Dodge Caliber - 2007 Review

I've had the Caliber for 2 years now, we got one of the first ones in May 2006. I have a manual transmission and the 6disc CD changer stereo. It is the burnt orange color with the sport package.

The PROS:I get 27-30 MPG which is really great! The car is very versatile. The back seats fold down and the passenger seat folds down, so you can haul stuff up to 8feet long. We have taken it on a few long trips 600 or so miles each time and the beverage chiller worked pretty well in the glove box. The stereo is nice sounding and the interior is pretty much a no-frills easy to clean sporty look. The lighted cup holders are kinda cool, but the sliding armrest/cellphone/mp3 holder is a waste (doesn't work well).

The serious CONS: The car is not very comfortable to drive, very stiff handling. It is very noisy. It is not great for tall people. It is without a doubt the worst stickshift car I have ever driven. There is no idle to adjust so the car always feels like it could stall, and sometimes does just that, when I am sitting in neutral at a light! I have had it into  2 different dealerships 5 different times and so far nobody has an answer or been able to fix it. My power locks blew out 7,000 miles into ownership and they had to have the car 3 times(last one 3 days to fix) and had to replace the ENTIRE instrument cluster because the computer controls all of it! We now have the same problem at 22,000 miles and it has been into 1 dealership 5 times and it works only intermittently! They don't know what else to try and Chrysler has no mediation or customer sevice unit, you have to sue them. Not happy with that.

The car should've had more of the bugs worked out of it before Chrysler (Dodge) brought this one to market. If they had 5-6 more years to work it out this might turn out to be a better car. Great ideas just lacking performance & quality.