The Dart May Return to Haunt Dodge Thanks to New NHTSA Investigation

The Drive

02-07-2025

The latest car news, reviews, and features.
Bet you'd forgotten about the Dodge Dart, hadn't you? It holds more than a few dubious automotive honors, and while the revived quasi-successor to the compact Neon was never a true enthusiast darling, believe it or not, Dodge managed to sell a few hundred thousand of them during its short revival in the early-mid 2010s. And perhaps more to the point, Dodge had to recall most of them back in 2019 because their automatic transmissions kept chewing through shifter cables, leaving Darts rolling around all willy-nilly even when they were parked.
Stellantis blamed the problem on excess heat and humidity wearing the bushings that held the shifter cables to the transmission. As they degraded, they could become loose, making it difficult to select gears. Eventually, they could fail entirely, and sometimes this even happened while the cars were sitting parked. And these weren't uncommon occurrences. While no serious incidents were reported, Dodge said the number of documented cases swelled into the thousands.
Well, according to NHTSA, it's happening again. And to make matters worse, the issue is reappearing in cars that were ostensibly 'fixed' the first time around. Dozens of customers have already come forward, and there are likely many more out there.
'NHTSA has received forty-four (44) consumer complaints (VOQs) alleging worn or misadjusted shifter cables and shifter cable detachments after the 19V-293 recall remedy was completed,' the agency said in its announcement.
'The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening this Recall Query (RQ) to review the effectiveness of the original recall remedy, understand the root cause of the bushing failures, and identify any other possible root cause that may affect the performance of the shifter cable,' the agency's announcement continued.
If NTHSA determines that additional action needs to be taken on Dodge's part, it could pressure the manufacturer into recalling them all over again— all of them. The good news is, even here in the Motor City bubble, these things are virtually non-existent. Of the 299,000 supposedly still out there, there might be six or seven that aren't rotting away in somebody's alleyway.
Got a Dodge Dart that actually runs? Let us know at [e-mail].