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GOING BACK TO CALI

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.

DODGING CONVENTION
If you feel the current crop of family hatchbacks and mini-MPVs lack a certain charisma, Dodge hope their Caliber will get you fired up. Andy Enright reports

It’s taken a long time for car manufacturers to realise that just because you may have a family on the go, it doesn’t mean you’re resigned to a life without a little style, a certain individuality and a degree of fun. Look at the cars that are churned out for family buyers. By and large they’re about as much fun as a thumb in the eye. The day you end up with a bog-standard family hatchback or mini-MPV on your driveway is the day that you’ve waved the white flag, started getting interested in Marks and Spencer knitwear and wondering why you’d never thought of listening to Radio Three before.

There is another way and Dodge can offer a family-friendly five seater that is fun, funky, decidedly unconventional and has more than a spark of charisma. It’s called the Caliber and although underneath the bluff styling is some pretty unexceptional engineering, it’s a car that has a lot going for it, especially at prices starting from just £11,495. The success of the Chrysler PT Cruiser showed that funky styling could make inroads into a market obsessed by seats that can flip and tumble like an Olympic gymnast with ADHD. The Caliber is Daimler Chrysler’s latest attempt to eke out a slice of this hard-fought sector for itself, the Dodge brand being unleashed onto a British market with the promise of some supersized American helpings over the next few years. The Caliber is the car tasked with forming a beach head and it’s a tough ask. Models like the Vauxhall Zafira, the Toyota Corolla Verso and the Honda FR-V are, on any objective basis, superior products that the Dodge can’t hope to beat in terms of depth of design. Where it can score is in offering something with a little more youth appeal. 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. 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.

"The Caliber is far from perfect but at the same time it’s curiously endearing"

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’s sure to prove popular with younger buyers is 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. Otherwise there’s only a slight lack of oddments storage to complain about. The petrol engines aren’t in themselves particularly noteworthy, the 1.8-litre unit looking set to be 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 looks set to be 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 don’t get the 2.4-litre petrol engine that’s sold in the US, nor the 4x4 chassis, British buyers will get an efficient CVT transmission instead of the usual automatic option. The characteristics of this box take a bit of getting used to and many buyers will prefer to pay a little extra to get the Autostick manual selection system. The Caliber certainly has its work cut out but it’s possible to see it carving a niche for itself through sheer force of personality. Cars this flawed don’t often make it, but the Dodge has an endearing personality and a certain rough-hewn charm. It’s well worth a look if you’re not on the slippery slope just yet.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Dodge Caliber Range PRICES: £11,495-£15,430 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 13E [2.0 petrol] CO2 EMISSIONS: 161-192g/km PERFORMANCE: [2.0 petrol] 0-60mph – 10.7s/ Max Speed 125mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [2.0 petrol] [urban] 28.0mpg / [extra urban] 40.9mpg / [combined] 34.9mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, tyre pressure monitoring /WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4414/1747/1533mm

DODGE BALL
Forget about throbbing V8s, this Dodge Caliber is a diesel. Andy Enright reports…

I have a confession to make. I appreciate this may well mark me down as something of an odd character and if I see people hurrying to cross the street when the see me approaching, well, I’m OK with that. You see, I enjoy torque steer. I love it when you accelerate a powerful front wheel drive car and you feel the steering wheel buck and writhe in your hands. I once told a BMW engineer this and he looked at me as if I’d told him I’d just come down with a spot of Ebola Zaire. The reason why I make this admission is because I’ve just been driving the Dodge Caliber 2.0-litre diesel and I loved it. No prizes for guessing why.

Ask any chassis engineer about torque steer and they’ll either gaze dejectedly into their beer or expound at length about the black art of ridding a car of this characteristic. Some cars are famous (or infamous depending on your view) for this trait. The old Focus RS was a notorious torque steerer as was the Saab 9000 Turbo. Torque steer aficionados will sigh and go all dewy eyed at the memory of an MG Montego Turbo. The Dodge is nowhere near these icons of the unruly wheel but accelerate briskly away, wait for the turbocharger to get its trousers on and you’ll need more than a finger or two on the tiller to keep things shipshape. It makes the car feel pleasantly alive. I recall climbing out of a Range-topping Audi and noting to a colleague that it was so inert it was like driving a corpse. The Caliber is certainly full of beans. As is the case with most diesel cars, the Caliber feels a good deal quicker than the published performance figures would suggest. Although nine seconds to 60mph isn’t slow, it does nothing to prepare you for how vivid the Caliber feels with this direct injection turbodiesel. The six-speed manual gearbox requires a stiff left jab to punch through the box but this is in keeping with a car that, unlike many of its rivals, certainly doesn’t have a surfeit of oestrogen in its makeup. The engine’s best work is done in a band between 2,000 and 3,500rpm but such is its willingness, you may well find yourself revving the car to its redline on a fun section of road. You’ll likely be making more decibels than horsepower but you’ll also be wearing a big grin in the process. The Caliber, you see, handles a good deal better than its faux-by-four styling might suggest.

