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By Patrick Rall Aug 31 2011 - 11:28am

The Dodge Caliber production ends on November 23rd

The Dodge Caliber has never seen the success that the Chrysler Group had hoped for when it was launched in 2007 and with a replacement vehicle based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta planned for unveiling at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, it came as no surprise to hear that the last Caliber will roll off of the assembly line on November 23rd, 2011.
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While Dodge has sold a fair number of Calibers over the past 4 years, the 5-door compact failed to gain anywhere near the popularity of the Dodge Neon that it replaced. Even with the addition of all wheel drive to select models, the Caliber was never embraced by the sport compact crowd who so-loved the Neon and due to lackluster fuel economy ratings, the general public had a hard time picking it over the competition. Even though the C Segment in which the Caliber fit is among the bestselling group in the US market and other companies were able to offer 5-door models that sold well over the past few years – the Caliber proved to be one of those models that just missed the mark.

The replacement for the Dodge Caliber is expected to be unveiled at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit’s Cobo Hall and although very little official information has been offered, we can expect the new Dodge C Segment vehicle to be a sedan based on the underpinnings of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta – with the dimensions enlarged slightly to fit the US market. A similar enlargement was performed for the Fiat 500 as it made its conversion from Europe to the USA and with any luck, the Caliber replacement will hopefully sport some of the Italian fit and finish similar to that found in the new Fiat 500. One of the key complaints of the Caliber was that the interior was uncomfortable and generally unpleasant but having spent time in all of the 2011/2012 Dodge models – I expect a far more impressive interior from the new Dodge C Segment sedan when it drops in January.

There hasn’t been any indication as to what the new Dodge C Segment sedan based on Alfa Romeo architecture will be called – whether they will stick with the Caliber name or go a different direction. Perhaps they will have an all-new name but with the preferences by Chrysler to call upon old names there are all sorts of interesting possibilities…albeit farfetched possibilities. In the past, Dodge has used names for their compact models like Dart, Aries, Omni which are all long-shots at best but consider this – could Dodge introduce this new compact sedan as the new Neon, with a hope of reliving the success of that popular model? Only time will tell.

Other Dodge News:
Dodge/Ram Dakota production ends
New Jeep Grand Cherokee-based Maserati SUV to be built in Detroit
Win a 2012 Ram 1500 Express on Facebook
SRT Chief Gilles says that a new SRT Ram would be "done right"
The SRT High Performance Tour kicks off at the Mopar Nationals
Chrysler’s SRT brand could offer supercharged 2013 models

Source: Allpar

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Comments

Dodge driver wrote on August 31, 2011 - 11:35am
Dodge Caliber is not a bad looking car. How come it did not see success? Was the price too high?
"Torqued Dodge ... wrote on October 7, 2012 - 4:10pm
I have owned a 2007 Caliber since October of 2007 and it has been an absolutely frightful car. The suspension has practically been rebuilt. (At my expense) It creaked and groaned for awhile untill I replaced the control arms and the ball joints which were on their last legs. (around 45K) The tie rod end broke once and I went of the road. The steering wheel even came off once while I was driving. The brakes are even under engineered. Small drums on the back. They look like they belong on a Yugo. I suspect they were Neon leftovers. The transmission sounds like a tank. There has been a rotational based "grinding noise" coming from under the hood yet the dealer says this is "normal." I could go on but I think you get the picture. Everything about this car is cheap and low quality. Yeah I would say Dodge "missed their mark" alright. It has costs me thousands in repairs and has not even seen 72K on the odometer yet. This is by far this has to be the one of the worst cars currently on the road.
Anonymous wrote on August 31, 2011 - 8:43pm
My reasons the caliber "failed" and why I think it shouldn't have based on merely owning a pure base model and having a brother with an awd r/t model. Reasons why it failed: Dodge comes with a stigma in major auto reviewers. If Dodge pulls of a neon srt4, it generally will get a shrug and a 'well this is actually pretty good.' Anything less, even if better or on par with the competition yields nothing except hate. Dodge only made it available in a hatch. Hatches are cool to savvy buyers and are given the thumbs up from certain auto magazines-dodge not being one of them praised by auto mags is a bad thing. Even the awesome magnum suffered from being a wagon. Americans don't want a wagon in that car. I was told buy countless people that they wanted a trunk, because they hate not having a real trunk, and no a pull down curtain to hide your stuff doesn't count. The CVT. Perhaps one of the biggest gambles, on top of everything else-the cvt served a questionable purpose. Everyone says that Cvts are this great choice of transmission, and Nissan put it on most of their line. I say why? Look at the quest, the nissan minivan. The cvt gives it perhaps the lowest (or near lowest) acceleration, gas mileage, and it has I believe the lowest power. It is praised as being one of the best CVT usages to boot. Those that do care, have by in large not wanted a CVT. It feels odd, and doesn't coast well, and it doesn't feel sporty. The caliber was also offered as a manual, but manuals being so unpopular as they are, few would experience the benefits that the manual provided. When you see the new pentastar v6 that does 29 highway that is paired with a 6 speed in the avenger that can do 0-60 in like six and a half seconds easy. The cvt is slow, delayed (doesn't punch it when you do) and is not as fuel efficient as other options. This isn't to say that it is 'bad', but it just isn't as good as it could have been. I was happen, it did everything it needed to do fully loaded up a mountain and back-but it could have been better. Anyone that drove my base model commented on it would have been or at least felt fast-with a normal automatic transmission. A few quick reasons I loved the car: Plenty of space-never lacked it (especially when ditching the human occupants to fold down seats). Great winter car-winter tires in the FWD made it incredible with the very nice ground clearance. My brother's awd r/t is even more stellar. It drove well, very well. Outside from the lack of being a race car-I pulled insane maneuvers in a safe location to practice to test the limits of the car. Decent sound-even on the one without power windows. All in all it was a fine car, that everyone called cheap, but didn't bother looking at a more expensive civic to find even cheaper materials. I would go head to head with any consumer review or car magazine and make the case that their unfair views helped to ruin a perfectly fine car's reputation. I may not get to test drive Audi's and Mercedes, but I have driven quite a few vehicles that were not up to par-and the caliber was coated in gold compared to them. A lot of people that called the caliber bad consider honda and toyota bullet proof, all simple misconceptions that make big decisions in their pocket book.
Anonymous wrote on September 3, 2011 - 11:38pm
Maybe that means they will bring back the Magnum. :D