Dodge Caliber Axed

2003NeonSXT · Post by **2003NeonSXT** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:52 pm

http://www.dashboardnews.com/2011/08/24 ... iber-axed/

C1DoG · Post by **C1DoG** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:58 pm

Surprised it got this far in production!

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:02 pm

Old news, but:

Dodge should bury the last Caliber (and its somehow worse Jeep platform mate) in a cement tomb five miles underground, and guard it with ancient Mayan warriors and radioactive King Cobras. Treat it like the last remaining smallpox strains, both bring just as much harm onto humanity.

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:06 pm

idc what anyone says, but my CSRT4 was awesome. loved every second of it. Fast as hell...i beat nsrt4's with it. (top end speed was redic)

150mph with more to go was a bit scarey.

LowNSlow · Post by **LowNSlow** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:50 pm

RobsProjectSOHC wrote: Fast as hell...i beat nsrt4's with it..

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:26 pm

Ill try to break this down for you.

Fast as hell - fastest car ive owned.
Beat nsrt4's - so it wasnt a shit car..had speed and handled great.

Therefor nothing to laugh about or shit on my parade. Good day.

slowpeon · Post by **slowpeon** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:20 pm

RobsProjectSOHC wrote:Ill try to break this down for you.

Fast as hell - fastest car ive owned.
Beat nsrt4's - so it wasnt a shit car..had speed and handled great.

Therefor nothing to laugh about or shit on my parade. Good day.

Maybe stock or near stock nsrts, mine would make your car look silly for a helluva lot less than what you paid.

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:28 pm

Im not gunna stand up and make a fight for it when i dont have it anymore. but it wasnt a car to shit on. It saved my life with rainy weather at 100mphs....corrected itself. another ice slip, saved from telephone pole. Handled great and i beat the piss out of it and it ran great. 6spd to love. Cops didnt mess with the grocery getter. Why Hate?

MoxHair · Post by **MoxHair** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:27 pm

Since when did Calibers ever handle well? Even in SRT form they're still shit.

Mat00ES · Post by **Mat00ES** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:33 pm

I beat on a caliber sxt, handled like I'd imagine an ice cream truck would.

Haganracing · Post by **Haganracing** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:57 pm

Mat00ES wrote:I beat on a caliber sxt, handled like I'd imagine an ice cream truck would.

So you were testing it out to see if it could be like an icecream truck????

Mat00ES · Post by **Mat00ES** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:58 pm

Well it does have that nifty ac cooled box right?

srtjesse · Post by **srtjesse** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:39 am

my csrt4 is really fast it has a s256 and it handles really good with the 9 inch wide wheels and bc coils. im putting down 496whp and i love the thing i wouldnt trade it for anything in the world. I can smoke the crap out of any car on the street and still take the family on road trips with no issues at all so its a win win.

titansxt · Post by **titansxt** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:03 am

The new Dodge will debut in December or January 2012. It will be built at BAP just like the Neon and Caliber. Ralph says he wants a new SRT-4.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:33 am

Meh, I would take an Omni over a Caliber. DCX certainly miscalculated over what the American market was looking for in a small Dodge (unless you like lots of hard plastic interior surfaces and Pontiac Aztek-like styling mistakes). Uh-uh.

Marcel · Post by **Marcel** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:42 am

good

i hate the looks of the damn thing

Lantern04rt · Post by **Lantern04rt** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:52 am

ding dong the witch is dead.

SC62391 · Post by **SC62391** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:54 am

I wasn't a HUGE fan of the csrt-4 but i do like them. Good numbers stock if you ask me. But i can't see myself ever getting one. nsrt-4's are too sexy. But a 6 speed would be nice

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:38 am

MoxHair wrote:Since when did Calibers ever handle well? Even in SRT form they're still shit.

From when it was raining out and hit a puddle at 100mph, my car turbed 90 degrees....now my window is facing the road.....and it corrected itself out. Ontop of that, winter was a breeze.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:40 am

MoxHair wrote:Since when did Calibers ever handle well? Even in SRT form they're still shit.

This. I put a bit of work into my R/T and the handling still sucked.