"…it feels utterly churlish to grumble at the value proposition on offer"

It’s largely an issue of trust. Like all cars that ride a little higher than average, the Caliber will lean when you throw it at an apex. Bear with it. Some will never get past this and take a number of little bites at the corner, losing commitment to the steering as the g-forces load up. Rather than fifty-pencing a sweeper in this fashion, constantly keeping the chassis in a state of agitation, go with the flow and trust the fact that the Caliber will hang on. It’ll quickly settle into a stance whereby you can really feel the steering going to work, the front tyres letting you know when they’re keying into the road surface and when they’re on the limit of adhesion. The ESP stability control will intervene if you try any hairbrained tactics like trail braking into a corner but safety is paramount in this sector so perhaps that’s no bad thing. If you want to play at being road test editor, you can press an ESP killswitch but please be careful. After a while it dawns on you why the Caliber feels so good. It uses good old-fashioned hydraulic power steering instead of the increasingly popular and horribly artificial-feeling electrically assisted setups. As a result, you’ll feel that the Caliber is a car you can take by the neck and fling at a corner, the 140bhp diesel having more than enough about it to catapult you out the other side. Drive a little more circumspectly and you may well replicate Dodge’s published figure of 46.3mpg but don’t count on it. This Caliber has an infectious personality that wills you into giving the right pedal a firm prod on a basis more regular than you may care to admit. It even sounds pretty good (for a diesel) when you do indulge. It’s reasonably refined at typical motorway cruising speeds and the emissions figure of 161g/km of carbon dioxide could well make the Caliber 2.0 CRD a viable company car choice. Most, however, will undoubtedly be snapped up by private buyers looking for a car that’s not your usual charisma-free family hatch and which doesn’t scream pipe and slippers like a mini-MPV. With as much space inside as a normal family hatch, a more powerful engine than the class norm, far funkier looks and an in-your-face attitude, it would be reasonable to expect Dodge to slap a chunky mark up on the Caliber diesel to reflect its added desirability. Reasonable, but entirely incorrect. The Caliber prices read like a misprint and I mean that in a good way. Prices start at £13,990, while at £15,290 on the road, the Plush SXT model I drove features gear like air-conditioning, cruise control, 17-inch aluminium five-spoke wheels, leather upholstery, tyre-pressure monitoring and a Chill Zone beverage cooler. The Caliber CRD is far from perfect. Some may sniff at its brashness, the cheapness of some of its interior fittings and the fact that it doesn’t handle quite as well as some of the sportier cars in its class. Fair points, all of them. Despite this, it feels utterly churlish to grumble at the value proposition on offer. The Caliber looks a good few thousand pounds more than it is, it possesses an engine that out-punches comparatively priced rivals and the standard equipment count is excellent. I expected to seriously dislike this car but came away a convert. Maybe it was the torque steer that did it.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Dodge Caliber CRD Range PRICES: £13,990-£15,430 - on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 13E CO2 EMISSIONS: 161g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph – 8.8s/ Max Speed 115mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [urban] 35.8mpg / [extra urban] 55.4mpg / [combined] 46.3mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, tyre pressure monitoring /WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4414/1747/1533mm

SMALL CALIBER WEAPON
Dodge’s entry-level Caliber looks set to interest value conscious customers. Andy Enright can see the appeal

Let’s swing straight to the punchline. The Dodge Caliber 1.8 can be yours for £11,495. While I appreciate that this sort of denouement usually comes at the end of road tests such as these, I feel compelled to let you know the price because virtually every person I spoke to figured that this Dodge was at least £16,000 worth of car. With that sort of erroneous preconception usefully filed away, it’s easy to see why you’d buy a £15,000 Focus or Astra over one of these. I would. Now that you know the asking price, the game could well swing in the favour of the big-hearted American.,

While Dodge like to stress this car’s young, dynamic image, the opposite seems to be he case. Older buyers, attracted by its upright stance and keen value, are flocking to the Caliber. In a stRangely prescient press launch, Dodge chose to unveil the car in Pacha nightclub on the party island of Ibiza. Seeing a legion of grey-haired motoring journalists looking patently affronted by the sounds of drum and bass perhaps should have told the importers a thing or two. The Caliber is actually more Radio 4 than they might care to admit. The shape is conspicuously divergent from the usual family hatch norm, with a sharply rising window line giving the Caliber a real wedge shape that tapers into some rather cubist tail light architecture. The bold wheelarches, huge grille with the traditional Dodge crosshairs and the in-your-face stance means that this is far from the usual rather apologetic and inoffensive hatchback. This car has a dose of attitude. Quickly grabbing a set of keys to a test car, I realised with some horror that I’d chosen a car fitted with an optional Mopar styling kit that didn’t do it too many favours, the bright blue plastics on the centre console resembling the sort of thing you’d buy for a mobile phone at a car boot sale. After sampling a standard car, I’d recommend that you keep your money in your pocket when it comes to options time. Otherwise things looked good. The interior quality was nothing to give Volkswagen a fit of anxiety but it’s certainly a long way removed from the typical LAX hire car standard. An obviously Mercedes-sourced LCD display looked conspicuously slick, in much the same way that the BMW-sourced stereo systems rather stood out in the old Rover 75.

