???? The current Sebring is butt-ugly, and everybody knows it. The last gen 2 doors were a sweet looking car, the new ones are a joke. (with sales figures to back that up)

 

I love the new Avenger or Charger Jr! I drove one and thought it rode pretty nice.

 

That's identical to comparing SUV's to small cars Chase.

 

Nothing about the Caliber is SUV... but ok... keep saying it... it might come true....

 

Not many people will be cross-shopping a caliber with a civic, I see cross-shopping the civic and the avenger to be more likely as people don't tend to cross-shop hatches with sedans.

 

Is the Mazda 3 hatch, the same thing as the Mazda 3 sedan? Yep, except for the hatch.

Is the Civic hatch, the same thing as the Civic sedan? Yep, except for the hatch.

Are they both compact 4-doors? Yep. Is the Caliber a compact 4-door? Yep.

The Avenger is a mid size car with much more power available.

 

The issue that I see with what they are doing is they are dropping the wrong engine. I see far more R/T Avengers than I see SXTs, the thing that Chrysler did wrong with their strategy on using the 3.5L in the Avenger is the fact that they neutered it. They should keep the 3.5L offering and increase it to its full 250hp output while using either a 3.29 or 3.07 axle ratio to improve the fuel economy. This will help to make it more competitive in fuel economy while coming closer to the competition's power output the model with this should remain the limited for Chrysler and revive the ES name plate for Dodge. The SRT-4 engine should then be offered in an R/T and Special models offering both manual and automatic offerings. The 2.7L should be dropped out of the SXT and Touring versions replaced with a six-speed & GDI version of the 2.4L to provide a step up in fuel economy and more hp & tq. Another things that Dodge should consider is making an "EE" (Extra Efficient) model by offering a manual 2.0L for those who want a more efficient car.

The problem that I believe the Avenger has is it should have been the Neon replacement, not the Stratus replacement. The trunk is too darn small for the class. The car does not feel like the other mid-sized competitors. The styling looks more like a strategy for a smaller car. The platform it is on was originally meant for a compact. They tried to duplicate the K-strategy, but they didn't do it right this time. Although it is a mid-sized, it doesn't feel like it. I think the best thing would be to just downsize it and make it the Neon replacement and bring in a different, larger mid-sized car.

I hope that the new Phoenix engines will be ready before long and I hope that they made sure that they are virtually bug free this time.

 

I agree about power. The first thing I was going to do, had I bought an Avenger, was free up some of that horsepower.