Model years › Dodge Caliber

2007 Dodge Caliber

Complaints about this year name tie far more often than the model's other years — 6% of them, about 15× the usual rate of 0.4%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• ball — 16.3% of this year's complaints, against 6.4% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: ball, joints, ball joints, tie.
• tipm — 11.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the model's other years (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: tipm, headlight, integrated, beam.

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

Also unusual this year

• ball joints — 7% of complaints, 5× usual
• pedal — 8% of complaints, 3× usual
• cost — 8% of complaints, 3× usual

What owners wrote

WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 30 MPH SHE APPLIED PRESSURE TO THE BRAKE PEDAL AND HEARD A SQUEAKING NOISE. THE FAILURE RECURRED INTERMITTENTLY SO THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN AUTHORIZED DEALER WHERE THE TIE ROD WAS REPLACED. APPROXIMATELY 6 MONTHS LATER THE FAILUR…

THE FRONT BALL JOINTS FAILED, CAUSING THE FRONT END OF THE VEHICLE TO BOUNCE WHEN BEING DRIVEN. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE FRONT TIE RODS WERE REPLACED A YEAR PRIOR TO THE MOST RECENT FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 38,000 AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 42,000.

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 17V824000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
• 10V234000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
• 07V196000 WHEELS Fixed free of charge.
• 06V493000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC

Own a 2007 Dodge Caliber? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Dodge Caliber was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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