CTC Review: 2007 Dodge Caliber

[jww]

In the end - no matter where it is driven, I still think the Caliber is an ugly vehicle that will sell well to americans, but shouldn't do well in other parts of the world - if it ever gets sold outside of US and Canada (I haven't heard whether this is a global car).

And so I see, as this car continues to sell very well indeed in Europe and the UK, that I clearly do not get it - but there must be something to it. I might just have to kick the tires on this ugly little hatch next year when we look to add a sub-compact to the family car stable to accomodate increasing number of drivers at home.

[Schmengie]

We just had a few days with a rented Caliber SXT and my first impressions, not even considering it's awkward SUV-wannabe looks, were not positive. When I parked my Neon next to it, the Caliber looked immense. The hood, cowl and roof are very high and the front of the vehicle with it's huge headlights is almost vertical, as is the very short windshield. It looks about as aerodynamic as a sheet of plywood, totally unlike the Neon.

Ingress to the front seats was easy, but once inside, I was amazed at how claustrophobic the Caliber felt considering it's size. There was plenty of head and leg room, but the high dash, the narrow windows and very intrusive center-stack impart a confining sensation that I didn't like at all. The thick door panels have a wide shelf-like horizontal top, which doesn't help.The interior looks cheap, with hard plastic of half a dozen different textures everywhere. There are no soft surfaces to be found, even on the the armrests. The rear quarter-windows are about the size and shape of a piece of pizza which combined with the ridiculously high beltline makes backing up an exercise in frustration. Visibility all around is abysmal, much worse than it needs to be. The rear passenger doors are narrow, making getting in the back difficult without smacking some part of your anatomy on the bodywork. It's like trying to slide through a large vertical mail-slot, so anyone over 50 had better be careful. Again, there was sufficient head, leg and hip room once inside, but the footwells are extremely narrow because of the huge front-seat mounts. The rear seat reclines, but has no center armrest, and the short seat-belt latches are hard to get hold of when trying to buckle up. Like the front, the rear door panels are hard plastic and have no comfortable place to rest your elbows. But the Caliber does have glow-in-the-dark cupholders...

 Underway, the car felt heavy and sluggish, more like a small truck than a car, and the ride is stiff and noisy. The rear suspension clunked alarmingly over bumps a lot like my old Caravan did, and some of the plastic bits in the back rattled. Chrysler needs to do some serious work here. As it is, the Caliber can't touch the refinement of vehicles like the Kia Rondo or Mazda5.

The Caliber doesn't make any sense to me. It can't carry any more people than my Neon, but it's larger and heavier, and it completely lacks the Neon's glued to-the-road sporty character. It doesn't help that the Caliber's build-quality and materials are nowhere near the standards of the imports, either. I'll be looking elsewhere for my next vehicle. Zoom-zoom, anyone?