2006 Dodge Caliber SXT from North America - Off Topic Comments

The European Focus is the second generation one. We in America have the original horribly unreliable design that is ten years old this year.

And Ford loves duping Americans, too. They have "redesigned" the Focus for the American market, but ALL they have done is give it new sheetmetal - everything else is the ten year old design.

Given its archaic nature, the American Focus should sell for $7,000, not the $15,000+ they want for it.

Come on guys lets not get into the American vs European. I will admit European cars are better built, but they are less powerful, smaller and they are way too expensive. The base model Ford Focus in England costs around $22,000. Different markets have different tastes and the sales figures show this. American cars don’t do too well in Europe and European cars fair a little bit better in the states. I do think American manufacturers need to try harder, and the Calibre is a true disappointment, it will be a very sad day when Ford and GM are owned by foreigners, the same way Chrysler went.

American car manufacturers will never try harder because they are STILL run by accountants who see cars as appliances that need to be made at the lowest costs possible.

"The European Focus is the second generation one. We in America have the original horribly unreliable design that is ten years old this year.

And Ford loves duping Americans, too. They have "redesigned" the Focus for the American market, but ALL they have done is give it new sheetmetal - everything else is the ten year old design.

Given its archaic nature, the American Focus should sell for $7,000, not the $15,000+ they want for it."

I visited the website of Ford US and indeed they've just "redesigned" the old 1997 series 1 Focus. Wow, I find that unbelievable. Here in Australia we get the Euro based Focus series 2 since late 2005. Even Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore have new Focus series 2 which is more superior than the 1997 release. It's crazy that Ford USA is still selling the old 10 y.o. Focus. America is such a huge market for compact sedans and hatches.

My last Dodge lasted over 200,000 miles without a problem. I don't have any concerns about the reliability of the Caliber. I'd like to see a little better fuel mileage than 32, but in all it's still a much better choice than anything made by Honda, Nissan, or Toyota.

Incidentally, for all the Ford bashers, Consumer Reports now rates ALL Fords as better than ALL Nissans, rates the Fusion as better than Camry, Accord and Altima, and rates that icon of German perfection, the Mercedes, as the WORST car in the world in reliability, with 8 of the mercedes lines falling into the "worse than average" category. Now ain't that a kick in the head!!

Wow, I can now see why Nissan lost $12.7 billion last year given its products are so inferior to Ford.

Oh, wait, that was Ford that lost the money.

To comment 03:59 "European cars are BETTER BUILT" Well, not according to Consumer Reports. BMW and Mercedes have some of the worst models in terms of reliability.

"Incidentally, for all the Ford bashers, Consumer Reports now rates ALL Fords as better than ALL Nissans, rates the Fusion as better than Camry, Accord and Altima, and rates that icon of German perfection, the Mercedes, as the WORST car in the world in reliability, with 8 of the mercedes lines falling into the "worse than average" category. Now ain't that a kick in the head!!"

That is why Ford did not even make the top ten list this year and the top spots went to the Japanese. Seriously just admit what the world already knows and that is the FORD vehicles are crap.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. "Fords are crap"? Well check out all the problems Toyota is having (WAYYYYYY too numerous to list here) and you might reconsider that.