2009 Dodge Caliber

It felt strange to spend a week driving the Dodge Caliber while Chrysler was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. I kept waiting for someone to shout “Dead Man Walking” or at least “Dead Car Driving” at me.

But it’s a new day, and Chrysler’s merger with Fiat and the UAW is now complete and they’re firing up the assembly lines again. I wouldn’t say Chrysler is out of the woods yet, but it’s a hopeful sign and I, for one, hope that they make it. The world would be just a little more drab without Mopar in it.

So, the Caliber. This is one of those interesting cars that’s a neither-nor. It’s neither an SUV nor a small hatchback. It’s neither a sport compact nor a traditional family wagon. The Caliber is its own thing - a slightly larger than usual compact car with a 4-cylinder engine and a continuously variable transmission. It’s got full four person seating with plenty of trunk space under the hatch.

The 2.0-liter DOHC engine in the Caliber gets good fuel mileage - 23/27 - and it’s adequate to the task if you don’t expect the Caliber to perform like a sport compact. It’s got 148 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque. To tell the truth, the actual performance is better than those numbers would seem to promise, and that’s due to the continuously variable transmission.

These transmissions take some getting used to - there are no “gears” as such, and the effect is that when you step on the Go pedal, the engine revs up to its best power band and stays there while the car accelerates. You can get a pretty sporty result by using the shifter to select “gears” and picking your own shift points. A CVT is better than a traditional automatic if you want to shift it yourself precisely because it doesn’t actually shift gears, but rather simply changes the drive ratio. So you get this nice right-now shift effect with a CVT that you often do not get with a traditional automatic in sport-shift mode.

The base price on a Caliber SXT is $17,100. You can get a cheaper Caliber starting in the $16,000 range, but to tell the truth, the best reason to go look at a Caliber right now is the smokin’ deal you can get at almost any Dodge dealer. I’ve seen brand new Calibers as low as $11,000 as dealers try to sell down their 2009 stock. The double-whammy of a company in bankruptcy and a terrible economy has pushed dealers to sell many cars at an actual loss – which can be your gain.

Of course, the Caliber has every modern convenience. With options, the test car I had booked out at $20,035, and that included Air, Cruise, upgraded stereo with subwoofers and satellite radio and MP3 capability. It also had Dodge’s signature cold storage to keep your coldies chillin’ in the car. And if that’s not enough, it’s got a 110-volt outlet to run your laptop.

With its size, price, and feature set, I’d say the Caliber is worth a serious look for young families on a budget, or perhaps a family with a child headed off to college who can use a reliable new car with serious cargo capacity. Chrysler is out of bankruptcy, but you can still take advantage of great deals for a while yet, and that’s a good bottom line.

Written by Jeff Zurschmeide of northwestautoreview.com