My daughter was driving our 2011 caliber back from college on st rt 14. as she went to turn right onto our road,the tire on driver side buckled under. it was later determined that the front crossmember broke.the reason for this was the metal had rusted completely away from defective metal. we were never issued a notice of this potential dangerous defect. no recall was issued only an extension of the cars warranty, which again we were never notified. the damage was extensive,tires were destroyed,front crossmember was replaced, front axleand replaced,lower left control arm replaced,flange head and shaft-axle half replaced. because this was a warranty issue and not a recall,we had to pay for most of the damage out of pocket.which had we known about problem we would have had repaired. upon this happening we have notified everyone we know that own this vehicle. of the ones that have had there cars inspected all are experiencing the same metal rusting in different stages. this is a recall issue and needs to be addressed.had my daughter been going the speed limit [70 mph] and this happened my daughter would have been seriously injured or even killed! i am now putting dodge and you on notice of this defect, so that if just one person gets killed because of this,they have legal recourse.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 dodge caliber. the contact stated that while driving 25 mph, the vehicle would start shaking and vibrating. in addition, the vehicle would drive rough and there was a loud noise present. the contact noticed that the tires were worn out but were purchased new with six months of use. the contact also noticed that during rain weather, the front driver and the passenger floorboards would become wet. the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was informed that the an alignment was unable to be performed due to the ball joints and tires needing replacement. the vehicle was repaired. the manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. the failure mileage was 97,000.
Driving home from work around 8:15pm. on wednesday, february 12th, 2014. i was making a left hand turn onto one of the streets the leads me to my home as i always do. as i am making the left turn i felt my steering wheel losing control as i am turning and the car shifting to the left of the road onto on coming traffic. in order to prevent the car from going into the on coming traffic i tried to turn the steering wheel of the car to my right and i can see on my dash board of the car that my skid light was blinking on and off trying to stabilize the car but no success at this time i am not getting much cooperation from my steering wheel and to avoid the parked cars on my right as i am pressing the break the car or right wheel of the car made a hard impact with the curb of the side walk. i immediately put the car in park with my hazard lights and i get out to access the damages and there was no visual body damage at the time. i managed to get the car home which was just a few blocks from the accident site to discover that steering wheel was not operating properly it was like it was doing 360 turns and the left wheel of the car was very unstable. a few days after the weather was breaking i was able to call my insurance company, tow truck and mechanic to assist with the damages. the damages where alignment front wheels, steering wheel, steering column, right fog light, right wheel, bumper over and bumper splash guard. *tr