and a near 50-50 mix of male and female customers is a ‘bad’ thing?

1) caliber is still selling every model DCX can make, and is one of the best-selling domestic new releases in history.
2) the caliber splits the age demographic almost equally between young and old.
3) the caliber splits the gender demographic almost equally.

without discussing the merits of the vehicle itself, viewed as either good or bad, it does seem to be having a very broad appeal… which I fail to see as a negative.

True! And once us carmakers start realizing this, they’ll start making cars that people actually would want to buy.

Mike, by whatever name you use your unwavering sychophancy over dcx cars gives you away.
I hate the Caliber, it sucks it has drum rear brakes and the quality of the interior is ****. It is unsophisticated and built down to a price. The new Rabbit is a way superior piece of machinery. (Waits for Mike to tell us why they don’t compete with each other)

Yeah well wait until the repair records come in on the VW Rabbit compared to the Caliber and then we’ll debate whether or not the Rabbit is a superior piece of machiney. VW’s quality record has not shown that they are not superior to much of anything.

Betty:
actually, I said:
“without discussing the merits of the vehicle itself…”

where did I say anything about the Caliber being good or bad?

Please try to focus on the facts:
1) the caliber is still nearly sold out.
2) the caliber is nearly splitting the male-female appeal spectrum down the middle.
3) the caliber is splitting the age demographic equally.

It is selling exrtemely well, and is showing a broad range of appeal… more broad than any particular vehicle I can remember.

I didn’t say it is a good car, nor did I say it is a bad car. Try not to let bias clout our thoughts here and analyze the facts. Although, that would force you to admit that each of my points are, in fact, correct. And you are simply not able to comment on, nor dispute the facts and points I brought up, as that would interfere with your bias.

yeah… w/e they say i actually think it looks like a woman car i cant see a man driving it. still like it tho

I agree with Betty, but most Americans are about the “look”, and not about the finer nuances of a vehicle. The Rabbit may be a superior drive on the inside, but that brash look of the Caliber has them flying off the lots. These buyers could care less about drum brakes.

To make matters worse, most of them read Consumer Reports, which could care less about driver involvement. The publication has had VW in the crapper for years, which doesn’t help.

I’m a huge fan of VW, and I love driving their cars, but until they kick up the reliability a few notches, I can see how buyers are looking at alternatives.

women suck

Funny VW doesn’t have reliablity issues in Europe. They are bought because they are a quality item with good reliability. Someone in the US is fibbing to you, and i refuse to believe that Chryslers are more reliable than VWs

I don’t care which gender is buying it as long as it sells well… (I just might own some dcx stock)

BUT WHY WON’T THE SRT-4 HAVE ALL-WHEEL-DRIVE??????

A WRX for 5 grand less…. (Subies have the crappiest interiors of all the Japan Inc cars, so it and the Dodge are equal at that level)

I agree with MGBYG. Shouldnt the article say “have a LOWER FEMALE CUSTOMER base are GMC and Porsche? I dont think 21.2% of porsche buyers are male…”

FXDriver is right… Con…Report just rated the GREAT Mazda3 5-Door well over the Caliber. Just bought wife a loaded silver…we just call it a Mazda 3.5 (three point five) as the 5 door is soooo much cooler than the rental car 4-door.

VW ratings have been below fleet averages for a decade. Their more expensive Audi brand fairs somewhat better. Had a GTI in the mid 90’s and it was worse (in the shop too often) than even the two Fords I have owned (not counting my current Mazda….I owned Fords so long ago, they were not based on Mazdas or Volvos!!!)

what percentage are transgender?

Shame the interiors can be even worse than Kia’s entry level cars, that the handling sucks, the matterials are rubish aswell the overall quality…

this is basicly a “showoff” car without any substance…

The fact that this car sells at all is why we’re all doomed. They put out this small, underpowered, chintzy POS and it flys off the lots. I don’t get it.

P.S. That new transmission sucks too… “The day I can’t neutral drop a rental” HAS COME!

There are too many Americans who, like magpies, are impressed with anything shiny and new. Their attention span is short, so as long as they are entertained for a short while it is all OK. That is the only reason the Caliber sells, in all other respects it sucks. $25k for the SRT you have got to be kidding GTi is less than that for proper German engineering

i hear sales of this car is very strong. yet, in so.cal, the only ones i see on the road seems to be rentals except a few. hmmm…does that mean all the people in the middle america are buying them?

oh, and comparing quality of VW and Dodge??? well…these days, most cars ARE reliable. what it comes down to is how nicely cars are put together with what nice material. have you analyzed the exterior surfacing -including clear coat, how well the design is resolved???? have you even been inside both Rabbit and Caliber?? let’s talk quality after you do that.

I have no idea why everyone bashes VW. If you take your car for regular maintenance you should not have any major issues. I have two VW’s and I have had very few problems. The problems I did have were quickly fixed by the dealership.

VW’s complaints always seem to be about minor things breaking, but in the long run they drive really well.

You also have to take into account that there are a lot of VW racer boys that Chip out their little turbo’d motors and blow them up.

