Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

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bk7794
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Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by bk7794 »

https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2018 ... sues.shtml

That's a shame. I almost bought one of these and was considering it very heavily. Still do sometimes.

It's funny how a lot of automakers are putting slave cylinders inside the bell-housings of the transmissions.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by watkins »

Roughly every FWD car ever has an internal concentric slave to save space.

Darts are absolute garbage no matter what transmission they have. Do not buy one.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by tankinbeans »

That makes the ongoing problem I had with the Kia seem tame in comparison. At least with that one I could rev back up and go into 3rd, or allow the revs to drop a bit more and go into 5th. Whereas this turd seems to reject whole-heartedly the idea of forward motion.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by Teamwork »

watkins wrote:Roughly every FWD car ever has an internal concentric slave to save space.

Darts are absolute garbage no matter what transmission they have. Do not buy one.
This was possibly one of the worst mistakes I could've made but I have to say on the "test drive" experience I wasn't really turned off by it. I did only test drive the automatic versions but felt the manual at the NY car show and the shifter felt terrible with a boot that felt like a black plastic garbage bag. All it really took for me is going to a "dart forum" and reading in the general discussion on the first page. 80% of the threads were about obscure car issues and basically lemon law fights with FCA.

I enjoyed the car's exterior and interior though for the most part- it's ashame that essentially any FCA product I really like on paper typically ends up being a junker. Believe it or not though in NY I see Darts and 200's all over the place... probably because they are being sold with 6-7k incentives.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by watkins »

The 200 was actually far superior to the Dart. The big problem though was that the 9 speed was geared/programmed so poorly for the car that it made driving unpleasant. I drove one from eastern MA to somewhere in NY for training a few years back. On the highway at normal speed limit speeds, the damn thing would hunt gears constantly from 6th through 9th. It wanted so desperately to get in to a high gear, but even the slightest change of wind speed or any sign of incline would freak it out. The only solution was to drive 85mph and essentially lock it in to 9th gear.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

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watkins wrote:The 200 was actually far superior to the Dart. The big problem though was that the 9 speed was geared/programmed so poorly for the car that it made driving unpleasant. I drove one from eastern MA to somewhere in NY for training a few years back. On the highway at normal speed limit speeds, the damn thing would hunt gears constantly from 6th through 9th. It wanted so desperately to get in to a high gear, but even the slightest change of wind speed or any sign of incline would freak it out. The only solution was to drive 85mph and essentially lock it in to 9th gear.
the 200 actually at least looked like a nice car, inside and out, from what i could tell. i kept reading reviews dogging it for being small for a midsize sedan and not much bigger than the dart, and also reviews bashing the tranny. if you're gonna put a 9 speed in a car, you better make sure it works well. sounds like it was all about the MPGs when they decided on that one. there was no way to shift gears manually, i assume?? by the way, i think you were in or near harriman for training, which is 37.6 miles (= ~50 minutes) from where eye live (potown). there's some cool mountain driving down that way.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by IMBoring25 »

Depended on the trim level. The rental agency gave me a 200 to drive around the Pacific Northwest. The rotary shift dial was so irritating that I looked it up and there were higher trim levels with flappy paddles.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by tankinbeans »

I drove a 200 for about a week as a loaner and I don't think it ever got into 9th in the entire time I had it. It was reasonably fuel efficient, but the interior of the particular model I had screamed "you're in the cheapest Rubbermaid tub we make." The lack of CD player and class lagging interface for Pandora and Stitcher were also 'mungous annoyances. Didn't even have the glitchy UConnect trash.

A nice bit was the big storage bin in the console, but that's not enough to make me any less apt to vomit on one.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

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tankinbeans wrote:I drove a 200 for about a week as a loaner and I don't think it ever got into 9th in the entire time I had it. It was reasonably fuel efficient, but the interior of the particular model I had screamed "you're in the cheapest Rubbermaid tub we make." The lack of CD player and class lagging interface for Pandora and Stitcher were also 'mungous annoyances. Didn't even have the glitchy UConnect trash.

A nice bit was the big storage bin in the console, but that's not enough to make me any less apt to vomit on one.
WOW, didn't realize about the low-end models. only one i saw up close was an S model with the leather seats etc. looked very nice. also, as an fyi to those who haven't noticed (since i didn't notice right away either, and they don't announce it to the public, probably in fear of protest), most new cars (non-luxury ones at least) are being shipped without CD players. even models that had CD players earlier in their current model generation are having the CD player silently removed. i assume some of these companies did study groups or surveys (with the wrong people obviously) to figure out if they could eliminate the almighty CD player. in many cases, removing the CD player not only frees up space (and weight??) but allows the touch screen to be bigger. i'm all for certain kinds of progress (DSG FTW!!) but i still listen to CDs and have not assimilated to the all digital (let alone all cloud or pandora based) music age. at least my '16 golf still has a (HUMONGOUS - it's so big it fills half of the glove box) CD player. most of the newer golfs do NOT have a CD player though. they also did this to the mazda 3 (silently!!) and many other cars. i will be bitter about this for a long time...
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by potownrob »

IMBoring25 wrote:Depended on the trim level. The rental agency gave me a 200 to drive around the Pacific Northwest. The rotary shift dial was so irritating that I looked it up and there were higher trim levels with flappy paddles.
sounds like you would need/really want flappy paddles with that car. :|
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by watkins »

tankinbeans wrote:glitchy UConnect trash.
Interesting... UConnect is by far the most user-friendly infotainment system on the market.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by tankinbeans »

watkins wrote:
tankinbeans wrote:glitchy UConnect trash.
Interesting... UConnect is by far the most user-friendly infotainment system on the market.
When I had it I'd be driving down the freeway when it would start buzzing at the top of its volume range; killing and restarting the car didn't reset it. I'd lose all control over any of the interior climate control functions, and the thing would freeze at the drop of a hat. When it worked it was great, but it showed its propensity to fail early and often.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by bk7794 »

watkins wrote:Roughly every FWD car ever has an internal concentric slave to save space.

Darts are absolute garbage no matter what transmission they have. Do not buy one.
Many car companies at least used to use an external slave.

I know my Civic has one and a few Subaru, Mini and Mazdas do.
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by bk7794 »

How about the 'Jeep Renegade? I feel that's an extension of the Dart?
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Re: Dodge Dart Manuel Woes

Post by AHTOXA »

watkins wrote:
tankinbeans wrote:glitchy UConnect trash.
Interesting... UConnect is by far the most user-friendly infotainment system on the market.
Yeah, I agree with this. I had a few FCA rentals when traveling and Uconnect is good. The only issue I have is having to go through it to use heated seats in the current gen Durango. I'd much rather have a physical button for things like that, but that's not an issue with Uconnect itself. It works quite good.

Subaru comes somewhere on the bottom based on my experience. Their interface in 2016 was atrocious and while improved now is still sub par.

I use Android Auto in my truck which I love immensely, contrary to Toyota's in-house trash they are using (apparently new models are rolling with CarPlay now).
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