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Dodge Caliber Test Drive - What Did You Think?
Have you been out car shopping and taken a Caliber for a test drive? Share your review with us in this discussion.
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Engine and wind noise are well muted for a car in this price range. Car is much nicer in every respect than the Neon that it replaces. Neons were known for some wind and engine noise, but this car is much, much better in that area and in just about every other way.
If your mom drives one, I think she will like it. From the inside, she will not notice how "macho" the outside looks. :P
My own impression of the Chevy HHR 2.4 l LT2 (high-line) was very positive. The driving was composed and quiet. The 2.4 was as silky in power delivery through a four-speed automatic as any Toyota four-cylinder engine I've driven and markedly better than the underpowered Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix that was also under consideration initially. The Chevy uses special laminated steel in the firewall to reduce noise and it worked well. (Other reviewers have complained about noise at high RPM, but I will confess I did not wring the engine out, nor would I normally do so.) The HHR, regardless, wins the noise battle as the quieter of the two.
The Dodge Caliber SXT I drove had the 2.0 l CVT combination. It was noticeably slow off the line, but fine for passing acceleration once the engine was wound up. This is my biggest point of worry for Dodge. The response off the line may not be what the Dodge brand suggests. You can always get a five-speed manual, but most Americans don't.
The 2.4 liter engines provide identical 172 horsepower ratings and both feature continuously variable valve timing. The Dodge 2.4 is only available with AWD. The Chevy does not offer AWD, but as a consequence offers better fuel economy with the optional 2.4 l engine.
The Dodge is more sophisticated chassis with a multi-link rear suspension where the HHR has a simpler twist beam. The Chevy also has electric power steering (helps fuel economy at the expense of steering feel).
The Dodge wins hands down in interior ingenuity, though the HHR has the nicer cargo area.
The Chevy has NHTSA front crash ratings posted now. Five stars -- best in class. Side ratings are not yet posted. The Dodge Caliber is an unknown until test results are posted. Until last week I would have said an all new car should do well, but the Ford Fusion just proved that wrong. The Caliber does pack standard side curtain airbags (a smart move, maybe even a necessary move as Hyundai/Kia are making safety standard).
The HHR has significantly more cargo space (less slope on the back glass and longer load floor with the back seat up).
The backseat question is another point of differentiation. The Caliber scoops out the back of the front seat for increased knee room. The seat back in the SXT and R/T reclines. It still isn't enough to beat the HHR if back seat room is important. The HHR has more legroom with the front seat all the way back and has a much larger back door opening so you don't have to twist adult feet to get them inside the car.
Both the Caliber and HHR are more truck inspired than other hatches in the class. Both will replace a more fuel hungry SUV if you don't need to go far off-road.
It may come down to styling. For me, both the retro HHR and the masculine Caliber work.
From the front seat forward, the Caliber wins hands down.
Behind the front seat the HHR makes up a lot of ground.
Both have the same 3 year/36,000 mile warranty (not enough when Hyundai offers 10 year/100,000 mile warranty with safety and reliability, if not yet the same design flair.
DaimlerChrysler has a better track record of developing models in recent years, with better than average reliability and running improvements.
I have a family of three to transport, one 6' 1" and the other two around 5' 8", so the back seat matters, but the opinion of my eighteen-year old daughter matters more. She loves the clever interior of the Caliber. She was sold before she started the engine. So it does come down to styling. I think the Caliber will skew towards a younger demographic than the HHR. Still, I like both and a rationale person could choose either in good conscience.
I didn't think the power was too bad as well, I think even a bit better in the 2.4......
I think the caliber will get better mileage as well, even in the 2.4.
I saw a white sxt at the local dealer, it actually looks pretty good, orange is my fav.....thats the one I drove.
I have 3 kids so I need the room. :surprise:
This is a small car, though, remember it is in the Corolla/Matrix/Cobalt class. Therefore if you are tall and your kids are pretty tall, it probably wouldn't be your best choice.
In a really different subject. Has anyone heard the Caliber with the MusicGate system? I'm curious as to how it sounds before ordering one with it. :shades:
I think the full-sized spare is great, along with the lit cup holders and the cool-zone glovebox.
I'd have bought it right then and there, except I'd like to wait for a deal on financing or some kind of incentive from DaimlerChrysler/Dodge. I think 6 percent on new cars is a tad high. They're offering 0 percent on trucks and vans, however. It's annoying.
I am wondering about the 17-inch tires, though. I am feeling these tires are going to cost a fortune to replace, as the cheapest ones I can find are pushing 175 dollars (canadian) each.
For the exterior, on the sport versions, you get the "black out tape" on the door frames which is actually a rough piece of thin sticky plastic... It doesn't look easy to clean, and will peel off after a few winters.
I think Dodge should of taken more time to refine some details... even for a car in that price range. Perhaps the delay in their launch date had something to do with it and they had to rush the production of the Caliber?
Sadly there isn't much choice for a 6 + drivers in the sub 20k price range
good luck!
