Dodge Caliber 2.0 CRD
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, Im 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 Id told him Id just come down with a spot of Ebola Zaire. The reason why I make this admission is because Ive just been driving the Dodge Caliber 2.0-litre diesel and I loved it. No prizes for guessing why.
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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 youll 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 isnt 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 doesnt have a surfeit of oestrogen in its makeup. The engines 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.
Youll likely be making more decibels than horsepower but youll 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"
Its 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. Itll quickly settle into a stance whereby you can really feel the steering going to work, the front tyres letting you know when theyre keying into the road surface and when theyre 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 thats 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, youll 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 Dodges published figure of 46.
3mpg but dont 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. Its 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 thats not your usual charisma-free family hatch and which doesnt 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 doesnt 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
