Here's the point people. The Caliber is a heavy car that is probably even taller than the magnum. Its not aerodynamic and its solid. I'll tell you one thing. It gets good mileage around town (where aerodynamics dont come into big play because your not going that fast) and I'd garantee a persons family would fare better in a crash in a Caliber than a neon. You can't put a price on that. And since 80% of my driving is in the city, then the Calibers mileage is good enough for me.

 

Another thing, look at the Caliber with a 5 speed manual...it only gets 2 MPG more than a 2.0 Liter with a CVT, and only 4 MPG better than a 2.4 Liter with a CVT. You're saying that an automatic is going to make more of a difference than a Caliber with a 5 speed manual? Everyone knows, that most of the time, and manual transmission will beat anything as far as gas mileage. BTW...the CVT is NOT designed by Hyundai, but rather its a Nissan/Mitsubishi (JATCO) CVT Transmission. Hyundai has nothing to do with the transmission. They only co-designed the new world engines using VVT technology from Mercedes which are MUCH better engines than what was in any Neon.

Just browsing through some forums, and I don't see where anyone is getting 25MPG in a Magnum. They're getting on average of 17-18 City, 20-22 Highway for all models (remember on average). Also the Caliber sits higher than a Magnum, so obviously there's more wind resistance. To be honest with you, I don't even know why were comparing a Magnum to a Caliber as they're 2 totally different cars. I don't know how else to explain to you that an automatic of any choice would make one damn bit of difference.

 

I agree 04STRATUS. The CVT is probably the culprit of the poor accelleration but not the mileage. My salesman told me that at their training they held the CVT in their hands. While I dont know how true that is you can bet that a CVT is waaaay less complicated and not as heavy as an automatic tranny with all its gears, pinions and torque converter. Don't forget that the CVT caliber shuts down the injectors on decelleration to save even more gas. I don't know how you can be more effecient than being in the exact proper gear ratio at all times for the given speed without the need for shifting. I researched this car very labourously before I placed my order. I was bothered at first that the RT Caliber was called a "RT" and had such sluggish performance. Then I got to thinking. I want a solid small car or SUV (4 cyl.) that got reasonable milegage (I cosider anything over 26mph Canadian gallon in the city as more than reasonable) that would do good in a crash test, has incredible traction for our winter driving, has leather interior, anti lock brakes and was under 28,000. Since my wife and kids will be spending most of the time in the car I don't really care if it will keep up to a Mustang. The Caliber meets all my criteria and actually exceeded it for my special order price of 25000 plus tax. The only other car out there that matches it is the Subaru's and we know what their ridiculous price structure is. One last point here......keep in mind that the Caliber runs on regular leaded. So what if a few competitors out there are faster. Add up their retail price and the premium gas you might have to put in it and the playing field levels pretty fast.

 

That number came from the EPA rating, I actualy have gotten better on long trips, I've averaged 26MPG on a 250ish mile trip last year with RWD Magnum R/T, I got to comparing thge Magnum because of the fact that is such a big heavy car, much bigger than the Caliber and get as good fuel economy on the highway, lighter smaller cars with much smaller engines should get better fuel economy, thats kind of the whole appeal of getting a small car with a small engine.

 

Great. So the Magnum gets as good as or better mileage on long trips. There's no way in the world a magnum will match the caliber in city driving which, as stated, is at least 80% of my driving. My Dad's 1000cc 4 cyl. honda Gold wing used to get better mileage on the highway than my 175cc single cylinder bike. Its a different application. All I know is that in about 7 months from now I'll be passing magnums that have slid into the ditch on icy roads with their RWD, and I'll be filling up less in city driving too. Not that the Magnum is a bad car its just silly to try and compare these two drastically different cars.

 

Well smaller isn't always better, just like bigger isn't always better. I don't think Dodge is all too worried about gas milage in the Caliber. They don't push it and don't advertise it. I don't think this is why people will be buying the car. I certainly didn't buy the Caliber because of the gas mileage. I bought it for other reasons.

 

I have an R/T Caliber, almost 1500 miles on it, the gas mileage is getting better, went from 21 on hwy to 26 last time we checked.

I agree on the reasons we bought it were not fuel economy. I personally like the CVT, I don't see much of a difference between it and any other tranny, they all make the car move, so what if it has no shift points. THe performance is what we expected, if I needed a 11 second quarter mile car I will buy one for that reason. We needed a good all around vehicle, something the family could travel in, something that could be used to carry gorceries and other itemes, something that looked good doing the above. I think we found the perfect car, we get compliments on it all of the time.

Sure there are other cars that have more power, cars that have more room and cars that get better economy. Can they do it all at the same time for the same price, no.