Nice car for your money.

I recently owned a 2001 Dodge Stratus SE Plus. I bought the car with only 35,000 miles on it and I sold it with 54,000 miles on it. The car seemed solid and decently built for its price. Dodge did an okay job with the exterior styling and interior styling, both of which could easily be improved for a better car. The engine wasn’t the best for a 4 cyl, but transported me to where I needed to be.

Exterior Styling:
Dodge went from a very young & small looking design to a more mature and graceful one. The car is smoothly shaped with no major curvatures in the design. The front of the car appears to hang lower to the ground and is masked by a giant front grill. The previous design barely had any grill. The grill on this car goes from the front of the hood, all the way down to the bottom of the car, and them back between the two front lights. The headlights are rectangular shaped and show well for nighttime driving. I had many incidents where I was flashed to dim might lights when they were only on regular beams. The side body molding is smooth and bows out slightly from the front to the back. A body trim piece runs from the front door to the back door. It is body matching, so it goes well with the car. The back taillights are once again, more rectangular shaped and curve a little toward the body molding on the outside edges. There are two reflector stripes below each light, which are set back into the molding about a ½ inch. They look similar to the taillights on the Intrepid. The trunk is straight across with no major lows or highs in the way it was molded. If you look closely, you can see a small curvature in the molding. This curvature outlines the lower body of the car and runs smoothly all the way around with no sudden stops or turns. One problem with the design of the side mirrors is that they are sloped down inward, so the water doesn't properly drain out & is held up behind the mirror. All around, the Stratus is a decent design.

Interior Styling:
I had the SE Plus version of the Stratus. This model had everything but leather and a moon roof. The car was equipped with an eight-way power driver’s seat, power locks, power windows, keyless entry, trip package, compact disc, and the rest were basic options. The trip package was an instrument located in the top center of the dashboard that listed outside temp, direction, mpg on tank of gas, miles left on tank of gas, & mpg at current speed. The temp & direction was listed on the first screen, while the rest were on their own respected screens. A touch of a button was all that was necessary to move between the screens. The driving gauges were white and illuminated a blue-green color at night. This made daytime and nighttime viewing easy. The dash is straight across, except nearest the driver, where is curves to a half-moon shape. The shifting lever is located on the floor, with a middle center console located right behind it. The cup-holders are on the floor, about 10inches below the bottom of the dash. This made it very difficult to have large drinks in the car, because they probably wouldn’t fit. The holders were also standard size & didn’t resize to accommodate different drinks. The dash was also lined with a wood-grain interior, which looked cheap. The controls for the radio & temperature were in the middle, about half way down. This made for little stretching to control them. The controls were a basic black plastic and very simple. This was fine with me, but gave the interior a cheap look. The distance from the front passenger seat to the dash was not the best. I had the seat all the way back, but it left me knees close to the dash. This would worry me in a frontal crash. The back seats folded down for easy access to the trunk. All seat belts were standard across the shoulders. It also had car-seat hooks. Two cup-holders were located on the floor in the center of the back seat. Once again these were standard & unchangeable, but there wasn’t anything in the way to refrain from the use of larger drinks. The only problem with the back seat is the design of the ceiling leaves for tight headspace. I’m 5㤓 and could just barely sit completely up in the back seat. Any one taller may have a problem. The seats were very comfortable on long drives, leaving little or no fatigue. I would only recommend two people in the back seat, as it can become cramped.

Engine:
This Stratus was only equipped with a 16 Valve-2.4L 4cyl, putting out around 150 horsepower. The car only got 20-22mpg for city driving, but any where from 26-30mpg for highway driving. From a stopped position, this car struggled to pick up speed quickly. At passing speeds, it cruises with ease. With only a 16 valve, it really struggled when the A/C was on max. I usually turned it off till I got to higher speeds. I didn’t have too, but it helped with starting power. I live in MN and this car was not equipped with an engine block heater. There was a couple of times it didn’t start when the temp dropped below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I asked the dealer about this, especially since it was so new & they stated it was simply because it didn’t have the block heater. I don’t know if this was true because I never bought one before I sold the car for college. I took it in for regular oil changes and tune-ups. At about 40,000 miles I had to replace an A/C sensor, but otherwise I never had any problems with the car.

If you are looking for a reliable car, a Stratus is a good way to go. I would highly recommend the 2.7 V6 if you plan to purchase a Stratus. I do think the Stratus is a bit over-price for what you get, but it's a good car.