Models Covered:
(5 dr hatch 1.8, 2.0 petrol, 2.0 diesel [S, SE, SXT, SXT Sport])
BY ANDY ENRIGHT
* Introduction
The Dodge Caliber has suffered a bit of a rough ride at the hands of the motoring press at large. Despite this, a surprisingly large number of buyers blithely ignored the opinions of the motor noters and put their money down quite happily for new ones. With hindsight it’s easy to see why, though Dodge didn’t help themselves by wrongly trying to market the car to young families looking for something a bit different to a Ford Focus or similar family hatch. For the majority of those drivers, the Caliber just wasn’t a sharp enough drive. Instead, rather predictably, this car’s sales came from older buyers who may well have been turned off by the Buck Rogers styling applied to the post ’06 version of their traditional darling, the Honda Civic. These more mature drivers will have looked after their cars well – which means that keenly priced as a used buy, this Dodge makes quite a lot of sense.
Perhaps we should have seen the Dodge Caliber’s unintended market materialising from launch. Dodge chose to underline the car’s dynamic, youthful appeal by holding the European press presentation in Pacha night club, on the party isle of Ibiza. Contrary to what many of the glossy car mags would have you believe, motoring journalists tend not to be snake-hipped twentysomethings in Police sunglasses and several kilos of hair product. Watching the assorted ranks of fifty year old cardigans frugging hopelessly to hard house was something few present will ever forget. What’s more, it served as a perfect template for who would end up buying the Caliber.
Introduced to British showrooms in July 2006, the Caliber got off to a slow start but gradually built some momentum, backed by a big budget advertising campaign. With only 88 dealers, Dodge was pragmatic about the car’s sales figures.
A good deal of outside help has been drafted in with this model. The 1.8 and 2.0-litre petrol engines have been developed in partnership with Hyundai and Mitsubishi, the 2.0-litre diesel comes courtesy of Volkswagen and the front-wheel drive chassis also relies on the help of Mitsubishi. Since the Caliber’s launch, this chassis (or variations of it) have also been seen on the Mitsubishi Outlander, the Citroën C-Crosser, the Peugeot 4007, the Jeep Compass and Patriot and even the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. Such is the face of modern vehicle development where costs are so huge that manufacturers must group together to pool resources.
If this rather odd sounding Japanese-Korean-German amalgam fails to appetise, perhaps the Caliber’s all-American styling will. The front end looks like something that needs the backdrop of Monument Valley behind it as it appears in your rear view mirror with muscular blistered wheel arches, the big set of crosshairs on the grille and headlights that are so big you suspect Dodge definitely paid the additional 50c to go large. Although it looks like a hefty piece of metalwork, the Caliber isn’t as beefy as the macho styling would suggest. At 4,414mm long, it takes up about the same amount of room on the road as a Zafira, so it shouldn’t prove a nightmare in town.
One area where the Caliber definitely has to give second best to the likes of the Vauxhall is in interior packaging. If you’re the sort of buyer who loves all those clever seating solutions, the Caliber is going to leave you a little underwhelmed. Where it does make a lot of ground back is in the much underestimated area of all round funkiness. The interior colour schemes are more like something from a Soho ad agency’s reception and although the materials quality isn’t going to give Audi engineers any sleepless nights, there’s something fresh about this cabin that other manufacturers would do well to observe. Take for instance the Apple iPod holder that sits on the underside of the centre armrest. Flip the centre portion of the armrest over and your iPod has a place to sit rather than being clonked and scratched by gear in the glove box as you go round every corner. A chilled compartment above the glove box is big enough to store four bottles of water, while the front passenger seat can fold flat to get really big items like surfboards or skis inside. The rear seats fold down easily enough to provide a cavernous rear loading bay but with the seats in place, rear knee room isn’t hugely generous.
One of the options that proved popular with the few younger buyers who were tempted into a new model was the Boston Acoustics stereo upgrade. With no fewer than nine speakers, this system can really handle some bass. A speaker pod and subwoofer are fitted into the tailgate which can then swing down to face backwards - perfect for impromptu block parties or barbecues. Rather unsurprisingly, this hasn’t proved a popular option with more mature buyers.
The good news is that a car that was cheap new is really inexpensive when bought used. You’ll only need around £9,250 to get hold of a 1.8-litre S although given that around £10,000 will net you a low mileage 2.0 SXT Sport automatic, I can’t see why you wouldn’t fork out the extra. The diesel engine really is the one to go for though and these models open at around £10,750 for a typical SXT on a 56 plate. Insurance ranges from Group 6 to Group 8.
The Caliber is a robust piece of kit and not a lot goes wrong with the base mechanicals. None of the engines is in a particularly high state of tune and typical owners will not have extended the cars. Some of the interior trims are very cheap looking and the car’s extremities curve out of sight so check for parking knocks and scrapes.
(approx based on a 2006 Caliber SX 1.8S) Parts are reasonably cheap with front brake pads retailing at £55 a pair and rears £45. An alternator is around £300 and a starter motor £220.
The petrol engines aren’t in themselves particularly noteworthy, the 1.8-litre unit being the cheapest and consequently the best seller. It’ll get the Dodge to 60mph in around 9 seconds and on to a top speed of over 120mph. The 148bhp power output is a decent return in a market where, for example, a Ford Focus 1.8i C-MAX can only call upon 118bhp but a penalty comes in terms of fuel economy, the Caliber weighing 1,345kg. Both the 1.8 and 2.0-litre petrols thrive on revs although the standard five-speed gearbox isn’t the slickest unit on the market.
The diesel model is worth a look with 229lb/ft of torque on offer and a power output of 136bhp. This 2.0-litre unit is a direct-injection turbo diesel with high-pressure fuel injection, a variable geometry turbocharger and four valves per cylinder. The injectors are electronically controlled, allowing precise management of each combustion cycle with the optimum quantity of fuel. This system can operate at pressures of up to 2000 bar, leading to finer atomization of fuel, high power and torque, and decent fuel efficiency. Although we never got the 2.4-litre petrol engine that’s sold in the US, nor the 4x4 chassis, British buyers got an efficient CVT transmission instead of the usual automatic option. The characteristics of this ‘box take a bit of getting used to and many new buyers preferred to pay a little extra to get the Autostick manual selection system.
A used Caliber remains a slightly oddball pick but understandable if you’re looking for a spacious, cheap car with decent access in and out and without the perceived stigma of a South East Asian badge.