Weird ASS behavior on a rental Durango

[Vindicator3]

I'm not going to go join the Dodge owners' forum for a rental, so I'm curious if anyone here has some thoughts.

Driving a rental Dodge Durango. 4xxx miles on it. It has an ASS feature, which worked fine for a few days. Today, a behavior started where I stop at a red light, the engine shuts off, and the "D" on the shifter starts flashing, I get a message on the dash telling me to shift to P then to the desired gear. At that point, if I step on the gas, the car won't go, but if I shift the lever to P and then back to D, it goes just fine.

I've never experienced this on my BMW or my wife's Honda (both with ASS that we leave on) or on any other rental car.

I have deactivated ASS at this point and not had any problems since (but have only driven a couple of miles since).

Academically, I'm curious what might be causing this, but I'm also wondering if this is an ominous sign of a larger problem as I don't want to get stranded at some point. Should I call the rental company and tell them to swap the car out? Or am I good just finishing the trip with ASS turned off?

[BlkGS]

I'd just turn auto start stop off. It's an annoyance over a feature anyway.

Definitely weird though. Maybe the car is losing track of where the transmission is or something?

V6 or V8? Do any burnouts yet?

[spazzyfry123]

I came here just so I could type ASS one more time.

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

I came here just so I could type ASS one more time.

looks like he experienced Wild ASS

[philth]

[vt100]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

I came here just so I could type ASS one more time.

It immediately reminded me of this song

[RM7]

Originally Posted by Vindicator3

I'm not going to go join the Dodge owners' forum for a rental, so I'm curious if anyone here has some thoughts.

Driving a rental Dodge Durango. 4xxx miles on it. It has an ASS feature, which worked fine for a few days. Today, a behavior started where I stop at a red light, the engine shuts off, and the "D" on the shifter starts flashing, I get a message on the dash telling me to shift to P then to the desired gear. At that point, if I step on the gas, the car won't go, but if I shift the lever to P and then back to D, it goes just fine.

I've never experienced this on my BMW or my wife's Honda (both with ASS that we leave on) or on any other rental car.

I have deactivated ASS at this point and not had any problems since (but have only driven a couple of miles since).

Academically, I'm curious what might be causing this, but I'm also wondering if this is an ominous sign of a larger problem as I don't want to get stranded at some point. Should I call the rental company and tell them to swap the car out? Or am I good just finishing the trip with ASS turned off?

I've never had this happen with ASS on any car ever. Then again, I try to avoid renting or driving Dodge cars. IMO they can't leverage the same level of design and engineering as other manufacturers and there will always be compromises.

I remember one time I was renting a dodge in DFW where some light on the dash came on...not a check engine light, some other light...but with arrows and no actual information as to what the light freaking meant. Car seemed to run fine...but it was WTF? Other times renting Dodges with the ZF 8-speed, it was obvious a ZF was not a ZF just because it works well in one car. The programming, execution, gear ratios, etc., they can totally change the nature of it and while it worked great in my BMW...it was kinda a disaster in the Dodge/Chrysler product I rented. More than other mfrs, I just don't see them making serious attempts at good engineering and execution.

[DubaiRich]

Dat ASS!!

[BlkGS]

BMW has a uniquely good implementation of the ZF8 transmission.

[Vindicator3]

I want to thank all of you for your valuable ASSistance. You are true ASSmen (or women, as the case may be).

The issue kept recurring every time I forgot to deactivate my ASS (the Dodge was not kind enough to carry that setting over from one drive to the next). Luckily, it didn't portend any larger problem and the car worked fine as long as we chaps were ASSless.

I mentioned it to the check-in human on return and she apologized for the inconvenience and asked what they could do to ASSuage my feelings. Not really all that put out, I ASSked for a small discount of the total rental and she was not crASS about it, she happily obliged. So here on the backside of the trip, I can't really complain.

I also got to drive my 540 home from the airport today, and I have to say - it's no Dodge Durango!

[Efthreeoh]

Alex, I'll go with... "What is a low battery" for one-thousand.

[StradaRedlands]

Third gen Durangos have been around since... 2011!
Sheesh, I knew it was an old platform, but daaaaamn.

Stellantis doing Stellantis stuff.
I'm sure they're about to get the bugs ironed out any day now!

[No one]

Originally Posted by Vindicator3

I'm not going to go join the Dodge owners' forum for a rental, so I'm curious if anyone here has some thoughts.

Driving a rental Dodge Durango. 4xxx miles on it. It has an ASS feature, which worked fine for a few days. Today, a behavior started where I stop at a red light, the engine shuts off, and the "D" on the shifter starts flashing, I get a message on the dash telling me to shift to P then to the desired gear. At that point, if I step on the gas, the car won't go, but if I shift the lever to P and then back to D, it goes just fine.

I've never experienced this on my BMW or my wife's Honda (both with ASS that we leave on) or on any other rental car.

I have deactivated ASS at this point and not had any problems since (but have only driven a couple of miles since).

Academically, I'm curious what might be causing this, but I'm also wondering if this is an ominous sign of a larger problem as I don't want to get stranded at some point. Should I call the rental company and tell them to swap the car out? Or am I good just finishing the trip with ASS turned off?

Of course it was a gearbox failure/issue.

Originally Posted by RM7

I try to avoid renting or driving Dodge cars. IMO they can't leverage the same level of design and engineering as other manufacturers and there will always be compromises.

I drove a 1995 model Dodge Intrepid and a modern Toyota Corolla interchangeably in 2000. I liked or even loved the Intrepid. It did possess some character! Even though it was tricky to drive: sometimes it would have rushed inside the turn on exiting instead of straightening the line as you would've expected, so you had to be ready to steer actively to compensate. That also depended on the acceleration, probably, as it did not happen always. Also it had a terrible low beam. And I couldn't see it's back end reversing while there was no parking ASSistance. Toyota, on the other hand, was awfully dull. It was a killer in the sense driving it made you stop wanting to live!

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Alex, I'll go with... "What is a low battery" for one-thousand.

Probably. Rentals have hard lives, with usually not great upkeep.

The Durango is old but it's still awesome. They really could refresh it in a few places (update the freaking cameras, reroute the HVAC to add a pano roof, maybe square the body off a little), but the platform itself is pretty decent... Even if it is a derivative of the first gen Mercedes GL-Class.

It's one of the few new cars I would consider buying. I'd get a Hellcat.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

Probably. Rentals have hard lives, with usually not great upkeep.

The Durango is old but it's still awesome. They really could refresh it in a few places (update the freaking cameras, reroute the HVAC to add a pano roof, maybe square the body off a little), but the platform itself is pretty decent... Even if it is a derivative of the first gen Mercedes GL-Class.

It's one of the few new cars I would consider buying. I'd get a Hellcat.

My thought is it doesn't see enough miles to fully charge the battery.

[Mingwan]

Checking in because I've experienced similar problems myself.

Definitely don't want to get stranded because of ASS.

Academically, my thoughts are that there is too much ASS; just leave it off since ASS will be there when you want it.

Next time, I think you should find a better check-in human.

[Phillies8008]

I think the answer is "because Dodge*". I rented a Durango a few months ago and am not sure if I could've been less impressed

*Well, really Stelantis as a whole.