# Dodge Avenger - are they THAT bad?



## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

I went for a little look in my local Carcraft on Friday, went there to see the new generation of Vauxhall Astra's. Nice cars but still a bit expensive for me, unless I went down the finance route.

As I was walking out, I saw a 2008 Dodge avenger 2.0 CRD in black. Looked immaculate, 19,000 miles on the clock, leather seats, air conditioned glovebox, all the rest. £6200 :doublesho:doublesho:doublesho:doublesho

Looks like a muscle car, with five doors. Quite liked the look of it.

Any one on here have one? That's some shocking depreciation, are they that bad?


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## Ninja59 (Feb 17, 2009)

well our dodge dealer closed after 2 years :lol: dont know if that says something.


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

could be the fact that its not a well known car over here for the money..

i like them, but at 24mpg(searched for mpg and found an estimated urban figure of 24 and combined of 36mpg) 
along with the fact they aren't as fast as a 2.0 would be expected.. (the 2.0 specs up 0-60 of a 1.6 car and top speed of one too.. must be heavy)

it might be putting the type of people that would buy one of these off


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

It's a diesel though...sourced from VW apparently.

Top Gear, Auto Express and Autocar all slammed the car for having a cheap cabin, poor workmanship etc. Just wanted some actual owner reviews. 

It's practically a new car for silly money :doublesho


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

I like the fact that they are quite a rare sight on UK roads too.


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## chisai (Jan 1, 2009)

My brother bought one from new and wanted rid quickly a few months later. I think he ended up keeping it till he could hand it back to the finance company.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

A Lada Riva is quite a rare sight on the UK's roads. Doesn't mean I've got the itch to own one!


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## GJM (Jul 19, 2009)

OvlovMike said:


> A Lada Riva is quite a rare sight on the UK's roads. Doesn't mean I've got the itch to own one!


I know, the Niva Cossack was so much better :thumb:


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## chisai (Jan 1, 2009)

FSO Polonez had a bigger boot. I REALLY did nearly buy one of these. About thruppence ha'penny at the time I think.


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

chisai said:


> My brother bought one from new and wanted rid quickly a few months later. I think he ended up keeping it till he could hand it back to the finance company.


Could you go into more detail? What were his reasons?


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## chisai (Jan 1, 2009)

Just gave him a call.
Plasticy interior, fuel consumption was ridiculously bad. daily commute from Paisley to Glasgow was over £70 p/w. about 2 years ago. Maybe a round trip of 12 miles, on motorway during the back end of rush hour.
Petrol engine though.


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## Laurie.J.M (Jun 23, 2011)

It's rare on UK roads for a reason. I can think of many cars that are better and that I would rather be seen in, as Top Gear demonstrated if your prepared to look at slightly older cars you could get something much better than a Dodge Avenger for the same money.


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## centenary (Sep 5, 2010)

In 2009 when no one could shift cars, Dodge priced the Avenger at a 50% discount. So, you could buy the car than normally retailed at about 17 grand for about eight and a half!

Its a big beefy car. Might be a bit thirsty and electrics can be suspect on American cars. Mate had a Chrysler GT and was always having electrical probs with it.


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## MK1Campaign (Mar 27, 2007)

Ive worked on them and they are awful. Feel very baggy after just 10k miles.


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

Crikey, a real shame, I thought it was a tidy looking machine for little cash. There's always a reason huh? 

Best keep the Astra Sport Hatch for a little while yet then :thumb::thumb:

Cheers guys.


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## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

I have a Dodge caliber it has the same engine in as mine, They are great I love mine to bits if you need any info just let me know


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

kempe said:


> I have a Dodge caliber it has the same engine in as mine, They are great I love mine to bits if you need any info just let me know


Thanks.

Diesel engine? What sort of MPG do you get? Well built? Any issues with the car?


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## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

T.D.K said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Diesel engine? What sort of MPG do you get? Well built? Any issues with the car?


Its a 2.0 litre turbo diesel If I drive normal I get about 45 to 50mpg, Not had no problems with it at the moment apart from a few things that went wrong when I brought it but that was due to the old owner not looking after it one bit. But the garage paid for them to be fixed


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

Nice ride.

So obviously you'd recommend Dodge cars then :thumb:

May have to take the Avenger for a test drive. I really liked the muscle car looks it has, while being a realistic everyday car.


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## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

T.D.K said:


> Nice ride.
> 
> So obviously you'd recommend Dodge cars then :thumb:
> 
> May have to take the Avenger for a test drive. I really liked the muscle car looks it has, while being a realistic everyday car.


I love it and its quick off the mark to since I had it chipped now it runs around 250BHP and 305ft/lb of tourque


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

kempe said:


> I love it and its quick off the mark to since I had it chipped now it runs around 250BHP and 305ft/lb of tourque


Very cool. Hows does yours handle? Good chassis?


