my personal thoughts...take them as you wish
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RE: my personal thoughts...take them as you wish
I know it's an old post, but wanted to cruise the Caliber forum. I never would have considered buying an American car as I hear more reliability problems with them than the Japenese counterparts. The caliber is a nice car.
Just so happens that the brand new '05 Dodge Neons went on sale here on the west coast last couple of months for $9,999 for 5 speeds SE's. The local dealers ran out of them and has automatic SXT's for sale for $10,999. My local dealer only had red and white Neons and automatics only. After cruising the forums and deciding that I would only like the 5sp over the auto, I went on a mad hunt for a Orange Blast 5sp SXT. I finally found one at a Lithia dealer in Fairfield CA. Bought the car over the phone and drove down to pick it up and they gave me $1,500 for my 178,000 miles Ford Aerostar site unseen. I really didn't want to buy a Neon, but the Honda Civics were $7,000 more and couldn't really justify the cost. Sooooo, after carefull researching and deciding that the Neon is not a terrible car, I bought it. I sure love it so far, I clayed the car and waxed it with Meguires wax and it's beautiful. It was bought for the growing gas prices and the van was not getting the mileage I wanted. We drive slow and with 3 to 5 kids(wife has 3 and I have 2, 4 of them girls, I swim in the estrogen oceon!!) to run around, the gas savings has almost paid for the car. My 2000 Yukon gets 16mpg!! and the window regulator in the right rear door broke, SES light on the 2nd AIR system and a 6 pound pheasant found it's way into the grille and busted some slats out. Nice rig though, wish Dodge made a big SUV. The kids love the Neon and they love the spoiler. I get between 33 and 35 mpg (35 last tank as engine breaks in) and will run synthetic oil after 5,000 miles, it has 4400 on it now. It's no Honda Civic for fit and finsh (door panel moves when rolling window up and down, don't like that too much) but it was $7,000 cheaper and can't justify that and that Orange blast paint is nice, the wife loves it. Every time we get a new car, I get the old beat up car.....Sheesh. No one at work believed me until I drove the Neon to work. LOL.
Well, I too am on night shift at the local county lock up and just realized that I have been talking gibberish.
Get the car you like. DevilsReject (sorry bout putting my sig in the wrong spot btw!)has a great point, if you don't like the car, don't buy it. If you like it, buy it. I never thought I would own a Dodge (sorry) but now that I have my Neon, I am sweet talking the wifey into buying a new Dodge Pick up, nothing special, just a new truck for Daddy. We are losing a kid-girl (a moment of silence) to the big wide world from high school land (you mean I have to pay for power and water and food and gas and clothes...YES!!!) and hope to never see her again. LOL, just kidding. 4 left and counting.
Have fun with your Caliber, I thought of looking at that, but the ending price on my neon was $9,499 after the trade in and payments are dirt cheap and 35mpg is a great thing.
L8R
Aaron.
Now, if I could find the orange blast dash trim for my center console, that would be awesome, like the carbon fiber look but the orange would be sweet.
Just so happens that the brand new '05 Dodge Neons went on sale here on the west coast last couple of months for $9,999 for 5 speeds SE's. The local dealers ran out of them and has automatic SXT's for sale for $10,999. My local dealer only had red and white Neons and automatics only. After cruising the forums and deciding that I would only like the 5sp over the auto, I went on a mad hunt for a Orange Blast 5sp SXT. I finally found one at a Lithia dealer in Fairfield CA. Bought the car over the phone and drove down to pick it up and they gave me $1,500 for my 178,000 miles Ford Aerostar site unseen. I really didn't want to buy a Neon, but the Honda Civics were $7,000 more and couldn't really justify the cost. Sooooo, after carefull researching and deciding that the Neon is not a terrible car, I bought it. I sure love it so far, I clayed the car and waxed it with Meguires wax and it's beautiful. It was bought for the growing gas prices and the van was not getting the mileage I wanted. We drive slow and with 3 to 5 kids(wife has 3 and I have 2, 4 of them girls, I swim in the estrogen oceon!!) to run around, the gas savings has almost paid for the car. My 2000 Yukon gets 16mpg!! and the window regulator in the right rear door broke, SES light on the 2nd AIR system and a 6 pound pheasant found it's way into the grille and busted some slats out. Nice rig though, wish Dodge made a big SUV. The kids love the Neon and they love the spoiler. I get between 33 and 35 mpg (35 last tank as engine breaks in) and will run synthetic oil after 5,000 miles, it has 4400 on it now. It's no Honda Civic for fit and finsh (door panel moves when rolling window up and down, don't like that too much) but it was $7,000 cheaper and can't justify that and that Orange blast paint is nice, the wife loves it. Every time we get a new car, I get the old beat up car.....Sheesh. No one at work believed me until I drove the Neon to work. LOL.
Well, I too am on night shift at the local county lock up and just realized that I have been talking gibberish.
Get the car you like. DevilsReject (sorry bout putting my sig in the wrong spot btw!)has a great point, if you don't like the car, don't buy it. If you like it, buy it. I never thought I would own a Dodge (sorry) but now that I have my Neon, I am sweet talking the wifey into buying a new Dodge Pick up, nothing special, just a new truck for Daddy. We are losing a kid-girl (a moment of silence) to the big wide world from high school land (you mean I have to pay for power and water and food and gas and clothes...YES!!!) and hope to never see her again. LOL, just kidding. 4 left and counting.
Have fun with your Caliber, I thought of looking at that, but the ending price on my neon was $9,499 after the trade in and payments are dirt cheap and 35mpg is a great thing.
L8R
Aaron.
Now, if I could find the orange blast dash trim for my center console, that would be awesome, like the carbon fiber look but the orange would be sweet.
