2023 Dodge Charger — Should You Buy One?
Typical asking price: $28,000–$48,000. There is 1 high-severity known issue you need to know before handing over a check.
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Kestrel Take
The last of the old-shape Chargers, and a record of only 26 complaints — most filed in 2026, which means the car is only now old enough for faults to surface. Small as it is, the record has a shape: cars stalling at highway speed with a Service Shifter message and then refusing to go into Park, an engine code that caps the revs at 3,500 and cuts power, and a cluster of warning-light cascades where the steering and brake assist vanish for fifteen seconds. Those come from three different clusters describing the same few cars, so they are not proof of a widespread fault; they are exactly what to test for. Two recalls, one of them a parking brake that may not hold the car on a hill. A 2023 should still have factory powertrain warranty, and that is the real safety net here, not the thin complaint file. Buy one with both campaigns closed, a clean scan, a drive at speed with the shifter exercised hot, and a dealer confirming the warranty on the VIN.
What we checked
Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25
NHTSA holds 26 owner complaints for the 2023 Dodge Charger, and 2 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. 38% of them are about one thing — electrics and electronics. 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.
2 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 2023 Dodge Charger
Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.
The nine powertrain complaints and most of the ten electrical ones describe the same handful of events: the Service Shifter message flickers on for weeks, then at 60–65 mph the car shuts off, coasts to the shoulder, and cannot be shifted into Park. One owner's car repeatedly threw code P06DD — on the 3.6L Pentastar that is the two-stage oil pump's pressure control circuit — and with it the engine would not rev past 3,500 and stalled. Another had a two- to three-second delay going from Reverse to Drive that a service manager said Dodge knew about and had not recalled. None of this has a campaign behind it, and the number of cars is small, but a stall on the highway on a two-year-old car belongs at the top. Scan for P06DD and shifter codes before you drive, then drive it hot and shift between Reverse, Drive and Park repeatedly from a stop, timing the take-up.
Repair cost (estimate): $300–$800 for a shifter assembly; $700–$1,800 for an oil pump and solenoid
Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the transmission and drivetrain (9), electrics and electronics (10).
Three of the electrical complaints are the cascade: ABS, power steering, traction control and an electrical-control message all at once, and for fifteen or twenty seconds the wheel goes heavy and the pedal goes hard — one owner had it three times. Others describe a car that has thrown CAN bus, headlamp output and engine-control-module codes continuously for a year, an infotainment unit that reports a fatal error daily, and a backup camera that goes black or blue and flickers. Two owners say Stellantis sent engineers who could not resolve it, and the recurring word in the cluster is telematics. A car with unresolved network codes is a car whose dealer visits never end. Have the pre-purchase scan read every module, not just the engine; a car with a stack of U-codes on the body and telematics modules should go back to the seller, warranty or not.
Repair cost (estimate): $150–$500 for diagnosis; $400–$1,500 for a module or harness repair
Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (10).
Recall 24V112 covers 2023 Chargers, Challengers and 300s: the foot-operated parking brake may have been adjusted incorrectly at the factory, so it may not hold the car and it can roll away. Dealers adjust it free; letters went out in February 2024. One owner here describes exactly the failure — the pedal dropping to the floor with no resistance at 12,000 miles, and the dealer finding the parking brake shoes worn out at 14,000. The other brake complaints are a vibration through the pedal on light braking, one owner who felt the car roll under braking, and the stall above filed under brakes. Confirm the campaign, then park on a slope, set the parking brake and release the pedal; the car should hold with the pedal firm well above the floor.
Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed; $200–$500 for parking brake shoes outside it
Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the brakes (5); 2 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.
Recall 24V574 covers 2023 Chargers: the left rear seat back may not latch in the upright position, so it can fold forward in a crash and put whoever is sitting there — or whatever is in the trunk — where it should not be. Dealers inspect and adjust the latch striker free; letters went out in August 2024. It is a one-minute check at the viewing: fold the left rear seat back forward, push it back up, and pull hard on the top of it. It should lock with a click and stay put.
Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed
Source: 2 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.
Walk-Away Red Flags
- ✗Service Shifter message at any point, or a pause of more than a second going from Reverse to Drive
- ✗Stored P06DD or any U-code on the body, telematics or infotainment modules
- ✗ABS, steering and traction warnings lighting together, even briefly
- ✗Parking brake pedal that drops to the floor or fails to hold the car on a slope
- ✗Backup camera that flickers, goes black or turns blue
- ✗Recall 24V112 shown open on the NHTSA VIN lookup
Good Signs
- ✓Both campaigns 24V112 and 24V574 shown closed on the NHTSA VIN lookup
- ✓Full-module scan with every module reporting clean
- ✓Factory powertrain warranty confirmed on the VIN by a dealer, with the balance stated
- ✓Immediate take-up of Drive and Reverse, hot, on repeated shifts
- ✓Parking brake holding on a slope with a firm pedal well off the floor
- ✓Shifter assembly or oil pump replaced under warranty with the dealer invoice
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Known issues on this page are based on documented owner reports, NHTSA complaints, class-action records, and manufacturer technical service bulletins. Individual vehicles vary. A pre-purchase inspection by a trusted mechanic is always worth doing.
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