On Sunday the car starts making a loud, whining, ticking noise, that gets worse when I accelerate and RPMs increase. But the noise does not depend on my accelerating the vehicle. It makes the noise in reverse when I decelerate. The noise is scary between 40 and 65 mph. The transmission starts to slip, either not shifting or lurching backwards then forwards when I try to accelerate. Noise ticks but not whining under 40 mph. This is a loud noise, unmistakably something is wrong with the car and and in I realize I should not be driving this car on the freeway... which I do every day to get to my job.

So on Tuesday I take my car to the local Dodge dealer's service center. The CVT has failed on the 6 year old Caliber that I paid $10,699 for in 2011. The book value on the car, working, is $5,000. The dealer gives me $2,300 on a trade for a low-mile VW Jetta with a 100,000 powertrain warranty.

Dodge is a terrible product. I will never, ever, EVER buy another Mopar. Dodge stole my equity, they knew this transmission was junk (along with front end, see my other complaint about that). This car should have been recalled a long time ago. There should be a class action lawsuit. In 2015 a buyer spending $11K should expect that a car will run, with adequate servicing (which I did), A LOT LONGER THAN 6 YEARS. Thanks for nothing Dodge.