Hello All...

I ordered my Caliber R/T a few weeks ago and just received my VIN number. I am so excited and anxious to get it (I should be seeing it sometime in mid September).

Anyway, I have rented an SXT from a car rental place and used it to drive my son from Denver to Gunnison for his College Orientation. It was moutain driving all the way.
I was extremely impressed with the way that it accelerates on the mountain passes and hugs the tight turns even with the A/C on. Four and a half hours and my back wasn't tired either. It was a joy to drive. I do have a couple questions regarding the differences between the SXT and the R/T models:

The SXT did not have the AutoStick and I know that mine will be coming with it. Can someone give me an example on when I would use it and if it disengages automatically?

Also, I noticed when I would accelerate, it would feel as if it were "bogging" and then when I would lift my foot up a little bit, it would just take off... It doesn't respond like my 1995 Neon. I know that it is due to the CVT but just questioning on how it works (New technology).

Thanks!

 

Congrats on the getting the VIN for your Caliber!

That was a cool idea, going and renting a Caliber to take the edge off of waiting to have yours made! I'm sure that helped a fair bit.

As for how the CVT works, I think that if you went to one of those sites like "howstuffoworks.com", you should be able to get at least a rudimentary understanding of the differences between CVT and a "normal" transmission.

Give it a go! There's lots of stuff out there waiting to be found....

 

The AutoStick only comes with the R/T. Also, it doesn't disengage all by itself. In order to disengage the AutoStick and let the computer take back over, you need to push the shifter over to the right as if you were using the autostick to upshift and hold it there for 3 to 5 seconds and it takes it out of Autostick mode and lets the computer take back over.

Basically the CVT works by using 2 pulleys with a very strong belt connecting the two. It has a medium pulley and a large pulley and it basically just rocks the pulleys back and forth to adjust the speed of the engine. I believe it uses hydraulics to move the pulleys up and down. So there are no gears in a CVT, just the 2 pulleys to adjust the speed of the engine.

It probably takes off after you release your foot off the accelerator because Chrysler designed it to do so. The Caliber has an electronic gas pedal (no more throttle cable!) so the acceleration is all control by the computer. You probably noticed that if you push the gas pedal to the floor it will immediately red line the engine and then the computer will shift the RPM's back a little and will stay there until you lift up on the accelerator. The computer is programmed by Chrysler to do that.

Thats the basic overview of how the CVT works. Of course, there's a lot of different things I left out, but that would be getting too deep...

 

I like using the autostick when doing a lot of fast cornering, mountain roads and that type of driving. On the freeway the manual mode works great for just cruizing or passing, just depends on if you feel like shifting yourself or not. The RT has more ponies and you won't notice any bogging, it gets up and scoots very quickly. When in the autostick mode it don't kick down for passing or accelerating like a normal auto tranny, just push the shifter to the left twice and off you go, this always gets me but I'm getting more used to it now. If you foreget to upshift it will shift up automatically when it hits 6000 rpm all the way through 6th.

 

Hey shadowrayz...Congrat's on your new purchase!

Here is a small blob we received regarding the Auto Stick:
"The Auto Stick Driver-Interactive Transaxle Shifter combines the best attributes of both manual and automatic transaxles. The Auto Stick clutch less system gives shift control to the driver. By shifting the gear selector to the “D� position, the transaxle operates like a conventional automatic transaxle. Shifting the gear selector to the Auto Stick position, however, allows the driver to manually up shift or downshift. A rev limiter automatically shifts to the next higher gear to prevent damage to the engine."

Enjoy and keep us posted with your thoughts when cruzin’ in your new Dodge!

Kelly S

 

Thank you all for your insight...

Now... the waiting game begins... [:@]

 

and a long wait it will be...[&:]

 

I've heard sacrificing a chicken under a full moon helps.......

 

I thought it was a virgin and a volcano?

 

i heard a virgin and a chicken but i don't remember what to do with which one.....