Yup, Our 2007 Caliber turned 2 last month!
I want to just toss this information out there for anyone whom wants to read it.
We were the first to buy a Dodge Caliber in our area. Feb of 2006. My wife’s Neon was almost 10 years old and we were ready for our next small car and then bam! There it was sitting in front of our local Dodge Dealership. We paid cash for the first one on the lot (actually the only one). And we drove it for a month before we even saw a commercial for it. Heck, the dealership only got one more until August of 06. They were quite rare in early 06. We’ve had a variety of small problems with it,, and some big ones,, some things the dealer fixed, and two things that they couldn’t fix and we’ve just had to live with (including some crunching fronts struts that they couldn’t figure out, so they labelled it as typical to the car) and now we’re just 11 months away from the end of it’s warranty.
So this is what I’d like to say about my wifes Dodge Caliber SXT. We bought a Beta version of what would eventually become an excellent car. A fantastic design and concept that would become a winning model. I wish we had waited until after the platform had been fully tested and they were making them in full mass production. I wish it hadn’t been such an darn good looking car at such a great price! To this day, even after all the problems we've had, when I watch my wife head out the driveway, I still can’t help but stare at it thinking ‘Now that is one good looking little American car!’
I don’t drive the car much. Just on highway road-trips during the holidays. But let me tell you, I’ve never driven such a nice little highway car. That 2 liter CVT combo is perfect for the highway. It eats up the hills without the expected effort. It feels like a bigger engine. It’s just a wonderful car on the highway, for a 2 liter. BUT, that floppy non-responsive gas pedal around town,, I can’t stand it! The gas pedal just doesn’t make a good connection between my brain and what I want the car to do! It doesn’t bother her so much, but it does get to her after a couple minutes of ‘stop and go’. I realize it’s a CVT. Heck I drive a Ford Freestyle. It has a CVT. The pedal in the Ford feels much more consistant. Much more responsive. Dodge this year (2008) started selling the CVT2 in the Caliber. It responds much better. More like a CVT needs to feel like in traffic -or around town. I had one as a rental in NY last year.
And now there’s the currently offered lifetime warranty! Seems like the early buyers bought too early.
It's some kind of cruel triple wammy. Improved the tranny AND improved the warranty after the first year, as well as fixed the early production problems!
At the end of this year, we’re going to find out what the dealer will give us for a trade in for our fully loaded Beta Dodge 07 Caliber SXT. ‘Cause yes, we would buy the ones they're making now in a heartbeat. But I don’t think that the Dodge Dealership is going to give us a decent trade-in. Seriously. I’ll bet they won’t offer us $7,000 for it. They don't want it. We paid $18,400. It’s in perfect shape. Just 14,000 miles. But the dealership knows that there was a ‘too early’ release of the Calibers,, and they don’t want them either! The early ‘CVT1’s with all the problems’. Yes, I’ve heard it said that way. So we’ll just keep it.
I think that every car manufacture out there is now trying to produce a car that fits this crossover catagory,, but Caliber was the first. And for the money, I think that Caliber is still the best deal. And now that Dodge has ironed out a dozen or so kinks,, yes I’d buy one no problem.
We pulled into the dealer lot last Sunday to take a closer peek at what looked like some kind of Caliber on steroids. It’s the new 2009 Dodge Journey. Nice! It was like de-ja-vu for us from 2 years ago. Damn good looking new model from Daimler/Chrysler. There was just the one sitting there (probably the only one for the next 5 months).
My wife and I simultaneously said the same thing after staring at it for about 5 seconds- "Beta". The word fits the situation perfectly. Why does Daimler Chrysler do this?! and why do they punish (least wise not reward) the good Dodge customers whom have taken the BETA risk in the past? We sure as heck won’t do it again. I don’t care how incredable the design of the car is. And I don’t care how good the warranty is. If the dealership is just going to say "That’s typical of the early releases, they’ve fixed that problem for the next model year." -then you can forget it.
