Recent articles on new "B segment" cars and, as usual, comparing them to the Fit:

Dodge Caliber vs. the Fit:
http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/columns/car/archive/2006/car0908.html

Suzuki SX4 hatchback:
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../60904002/1041

Noisy CVT in Versa:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/driving/story.html?id=8e882d7f-5719-482c-be96-a356496abf34

Hybrids losing their shine:
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2006/09/05/city/city3.txt

Galt Technologies review of Honda Fit & comparison with competition:
http://www.galttech.com/research/cars/honda-fit.php

 

fit > Dodge Caliber, Suzuki SX4, Nissan Versa, etc.

 

:confused: the caliber and sx4 seems like they should be considered too big for the b-segment....almost mini crossover like....next think you know we will have suv's trying to get into the b-segment

 

That's ok, LOL, they can have their "chiseled" caliber to themselves , i'm happy with Fit.

seriously now, who's bright idea was to pit this new dodge Log against Fit? it sounds more mazda3 hatch competitor if anything else.

 

lol the caliber they show is not even remote to the ones they have today, they looked like someone took an suv and squished the roof down and smeared it back xD

 

I have a 1988 Ford Festiva that's giving 45mpg average w/highway high of 53mpg & am happy with it. But I heard of the CVT being perfected(which I'd been waiting for 16years) with a carbon fiber graphite belt drive, not the old rubberized unreliable belt.Excitedly I read of Honda cars in Japan & Europe using CVTs & waited for one in the U.S. The Fit came out....without a CVT! I waited for Toyota small cars to come out. The Yaris came to the U.S....without a CVT. Mazdas didn't have CVTs either. Finally I found a Nissan Versa with a CVT...but only in their expensive more doodad cars. Finally, my fifth choice, the Dodge Caliber had a CVT in their base model for $14,000. It sat lonely-like at the Dodge dealers 2 miles from my home. I couldn't stand it any longer & bought it. I've loved it ever since & now have 8000miles on it.

It has elegantly smooth magic carpet acceleration. Large cars with 4 speed automatics (or manuals) cannot match the CVT smoothness. The Caliber websites have many complaints about MPG. Fortunately my Caliber is getting OK mileage for a bigger car than I'd really wanted. I'm averaging 29.1MPG with a highway high of 34.9MPG using mostly winter grade gas. I think we just switched over to summer grade gas & I went for a ride over the 4000 foot Cascade mountain passes here in Washington State getting 33.7MPG. Now some of you may say your Honda Fits get better mountain mileage, but I bet you can't beat my Festiva's 47MPG mountain mileage. So let's not compare apples & oranges. The Caliber CVT is wonderful in the mountains. With careful planning the CVT doesn't thrash the motor, but keeps it a low to moderate rpm & still accomplishes the mountains well.

Caliber's interior instruments(inc. a temp. gauge) use round deep white backgrounds. With contrasting dials they offer exc. legibility for aging eyes. Nite illumination is sweet with a restful pale blue. Cupholders also have circular pale blue lighting making cup placement at nite easy. The center armrest offers a large storage area & the top flips forward to hold a cellphone or Ipod. The Chillzone, 1 of 3 gloveboxes, offers a vented A/C or outside air inlet to keep cold refrigerated drinks cool on long daytrips. Other storage areas are in the instrument panel.

Interior plastics are hard. Interior colors are lite giving Caliber a cheery disposition. The Nissan Versa's interior colors are dark with a very somber look. Caliber fitted front seats are very comfortable all day long for me(5'9" & 180lbs) & my bad back. My car vacations will be wonderful. The fitted seats may not be good for heavy people.

Rear storage is OK, but not space efficient as the Fit is.

Wind & engine noise are low. Tire noise is not good. When you get new tires, you will want to get quiet riding tires that Consumer Reports rates.

The standard 66watt radio & CD player has four 6 by 9 inch speakers with controls for 3 frequencies giving accuracy & richness. I'm a musician. The bass is fairly tight with a good rolling character, midrange gives presence to flute & oboes, & treble gives spice to violins. Deaf rockers will need the 450watt Boston Acoustics 9 speaker(w/subwoofer) Musicgate system.

