Dodge Caliber Forums banner

My First Impression Test Drive

4128 Views 21 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  moparknighthawk
Well let me start out by saying I was doing my daily "dealer stalk" of the day. I drive to the back lot where they keep the newer vehicles and was another let down, nothing. As I am about to pull out of the dealership there is a blind corner that I always stop for eventhough I have the right of way. Out pulls a PT cruiser, and a Neon, and something told me to wait a second longer and HOLY SHIT I saw one!!! A White SXT!!! It had Michigan plates on it and my gaw dropped like this:eek:. It pulls out onto the three lane highway, I pull out behind it...I follow it, it looks so sweet in motion. They do a couple U-Turns and so do I, by the time of the thrid u-turn they knew I wanted to see it! I finally follow them back to the dealership and was talking to the guys that got out of it. This is the dealership that still does not have the brochure, no salesmen driven one yet, and I ask if I can drive it. Took copy of my license and I was on my way, with a salesman ofcourse.

Standing next to it, I can reach over the same distance as I can my Neon, about halfway. Wheel gap is about the same as it is on the Neon, maybe 1/2 inch less, no joke. The pictures on the net do not do the car justice.
The while color was very sharp!

I open the door to the vehicle and did not need to step up into the car at all, so there is no sign of SUV there. I get into the vehicle and I am amazed on how big it felt. I am thinking that is because the dash rises up higher than Neon. They were in a rush to go to the next dealer, so I have no time to mess with any features:( I moved the seat up, not as much as I would like. I start the vehicle and it sounds nothing like the old 2.0L, quiet and smooth.

I put the car in reverse and did not feel reverse kick in as I do in Neon. Visibility out of the back window is limited in height, but that is minor. I put the car in drive and away I went. The CVT2 is a really weird feeling as you cannot judge your speed anymore by shift points. As I exited the lot I gave a little more gas than I should have and handled the steering well. There was very little body roll, but the steering is, a little, but not by much, slower than Neon. It seemed to do a solomn very well as I went back and forth with the wheel. I did floor it from a stop and there was tess torque steer than in Neon. The steering radius is, I will have to say amazingly close to the Neon. Making a u-turn on a three lane highway I can put it in the middle lane with out over-shooting no problem, big PLUS!

The interior makes the car seem larger than it really is. The is not a problem for me because number on the exterior dimensions don't lie. The seats could have IMO more side support, but I did make a quick trun I would not make with my Neon AND the seat was not properly positioned for me.

Interior, I thought was of pretty high quality. You can't judge it unless you touch the material. I knocked and tugged and banged on the dash and no craking sound as I hear from my Neon. IMO I thought the interior was the best the DCX made in a long time.

Speed. Got up to 85MPH without a problem. Floored it from stop, went to 4K stayed until car caught up, then climed from 5-6K and stayed there the wholetime. Acceleration is about the same as the Neon if not better, definately SMOOTHER!!

This was a pre review, as I was on test drive for about 5 min. The car was exactly what I though it would be, and I thought it was going to be awesome and it was.

If anyone has any questions let me know and I will be happy to answer them!

-Joe-
See less See more
1 - 20 of 22 Posts
I think I like the caliber best in black, but white definately looks good. I may be biased because I'm currently driving a white 02 Si hatch (yeah, the ugly one....mini-minivan).
6
Man two dealers in one day too, I did not get to test drive the this Red on though, just got some shots:











See less See more
Ok...I'm sick of seeing these nice cars with those cheapy wheel covers. I hope alloy wheel availability starts picking up.
You got that right about those stupid wheel covers, it was a slight turn off when I saw that. the sticker price for that SXT was 18,6xx.
Actually most the cars we are shipping now have the aluminum wheels. R/T production has increased greatly the past 2 weeks.
How much would it cost to get the alloys if I ordered them from Dodge? They weren't availible when I bought mine. :(
oohsoobad2 said:
Actually most the cars we are shipping now have the aluminum wheels. R/T production has increased greatly the past 2 weeks.
Well thats good to know. I am hoping to get one with wheels not hubs. That is one promise that I made after I bought my Neon, with hubs. They look blah. Glad to know that they are cranking out the R/T's too.
Silverfox said:
How much would it cost to get the alloys if I ordered them from Dodge? They weren't availible when I bought mine. :(

The mopar catalog shows 18"x7" Chrome Clad Aluminum for 229.00 each.
That's retail, talk with the dealer you got your Caliber from, he might do it for his cost. I just ordered the door sill guards for cost and was promised the trailer hitch (installed) at dealer cost when available.
Xtreme Thunder said:
You got that right about those stupid wheel covers, it was a slight turn off when I saw that. the sticker price for that SXT was 18,6xx.

That's part of the reason I ordered mine, the plastic wheel covers don't cut it with me either. You got some great pics, it looks exactly like what I ordered excpet for the wheels. Did it have the Boston Acoustic package?
nygiantzz1 said:
That's part of the reason I ordered mine, the plastic wheel covers don't cut it with me either. You got some great pics, it looks exactly like what I ordered excpet for the wheels. Did it have the Boston Acoustic package?
No it didn't, not the red one at this dealership. The first one had the White and Red one. They both had Michigan plates on them. White had no Music Gate, but I think had alloys and a tan interior, which goes great with the white exterior. They red one did though, I don't like the red ones, they both looked pretty good.

The red one in the pics had heated cloth seats!
There's a white caliber at the L.A. carmax location - there's several pictures of it at different angles (http://carmax.com/dyn/factsheet/factsheet.aspx?id=3333624). A lot of times a white car screams "fleet", but I think it looks great. I wonder if yellow will look good on the caliber. Looks great on the Charger. The red in your pictures looks really good too.
Those shots show the white really nice, The SE grille don't look too bad either, body color girlle looks good on the white Caliber!! I don't know about the yellow, looks like a cool color too, I have seen it on neons too.
Xtreme Thunder Speed. Got up to 85MPH without a problem. Floored it from stop said:
They let you go 85 on a dealer preview!
About time a dealer around you got one. I had a caliber filled day, I saw an SXT diesel running around today. It had a diesel badge on it and sounded like a diesel at the stop light. I also saw a black R/T pulling into a gas station. It just made me want mine even more.
sr4tuner said:
They let you go 85 on a dealer preview!
Yes and I am not kidding either. Oh and it felt VERY stable at those speeds too.
It's that stable over 100, too. ;)
Silverfox said:
It's that stable over 100, too. ;)
LOL thats good to know too!! :D:D

[Qutoe from salesman:
Salesman: You will be the one driving it not me, floor it!
Me: I was like are you sure?
Salesman: I am sure!
Me: OK! Here we go!]

It was soo cool and the saleman was impressed too...(This was the first he had driven in one)...
That is a cool sales person. Why are there not more cool sales people in the world.
Fuzz 40 said:
That is a cool sales person. Why are there not more cool sales people in the world.
I think if they are enthausists they will, if not it is just another job and they don't care, they just want the money.
1 - 20 of 22 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top