Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Dodge Challenger
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Challenger report other powertrain problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,585 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
38% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,215 miles | 21,000 miles | 43,075 miles | 59,500 miles | 86,800 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 400 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 45,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 22; the 2012 has 10. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
Skip shift. This feature is already the cause of several near misses of me being rear-ended because from a stop, I am unexpectedly prevented from shifting from first into 2nd gear to maintain expected acceleration in traffic. I realize what the skip shift is intended for but in the real world of traffic, the skip shift feature is inherently dangerous and is a safety issue. When ever anyone is behind me at a stop or at a left or right turn, when its time to go, the skip shift feature puts me at risk of being rear ended every time it engages. There is a display on the instrument panel when skip shift is engaged but to take your eyes off the road to refocus and look for this display while at the same time driving in traffic is as dangerous as the skip shift feature itself. Additionally, as a result of being forced to shift from first to forth is damaging to the clutch, transmission and engine. The engine knocks and pings terribly if I try to accelerate in forth gear at such a low speed. Often times I am frantically double clutching trying to override the feature by trying to yank and jam the transmission into second gear all the…
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge challenger. The contact stated that while driving 10 MPH, the vehicle failed to shift into second gear. The contact stated that after driving the vehicle for a distance and stop for a period of time the vehicle would experience the failure. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who was unable to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 6,000.
I am having difficulty shifting into gear at various speeds and when stopped. The problem is increasing in difficulty and causing safety issues when I try to downshift, or attempt to put into gear on a hill. I have viewed numerous posts from challenger owners going back to model year 2009 with similar problems. All of these models use a tremec transmission. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Challenger
Other electrical problem
Alternator or charging system failure
Airbag inflator rupture
No-start or intermittent start failure
Wiring harness or short circuit
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 other powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Dodge Challenger?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 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 other powertrain problem on the 2012 Dodge Challenger?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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