I really wish we had waited just 1 more year. :i_rolleyes:
I want to just toss this information out there for anyone whom wants to read it.
We were the first to buy a Dodge Caliber in our area. Feb of 2006. My wife’s Neon was almost 10 years old and we were ready for our next small car and then bam! There it was sitting in front of our local Dodge Dealership. We paid cash for the first one on the lot (actually the only one). And we drove it for a month before we even saw a commercial for it. Heck, the dealership only got one more until August of 06. They were quite rare in early 06. We’ve had a variety of small problems with it,, and some big ones,, some things the dealer fixed, and two things that they couldn’t fix and we’ve just had to live with (including some crunching fronts struts that they couldn’t figure out, so they labelled it as typical to the car) and now we’re just 11 months away from the end of it’s warranty.
So this is what I’d like to say about my wifes Dodge Caliber SXT. We bought a Beta version of what would eventually become an excellent car. A fantastic design and concept that would become a winning model. I wish we had waited until after the platform had been fully tested and they were making them in full mass production. I wish it hadn’t been such an darn good looking car at such a great price! To this day, even after all the problems we've had, when I watch my wife head out the driveway, I still can’t help but stare at it thinking ‘Now that is one good looking little American car!’
I don’t drive the car much. Just on highway road-trips during the holidays. But let me tell you, I’ve never driven such a nice little highway car. That 2 liter CVT combo is perfect for the highway. It eats up the hills without the expected effort. It feels like a bigger engine. It’s just a wonderful car on the highway, for a 2 liter. BUT, that floppy non-responsive gas pedal around town,, I can’t stand it! The gas pedal just doesn’t make a good connection between my brain and what I want the car to do! It doesn’t bother her so much, but it does get to her after a couple minutes of ‘stop and go’. I realize it’s a CVT. Heck I drive a Ford Freestyle. It has a CVT. The pedal in the Ford feels much more consistant. Much more responsive. Dodge this year (2008) started selling the CVT2 in the Caliber. It responds much better. More like a CVT needs to feel like in traffic -or around town. I had one as a rental in NY last year.
And now there’s the currently offered lifetime warranty! Seems like the early buyers bought too early.
It's some kind of cruel triple wammy. Improved the tranny AND improved the warranty after the first year, as well as fixed the early production problems!
At the end of this year, we’re going to find out what the dealer will give us for a trade in for our fully loaded Beta Dodge 07 Caliber SXT. ‘Cause yes, we would buy the ones they're making now in a heartbeat. But I don’t think that the Dodge Dealership is going to give us a decent trade-in. Seriously. I’ll bet they won’t offer us $7,000 for it. They don't want it. We paid $18,400. It’s in perfect shape. Just 14,000 miles. But the dealership knows that there was a ‘too early’ release of the Calibers,, and they don’t want them either! The early ‘CVT1’s with all the problems’. Yes, I’ve heard it said that way. So we’ll just keep it.
I think that every car manufacture out there is now trying to produce a car that fits this crossover catagory,, but Caliber was the first. And for the money, I think that Caliber is still the best deal. And now that Dodge has ironed out a dozen or so kinks,, yes I’d buy one no problem.
We pulled into the dealer lot last Sunday to take a closer peek at what looked like some kind of Caliber on steroids. It’s the new 2009 Dodge Journey. Nice! It was like de-ja-vu for us from 2 years ago. Damn good looking new model from Daimler/Chrysler. There was just the one sitting there (probably the only one for the next 5 months).
My wife and I simultaneously said the same thing after staring at it for about 5 seconds- "Beta". The word fits the situation perfectly. Why does Daimler Chrysler do this?! and why do they punish (least wise not reward) the good Dodge customers whom have taken the BETA risk in the past? We sure as heck won’t do it again. I don’t care how incredable the design of the car is. And I don’t care how good the warranty is. If the dealership is just going to say "That’s typical of the early releases, they’ve fixed that problem for the next model year." -then you can forget it.
I really wish we had waited just 1 more year. :i_rolleyes:
-H