Owners have filed 17 complaints on the Dodge OMNI, covering 1987–1990. The system named most often is Engine And Engine Cooling (3 reports). Worst years by volume: 1987, 1989, 1990; cleanest: 1988, 1990, 1989. 2 reports describe a crash, 1 a fire. On average the car was 6.5 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Dodge OMNI
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 17 OMNI complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Engine And Engine Cooling 3 Read
Engine mount broke, causing engine to fall down/break left front axle
Vehicle stalls continually
Air switch valve failed
Air Bags 2 Read
Drivers air bag did not deploy during frontal collision. Tt
The vehicle hit the side of a mountain and air bag did not deploy. Also in nov. Vehicle hit the back of a truck. Explain in more
Vehicle Speed Control 2 Read
Applied brakes, disengaged clutch, heard engine racing, vehicle suddenly accelerated. This is the second incident
My car started leaking large amounts of oil and made the brakes not work properly and my 9 year old son and I almost went off a high embankment while moving and trying to slow down at a bend in the road
Fuel System 2 Read
Fuel regulator failed, resulting in a fire prior to recall (88V-105)
Carburetor failure, causing gasoline to leak/odor emitting inside of vehicle
Power Train 2 Read
Front motor mount failed breaking axle and ripping out auto-transmission. Pleas describe details. Tt
Transmisison failed twice
Structure 2 Read
K frame rotted on left side, causing engine to stumble at low speeds
Rear bumper fell off due to development of holes. Tt aluminium bumper was held to steel brackets with steel bolts. Steel and aluminum don't get along and aluminum looses. Bumper turned to dust at attachment points and fell off
Suspension 1 Read
While drivng at 35 mph the welds on the shock tower on the passenger side broke, sending the left shock up through the hood of the vehicle. Driver was able to drive car home. The manufacturer has been notified about the problem. The problem has not been corrected
Seat Belts 1 Read
Seatbelt latch is cracked. Tt
OMNI years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Air Bags | 1 | — | |
| 1989 | Engine And Engine Cooling | 1 | — | |
| 1988 | Seat Belts | — | — | |
| 1987 | Engine And Engine Cooling | — | 1 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 14 |
| Average complaints per series | 1.2 |
| Worst single series | 2 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 6.5 years |
A model average of 1.2 hides a worst series at 2. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the OMNI?
By complaint volume, 1987, 1989, 1990 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which OMNI years are the cleanest?
1988, 1990, 1989 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Dodge OMNI have?
17 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 1987–1990. Of those, 2 describe a crash and 1 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.