That Dodge Avenger you just rented from Avis shares its basic platform with the handles-on-rails Mitsubishi Evo.
An uninspired kid brother to Dodge’s feral-to-ferocious Charger sedans, the Avenger elicited little praise at its 2008 model year launch when it replaced the Stratus sedan. A victim of Daimler cost cutting and Chrysler indifference, the Avenger was high on Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne’s “fix list” when the Italian automaker took a stake in the Michigan automaker about 18 months ago.
The clouds have since parted, revealing what’s shaping up to be a potentially sunny future for Detroit’s number 2.5 and, with an open mind, we recently spent some time behind the wheel of a heavily revised 2011 Dodge Avenger sedan.
The front and rear fascias have been redesigned and snappy revised wheels are on offer, but the latest Avenger hardly makes last year’s model look like old news. If Dodge can get buyers inside of the Avenger, they might change their minds. Most happy new "Dogde Avenger" owners will pop their hoods to find Chrysler’s familiar 2.4-liter four-cylinder, which has been reworked for improved efficiency and a more docile demeanor. Mated to a four-speed automatic in stripped down models, most Avenger 2.4s will get a six-speed automatic. Avenger falls well short of being a sports sedan, but its ride and handling is certainly class competitive for once
Don’t automatically cross the 2011 Dodge Avenger off your midsize sedan shopping list just yet.
The mid-size 2011 Dodge Avenger sedan gets a new drivetrain, new suspension pieces and new front and rear clips as Chrysler tries to rehab the image of this rental-car mainstay.
The Avenger's sheetmetal carries over virtually unchanged. Inside, the Avenger gets a new dash, which looks great, with convincing quantum leaps in style and materials. The lower half of the Avenger's dash seems to wear lower-grade plastic than the 200, and some of the same carryover gauges and buttons are more noticeable, surrounded by better-quality bits.
A 2.4-liter, 173-horsepower four-cylinder carries over from last year's Avenger as the base engine in the "2011 Dodge Avenger", but the new 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 is new across the board to the Chrysler lineup. The new V-6 drops 283 horsepower in the front-drive Avenger's engine bay, with 260 pound-feet of torque twisting through a six-speed automatic transmission. In five different trims, the 2011 Dodge Avenger spreads out standard features and options.
The 2011 Dodge Avenger is a continuation of last year’s 2010 Dodge Avenger that received mixed reviews from most critics--Although the metal guts of the Avenger have remained largely the same from 2010, the 2011 Dodge Avenger has slight cosmetic modifications that should enhance its profile and grille appearance. The Avenger will afford drivers a budget-friendly alternative to the Chrysler model--The engine of the 2010 Avenger has been - for the most part - carried over into the 2011 model. --The interior is largely unchanged from the previous model.
The 2011 Dodge Avenger is projected to retain approximately the same resale value of the previous year’s model--There are many models that offer some serious competition to the Dodge Avenger series.