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## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

T.D.K said:


> Very cool. Hows does yours handle? Good chassis?


Not bad but then when you go round corners it rolls in to it a bit


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## bigmc (Mar 22, 2010)

kempe said:


> I love it and its quick off the mark to since I had it chipped now it runs around 250BHP and 305ft/lb of tourque


I'd like to see a RR print out of that tbh, no way if it's the VAG cr tdi lump has it gone to that with a map alone.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

bigmc said:


> I'd like to see a RR print out of that tbh, no way if it's the VAG cr tdi lump has it gone to that with a map alone.


Indeed. AFPMSL at the notion, I think the best you can get from the 170 is around 215-220 from a map, and that's one that's thrown caution to the wind...


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

centenary said:


> In 2009 when no one could shift cars, Dodge priced the Avenger at a 50% discount. So, you could buy the car than normally retailed at about 17 grand for about eight and a half!


One of the car supermarkets was actually offering them as BOGOF at the time.


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## DesertDog (May 15, 2011)

Hertz in Qatar gave me an Avenger as an upgrade higher car the last time I was there. 

Mmmm nice I thought, a bit of Yank muscle to cruise in. 

But how disappointed I was! Even though it was a petrol (auto), the acceleration was pathetic but even worse was the asthmatic air conditioning! I wouldn't touch one given the choice.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

johnnyguitar said:


> One of the car supermarkets was actually offering them as BOGOF at the time.


:lol:


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## Scrabble (Mar 29, 2011)

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1646086/Buy-one-20000-car-get-one-free.html


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

bigmc said:


> I'd like to see a RR print out of that tbh, no way if it's the VAG cr tdi lump has it gone to that with a map alone.





OvlovMike said:


> Indeed. AFPMSL at the notion, I think the best you can get from the 170 is around 215-220 from a map, and that's one that's thrown caution to the wind...


Yeh a tad optimistic its the 170tdi unit in those so most will see 190-210 roughly.

If it was 250hp then its only 10 short of my remapped 2.0TFSI unit lol :lol:


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

If it's 250hp it's only 10 short of an S3!!!


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

OvlovMike said:


> If it's 250hp it's only 10 short of an S3!!!


15 actually 

:lol:


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## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

My Leon only managed 230bhp, and that was with a Milltek DPF delete d/p and custom AmD map....


---
- Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

11.37, h'actually. S3 is 265PS 

Although we all know that's a conservative number!


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## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

Grizzle said:


> Yeh a tad optimistic its the 170tdi unit in those so most will see 190-210 roughly.
> 
> If it was 250hp then its only 10 short of my remapped 2.0TFSI unit lol :lol:


Never said that the chip was the only thing that has changed though


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## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

kempe said:


> Never said that the chip was the only thing that has changed though


Do tell then


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## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

Grizzle said:


> Yeh a tad optimistic its the 170tdi unit in those so most will see 190-210 roughly.
> 
> If it was 250hp then its only 10 short of my remapped 2.0TFSI unit lol :lol:


I've just noticed the 2.0D engine in the Caliber is the 140bhp version of the engine too, with the smaller turbo and no FMIC


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

kempe said:


> Never said that the chip was the only thing that has changed though


Unless you've spent more money than you did on the car, the 140bhp lump isn't putting out 250bhp now.


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

250bhp from a 140PD VAG engine requires a serious amount of work.

(And it will be the PD as it's been around since 2007 and the CR didn't even make it to all of the VAG brands until 2010. It's also the 140, not the 170 as mentioned elsewhere).

And on the original point- cheap cars are normally cheap for a reason.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

My 2007 140PS Pissrat was a CR...


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## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

OvlovMike said:


> My 2007 140PS Pissrat was a CR...


Are you sure? VAG started introducing the CR engines late 2008 , what was your engine code?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

NickP said:


> Are you sure? VAG started introducing the CR engines late 2008 , what was your engine code?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Actually it might have been 2008. It was definitely a CR because I checked. I hated the car, I had it for about a month and it did 120 miles :lol: I didn't even clean it.


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## bigmc (Mar 22, 2010)

My sister has a 2006 passat with the 2.0 tdi CR engine in it, it's been around since 2004 iirc (the golf gt tdi mk5 was the first??)


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

bigmc said:


> My sister has a 2006 passat with the 2.0 tdi CR engine in it, it's been around since 2004 iirc (the golf gt tdi mk5 was the first??)


Nope, I've checked and the man was right. 2008 in the Pissrat, Golf Mk6 was the first Golf with the CR engine.


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## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

bigmc said:


> My sister has a 2006 passat with the 2.0 tdi CR engine in it, it's been around since 2004 iirc (the golf gt tdi mk5 was the first??)


Scroll down to the B6 engines and you'll see the common rail units were introduced in 2008 - your sisters engine is not common rail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Passat_(B6)#


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