I just drove a Caliber R/T about 100 miles yesterday and came away generally disappointed. The two areas that I felt the car under-delivered in were performance and interior quality. You can read my entire blog entry here, but the short version is that the interior plastics are substandard and the engine/CVT combination make it feel underpowered. I know "SRT" is the real performance designation at Dodge, but for this car to wear an "R/T" badge and still feel this sluggish is unacceptable IMHO. I've been generally happy with most of DCX's new product offerings in the last couple years, but this one leaves me cold.
Karl
I had been driving my Caliber STX about 1800 miles before I found about the step in the gas pedal. You push down on the gas, and it is like pushing on air up to a point. Most people would never know to go further. Try pushing it further you might even think you are going to break something. And I think you will be surprised at the power.
I think you are under rating the performance; you should go back and try it again. You will be surprised.
And of course, I asked my salesman to go test drive the orange 1.8L, 5speed... by myself!! You see, I am not a mechanic, but I know enough about cars to be able to tell what's good on a car, what's wrong and what's gonna be my next mod. :shades: Seriously, when you go test drive a car, you should always go by yourself. You can take "all the time you want" to have a look at the car. Nobody to disturb you, to take your attention away from the things you should be able to check when you're by yourself... So, I drove away, test drove the car on highway, curvy roads, city streets, dirt roads... for about 30 minutes. And then I stopped in a parking lot and I listened to the engine, looked under the car, the hood, everywhere! Looking for noises, weakness, things that will fall apart after a couple years. I did find a few little things, but nothing that can't be handled and fixed by the dealership. EX: Look for missing rubber pieces around the doors, the hood and the trunk. These are little things, but it makes a lot of noise when you shut a door and there is one missing. Metal against metal = No good. The car was very quiet, except when you make the engine rev to 6000rpm... but that's normal! The 5speed was never as noisy as the one with the 2.0L with CVT2. Not much road noises. Good stability, good brakes, good suspension. A bit of steer when you accelerate very fast, which could be a problem if you are driving 6 months of the year in winter conditions and you don't have a lot of driving experience.
I am glad someone drove the car we ordered and found it to be a good choice! I hope we get ours soon, this Thurs is 6 weeks..
Thanks!
I can't wait to get mine. I've seen 3 or 4 Calibers so far while driving around and they were all from an other province!! It's getting pretty warm and sunny here, I can't wait to take mine for a drive... but I'll need to get it first... :P
There is ONE white SXT around here. It's the car we test drove, it was actually already sold. I didn't care for that one, it seemed pretty basic. No sunroof, styling extras or anything. It will be funny when I run into that owner with my Caliber, I bet they kick themselves for buying the one on the lot that was missing a lot of the fun things.
Be sure to report when yours arrives!
I have only had it a little over 24 hours but I love it.
I do agree they should have put some padding on the console and armrests,oh and the white interior is a little scary.
I bought the Inferno Red and it is such a hot color, beautiful !
I think it drives great so far,I will check back in a month or so after I have a little more time with it.
The Yaris liftback, '07 Rabbit, Caliber, and Impala (wife's choice) are on our list of cars.
The best Caliber configuration I have found to date is the SXT; only a few hundred dollars separate the SE and SXT once you add air con to the SE and a power window etc. package, and the SXT gives you the larger wheels, a little dress up chrome, and, in my opinion, easier resale since the SE's will come to be viewed as "stripped down" even when they are optioned back up (I'd rather by the cheapest version of the next trim level up, than the most expensive version of the next trim level down).
It is hard, of course, to find SXT's that aren't loaded up to $18-19K but still include speed control. Basically, we want a Caliber with SXT trim, CVT (which automatically adds the $100 larger engine and the free ABS brakes), and speed control, which stickers here for $17335 or so. Discounts are scarce, just the $500 rebate and between $200 and $600 off from the dealer. IF you can find the exact color and options you want, which is hard, since the cars are selling off dealers' lots quickly and two that were listed on the computer search early in the week were gone by the time I called later in the week. Fortunately, the dealers I contacted through their internet departments are not asking above MSRP or, worse yet, adding senseless accessories and then bickering with you about them. (I still resent Honda dealers in the 60's and 70's for taking a fine, low priced car and turning it into a mid priced car with pinstriping and other garbage.)
Anyway, the real issue is how the car drives, and it drives very well based on a 15 mile or so test drive last week of an SXT with 2.0 and CVT.
First, the CVT posed absolutely no issues for me. It felt very much like a conventional automatic, unlike the CVT in a Justy, MINI, and Five Hundred that I have driven before. There was no lurch as the CVT engaged/disengaged when stopping, no run up in rpm (motorboating) while the car speed chases after it. The car just drove away smoothly, accelerated without any oddness, and on the freeway when I wanted more acceleration, "downshifted" slightly and took off. I am sure there is stuff I didn't notice that I would notice over time, but it is obvious that Nissan/JATCO have done a MUCH better job on CVT's that the notoriously suspect European manufacturers used by MINI, Chevy, and Ford(who were so bad, that Chevy just tossed in the towel on their experiment with CVT's in the Saturn).