My Caliber is 100% functioning & tight, with no creaks, squeaks, or rattles. Dodge owners are loyal, reporting far beyond 200,000miles on their machines. My friend with a 68 Plymouth Roadrunner has driven 450,000 miles.

P.S....June 7...Just found out that my odometer registers 2% too low. Therefore, all my MPG numbers need to be raised 2%. My overall average which has been going up because of warmer weather & summer mix gasoline has jumped to 30.6 MPG after correcting for odometer error. I believe the overall average MPG will continue to rise thru the warm weather.

 

Umm Honda does have a CVT its called the 2006 Civic Hybrid

 

Honda has had a CVT for the last 10 years...the honda civic HX

 

Yea but I think he ment USDM market... Was the civic hx in the USDM market? I don't remember it. :confused:

 

okay so i wikipediad cvt and it kinda gamme an idea and then i looked at a versa and its kinda ugly but it has cvt wich seems nice and a sunroom but that brings the car up to 20000 dollars so eff that ish NOW would someone plz explain CVT to me in layman terms...is it auto is it manual is it paddle how many speeds can it be both what the fork! is going on here ;( im so confused

 

haha calm down dude.

Howstuffworks "How CVTs Work"

that's how a cvt works. CVT means continuously variable transmission and it is exactly that, a continuous gear! it's just one long infinite gear. There are no "shifting" like in a regular manual or even automatic transmission. It just keeps going. I know, it sounds wierd but a lotta cars do have it. The nissan murano has it and i found a video on youtube showing how it looks. listen to the murano, there is no shifting it just stays around 5-6k rpm's.

YouTube - NIssan Murano vs Dodge SRT 10 S.C. truck

The easiest way to actually feel a cvt is going to test drive. First time i felt it, i was like "dude is it stuck in first??" and the salesman started laughing cuz ur used 2 a standard shifting tranny.

 

Yes the Civic HX is usdm and it has cvt and its been around since the dawn of time. The CVT transmission is simple, its like a snowmobile transmission where it is one conical gear setup that runs on a belt that gradually rides over a larger and larger diameter gear continuously without any means of shifting. This gives you more efficeincy and more mpg.

 

u sir are my hero :D

this seems very effecient and usefull but absolutly no fun :( lol

thanks dude see you tomorrow at ralleys?

 

What is really nice is one of the jazz setups is a CVT with a 7 electronic shift points if you are using the paddles to shift. I think it is called a CVT-7

 

I still dig the Nissan Versa though. I almost bought one. The Fit Sport just looked alot better IMO and better interior. Really would have liked the bluetooth option though.

 

Everyone might be saying that the Fit > Caliber...but I would take a Caliber SRT4 over a Fit anyday...

 

07TaffetaFit...The Caliber SRT4 turbo is having its birthing pains. A few have been reported on various highways(test rides?), but some of the running gear may be having teething problems. Many are hot for the Caliber SRT on the Caliber websites, but they're holding their breaths right now. & of course, a CVT couldn't handle the power. At least Jatco isn't trying to make one for the SRT. The Caliber SRT will have a standard manual tranny. I don't know about any auto tranny.

 

People had lots of suggestions for a CVT car. Now, how many CVT cars sell for $14,000? My Caliber does...with a/c. I couldn't find anything else for that price.

 

i think the caliber is a well-designed vehicle, it has the functionality of a larger suv or wagon without the size and innefficiency,

i personally am not a fan of the exterior, with the bold , angular lines and all, but then again, i'm not a fan of the fit's exterior styling either.

the caliber is big improvement on the neon that it replaces, unless you liked the neon for the track, the caliber is better in most respects, imo.

 

Well if its anything like the Neon SRT4, I wouldnt hold my breath for long. Where else can you buy a 21k car, and with a decent amount of mods (or factory mods for that matter) be putting nearly 400hp down? Thats a steal even if it is having problems...