2023 Dodge Hornet Reliability Report

I am having continual failures of the electronic door lock/linkage that causes the door to no open from either the interior or exterior of the vehicle. The door latch has been replaced twice on the driver door, once on the rear driver side, the passenger rear is going to be replaced this week, and the passenger front is starting to make a similar noise that the others have made before failing. In an attempt to fix before the cable was also replaced on the latch. The vehicle will not lock the doors allowing for them to be opened while the alarm is armed and will set it off from the exterior of the vehicle. This does not appear to be related to cold weather that has caused issues with the door closing in the past. All repairs have been completed under warranty, but I am considering this to be a safety risk, it does not throw warning messages or errors on the EVIC, and a general scanner does not show any faults with the door. I consider this to be a major safety risk due to the fact that if it fails on the interior of the vehicle, you cannot get out in an emergency without climbing over the door. If it fails from the exterior and an emergency happens you would need to access from another way and crawl over the seats. I do not slam the doors, and the driver side are the most used on this vehicle.

The electrical system drains the battery if not driven on a daily basis. Now that it had to be jump started the information screen is not working. With that being said, I have no camera, radio, heat and other displays. There have been many people with the same problem with this model vehicle but nothing is being done.

I took my Dodge Hornet to the dealership on October 1st for ongoing Apple CarPlay issues and the safety recall involving the center screen and camera system. I explained that the screen had been failing intermittently while driving, shutting off or freezing without warning, and that CarPlay had continued to malfunction despite bringing the vehicle in for this issue more than three separate times over the past two years. The dealership told me the CarPlay problem might improve after a system update, but they could not complete the recall because the required part was on back order. I was told I would be contacted once the part arrived. It is now December 4th, and I have received no update or estimated timeframe. Since then, the center screen has continued to fail at random while the vehicle is in motion, and CarPlay disconnects unpredictably. These issues affect the backup camera, navigation, alerts, and other essential functions, making the vehicle unsafe to operate. This is also not the first recall I have had to address, despite owning the car for only two years. The repeated electronic failures, combined with the manufacturer’s inability to complete a safety recall within a reasonable timeframe, have significantly reduced my confidence in the vehicle’s safety and reliability. I am requesting resolution due to the ongoing safety risks and continued delay in repairing a known defect.

All warning lights continue to go on randomly while vehicle is in motion. Brake and decelerate for nothing On the open highway.

Adaptive cruise control failure. Radar sensor blocked ( message displayed on screen) Forward collision warning inactive

While driving in left lane of one way road at 46 mph with adaptive cruise and lane sense active, the cruise control switched off and lane assist veered left off the road, locking the steering wheel to the left. I was unable to correct steering until after the car had come to a complete stop. I hit a sign in the median due to the lane departure.

Discontinued vehicle model still under active bumper to bumper warranty (thru 10/26); has faulty rear defroster/heated side mirrors that the "remedy" handed down to me was to "drive more" in an effort to charge battery to a threshold that allows said necessary safety feature to operate. If charge falls beneath 65% the vehicle terminates functionality of deemed "non-essential" operations to maintain major functions. Problem is, this feature is not optional. It needs to be available on demand AT ALL TIMES. Especially in the midst of a brutal upstate NY winter where the windows are quintessentially frosted over EVERY morning. There is but one mention of rear defroster operation in the 2023 Dodge Hornet owner manual on page 47. There is ZERO mention of driving X amount of miles or X amount of time to maintain functionality of the rear defroster/heated side mirrors. Devoid of this information in the manual, my expectation is for the company to find a remedy as I have owned many vehicles in my life and never have I ever had this sort of selective operation issue for a SAFETY feature. These vehicles rely on an Intelligent Battery Sensor to dictate to the car what the state of charge is for the battery. My battery was replaced by the dealer I bought this from in May '25 (have paperwork to prove) and the readings per the local dealer I had looking into this on two occasions this month were in the 60-65% range for battery capacity. No way a battery this young has been drained by a third of it's potential already. And if so, something larger is amiss that needs to be diagnosed and remediated PERMANENTLY. Me "driving more" is not a solution. Especially since it makes me incur unnecessary miles and expend more on gas which I will absolutely not do. Bringing this to light before warranty expiration later this year. The company is seemingly trying to do anything and everything to not put money into vehicles that are discontinued. Factory warranty ends 10/26.

While driving through Columbia, SC on Jan 10th at 11am the sunroof suddenly shattered. The temp was 80 degrees and it was sunny. Traffic was moderate. There was what sounded like a large explosion and then I heard what sounded like pebbles running down my car. It was very startling to say the least. I thought it was a truck tire that had exploded but I kept hearing the pebbles sound. So as soon as it was safe to pull over I did to check to see if what I thought was a truck tire exploding had damaged my car somehow. I opened the sunroof roof once I came to a stop and thats when I saw that my sunroof had shattered and understood that was the noise I heard.

I have been taking my car into the shop to get the lights checked. They’ve come to conclusion that the front crash sensors disable themselves and they have no fix for it. Chrysler engineers came back and said to close the case and give the car back until they find a fix. This is very unsafe considering I drive a hour to work and home and also have a 6 month old baby. I talked to Chrysler about getting my car bought back under the lemon law and I was told I’d get a call with my options. However, when it came down to it, they have me driving the unsafe car and will not return my calls nor contact me. I tried to take it to a different location and he told me that he couldn’t do anything about it over the phone. Dodge is not concerned about the problem nor my safety and I believe something needs to be done because they won’t work with me to get a safe car. They’d rather me drive an unsafe vehicle. The car disables its crash sensors whenever it wants.