Junkyard Exploration

The Dodge Caliber always seemed to have a bit of a reputation as basically being a "meh" car since it comes across as a really cheap vehicle with the build quality and a driving experience to match. A quick internet search of reviews for this vehicle showed a good number of reviews about these cars, the main point in most of them is that they are really good as basic transportation, built for people who may consider them as just appliances - a tool to make everyday life easier, not really made for anyone that really likes driving cars. In 2012 I was looking at replacing my 2004 Honda CRV. During my search, I did try out a 2011 Caliber since I was very intrigued by the low price on the Caliber. While it was OK to drive, I did immediately notice the abundance of hard plastic that was contained in the interior, and the engine noise was quite a bit louder than my CRV. Considering that this would be a vehicle that I would be living with for the good part of a decade, I ...

With the junkyard literally full of minivans from the big three North American automakers, this one definitely was a bit of an odd duck. While there were the occasional VW driving around my area, they were almost always cars like Jetta's and Passats with the occasional new Beetle tossed into the mix. You never saw a VW van roaming around, so see this particular van here was a bit of an anomaly. This is was the first year for the Eurovan to arrive in Canada and was only available here for only 10 years. While it certainly looked like a really good people carrier with lots of seating and a lot of headroom - something that a 6 footer like myself would appreciate. It did seem to be rather utilitarian in the way its interior was laided out. It certainly had a lot more hard corners and spartan creature comforts inside compared to your typical Dodge Caravan of that time. Another odd thing was that while more minivans typically came with a 6 or sometimes 4 cylinder engine, thi...