Thinking about looking at a car for my youngest daughter.
2013 Dart Turbo auto. 130k miles


Anything I need to look for ?
known issues ?
or is it a car to avoid

Stay away from the 1.4 turbo,gutless&costly to repair.Buy one with a 2.0 or 2.4 both proven motors.I have customers with 2.0&2.4 with over 200k,with no major problems,just normal matintiance.

I had an Abarth with the 1.4 turbo and it was fine, just had to watch the oil as it used it, although not as badly as the stick made it seem. Its a fully forged little motor but mine was new and not high miles. They have a timing belt but its good to like 230k

Avoid Darts. If you want a happy kid and your sanity, get a 200 S. Compact yet roomy, and when equipped with the 6, its a great combo that gets good mpg and loads of power.

Bought a 2016 Dart 1.4 Turbo with the 6-spd. for my kid when he graduated high school. At the time, Dodge was blowing them out the door and they were deeply discounted. I taught him to change the oil and maintain it, and we did a number of minor modifications to it for performance (Mopar cold air intake, bigger throttle body, pedal commander).

He's since taken it with him across the country to a couple of military duty stations. It has been super reliable in the snow, rain, etc. and gotten him and his buddies to all those early morning musters. Good car overall, and mid to high 30s for gas mileage.

Thanks all. so far.

I drove a turbo dart yesterday. seems like it ran ok. Plenty enough zip for my girl. That car isnt perfect by any means and has been accident repaired in the left rear, it looked good. But would prefer an original factory paint car if I can get one. I made an offer ( turned me down ) so will keep looking

My oldest daughter has a 2015 Dart with the 2.4 and auto and she loves it it, thus why looking we are for a 2nd one

Wife has a 2016 Chrysler 200s ,also 2.4 auto. and loves it.

Im not against buying another 200 but must be the 2015 - 16 body style and not an easy find in budget. unless it has a boatload of miles on it
The darts seem a little easier to find. with decent miles on them .

Max budget is $8000, cheaper if I can find it. Ideally in the $5000 to $6000 range would be perfect

My cheap young son bought one, 1.4 turbo 6spd with 120 000Km. wasn't looking good, He got it for a song. It was about to be junkyard...
I did brake 4 corner, plug, O2 sensor (both, highly recommand it), 2 wheel bearing.
Park barke is an issue (caliper parking pin) but rebuilt kit on Rockauto cost 10$. I took 2 spare caliper at junkyard that I rebuilt. 20 min job.
For the 6 spd, at the transmission linkage, the clip (orange cap) wear. He have a spare kit in glove box. Easily doable on the side of the road.

He has 190 Km, still beat the hell out of it. Didn't expect to live that long.
Will do timing belt this spring.

These are tank and somehow heavy compare to other same size car. The crash test safety rating on these is excellent. One of the reason I recommand it.
I guess turbo has to spool once in a while if you want to avoid engine problem. Not an issue with my son.
Thristy engine if spool oftenly.
Other than that, pretty reliable so far. For the price he paid and the work done on it, pretty good deal.

Thanks.

Spooling up a turbo on a regular basis would not be a problem.

The car I drove had a ck engine light on for upstream O2 sensor issue.
Felt like had a miss if accel hard .
I offered 5500 on asking 6700

He countered at 6300.

I'll let him simmer on it for a few days.

Yup, he had same issue.
All plug were also foul SOLID. After plug and O2 change, took 100Km before it start to run properly,
We change oil also. didn't like the smell. change it again at 500Km, to clean it up. From what I read, valve train is exotic, but reliable if running with good oil.

He paid less than 1000$, 2 years ago.
But I as said, it wasn't looking good. It was dirty, bad tire, brake were rusted out, engine running rough. He took a chance...

The turbo darts dont do well after 100k. They all have the complex multi air brick. oil pressure and noids. Oil pump has a low pressure and high pressure side. Screens between block and heads plug up then the multi air dont work right.

2.4 Auto is the best combo. I love mine as a parts runner with a mini stroker kit to 2.8 vs 2.4.

Probably the worst car to buy for a youngster other then the 10 airbags seems like great protection imo.

Lots around cheap now as the majority are out of warranty. Lots of electrical gremlins.Lots of 2.4s drink oil. The turbo stick cars trans are shot at 100k, thousands to fix.

Complex and hard to work on and not very serviceable.

1.6 2.0 2.4 are all multi air.

The general rule with turbo vehicles is don't buy them used unless they're original owner with full service records. It's WAY too easy to abuse them and end up with big $$ problems.

These aren't like the 80's / 90s turbo junk. They have an aux pump that runs after shutting car off to cool down the turbo. I ran the absolute snot out of mine, low 15's at the strip with easy launches. You can get a canned tune for them that bumps power from 160hp to 230. They'll make even more but the trans will disintegrate over 250. I believe its now a 1.3L and they will be putting it in the Hornet R/T w/ elec motor and makes 383lbft of torque

Thanks all.

Have already passed on the car. Going to look at another one this weekend.
It's 2.4 auto.