All the things that were wrong…

… with my 1995 Dodge Avenger ES:

  • Because it was so low to the ground, the front bumper cracked hard. Twice. I didn’t spend the $400 to get it fixed the second time.
  • The weather stripping on the left window did not fully cover the left window. If I didn’t lay my arm against the back edge when going through a car wash, I would get sprayed on the side of the head with soapy water.
  • To turn activate cruise control, you had to press a button to turn it on, then set it on the steering wheel. The button was tricky though. It often took me 7-10 tries of pressing it “just so” to get the light to stay on. All the while I was driving on a highway and avoiding traffic.
  • The fuel tank door stopped popping open when I pulled the lever. To get the tank door to open, I had to hold lever while someone else pushed the door open. Every time.
  • In spring, to switch to air conditioning, I had to: 1.) turn the knob from red to blue, 2.) press the “AC” button marked with a snowflake, and 3.) shift another knob near the central vent from red to green.
  • The car was unnecessarily long. And the doors were incredibly heavy, as there were only two of them.
  • And, my favorite. About 4 years after we bought the car, it started making clicking noises underneath the dashboard somewhere when I drove on the highway. Very loud clicking noises, about 4 seconds apart each. I could never find the source of that noise.

Dodge stopped making the car in 1998 or so. I learned recently that they have decided to re-release the Avenger. Guess who will not be in line to buy one.

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