end of the road for Dodge caliber

well, my poor old Dodge caliber has reached the end of the road. yesterday out on the highway the transmission temperature light came on. generally the first thing to do whenever some kind of warning light comes on in this old car of 13 years is to ignore it. that's right just look to see what light came on and if the temperature gauge isn't going crazy or the gas gauge isn't going crazy then you just keep driving. there was some thought that possibly it was just a defective sensor. but there was really nothing wrong with the transmission at all. but after about 45 minutes out on the highway the car started to slow down some. stepping on the gas would cause the engine to rev up some and the transmission would whine but the car was struggling to go at all. fortunately pulling over to the side of the road and letting the transmission cool down would allow the car to continue running on the highway. so it took quite a while to get home operating this way. transmission would overheat, car would start slowing down, then stopping and letting the transmission cool down would allow the car to run again. it would run about 10 miles between stops. so it was very sad to think back on how much money has been poured into the thing over the last year. it's been somewhere north of $3,000. and it very most likely needs a rebuilt transmission. my understanding is rebuilt transmissions run somewhere between four and $6,000 installed. well at the very best the things worth about 2500 bucks, so it's the end of the road. so next week there will be a new car. it's an American made car it's a late model still under warranty. if the late model car, still under warranty, has the kind of problems this old worn-out Dodge caliber is exhibiting, it's going to be time for a Toyota folks. it's a shame to slit the throats of other hard-working American Auto industry people, but I need a car that goes. and these cars are supposed to be being built with six sigma reliability. and $3,000 in the last 6 months is not six sigma.