Actually Zan you bring up a good point. The problem is that since there aren’t VW dealerships in every area a lot of people who own them do not take their VW’s in for regular maintenance. I’ve seen this with many of the used VW’s I’ve looked at. It was inconvienent for the owner to take the car in for service so they just didn’t do it. I’m sure that’s the main contributing factor to their low reliablity scores.

The reality is that people who buy the Caliber are not comparing the car to a new VW rabbit or anything else like that for that matter. They are selling because they are a car that looks like an SUV. Plain and simple that’s why they are selling. There obviously are still a hell of a lot of American’s out there in love with the look and image of an SUV.

There are two reasons that people are buying this car.
1. It is cheap, well relatively speaking.
2. The ads tell people it is “anything but cute” and now everyone thinks that it is tough looking, and therefore they will it will make the driver tough also.
These cars are UGLY. I didn’t like them on the TV, and now that they are on the streets, they look even worse. These cars have no style, appeal of any kind, no performance, or anything other than thwe low price going for them. Another Chrysler flop that should fade into the darkness, but never will…just like the PT Cruiser.

PT Cruiser a flop??? over 1 million sold, a car that has always had a respectble reliablity and sevice record right that ranks up there with the Toyota Corolla. (if you don’t believe me look it up) I can understand the Caliber bashing but what’s the Caliber got to do with a PT Cruiser. They are two totally different vehicles. The PT Cruiser was and still is a better vehicle than the Caliber ever will be.

I recently drove a Jeep compass which is based on the same platform as the caliber. We were looking at a Jeep Liberty and decided to try the compass. We were so disapointed in the compass we when less than a mile before we turned around and brought it back.

The Liberty howeevr is a nice truck if you do not mind the stiff ride and poor mileage.

I love it un-cut

oops I misread that, it was un-cute duh!

anon:
this is one of the strongest launches of a new vehicle in the last 3 years… that includes all makes. It has sold more than 50k this so far this year, and the platform as a whole needs only 100k combined sales to make all models based on this platform profitable.

Looks are subjective. Sales numbers are not. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, but please attempt to look at facts and hard numbers before you truly make yourself look stupid.

Hey, at least they still have the brains to offer a DIesel version. That’s good news, IMO.

It’s not a bad thing as long as your selling them. But some people are unatracted by a car that sells all to a certain gender (like since I associate a… VW New Beetle with women usually I wouldn’t buy that car). But it doesn’t matter as long as your selling them, which the Caliber is doing

I know the popular notion around here is that the Caliber is selling so well that they can’t keep them on the lots. I’m guessing that if they didn’t have ACRES of Calibers sitting in the rental yards around LAX they would have plenty of Calibers sitting around collecting dust on the dealer’s lots instead.

you mean instead of being on dealer lots an average of 6 days, they might ‘collect dust’ on dealer lots for 10 days, still far above industry average?

The only way you can explain away your bias is to try to make the caliber nothing more than rental fodder. Whether you like the vehicle or not, it is selling very well to a broad spectrum of buyers.

Strange world, isn’t it?

maybe the demand is so high because they arnt producing nearly as many like they did with the neons? If the build the cars inline with demand then they wouldnt have any sitting around. thats a good thing. Scions sit on the lot for like 2 days.

Yeah that’s right. Dodge has been lying to you all along. They are not selling. They are just making it all up, the sales they are reporting is all fake numbers just to get people stirred up. Wow to think that a car company could just make sales figures like this up and get away with it. Somebody should notify a lawyer!!

They aren’t selling to retail customers in California. They may be selling to hicks in Nebraska or Detroit and they are welcome to them. Coastal AMericans have more taste whatever spin Mike is trying to put on it. The Caliber will not go sown as a long term bona fide sales hit

Spin? How are my numbers spun?

at least you have the elitist attitude I would expect from someone as close minded as you. congratulations on re-inforcing the stereotype.

I love being elitist, that’s why I’m a coastal American and you are not. No one said you were spinning the numbers, but this car is NOT a huge hit on the coasts

i live in Eastern PA about 1hr north of phillie and an 90min south of NYC and ihave seen 3 in on the road since the launch. Most of the dealers have no more then 4 on the lot at any time. i really think dodge is just being smart about there production. If ppl have to wait for a special order car they think its something special/better then a car they can just go sign some papers and leave with. Again this is how Scion works…maybe Dodge took notice at how well they are doing.

Please tell me where I said that it was? YOU said “whatever spin mike…” then you said “no one said you were spinning…”

which is it? what did I spin?

Mike you conveniently left out “the numbers” from your quotes so you could make it mean anything you wanted to

BTW for those bashing VW while defending this pos…maybe you should check the diesel engine it uses (for the clueless ones its a rebranded 2.0TDI)

Here its called the (even magazines do), the “2.0TDI of the poor”, since its the cheapest car carrying it (its also cheap in the rest so it figures).

That and the fact that it trys way too hard to be “bad” lol

so, the numbers were accurate. for the third time… what did I spin?

I always said women didn’t know their asses from their elbows when it came to cars. This proves my theory

Porsche is that low even with the Cayenne? Sheesh..

most women will buy a car without even test driving it. there ya go. and as for VWs they are all crap. I had a GTI i went through 2 trannys, 1 waterpump a year (over 7 years), electrical probs everywhere, thats what happens when you build in mexico / brazil…