This is not a post on gas mileage but a post on a well designed engine and it's electronics. A 2.0L 4 banger getting 31mpg is Pretty Dam Good from my standpoint. This tells me that a lot of development went on toget this engine to do this with the right transmission.

Usually you look to a 1.3-1.6L engine to get this kind of mileage.

I want to commend the Dodge Engineers (maybe a little Mercedes rubbed off) on developing a nice economical drivetrain using only gasoline without hybrid.

Regards
Jib01

 

Hi Jib01... For 16 years I waited for a cheap reliable CVT. For 16 years there were reliable CVTs & there were cheap CVTs. But there weren't cheap reliable CVTs. Finally, Dodge got it right with the Caliber.

Now I came from 2 cars that got as high as 50 MPG & 53 MPG, & 42 & 45 MPG averages. When I bought the CVTCaliber, I fully knew theMPG problems lots of Caliber owners were having& was sure I would have a hard time averaging 30MPG. But the SE Caliber I did buy has a 1 year 50 tank average of 31.4MPG. Careful feather footing & having favorable conditions for MPGhas led my SE Caliber to this average & allowed me to leap above many Calibers. For its weight & transmission class, the Caliber CVT is as good as my econo cars.