2009 Dodge Challenger — 6.1L V8

The 2009 Dodge Challenger shows a sharp rise in complaints from the 2008 baseline (10 complaints) to 132 complaints, marking it as the peak year in the decade‑long trend. Recall activity also climbed from 3 in 2008 to 7 in 2009, while investigations remained constant at one each year, indicating that the volume of issues increased without a proportional increase in formal investigations. Compared to the following year, 2010, complaints surged to 298, the highest ever, but recalls stayed at seven, showing that the 2009 model was already experiencing significant problems. The top complaint areas—Air Bags (36), Power Train (16), Engine (12), and Electrical System (9)—highlight the most common failure modes, and the 8 crash and 4 fire complaints further underscore safety concerns. Given that the 2009 model sits at the beginning of the steepest part of the complaint arc and has multiple high‑severity issue categories, it is a less attractive purchase year; a later model with lower complaint and recall counts would be a safer choice.