Dear Doctor Z:
I have been watching your television ads with interest,
especially as they have come under fire by those who say they are
ineffective, silly, or subordinate the Chrysler brand to that of
Mercedes. And, as much as I like to think we don’t take a
backseat to anyone, I also am smart enough to know that years of
building front-drive K cars and their derivatives is enough to
make any engineer’s mind turn to mush, thereby making it
necessary to lean on his German brothers for some help with
premium rear-drive cars like the LX-based 300, Charger, and
Magnum.
This, however, is not why I write.
After one week with the base Dodge Caliber (its only option
being the $1,000 air conditioning with 'Chill Zone' in the
glovebox to keep bottled water, etc. cold), I’m at a loss to
explain how Chrysler can go from the high of the LX cars to a
rolling disaster like the Caliber. I ask you, sir, because you
were in charge of Chrysler while this vehicle was under
development.
I was looking forward to driving this car with its base
1.8-liter 'world engine' and five-speed manual gearbox because
you can tell a lot about a car by its least costly member. What
this car tells me is that you need to stop letting your seasoned
development engineers go as you cut spending to keep the books in
balance. I will admit the base suspension tuning is not as scary
as I have found on other makers’ base economy cars, but that is a
far cry from saying the Caliber rides and handles with anything
approaching aplomb. In fact, the car is floaty in some instances,
and crashes about in others – on normal roads and speeds – with a
rear suspension that feels as though its yaw component is
relatively uncontrolled. Couple this with lifeless steering, and
you can understand why I didn’t feel happy behind the wheel.
This wasn’t helped by a clutch/gearchange combination that has
to be the worst of any automobile built this side of the
Volga River. Not only did I stall
the Caliber on three separate occasions – two of which were in
stop-and-go situations – but I came close to doing so more times
than I can count. At times the clutch would start to engage just
prior to the center point of pedal travel, go slightly slack, and
then bite again. This made slow, rolling starts of the kind you
do in traffic difficult to achieve. For a week, I sounded like a
beginner what with the high revs and slipping clutch as I
accelerated away from a stop. It was most embarrassing, and
compounded by the worst shift linkage in recent experience.
That linkage demanded more concentration and arm strength than
used by a world champion wrist wrestler, and language more suited
to working at the docks. Engaging the first four gears was
basically without incident, though doing so did not fill my head
with images of high-quality equipment. Instead it suggests the
worst example of down-market Chinese products. But it was in
downshifting from fifth gear that the level of cheapness really
made its presence felt. Moving the lever with a normal amount of
force did nothing. Ratcheting that force up incrementally also
did nothing until a force level was reached that would snap the
lever out of gear so hard that you were sure something had
broken. Thankfully, it never did though I felt like the extra in
one of those old British movies where physical labor is taking
place and the pencil-thin mustachioed lead actor is yelling
something along the lines of 'Put your back into it, boy!,' each
time I shifted. Dr. Z, I’ve driven cars with Muncie Rock Crusher
transmissions that took less force – and felt more sophisticated.
That’s saying something.
I found that couldn’t enjoy the driving experience enough to
give an accurate assessment of the 1.8-liter’s 140 hp and 125
lb-ft of torque, except to say that it got loud around 4,000 rpm.
I’m guessing about that because the base car’s gauge package goes
no further than a centrally located speedometer flanked by giant
fuel and temperature gauges. I’m also guessing that $14,985
(which includes the aforementioned air conditioning and a $560
destination charge) doesn’t pay for a lot of sound insulation
these days, particularly in a car that doesn’t have either power
locks or windows. Thus, in SE form, the hatch has to be locked
separately from the rest of the vehicle by means of an external
lock cylinder. I have to ask: Doesn’t this actually increase the
cost by requiring a separate piercing operation and the inclusion
of a lock and actuation mechanism? This is a solution I would
have expected on a 1962 car, not one that’s a 2007.
By now you’re probably convinced I’m a malcontent who couldn’t
have found a good thing about the Caliber SE if I tried, but
you’d be wrong. Though the design is truck like and the rear view
is a bit unfinished, overall the Caliber is a reasonably handsome
vehicle that stands out in a crowd. Also, it has a decent amount
of interior room and cargo capacity, a strong structure, and has
light rings in the cupholders that have the same eerie blue glow
as the instruments. Plus, I found the hard plastics used on the
instrument panel to be more attractive than expected. The
cross-hatch diamond pattern on the dash top works well, and is a
nice counterpoint to the light colored grained plastic below.
Ditto the door panels. Unfortunately, the outboard HVAC vents are
a problem, especially since the vanes are more flexible than a
politician’s beliefs.
Please, Dr. Z, take another look at the processes that brought
this vehicle to market in its current form, and assign the people
necessary to improve this situation. There is no reason a small,
potentially fun car like the Caliber has to be so bad. Or is the
recent swing from profit to loss at DaimlerChrysler worse than
has been stated? If so, the Caliber – as shown by the sample
driven – will be but the first of many disappointing launches for
Chrysler.
Sincerely,
Christopher A. Sawyer
