I bought this Stratus brand new in 2002 and loved it! It's been a pretty good car except the paint! My car has been garaged the entire time I have owned it. It started fading in 2010 really bad but had spots in some areas long before that. It now looks like a hunk of junk from the outside!! I have taken care of this car and the interior is still perfect! I think its time Dodge steps up and does something about this! Every black Stratus I see looks the exact same! I liked Dodge for many years but if something is not done about this I will never buy a dodge again and will tell everyone I know not to buy the pieces of JUNK!

What a piece of SH*T CAR. DODGE/MITSUSHITTY. As most of you know who have the Coupe 3.0 Dodge Stratus you are well aware of the black paint fading horribly or the clear coat that disintegrates until a matte black. The car is manufactured by Mitsubishi aka Mitsushitty. Almost every black Mitsushitty car painted in the same year, same color has the same problem. I've seen this on the Galant and Eclipse. So that is more of a Mitsubishi defect. Either way the car pre-maturely ages 3-4 years because of this problem. When I first got this car in 2004 I washed and waxed it every weekend and took care of the paint job well. Now it looks like a piece of sh*t.

My wife and I purchased a 2002 Dodge stratus R/T coupe "Silver", new from the dealership. In the past year and a half we noticed that the paint was starting to fade in small areas. now the paint and clear coat flake off in large areas. This troubles me because I used to detail new vehicles at a dealership and I know how to keep my vehicles clean. Secondly the Stratus is garaged every single night! There should be no reason this should happen. I have taken the car to two auto body shops in which I no the owners of each. They both have stated that the paint and clearcoat are very thin when the cars are painted. It will cost me in the area of two thousand dollars to repaint the car by people I know. I do believe the Dodge should repaint these "problem paint jobs". I also have a 2007 Dodge dually and have had it partially repainted because of some factory paint issues. I hope it holds up better thatn the Startus. As I have scene on the internet there are several people having the same issues with many of todays new paint jobs. It's time for dodge to step up and take care of this issue!

I bought this beautiful black stratus back in 2002. I absolutely love it but I hate the paint job. It looks horrible. I would think that this should have had some kind of recall because it it is not a very good advertisement for the Dodge corporation. I have seen 2 other cars with the same kind of problem. The paint job on these vehicles suck...... and they are all stratus'.

Other than the absolutely horrible paint job, the heater core just went, but the paint job really really annoys me and I am tired of people asking where the paint is going.

I bought this beautiful black, shiny, spanking brand new car in June of 2002 - my first ever totally brand new, own only by me, car. Needless to say - barely five years past purchase - the paint was starting to look "ashy". All I was told to do repeatedly was wax and buff it. Well I had it waxed and washed (often detailed) religiously, so that should have never happened. Now it looks flat out terrible. The person who described the wear down of the paint to the point that it looks like an '80's oldie is right on the money. I have had nothing but used cars before this one and NONE of them EVER had that kind of issue (with the exception of one '84 Olds Cutlass Calais that had peeling roof paint, but it was already 10 years old before that started!).

I was very disappointed to search online for Dodge Stratus recalls and find that paint/body issues was not even one of them. They should back their product, right down to the 'skin'. If anyone has any luck getting through to Dodge - please let the rest of us know.

Purchased my black stratus r/t new in 2002 and drove a significant amount of mileage in the first year. By 2003 the paint on the roof behind the sunroof had started to take on a white/grey tone. I went to various dealerships to have this problem looked at. I was told by one body mechanic that I just needed to buff the roof with wax and that would take care of the problem. I called Dodge on several occasions and even though I was below the 3 yr warranty by 2 years, I was over the 36000 mile warranty and they wouldn't do anything.

Fast forward a few years and 80000 miles, and the trouble spot, which is the black paint fading/peeling away, has grown and taken over the entire back section of the roof, both back quarter panels, and the top of the trunk. The paint has worn down several coats to the dull black metal. I have seen a few other cars (same year/model) with the same issue but not as severe. I was completely shocked that a car made this century would have paint issues like an early 80's vehicle... but not shocked by the poor customer service from Dodge.