2013 Dodge Dart SXT Rallye Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Dodge Dart SXT Rallye Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds adds a 2013 Dodge Dart SXT Rallye to our long-term test fleet.

Read the full story here

ed124c

Sounds like the poster child for "slush box".

Honestly, don't the Chrysler engineers TEST these things?

Reaffirms my vow to never buy a car with an automatic.

To Edmunds: A quick drive of the car BEFORE buying it would have led you to take the manual.

wizard8873

Sounds similar to the Cruze. Had a rental two weeks ago and again one now and terrible transmission. It's always hunting gears and forces me to throw it into the manual mode. still not fast shifts but much better than the automatic mode.

docsully1

The Ford Focus has similar tech and similar issues. One good computer reprogram and it's as smooth as a baby's butt.

duck87

I think a couple of commenters said that you should have gotten the manual- not that it would have mattered since none of us could yell at you DURING the car buying process =)

Still, it seems that the 9 speed automatic can't come soon enough. The powertrain lineup for the Dart is pretty fragmented at the moment.

stovt001_

Isn't the whole point of a dual-clutch automated manual supposed to be fast shift speeds compared to a conventional automatic?

motorstreet

I see you're regretting the transmission choice already. The Dart is a very nice car and I'm sure you would have enjoyed it thoroughly if you had gotten the manual. Instead we will see a year of posts about the terrible transmission and miss all this car's good points.

noburgers_

I think the auto was a decent choice since that's how most will be purchased in the U.S. anyway. Plus, this, on paper, sounds like it would be a high-tech tranny, not just some rubber-band CVT. I look forward to see what everyone thinks of it during the year

emajor

All this effort to bring exciting and unconventional automated manual transmissions to the market in economy cars, and this is what they do with it. Great theory, terrible application. Why not just put a well-sorted conventional 6 speed auto in and be done with it?