"Dodge has high hopes for Caliber"

It was revealing.

 

http://www.nativetexandesigns.com/Caliber_Tour.wmv

It really looks like a nice car. Here is a video that a new owner took about
it. I do agree with some of the other posts- if this were a Honda or Toyota
people would be all over them. I just hope the CVT proves to be reliable.

Scott

 

It was designed by Ford of Europe. That goes a long way to explain why it
has been the world's best selling small car for several years.

 

Hardly. People haven't been "all over" the Matrix.


Matt

 

And one of the least crash worthey.


Matt

 

Huh? 4 star rating without side air bags, 5 with. Equals or exceeds most
competitors. Look it up. Anyway, back to Chrysler topic.

 

I have looked it up. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=280

The Focus was rated Poor overall by the IIHS and removed from Consumer
Reports recommended list.


Matt

 

Honda and Toyota can make higher quality cars for the same MSRP as DC, GM
and Ford because they don't have to deal with the unions. That's why Honda
and Toyota can open factories in the U.S. and build their cars here with
non-union labor and sell a higher-quality car at competitive prices. I know
some folks will say that unions are there to protect the workers, but what
good are they if the workers end up with no job (ala Ford)?

 

This was NOT "overall". It was for side impact without side air bags only,
which is plainly stated on your reference, had you read it. It did well to
very well on the other types of crash tests. Competing cars had similar
results. Consumer Reports is a questionable authority, but for what it's
worth they later revised their ratings and reinstated it. They realized they
needed to deal more intelligently with the new standards of side impacts and
air bags.

 

The overall summaries on the page I referenced were poor. Yes, this was
for side impact which is what I believe I clearly stated earlier was the
problem area for the Focus.

When did they "reinstate it?" I'm a subscriber to CR and don't recall
seeing that. Which month's magazine was that?

Matt

 

I have to admit I read that second-hand in a post. I don't have the mag.

If you did read the test results summary page then it should have been
obvious to you from the start that the Focus is in the middle of the pack,
not at the bottom as you said from the beginning. I'm not going to argue
with you on this further, anyone following this thread can go and look up
the facts for themselves.

 

I'm not surprised.

Good idea. Arguing when all you have is second-hand hearsay isn't a
good idea.

Matt

 

I just don't know. Maybe it all comes down to working hard for less money.
I'm sure You could get a lot of satisfaction that way.

When I was at NAIAS, it got me thinking that we did something unusual. While
leading the world in building cars, we rejected the cars made in our own
country and took other people's instead. Other countries that build good
quality cars drive their own cars. There's really only two possible
explanations for what we did. Either we're all bent on hurting the US
economy and / or the automakers, or we're just rational and the cars
themselves were terrible. I think the cars were really that bad at one time.
Certainly the unions have to shoulder some of the burden for terrible cars.
Not all of it, though. A lot of the designs were poor as well. Service was
poor too, and still is. Everybody that wouldn't consider an American car has
his own private reason.

 

Hi Joe...

Think it's quite simple... this is the "me" generation, with
incredible greed for a motto.

We want to be paid the absolute maximum we can get, with every
possible perk, and unions to guarantee we get it deserved or not.

Then when we get it we stampede to walmart to be sure we get the
absolutely lowest possible made in Asia price.

Us old timers knew a long time ago that we can't have our cake
and eat it too - now the "me" generation is about to learn it
the hard way

Take care.

Ken

 

I think you're optimistic (in thinking that they will learn it).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

You seem to blame the ordinary worker and unions for the me generation
attitude but it starts at the top, for example, with airline management
going into bankruptcy so they can get their big bonuses and screw the
ordinary workers.

 

....and MBAssholes (shortsighted greed at its highest concentration) run
everything, so corporate leadership consists of nothing beyond "Do what
will make the shareholders happiest *today*.".

Not so fast, "old timer". I'm not sure how old you are, but if you were
born between '45 and '65, you're not entitled to look down your nose at
what you're calling the "me generation". The Baby Boomers, as a whole, are
the greediest, self-servingest, most rapacious, most shortsighted and
paradoxically most selfgratulatory generation this society has yet known.
Where do you think the "me generation" learnt their greed from?

DS

 

I think they will, but it'll take something close to a the Great
Depression to teach the lesson. I'm not sure the roaring twenties were
all that different from the 90s, but those folks learned a lot in the 30s!

Matt

 

Number One in UK since inception. Well, it's predecessor, the Escort, was
top of the tree, too.

The Focus drives well and seems well put together. I get them from the car
hire companies sometimes.

Not Germany, thought, where the VW Golf reigns supreme.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

 

PS. The 2004 Focus scored 5/5 in the EuroNCAP test:

http://www.crash-test.org/marques/liste.php?construc=ford

The driver and passenger dummies did pretty well, too:

http://www.crash-test.org/marques/resultat.php?mod=forfoc_2004

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---