid 90s model would still be better than the mid 2000s Chrysler crap.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Arrivederci
12/20/2016 at 13:54

That’s not true, it would be a perfectly fine car to use in a demolition derby or maybe a meth lab.

nerd_racing > EL_ULY
12/20/2016 at 14:01

there was a V6 awd one if I’m not mistaken

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/20/2016 at 14:04

Who cares about how well a car holds up when you’re getting rid of it at the end of the 4 year lease?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Rykilla303
12/20/2016 at 14:05

Seriously. The enthusiast mindset is so different from the everyday person. We got a 2009 Impala as a rental once. I fucking hated it, but my mom and sister could find no issue with it and ended up WANTING ONE.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
12/20/2016 at 14:05

Precisely. And there is a place for that.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > shop-teacher
12/20/2016 at 14:07

Doesn’t matter when it’s a leased vehicle with a warranty. They had their place, and some people loved theirs.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
12/20/2016 at 14:15

Those are all things you and I care about. But not everyone else feels the same. This car knew its target audience.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Bourbon&JellyBeans
12/20/2016 at 14:15

I like Ford Aspires.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > BigBlock440
12/20/2016 at 14:15

Wikipedia lied to me. I need better sources.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 14:17

Well leasing is a bad idea for 99% of people other than the dealer and manufacturer. I dont think of cars as throwaway items. Even if it is just an appliance, it better get the job done for years or else it is useless. I bet even within 4 years, many Avengers were falling apart already.

shop-teacher > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 14:21

I’ve had two cars that were unreliable while still under warranty. Trust me, it is a gigantic pain in the ass. Also, people are stupid.

BigBlock440 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 14:28

Maybe somebody changed it, but last I looked wikipedia was right. Also, the coupes were Mitsubishi’s, except for the convertibles, and the last of the DSMs (if you didn’t already know that).

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 16:57

Appliance cars are fine. But they’re supposed to be reasonably well-made and work most of the time. The Avenger was reasonably poorly made and worked some of the time. What we have then is not just a boring car, but a car that is less good than its competitors in terms of build quality and reliability. The fact that it has a warranty and was vaguely styled like a muscle car (but wont up somehow both ugly and forgettable) does not fix anything.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 17:00

Who says, “I’m only gonna have this car a few years, might as well make it a bad one!” ?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
12/20/2016 at 17:39

Yes, and it SOLD. The brilliance of this car is that it leveraged the enormous pool of people that go “oh shiny” and do absolutely no research or cross shopping. They made a complete awful shitpile by any standard that turned out to be an amazing car to many people simply because... reasons.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
12/20/2016 at 17:41

They don’t. They say “oh shiny I’ll buy this, I can afford that.” and factor in exactly zero other things. Ask my mom (PT Cruiser). Or sister (wants a Prius for all the wrong reason). Or grandmother (some horrid Jeep with a CVT). Or best friend from high school (base model New Beetle whose interior has literally crumbled to dust).

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 17:53

The fact that they tricked people into buying it is not any defense of it. People bought loads of Pintos. Also, here’s how many people bought Dodge Avengers from years 2007-2010, which was when it was the sedan not the coupe but before they made any effort to make it palatable:

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/dodge-avenger-sales-figures.html

It ranged from 38,000 to 82,000.

Now check out how many Camrys got sold in the same period:

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/toyota-camry-sales-figures.html

And Ford Fusions:

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/ford-fusion-sales-figures.html

And Hyundai Sonatas:

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/hyundai-sonata-sales-figures.html

For its segment, it did not sell particularly well. You have a reasonable defense for the consumer (didn’t do much research, liked it for some unknown reason which *might* have been the questionable styling). That is not the same as a defense for the product. The product was a terrible car in general, not particularly competitive in its segment, and should never have been on sale.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 17:55

Once again, defense of the owners, not the cars. Basically every car ever made was bought by somebody and loved by somebody.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
12/20/2016 at 18:07

This is a good point. I’m pretty much out of arguments and kinda regret writing this at this point. I should stop writing while tired.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/20/2016 at 18:10

It’s ok, I’ve been there and done that.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/in-defense-of-the-toyota-prius-1593226827

I also hate the hive-mind mentality towards some cars, positive or negative, but sometimes it’s justified. In my book, the Dodge Avenger and other Chrysler products of the period are among those times.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/21/2016 at 05:37

i briefly thought about buying one of them when they were on sale here down under years ago. glad i didn’t.

RazoE > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/23/2016 at 14:00

“Why had nobody taken a car like the Lumina and given it styling from a Camaro? ”

They tried that.

Kinja'd!!!

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > RazoE
12/23/2016 at 14:04

I like that. What is that?

RazoE > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/23/2016 at 15:19

Chevy Vega...it....it wasn’t good....at all

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > RazoE
12/23/2016 at 15:49

Looks decent though.

IownYou > BigBlock440
11/01/2017 at 04:37

Depended on the model. TorRed SXT was definitely meant to be a sports sedan (it was an official car of NASCAR), but that model was rare and that was Dodge’s biggest mistake with the Avenger. That model should’ve been more available. Here is a pic of one from 2009:

ibb.co/iscJrR

Elyzabeth > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/14/2018 at 11:38

Hey, my 2010 Avenger isn’t falling apart! It’s actually extremely reliable if you maintain the car correctly. I plan on keeping this car for years to come, even if I get something newer. Why get rid of it if the car is still in perfect condition?

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Elyzabeth
11/14/2018 at 12:33

Completely agree. Cars that prove to be reliable deserve praise!

Shep > cletus44 aka Clayton Seams
04/04/2019 at 11:20

My Avenger is amazing. You have no idea what you are saying! It has never let me down and turns heads every where I go! So basically if you never owned one then you opinion means absolutely nothing!

cletus44 aka Clayton Seams > Shep
04/04/2019 at 14:42

1. It’s not amazing
2. Pretty much every modern, affordable compact that isn’t a Fiat is reliable
3. Who tf turns their head to look at an Avenger? Hertz fleet managers?
4. I am nowhere near dumb enough to pay money for one.