Dodge Caliber: riding on good intentions
Upon arrival at the Thrifty counter on our recent trip to Maine, the clerk tried to stick us with a PT Cruiser. I’ve had two in the past six months (Toronto and Arizona), and that was two too many. The only other vehicle she was willing to offer without an upgrade charge was a Dodge Caliber. So with a swipe of the Visa and two misinformed efforts to sell me insurance I didn’t need, I was off in a black New York-plated 2007 Caliber, with visible scratches on every exterior surface, 7400 miles on the odometer, drink stains on every seat and the floorboard, and an orange paintball ground into the driver’s seat. Clearly, I wouldn’t worry about brushing beach sand off my feet on this trip. (On the upside, the cost was 40% of a comparable rental at Hertz.)
The CVT automatic was strange at first: after the initial kick on pressure applied to the gas pedal, I only heard a constant medium-pitch roar from the engine and felt little push. I joked about hamster power until I noticed that I wasn’t having any trouble keeping up with traffic pulling out of tollbooths. I’d call the power and transmission subjectively OK — a little better than H’s Corolla, and qualitatively different enough from my manual diesel Jetta that I can’t make a meaningful comparison. The seats were reasonably comfortable, and spacewise, it was fine until you tried to sit in the back — no worse than my Jetta, but for the apparent physical size, I’d have expected better. No problems on front legroom or headroom for this 6’4” driver. The cargo area, with a pull-out cover, was fine for two medium-sized suitcases and my trusty laptop bag.
But the handling… better than the PT is about all I can give it. The PT was notorious for its huge turning circle; at least it seems like they fixed that. But for someone used to VW precision and Toyota confidence, the steering was awfully truck-like — which would be fine if it weren’t a compact hatchback.
3 June 2007 / 1 Comment / Tags: review, cars, travel