Steering Wheel Problems of Dodge Caliber

The front tires were vibrating and my steering wheel was shaking, so I thought the tires needed balancing. I brought the car into a firestone dealership and they told me the front right strut was blown out and had to be replaced. They said that this was a safety issue, and that struts help hold the wheels to the road. Also, my friend who is an ase certified mechanic checked the strut and he verified that the strut was broken.

See all problems of the 2008 Dodge Caliber 🔎.

I recently purchased this vehicle about three months ago with aircheck. Little did I know I was buying a more defective car than I originally had. About a week ago my a/c goes to crap I ask the dealership to fix it and all he says is I know a guy that can fix it for you for alittle charge. And to top it off the a/c goes out on the hottest freaking day of the month. Then my engine makes this ratteling noise my freaking radio doesnt accept cd's what kind of whole did I get my self into. And for this car to be a 4 cylinder it drinks gas as if it where a v8.

At around 35000 miles is when this started: when I would slow down I would notice that it felt like my driver front tire would wobble, this went on for a while, and no one could figure out what it was, blamed it on bad tires. I even took it to my dealership because my warranty was going to be up soon and asked them to look over everything and they never found anything. So I got new tires and it would still sometimes seem to wobble but it wasn't consistent. Fast forward to this summer (2011) I start to notice that it is really bad pulling out of my works driveway turning left so I think my shocks are going bad. Also I start to notice that when I start moving again from a stop it seems like the car has a little jerk. So I go to get my oil changed and tires rotated (different places) and at the dealership for the oil they fill out a little inspection sheet, only thing marked is a bad air filter. Shocks are good they said. Time to change the brakes too, so I buy some with the air filter and tell my husband when he is changing them to please look good because something is not right. Well, he finds out that he can completely move the whole wheel assembly on its own! so I take it to a local shop and both lower ball joints are bad and maybe a tire rod! at approx 48,000 miles (current) this is ridiculous!!! so call Dodge dealership and out of warranty so. . . Unless we bring it down and all these other instructions they might be able to pay for some of it. Not driving the vehicle 45 miles when the wheels might snap off and for them to most likely say "too bad"! after seeing how many people have the same problem something is obliviously wrong with the design of the Caliber, and for Dodge to do nothing, we will never even consider a Dodge, or maybe even a Chrysler (never had issues with past jeeps) again!.