2014 Dodge Avenger

Until recently, Dodge was known for building outrageous high-performance muscle cars, including the Challenger and Charger, with brashly named trims—Hellcat, anyone? Dodge is still finding its footing during the transition to electrification and stricter emissions laws, with plans for electrified and turbocharged muscle yet to materialize in dealerships. The Hornet compact SUV is based on the Alfa Romeo Tonale, and is available as a plug-in hybrid. The Durango SUV soldiers on, largely unchanged from 2011 and still based on the same design as the 2011-2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Most alarmingly, it lags behind more modern vehicles in crash tests. Dodge sits near Chrysler at the bottom of our used car reliability rankings.

Avenger's 2011 update brought updated styling, a better ride, a more-powerful V6 engine, and improved interior materials. Still, given it was riding on the same underlying platform, not much could be done about the basic flaws of this car, and the family-sedan market is teeming with better choices. The model scored too low in our Ratings to be recommended. The Avenger was discontinued from Dodge's mainstream product offerings after the 2014 model year, though it lived on in some daily-rental fleets.