"The entry-level 1.8-litre Dodge Caliber costs less than some 1.4-litre Fiestas"

I’ll level with you and state that the engine is no great shakes. On paper it looks to be the pick of the petrol-engined Range, its 2.0-litre sibling offering only six more horsepower than the 148bhp 1.8-litre four, which in any case is way more powerful than a 123bhp Focus 1.8 or a 125bhp Astra. The theme is repeated amongst 1.8-litre cars virtually across the board and this Caliber is even more powerful than the 2.0-litre engines fitted to the Renault Megane and Peugeot 307. So why the lack of enthusiasm? Well, for a start, it’s not that quick. You’ll need over 12 seconds to get to 60mph which isn’t what you’d expect from a car with this amount of poke. A less powerful 2.0 16v Focus lops three seconds off that time and is more economical to boot. The reason why the Dodge falls down despite its up-for-it engine lies in that perennial problem – weight. Even the entry-level Caliber weighs more than a fully-specced 2.5-litre Focus ST, so it’s perhaps understandable that acceleration and fuel economy aren’t going to be stellar. Dodge claims an average of 38.7mpg for the 1.8 on the combined cycle which isn’t terrible but it’s worth remembering that there’s also a 2.0-litre diesel version which costs £2,000 more model for model, yet which is appreciably more fun to drive and which returns far better fuel figures, especially when you’ve got the car loaded with family and luggage. Just some food for thought. But we’re not here to talk about the diesel version. This 1.8-litre petrol car chugs out 174g/km of carbon dioxide per kilometre travelled and will run on to a maximum speed of 118mph. Perhaps more germane is an excellent tank Range of some 437 miles. On our test route, the fuel needle seemed glued to the top of the indicator, despite my best efforts with some rather idiosyncratic gear selection choices. The 1.8-litre Range opens with the S, while the Plusher SE weighs in at £11,990. If you really want to get a lot of toys, you’ll need to set aside £13,790 for the SXT Range topper. That for a car that features features like air conditioning, cruise control, 17-inch aluminium five-spoke wheels, leather upholstery, tyre-pressure monitoring and a Chill Zone beverage cooler. If you’re feeling guilty and feel obliged to give your impoverished Dodge dealer a little more, I can heartily recommend the optional MusicGate Power Group system. This adds a leather-trimmed steering wheel with audio controls and a nine-speaker Boston Acoustics premium sound set-up. Best of all, there’s a pair of speakers that swing down from the tailgate to face rearward. The Archers never sounded so punchy. Rather oddly, Dodge has hobbled this car’s chances by pricing it exactly the same as the 2.0-litre car which also comes with a CVT gearbox. I can’t see the logic either. So, we have a very good value model that’s not worth buying in SXT trim, the car that leverages the Caliber’s equipment count most convincingly. Therefore the best model remains the entry-level S. I’m just counting down the days until that Motability allowance is all mine.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Dodge Caliber 1.8-litre petrol Range PRICES: £11,495 - £13,790 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 6-7 CO2 EMISSIONS: 174g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph – 12.2s/ Max Speed 118mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [combined] 38.7mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, tyre pressure monitoring /WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4414/1747/1533mm

DODGING A BULLET
Representing storming value for money and offering decent power and eye catching styling, the petrol-powered Dodge Caliber 2.0-litre could well be this year’s sleeper hit. Andy Enright explains why

As much as anything, this job involves taking the rough with the smooth. For every Italian exoticar we get to enjoy, there are countless Korean econoboxes to endure. It’s impossible to leave certain preconceptions behind when encountering a car, even one that fits as few niches and stereotypes as the Dodge Caliber. I thought I knew what to expect. It’s an American car, so the following attributes I figured we could take as read before it turned a wheel. It wouldn’t handle, it would feature a cabin laden with toys but built laughably poorly and buyers would be somewhat bemused by it. I’m pleased to report that after driving the Caliber 2.0-litre model, I was very wrong about the first two qualities but I’m not so certain about the last.

