Loss of braking on the 2012 Dodge Avenger
4 crashes 4 injuries 8 of the 9 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Avenger report loss of braking at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 60,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 19,085 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40,915 miles | 50,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 60,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a crash and 4 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 185,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge avenger. The contact stated that the anti-lock brakes failed to engage. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer for a diagnostic. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 47,000.
While driving on a two lane highway driving in the left lane doing 60 miles the vehicle suddenly turned off creating the following to stop working. No brakes, gas pedal would not work, steering wheel locked up, unable to turn on hazard lights. I was able to turn the steering wheel to the right enough to move into the right hand lane and to the side of a very busy freeway, (very scary ) the chp came and had me wait for about 30 minutes the chp officer then got into the vehicle restarted the car, put in gear to make sure the brake would hold out and then escorted me off the freeway at the speed of 30 miles. Then had it towed to the nearest dealership for repairs. *tr
I was in accident the brakes failed during hard braking. I hit the brake pedal so hard I bent the pedal assembly. The seatbelt restraints didn't lockup and threw me forward so I hit my head on the roof line the point of impact was the sun visor. The airbags did not deploy and I hit the steering wheel with my chest. I hit the car in front of me when the brakes failed the car keep rolling to the point of impact with the cadillac escalade my car went under his bumper so the car had to dive down just to roll under his car. The driver in the vehicle was not hurt. I would up with a small concussion and my right foot is still in pain.
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Avenger
Heater core failure
Other visibility problem
Other electrical problem
Radiator or coolant leak
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does loss of braking happen on the 2012 Dodge Avenger?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2012 Dodge Avenger?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed