2007 Dodge Caliber SE review from North America

Oxygen sensor reset air-fuel ratio(further posts mention details), & car bucked badly. The dealer reflashed the electronics & fixed the problem easily. Car is again, smooth with good mileage.

Just got the Dodge Caliber 2liter w/CVT. The CVT transmission is what intrigued me to purchase the car. With the various mileages reported for this car, I was v. curious what my mileage would be. Two previous cars gave me maximum gas mileages of 50+ & 53MPG. On its first trip of 182miles over slow backcountry roads with lots of hills, I feather-footed the gas pedal trying for the car's best mileage. The engine got one full cool down, & several partial cool downs. I tried to gas up the car both times to the same level. With those caveats I got 33.7MPG. Hopefully I will be able to report more data later, whose average will be more accurate & indicative of truer real-world conditions. Some readers here may say I have room for greater mileage (as one person has reported here) if I can get it on the highway & eliminate those cool downs. That may be true. However, I note that the drag coefficient for the Dodge Caliber is not as low as many cars. Therefore, unless I drive no more than the speed limit (or even less which I am prone to do), I believe extra speed on the highway will tend to give mediocre MPG results. It is said the CVT transmission is about 5% more efficient than regular automatic transmissions. Again, I think the bad drag coefficient of the Caliber will tend to negate the CVT advantage as compared to other automatic transmission cars having lower drag coefficients. Hope to report my results later as miles pile onto my Caliber. Other than MPG, the engine is not smooth at high RPMs. In most low to moderate accelerations tho, the engine is smooth. But I must attribute the truly smooth performance up & down hills to the CVT transmission. Yeah, the hills I've chugged & vibrated over hundreds of times before with manual transmissions, now take on an ease of transport that vehicles never had before (at least to the vast majority of motored transporters). However, under higher performance & RPM demands the CVT needs some help. As others have noted, the acceleration from 0 to 15MPH is terrible. It finally gets going tho, & is OK from there on out... at least for a 2 liter engine & 3000 pound car. If you punch it at higher speeds as if to pass other cars, the engine (& I assume, the electronics) stumbles a bit, then takes off. I guess the engine doesn't truly engage the CVT till the engine gets to the specified RPM implied by the gas petal setting.

The stereo is OK, having good bass (tight, but only polite) & mid-range (woodwinds sound immediate & rich). The treble is a bit harsh which can be reduced by reducing the treble range. The controls vary not only the bass & treble, but also the mid-range. It comes with a CD player. I don't think I'll need an upgrade, unless the treble begins to bother me terribly.

So far, there are no squeaks or rattles that drive me batty or that I even notice. Hope to report more later.