2013 Dodge Dart Road Test
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2013 Dodge Dart Road Test
An Edmunds.com Road Test Review of the 2013 Dodge Dart featuring reviews of its performance, comfort, function, design and build quality.
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This Dart is a 2013 year rental with the 2.0L inline 4 / 160HP - 5 speed automatic transmission. It is a rental my company got and has 6,400 miles on it.
The 160 HP engine with 5 speed automatic in this weight car should provide a responsive and smooth ride, it does not.
I will say if you are on the highway at 60 mph or better it drives well, once you drop to 55 mph or less not good at all.
Below 55 mph requires constant adjustments of the gas pedal pressure to keep the car up to speed, it tends to slow down. Deceleration also is fast and a little jerky making an uncomfortable ride. I tried using the manual gear select feature but that provided no relief. Driving the car is physically and mental demanding and on a long trip will be very tiring. You may as well be driving a manual transmission.
The major problem with comfort is the front seats which they went old school, a design from the Spanish Inquisition. Uncomfortable to the point of being painful.
The bucket style seat is too narrow. The sides of the seat bottom are supposed to cradle the driver and help hold you in place. Unless you have a pelvic bone so narrow you can walk through a picket fence both your upper legs will rest on the raised side cushions on the seat bottom. After awhile the pressure on the bottom of your legs becomes uncomfortable. Considerable seat adjustments relieve some of this but not enough. I am male so sitting with my legs pressed together enough to avoid the seat's bottom side crushes what makes me male.
The killer on these seats is the built in head rest. It can only be adjusted up or down and forces you to keep your head tilted forward about 40 degrees. This position quickly gives you a lot a neck pain. The only way around the headrest problem presents other problems. Reclining the seat back far enough allows you to sit with your head a a natural angle but this also only keeps your back supported by only about 50% of the seat back and is a tiring way to drive.
This is not a large car and at 5'9" I have to contort myself to get in, not unusual and with time you get used to it. But the roof line is low and when I lean forward the sun visor when in the usual up position gouges my head.
It may be just the car I was driving but the breaks are super sensitive and even lightly toughing the break pedal results in a 'grabbing' of the brakes contributing to the uneven drive characteristics of this car.
I suggest anyone considering buying this car to give it an extended test drive in different types of traffic and roads to see if you can stand it.
Right now I am going out with my tool kit and try to remove the headrest. Failing that my employer must change this out for another rental or I am going to have to take a hacksaw and cut the headrest off.