WoooHoooooo!!!

Juat bought a new red Caliber SXT Sport with the 24E package......take delivery tomorrow....and no I did not sell my Ram....I hope I made the right decision to buy it. Still a little leary about the variable tranny. Feels kinda strange on the Demo car the I drove. Anyone have any feedback?? It was pretty tough to get the dealers to drop the price. I only managed to get $1600.00 off[8D]. I guess the car is still too popular......

 

Dang it! I wish I could have just paid retail for my Caliber! I got ripped out of $795 by a crooked dealership (Country Club Chrysler Dodge of Clarksburg, WV) because I got myCaliber when the factory had placed a hold on ordering. I had tried to order one from my local dealership, but couldn't, so I had to go from one dealership to another until I found one that already hada Caliber like i wanted in the build queue. Then I still had to wait like 3 MONTHS for it. Oh well, lesson learned.

Oh, and as for the CVT....no troubles. I really hate automatics, but the cvt is different. I actually like driving it. Don't generically call it an automatic.

And, if your vehicles finished build date is before 4/21/07, you should have the dealership address TSB#18-031-07. It is a software update for the engine and CVT controllers. You will get better go from a standing start, and as far as i can tell it actually helps the fuel mileage if anything, so its a win-win deal.

 

Approach the CVT as if it were a propellor airplane. Set the CVT tranny in Drive, set your rpms with your gas pedal & away you go down the road(runway). Just like a propellor plane you never feel any shifting & just like a propellor plane, the rpms stay the same while you accelerate down the road (runway).

However, if you drive for economy, the engine stays quiet without vibration, which ISN'Tlike an airplane.

 

I'll be honest, the only reason i picked up my Caliber is cause the gas milage. I have a Ram SRT 10 that gets about 10mpg on premium and i traded in a Dakota that was rocking out about 15 or so mpg and the V6 Dakota would only have been about 20 bucks cheaper. My saleswoman was laughing cause the whole time i was like, i cant believe i'm getting an ugly little turd like this. Manual everything (other than CVT tranny). Well 2 weeksin, i'm actually kinda digging it. The CVT is pretty darn nice, allbeit a tad slow from a dead stop, but its awefully smooth. Thing that surprises me the most is how many people come up to me at the gas station (luckily, i'm not there too often) to talk about it. Not quite the gathering i get for the SRT, but surprising nonetheless. Some of the little things are impressing me: suspension holds its own on dirt roads and there's not a great deal of body roll; the lighted cup holders on the base model are a nice touch, as is the chill zone although i have yet to use it. I havent driven a car in a couple years and its nice to get that turning radius back although i look like i dont know what i'm doing when i park cause the dash is so long so u think ur a heck of a lot closer up than u actually are. One beef i do have is in the hatch, i went to put a smallish vacume in the back and had to fold the rear seats down, a bit of a shocker for a hatchback. One set of golf clubs has to be set across sideways with the seats partially down, so that was a bit of a bummer when compaired to a Mazda 3 i was looking at.
But i was pleased, and kind of surprised of the price of the Caliber, seeing as its still a newer style and how effecient it is on gas. The money i'm saving in gas has already surpassed the extra 20 bucks a month in payment. Heck, i've only driven my ram about 3 times since i got the Caliber, and the ram is my love child, lol.

Happy Driving

 

Congrats! If you have any q's about it and it's quirks, feel free to ask.