Dodge’s launch of the Caliber tried very hard to stress its young, in your face appeal. It’s hard to imagine Peugeot or Vauxhall choosing the Pacha nightclub in Ibiza to introduce their car, although much of Dodge’s best efforts were undermined by a senior suit describing the venue as a ‘trendy disco.’ After a number of lifestyle videos and viral ads that aimed at underlining Dodge’s irreverent brand values, I found myself rather warming to the car. It certainly looked a good deal more distinctive than the usual family hatch like a Focus or an Astra. The tagline attached to the vehicle claims it’s ‘anything but cute’ and you’d have to agree. The bold wheelarches, huge grille with the traditional Dodge crosshairs and the big alloy wheels that most ride on aren’t your usual cuddly mainstream fare. This was underlined when the Caliber’s designer claimed the name was dreamed up as a continuation of the Magnum theme. Are you feeling lucky, punk? Pumped full of the Dodge message, I harboured a suspicion that this was as favourably disposed as I’d get towards the Caliber and that a subsequent drive would only dull the impression. The fact that my car was finished with an optional Mopar styling kit didn’t do it too many favours, the bright blue plastics on the centre console resembling the sort of thing you’d buy for a mobile phone at a car boot sale. After sampling a standard car, I’d recommend that you keep your money in your pocket when it comes to options time. Otherwise things looked good. The interior quality was nothing to give Volkswagen a fit of anxiety but it’s certainly a long way removed from the typical LAX hire car standard. An obviously Mercedes-sourced LCD display looked conspicuously slick, in much the same way that the BMW-sourced stereo systems rather stood out in the old Rover 75.

"It’s impossible to argue with this sort of value for money. Buy this car before Dodge realise their mistake"

The 2.0-litre engine is the most powerful petrol unit in the line-up, for the time being at least. The standard 156bhp 1998cc powerplant is nothing particularly special in and of itself, but the automatic gearbox it’s connected to merits a little inspection. Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs) are nothing particularly new, having been around in various guises for well over thirty years. They tend to be unloved by keen drivers who often drive a car by ear as much as anything although they are undeniably fuel efficient, plugging into the meat of the torque curve with a dogged determination. Leave the Caliber’s shifter in ‘D’ and the CVT gearbox does its thing rather unnervingly. Accelerate hard and the revs will rise rapidly to the 6,000rpm redline and stay there, the engine note not changing a jot from a rather discordant blare yet the car will accelerate rather purposefully. It takes some getting used to. It’s also pretty dramatic and serves to endow the Caliber with a more purposeful feel than its undeniably modest power output would suggest. If you’re unwilling to put up with these rather odd characteristics, the gearbox also has a mode where you can knock the gear lever from side to side to shift up and down through six artificially mandated ratios. It’s a lot more enjoyable and the shift times are lightning quick. Dodge call this Auto Stick and although it would have been better tapping the lever fore and aft rather than from side to side, it’s pretty good fun. You don’t get wheel-mounted paddles to play with though. Performance figures aren’t anything to get excited about, the Caliber hitting 60mph in 10.7 seconds before running on to a top speed of 125mph. The fuel economy is nothing stand out either, the 2.0-litre recording an average of around 35mpg. What is absolutely astonishing about this car is its price. This would appear to be a £17,000 car all day long. Your boss will think it is, your neighbours will too and so will anybody else looking. It seems a cut or two above the average family hatch but asking prices for the Caliber Range model open at an almost ridiculous £11,495 and even the generously stuffed 2.0-litre SXT model I sampled still only demands £13,790 of you. That for a car that features gear like air conditioning, cruise control, 17-inch aluminium five-spoke wheels, leather upholstery, tyre-pressure monitoring and a Chill Zone beverage cooler. If you’re feeling guilty and feel obliged to give your impoverished Dodge dealer a little more than that £13,790 sticker price, I can heartily recommend the optional MusicGate Power Group system. This adds a leather-trimmed steering wheel with audio controls and a nine-speaker Boston Acoustics premium sound set-up. Best of all there’s a pair of speakers that swing down from the tailgate to face rearward. The party really is right here. It’s hard to argue with value like this. I’ve outlined the Caliber’s shortcomings but it represents fantastic value for money. To specify something far less appealing, a 1.6-litre automatic Peugeot 307 say, up to this car’s level would cost well over £16,000 and a 1.6-litre Golf over £18,000. If you’re savvy enough to put the Caliber 2.0-litre on your next family hatch shortlist, like me you may find yourself struggling to come up with substantive reasons why you shouldn’t buy it.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Dodge Caliber 2.0-litre petrol Range PRICES: £13,790 - £13,930 - on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 13E CO2 EMISSIONS: 192g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph – 10.7s/ Max Speed 125mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [urban] 28.0mpg / [extra urban] 40.9mpg / [combined] 34.9mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, tyre pressure monitoring /WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4414/1747/1533mm