Granted, I didn't go as far as I did on my Neon, but the upgrades I did should have translated into better handling than what I got out of it. It's pretty bad when there are upgrades like a plate that reinforces the area where the cowl and front rails come together just to improve handling.

RobsProjectSOHC wrote:From when it was raining out and hit a puddle at 100mph, my car turbed 90 degrees....now my window is facing the road.....and it corrected itself out.

That's just stupid. Why would you drive a hundred miles an hour in the rain?

Trust me Rob, drive a good handling car for a while. You will find out very quickly that the Caliber does not handle that well.

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:58 am

Trying to find excuses on bringing down the caliber are weak.....just saying. Your best logic put down is that the handling was weak?....ohhhhhhh snap, you guys really got me there.....how about you just sit in the back and play with the power windows and keep trying to come up with wack ass attacks.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:06 am

Easy killer. I'm not trying to put the car down, just stating facts. I owned a 2007 R/T 5sp and I put a lot of time and money trying to make it look and handle better and get more power out of it. Dollar for dollar, hour for hour, my Neon has given me more back in driving pleasure than I ever got from the Caliber.

Don't get me started on the horrible interior. Or the leaking sunroof. Or the squeeks and pops that the car had that the dealer could not get rid of. Or the sub par A/C. Or the craptastic OE "performance" tires.

The upgraded stereo sounded good.

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:16 am

And I owned an 07 R/T AWD...

I liked the car, but it handled like a minivan. The Caliber is a spaceous compact that was never truly intended to be a sport car.

Looks are subjective, handling ability is not. Neither is fuel economy. I was very disappointed with the economy of this car. On my wife's easy drive to work she would get 22mpg. Highway driving could net 27mpg if you were very very careful because in the end it was a brick.

I actually didn't have a problem with the interior. I guess my standards are a little low

I felt the Caliber was a good starter family car. It has lots of room, just not enough for a twin inline stroller. Had we been able to fit the stroller we would still have the car.

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:22 am

why would you get an r/t for speed?.....
My csrt4 never had any of those problems. Nice SRT seats with red stitching, looked great and felt great. and most problems you mentioned you can say the same on nsrt4's. My friends nsrt4 sunroof leaks all the time. He cant seem to fix it or find parts....hes not internet savvy.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:32 am

RobsProjectSOHC wrote:why would you get an r/t for speed?.....

Because the SRT wasn't available yet.

I didn't want the car for speed. The car was for my wife and I can't leave cars stock.

Sorry, but you can't compare the build materials from the Neon to the Caliber. I have yet to hit my funny bone on any surface of my Neon and be brought to tears like I have in the Caliber (true story). Between the bizzare angles to the hard plastics used, to the color that showed every bit of dirt possible, the interior sucked balls. Granted, Chrysler did darken the interior for 2008, but everything else still sucked.

The SRT did have nicer seats.

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:58 am

The Dante has tears? Are they like Chuck Norris tears?

Leather interior FTMFW

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:04 am

RobsProjectSOHC wrote:From when it was raining out and hit a puddle at 100mph, my car turbed 90 degrees....now my window is facing the road.....and it corrected itself out. Ontop of that, winter was a breeze.

A 'good' handling car won't 'turb' (turn?) 90* when it hits a puddle; that's just downright scary. Whether or not it corrected, it shouldn't do that in the first place.

Drive a car that's meant for snow (audi, subaru, etc) and you'll crap all day on the caliber's handling.

RobsProjectSOHC · Post by **RobsProjectSOHC** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:09 am

im saying its good for front wheel drive. obviously awd cars are going to beat it anyday.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:10 am

racer12306 wrote:The Dante has tears? Are they like Chuck Norris tears?

Dante tears....the rarest kind.

RobsProjectSOHC wrote:im saying its good for front wheel drive.

I wouldn't go that far. My Neon stock was better than the Caliber with MP springs and swaybars.

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:02 am

Not to mention the ball joints that fail prematurely. Considering it was supposed to replace the neon, it did a poor job. If it was launched under a different point of view, it may have been received better.

Not a big fan of the Avengers either, but those should have been marketed as the neon replacement. In all if DCX would have waited a year or two, neons would have made a decent comeback with the fuel prices. The resale values sure jumped through the roof...