Don’t you just love the way the Americans mutilate the queen’s English, with “center”, “harbor”, “color”, “favorite”, “honor”, “analyze”, “memorize” and all the rest displacing the proper spelling?
In the case of the Dodge Caliber’s name, though, the Yanks can’t be faulted, because the car is built in Belvedere, Illinois, so they can call it whatever they want. Germany reinforces their freedom of expression in this, because Volkswagen supplies the two-litre turbo diesel that was slotted into the Dodge Caliber SXT CRD delivered to us for evaluation, and the German word for calibre is “kaliber“, not “kalibre”.
The Caliber is a mighty strange-looking vehicle; about half the people who commented — and there were plenty — thought it looked pretty cool, while the rest considered its styling abysmal. I tended towards the former view, but then my wife, who always tells me I’m not quite normal, didn’t.
Because of its odd styling, it’s also difficult to slot the Caliber into any particular category. Is it a hatchback, a station wagon or a two-wheel-drive crossover SUV? Is it a biggish small car, or a smallish big one? CAR magazine, when it tested the 1,8-litre petrol-engined version in September last year, listed the Hyundai Tucson 4×2, the Subaru Impreza 2.0R wagon and the VW 1,9 TDI as its competitors, which is about as diverse a selection of rivals as you can ever expect to get.
The Caliber shares a platform with the new Jeep Compass, the Mitsubishi Lancer and the Mitsubishi Outlander, which, along with the VW diesel engine, confuses its pedigree even further.
It’s no use getting your knickers in a knot about this apparent bastardisation, though, because it has been going on for more than a century. The Dodge brothers, Horace and John, started off in the automotive industry in 1902, manufacturing transmissions for Oldsmobile, and when Henry Ford set out to create his Model T the same year, he contracted them to manufacture his cars.
Dodge produced every part of the Ford except the tyres and seats, and only started selling cars under its own name when Henry decided to take over production of his own creation. Determined to build a better car than he did, the brothers launched their Old Betsy in 1914. In 1928, Chrysler bought Dodge, and the 1998 merger of Chrysler with Daimler-Benz, which then owned a large stake in Mitsubishi, led to the shared platform bearing the badges of so many different brands.
Back to the matter in hand. The Caliber looks much larger from the outside than it actually is, but once you’re behind the wheel it feels smaller. The test car was the top-of-the-range Caliber SXT CRD six-speed manual, which comes with loads of extras for its R196Â 900 asking price.
There are more airbags than you can shake a stick at, illuminated front cup holders, a dual-purpose removable/rechargeable interior lamp, driver one-touch power windows, electric foldable side mirrors, folding rear and front passenger seats for more load space, a manual driver’s-seat height adjustor, loads of stowage compartments, cruise control, a tonneau cover, air conditioning, a beverage cooler above the glove box, 17″ aluminium wheels, ABS brakes with brake assist, and traction control with ESP.
Additional options include 18″ alloy wheels and a fancy nine-speaker sound system with steering-wheel controls. Those of you who like wrecking other peoples’ picnics will be particularly enamoured of the swing-down speakers in the tailgate, which allow you to direct your “music” outwards. The instrumentation is attractive, but quality of the interior trim is rather plasticky — understandable when you consider the competitive pricing of the car.
The inline four-cylinder diesel engine in the Dodge is rather noisy at idle, but quietens down considerably once you get rolling. I found myself stalling the car on take-off the first few times I drove it, until I accepted that I needed to keep the revs up to goad the 1,5-ton vehicle into motion, but once that’s happened performance is lively, with the factory claiming a 0-100km/h dash time of just 9,3 seconds and a top speed of 196km/h. The six-speed transmission is great, and the handling, for an American car, surprisingly good, although the steering lacks a little feel.
For me, the Dodge Caliber SXT CRD poses a bit of a conundrum. Half the people who see it hate the thing, while the rest love it. From the outside it looks like a big car, but from within it’s not. Its styling is pretty imposing, so when you first climb into the cabin the quality of the interior plastics is disappointing, until you look at the price and the spec sheet.
From what I’ve read, the petrol version delivers disappointing performance, yet the diesel version I drove gallops along very nicely. On balance, I reckon this car delivers more than its price needs to, so those who like standing out from the boring masses are getting a pretty good deal. All they really have to worry about is resale value —