Nissan is deeply committed to CVT's - the '07 Altima will be offered with only the CVT as its automatic transmission option next year, and the Altima is a key vehicle in Nissan's lineup. Ghosn talked in an article about having a target of 1,000,000 CVT units sold per year. While this is no assurance the units will be defect free or not have some issues over the years ahead (which is also a problem for the next generation 5 and 6 speed conventional automatics), it does mean resources will be there to fix problems and, like hybrids, there will be a sturdy market in repairs and replacement units. (Unlike the Five Hundred CVT which looks headed for orphanhood.)
It helps that the CVT in the Caliber is the CVT2 or "second generation" Nissan/Jatco CVT. Since Nissan's own Versa is reportedly coming with a conventional automatic due to CVT shortages, hopefully Dodge has a good contract to keep their own CVT pipeline full and avoid production shortages.
YMMV - be sure to drive your sample carefully, and if it doesn't feel right to you, drive other samples to see if they are all the same. And if you are worried about reliabity, you have, I understand, until the end of the initial warranty period in which to buy the extended warranty (price is the same during the first year, subject to mileage, but goes up thereafter; you can buy these online from any Dodge dealer separate from your car purchase so check online before you pay full retail at your dealer).
The Caliber feels much more like a midsize car than a compact. It is solid, heavy, and stable on the freeway. It is VERY quiet in acceleration and cruising, comparable once again to a midsize car. For that matter, cabin room is comparable to a midsize car. Only the "trunk" space suffers - it is shorter than a Malibu, for example, and although the brochure numbers look good, I think they assume stacking above the car's waistline, and aren't based on the space availabe with the tonneau cover in place (which is optional).
Since I am so close to purchasing, I already started developing some personal strategies for maximizing the use of the Caliber. For example, the car has a "full size" spare tire, at least full size in diameter although the actual tire is not a full-duty tire - it is designed to be taken off as soon as possible (but doesn't have that horrible 50 mph constraint, so far as I could tell). I am not sure is a true spare tire will fit - the existing spare tire might be slightly narrower than was is fitted to the car - but my thinking goes the other way - to removal of the spare tire to open up the resulting large area under the floor forstorage.
The problem in urban areas is that an "open" trunk design, common to minivans, SUV's, and now the Caliber, is an invitation to theft, even if you dark tint the glass (and the Caliber does NOT come with privacy glass standard). Although all I carry is a little extra oil, tire inflator, and such stuff, maybe an emergency jacket and old pair of walking shoes, potential thieves can't tell the difference between a bag full of non-resaleable stuff and a bag with a laptop or Ipod or cd's. So having an out of sight place (the spare tire compartment) to stuff things would be great.
The tonneau cover mostly just gets in the way and reduces available haul space for shopping trips. It isn't as bad as a solid cover that becomes a storage issue in itself, but still it gets in the way. After a visit to Costco, we really need to stack high and just leave enough room to see our the rear window!
So if I were an owner, I might take out the spare tire and store it, put in a can of tire inflator/repair and a small air pump to fix repairable flats, if any; and use the remaining space for storage. The hatch area would also be open on road trips to the kids could reach over to get food and toys. I might also play with the idea of putting a full size tire, but no rim, in the spare tire compartment, which would leave a lot of storage space but give me a back up if I had a non-repairable flat and a tire in my size was hard to locate while on a road trip or after hours.
I hope other people are thinking of creative ways
Anyway, the car had only 4 miles on it, so I didn't beat on it, but flooring it from 30mph to 50mph had no power. And at 30 you *had* to floor it to get it to increase speed, the salesman even told me to floor it, because thats the way it drives. It was very strange must be the CVT.
I'm currently driving a 97 Chevy Cavalier with a 2.4L Twin cam engine and 156,000 miles, which gets 22 city and 32 hwy mpg, so I figured a 10 year newer caliber had to be as peppy, but no, its a dog. I have rented PT Cruisers before and they are even faster than the caliber from my experience. I think I would take a used PT Cruiser over a Caliber. They have more room too.
And whats with AirConditioning adding $1,000 to the base model? Holy cow, what is this 1975? Since when is AC not standard?
Sorry to burst all your bubbles guys, but this Caliber all show and no go. For as doggy as the motor is, it should get more than 32 mpg.
It may not get the mpg of the vibe or matrix , but its much bigger inside and on a trip to florida (From jersey) I'd rather get in the caliber than the matrix
If anyone can try that and see if a full sized tire will fit, I'd LOVE to know!!!
Great ideas!
"All-round, I love this transmission. Its among the best CVTs Ive ever tried. Interestingly, what might be the best CVT Ive driven overall is fitted to Nissans Murano crossover, a transmission that just happens to be made by the same supplier that builds the Calibers CVT, Jatco; a Japanese company thats partially owned by Nissan. The Caliber CVT is a more sophisticated gearbox than that in the Murano, however, being a newer, more updated CVT2 example, and is probably only bested by the Nissan due to the larger vehicles torque-laden V6 engine - kind of an apples to oranges comparison."
http://car-reviews.automobile.com/Dodge/review/2007-dodge-caliber-road-test/1680- /2