2007 Dodge Calibur

Exterior

I'm not a huge fan of the mini-SUV look, and I think the Calibur is the worst of the bunch. The boxy exterior was augmented with things that jutted out in various directions, which weren't helpful at all. Worse, the post between the front and rear doors blocked any view looking over my shoulder.

2 stars

Interior

The interior was better. The dash was clear and easy to read. This car did NOT have XM or Sirus, but the AM-FM worked as expected. The cruise controls were acceptable on the steering wheel. Not sure why, but I felt like I had to look down to make sure I was pressing the right button. I suppose we could say that wasn't intuitive.

The seats were ok at first, but became increasingly uncomfortable over time. Moving the seat back made some room for my legs, but then I was uncomfortably far from the foot pedals.

The mirror controls were acceptable.

2.5 stars


Performance

The 4 cylinder enging was what I normally expect from a 4 cylinder engine: a bit boggy off the line, improving as RPMs increased. I don't think the mini-SUV body helped, as acceleration seemed heavy at times. In the mountains, downshifts were frequent going up hills. And they were certainly not smooth. The most aggrivating part was that the transmission seemed to disengage partly to increase the RPMs, and the would slowly engage to increase speed through clutch release rather than RPM increase. It was quite disconcerting, and didn't seem to help. Passing on a two lane road was worrisome.

2 stars

Handling

Remember when I said the transmission would partly disengage during a downshift? Well, the worst part of that was that I felt completely disconnected from the road when it would do that. I nearly filled my pants a couple of times when cresting a hill while going around a corner (in the rain), and when car downshifted (cruise was on), I felt like I was hydroplaning, so I kicked off the cruise, and let it decelerate, only to find that things were OK, they just didn't feel OK. Needless to say that the cruise was off the rest of the mountain part of my trip.

Handling otherwise was a bit heavy, probably the weight of the vehicle.

1 stars

Miscellaneous

Computer said I got 32MPG highway.
The hatch in the back seemed very small