Buyer Research

2019 Dodge Charger — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $17,000–$32,000. There is 1 high-severity known issue you need to know before handing over a check.

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Kestrel Take

The 2019's record is 120 complaints, and 41% of them are one thing: owners who got the 2025 curtain-airbag recall letter and could not get the parts. That recall — inflators that can rupture and throw metal — is the single most important line on this car's VIN lookup, and because the remedy was slow to arrive, a lot of 2019s are still open on it. Behind that the record is thin and scattered: an instrument cluster software recall, a melting headlight fuse that keeps taking out the driver's low beam, a front wheel-and-brake package that can let the tire rub the knuckle, and the same Uconnect delamination and door-panel peeling as the 2017 and 2018. 120 complaints is not a reliability rating either way. Buy one with the airbag campaign shown closed, both low beams lit with clean fuses behind them, and a cold idle without a tick — and ask why a car with a do-it-free recall open has not been to a dealer.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 120 owner complaints for the 2019 Dodge Charger, and 5 recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 41% of them are about one thing — airbags. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

5 recall campaigns cover this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2019 Dodge Charger

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Side curtain airbag inflators can rupture — the recall that dominates this car's recordHigh — wallet impact

Recall 24V198 covers 2018–2021 Chargers and 300s: the left and right side curtain inflators have a manufacturing defect and can rupture on deployment, throwing sharp metal at the people in the car. Both curtain airbags are replaced free. 49 airbag complaints, and almost all of them are owners who received the letter in 2025 and were told the parts were not available — one Arizona owner had a curtain bag partially let go in a storm before the repair. That backlog is why so many 2019s are still open on it. Run the VIN on the NHTSA site before you drive the car; if it shows open, call a dealer and confirm parts are in stock before you pay. Six of the 49 involve a crash, mostly non-deployment reports, which no inspection can check. A second, minor airbag campaign (19V246) replaced sun visors missing the airbag warning label.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under airbags (49); 5 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Instrument cluster may not light its warnings (recall), plus steering-sensor faults and a peeling Uconnect screenMedium

Recall 19V203 covers 2019 Chargers, Challengers and 300s: the instrument cluster software could fail to illuminate driver warnings, and one owner here describes the cluster and radio both going blank in traffic after the fix. The rest of the 22 electrical complaints, two of them fires, split three ways: the power steering, ABS and parking brake warnings all firing at once at highway speed, which on this generation is usually the steering angle or dynamic sensor rather than the rack; the 8.4-inch Uconnect touch layer delaminating and triggering controls on its own; and the automatic emergency braking engaging with a brake warning lit and the dealer unable to reproduce it. Confirm the cluster recall, then scan for stored steering-sensor codes and look at the screen edges in daylight for haze or a lifted corner.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed; $200–$500 for a steering sensor; $250–$1,600 for a Uconnect digitizer or head unit

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (22); 5 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Driver's-side headlight fuse burns and blows again and again — one low beam gone at nightMedium

13 exterior-lighting complaints, one filed as a fire, and the same story in most of them: the driver's low beam dies, the owner replaces the bulb, it dies again, and eventually someone finds the 20-amp headlamp fuse in the under-hood power distribution centre blackened and warm to the touch. One owner smelled it burning through the vents. The fuse is cents; the trouble is that a fuse that keeps cooking means the terminal in the fuse box or the harness behind the lamp is the real fault, and a fuse-box terminal repair is a few hours of wiring work. Owners on the halogen projector lamps also complain the beam pattern is poor, which is a design limit, not a defect. Switch the lights on in a dark spot, then open the fuse box and look for a discoloured headlamp fuse.

Repair cost (estimate): $5–$300

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the lights (13).

Wrong front wheel and brake package — the tire can rub the steering knuckle and deflate (recall)Medium

Recall 19V758 covers 2019 Chargers and Challengers built with an incompatible front wheel and brake combination: at full lock the front tire can contact the steering knuckle, damaging the tire until it loses pressure suddenly. Dealers replace the front wheels and inspect and replace the tires and knuckles as needed. The 12 brake complaints on file are otherwise scattered — a soft pedal, a grinding noise, one unintended emergency-braking event — with nothing pointing at a single part. Confirm the campaign on the VIN, then turn the wheel to full lock both ways in a parking lot and look at the inside shoulder of each front tire for scuffing.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the brakes (12); 5 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Pentastar valvetrain tick, and two engine-bay fires in a record this sizeMedium

11 engine complaints, two of them fires — one an ex-police car that caught fire near the firewall on the way to a call. Two fires in 120 complaints is a high ratio for a record this thin, and there is no recall that explains them, so look for the basics: oil weeping from the plastic oil filter housing onto the exhaust on a 3.6L, and a sticky or chafed harness near the firewall. The rest of the cluster is the 3.6L Pentastar's rocker-arm and lifter wear that starts as a tick at idle and ends as a misfire, plus a 5.7L Hemi tick that a dealer waves off until a lifter roller collapses. Cold-start the car with the hood up, listen for a tick that keeps time with the engine, and look behind the intake for fresh oil.

Repair cost (estimate): $1,200–$2,500 for Pentastar rocker arms and lifters; $2,500–$4,500 for Hemi cam and lifters

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the engine (11).

Electric power steering drops assist without warning and lights the dashMedium

Nine steering complaints, all describing the same moment: the wheel goes heavy at speed, the power steering warning lights, and often the ABS and parking-brake warnings come with it. The 2015-on Charger uses electric power steering, so this is not the old hydraulic pump — it is usually a steering angle sensor, a column module, or a low-voltage event upsetting the rack's controller, and one owner replaced the sensor with a Mopar part and still throws a code on tight turns. A rack is four figures; a sensor is not. Have the car scanned for steering and stability codes before buying, and turn the wheel lock to lock at idle to feel for any change in effort.

Repair cost (estimate): $200–$600 for a sensor; $1,200–$2,200 for a rack

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under steering (9).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Recall 24V198 shown open on the NHTSA VIN lookup, or a seller who says the parts were never in stock
✗One low beam out, or a blackened headlamp fuse in the under-hood fuse box
✗Power steering, ABS and parking-brake warnings lighting together on the test drive
✗Haze or a lifted corner on the Uconnect screen, or a radio that changes station on its own
✗Scuffing on the inside shoulder of a front tire at full lock
✗Rhythmic ticking from the engine at cold idle that does not fade

Good Signs

✓Curtain airbag campaign 24V198 shown closed on the NHTSA VIN lookup with the dealer invoice
✓All five campaigns closed, the front wheels replaced under 19V758 on the paperwork
✓Both low beams lit and the headlamp fuses clean, with the bulb original
✓Clean scan for steering and stability codes and steady effort lock to lock
✓Quiet valvetrain after the first few seconds of a cold start
✓Uconnect screen flat at the edges and responding only to your finger over a five-minute idle