2011 Dodge Caliber
This year drew an ordinary 165 complaints for a Dodge Caliber — the model's median is 232. What they were about is the unusual part: 13.3% of them mention seat, against 3.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 165 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 232 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 3/5 |
| EPA combined | 24.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- seat — 13.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the model's other years (3.8×).
- money — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: money, fix issue, highway car.
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.
What owners wrote
FLOOR ON PASSENGER SIDE (FRONT AND BACK SEAT) ARE WET. CARPETING AND FLOOR MATS ARE SOAKED THROUGH CONSISTENTLY. SEEMS TO GET WORSE DURING RAINY WEATHER, BUT IS CONSISTENT.
THE OCCUPANT RESTRAINT CONTROLLER MUST BE REPLACED. THE POTENTIAL LOSS OF AIR BAG AND SEAT BELT PRETENSIONER DEPLOYMENT CAPABILITY IN SUCH CRASH EVENTS MAY INCREASE THE RISK OF INJURY IN A CRASH.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V668000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 11V315000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
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.
Own a 2011 Dodge Caliber? What happened to yours?
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