
It’s been out of production for 9 years, but the Dodge Dart is still rolling…sometimes when you don’t want it to.
After it went out of production in 2016, I didn’t think I would find myself talking about the Dodge Dart twice in the same month, but here we are. Stellantis launched a new recall — details of which are shown in recently published documents by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — for a rollaway issue concerning 298,439 Dart sedans between the 2012 and 2016 model years. Specifically, these cars’ shift cables may be defective, potentially causing a rollaway problem and a subsequent risk of accidents and injuries.
Now, the automaker built just over 300,000 units, so this recall covers pretty much all of them, and most likely all of the examples that are still on the road.
FCA US LLC, Stellantis’ American unit, originally recalled the Dodge Dart for this issue back in April 2019 (NHTSA recall 19V-293/FCA recall V34). This new campaign comes as a result of further probing by the NHTSA in late 2024. After five years, owners reported that the original remedy failed to actually fix the problem.
In June 2025, the NHTSA issued an opening investigative resume saying that shifter cable bushings could fail even after the original recall repairs were done. By early October, FCA’s Vehicle Regulations Committee concurred there is a significant enough risk to open this new recall campaign (NHTSA recall 25V-674).
There’s no permanent fix for the problem just yet
While most folks out there may see the Dart as a piece of ancient automotive history, it’s worth noting this is still a wide-scale campaign. After all, it affects nearly 300,000 units. The automaker estimates 2% of Darts in the recall population actually have a problem, but even so, that still amounts to at least 6,000 vehicles that may pose a safety risk if they do roll away.
To date, Stellantis says it is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this issue, though it does note the “loss-of-Park function and/or vehicle movement in an unintended direction can cause a vehicle crash without prior warning and/or injury to others outside the vehicle.”
The company is still working on a remedy, so you won’t be able to take your Dart to the dealer to have repairs done just yet. Dealer service departments were notified of the issue today, per NHTSA documents, while owners will get an interim notice (essentially, “there’s a problem but we don’t have a fix yet”) between November 6 and November 13.
Again, it’s unclear exactly when the new repair will be ready, but hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later — and fix the issue for good this time.