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It was it just had too much momentum against it. If was assembled in Mexico, a better job was done on the nose, and it was marketed as CUV instead of the Muscle Car.... It would have had a chance. Another thing that bothered me was they tried to Americanize the controlls and IP... when likely should have been just redone complete. Even if they use the Compass. Actually the Tipo Maybe would have been more appropriate. Alfa has very specific interior features that make it a Alfa, the patch work fixes for the Dodge came out wonky
This Caliber trim sold poorly. One would think they would have remembered all the hard lessons learned from this first before trying it again with the Hornet.
I went to buy a RT and couldn't get of the JATCO whining in the front.... Got a Charger instead. Wife wasn't pleased, gave me crap all the time. Daddy Daddy, mom was racing a Mustang.... she stopped after she was told on.
I think this car just had bad timing as it came out right as the second muscle car era was lighting off. It was up against the new Challenger and 400+ HP Mustangs, Camaros and a full SRT line from Mopar. When the Neon SRT4 most of those didnt exist and imports were still the thing
The interior parts weren't cheap, or cost more than the outgoing Neon or Gen 1 PT cruisers.... they were poorly designed and cheaply capitalized. The saving was minimal over the volume.
They actually went out of business. Fiat was handed a corpse at the curbside and had to sink a lot of money into reviving what survived. I will never understand why they let CT repeat the whole cheapening everything out, just like what Daimler did.
Fiat did sweeping interior redo's for nearly everything in 2011 but since the caliber got the axe in 2012 it never saw it. I'll agree the "new and better" interiors probably didnt cost any more, just far better execution.
I was speaking on the subject from a position of authority
...... I was T1 supplier that was in advanced knowledge of all launches at the time and when I saw the components it was infuriating. Prior the Daimler take over Mopar was leading the way with partnering with suppliers, on creating nice and cost effective interior components, the Daimler year interiors were German minimalist almost angler harsh without the finished content. I was not allowed to post at mmm par at time at the time but did try to explain how the molding industry worked. In most cases the inbound interior were more expensive not cheaper. And there is no CHEAP plastic. There is well executed and tooled plastics, and proper wall thickness and proper finishing. Resin is resin otherwise.