The Dodge Caliber and the Neon
The Dodge Caliber started production today, and many people are eagerly awaiting its arrival. The styling seems to be just what people want - boxy but not too imposing, a well-tamed SUV, not a swoopy, sporty, friendly Neon but a modern mini-version of the big trucks that were so popular so recently.
The Caliber will be more efficient than the Neon automatic, according to gas mileage figures just released (see Allpar’s Dodge Caliber page. Only the 148 hp 1.8 liter engine has a stick-shift; that is a little below Neon EPA figures (for 1995-99 and 2004-05), but only a little, and the Neon didn’t really achieve its estimates of 29 city, 38 highway anyway. The Caliber might, or it might not, but it has a lot more room and much more in the way of safety features. I don’t expect it to be as fast as the first-gen Neon - which was timed doing 0-60 in 7.8 seconds by more than one magazine, in stock form, with the single-cam engine - but the 2.4 liter version probably will be.
Chrysler has been odd about many things in recent years. The Neon came out as a Dodge-Plymouth model, with a single engine (later available in dual-cam form, but with about the same acceleration), while minivans had Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth (each with an array of engines in the 1990s, but just one when introduced), and the LH had three Chryslers and a single Dodge, with a highly variable number of engines (some LH models, such as the LHS and 300M, had a single engine). You never knew what they would do next, and it was sometimes very hard to understand their thought process, if any existed. Closing down Plymouth instead of Chrysler was one interesting choice. Assigning the PT to Chrysler instead of Dodge was another…
Back to the Caliber, though. Its weight will keep acceleration constant, most likely, with the base-engine model slower than the equivalent Neon stick, but, I think, faster than any Neon automatic, and that is what most people bought. Throw in a good starting price and a Jeep version, and you have a vehicle that is bound to generate more than the 120,000 sales per year that the recent Neon has been doing. To be fair, the Neon’s restyling hurt it, as did the horrible handling of the original’s many quality gaffes. The Neon was a great car at heart, but … that’s a story for another day.
The key with the Caliber in many ways will be quality, with lots of people looking for failure. Hopefully, the CVT, sourced from a Nissan subsidiary, will work flawlessly with Chrysler electronics. Hopefully, using Mercedes technology won’t hurt the engines’ reliability. Hopefully, the team-based assembly will quickly stop any process or factory issues from interfering. For Chrysler to regain an “average quality” reputation, it must perform nearly as well as Toyota and far better than Honda. For Chrysler to start to move up in the minds of the public, it needs to beat Toyota. Expectations are low (thank you, by the way, Consumer Reports, for harping on Chrysler’s problems so much, while giving Ford and Honda so many free passes).
We are heartened by the excitement around the Caliber, by the surprisingly good gas mileage, by the nice, high horsepower ratings (which should help compensate for the weight), and by the general acceptance and enthusiasm for the looks - always a big question at first! This car means a lot to Chrysler. If it is a runaway success, maybe Joe and Dieter will change their minds about letting Chrysler develop their own entry-level car, instead of forcing the Polo or Colt on them; and maybe, we’ll see a sedan and a coupe, the rumored Rebel.
We can always dream, right? After all, we never thought the future would look this bright when Dieter first came to town.
