Car Auto Magazine

Fourth Place: Hot Hatches: 2008 Dodge Caliber SRT4
Introduction
Fourth Place: 2008 Dodge Caliber SRT4
Third Place: 2008 Volvo C30 T5
Second Place: 2008 Subaru WRX
First Place: 2007 Mazdaspeed 3
December 2007

2008 Dodge Caliber SRT4
Highs: Planted through corners, gratifying shifter feel, gives good quarter-miles.

Lows: A mug its own mother would slug, high-sheen plastics among the cheap bits, a bucking ride.

The Verdict: A running shoe trapped in a running shoe’s box.
Is this Dodge’s new hot rod or just the box it came in? The high-seated, proto-SUV shape adopted for the regular-grade Caliber looks every bit the Shark behind the SRT4’s goalie mask of air ducts, spoilers, and screens, yet it’s still tall and trucklike and definitely doesn’t feel so pretty. A tailgate wing and the blocky rear bumper only pump up the visual heft, and the 19-inch rims and 225/45 Goodyears look like Sasquatch soles, even in this company. The line forms here for those who like their dance partners big-boned and square-shouldered.

Inside, the forms are big, too, the towering dash and the slab-o’-granite steering-wheel boss unchanged from those of the base car. It doesn’t say “speed” so much as “safe for kids.” Acres of hard, high-sheen black plastic advertise the cost cutting.

The SRT mojo is applied tastefully with carbon-fiber-print upholstery for the wheel and shift boot; white-face gauges include a cleanly integrated boost meter. Lavishly bolstered buckets with SRT embroidery suck torsos in and keep them there, but eventual back fatigue turned the minutes to hours on long hauls.

Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technology department is known for baking real meat in its burritos, and the SRT4 is no exception. The best power-to-weight ratio (11.1 pounds per horsepower) didn’t produce the quickest drag times, but the SRT4’s 14.4-second quarter-mile at 101 mph and gold-medal lane-change performance showed its strengths.

At street level, the Caliber chisels away doubts prompted by its styling. Lines through the corners were tight and bracingly fast and faithfully adhered to by the sticky tires. Mid-turn weaving was occasional on uneven surfaces, the consequence of the snorting 2.4-liter four’s 265 pound-feet of torque pulling the steering around. Always threatening to tear the front rubber loose, the engine’s rabid twist is tamed by subtle applications of the left or right front brake to shift torque away from the smoking tire. This virtual limited slip, superior to a real mechanical limited slip, claims Dodge, operates with a slight jerkiness that was offensive to some, unnoticed by others.

The body remains flat on its firm springs and anti-roll bars, but it also bucked more over bumps, having an altogether harder, harsher ride than the others. Sensations through the wheel, artificially light on center and artificially heavy off, are duller than in the Mazda or Subaru. However, the clipped, direct motions of the Dodge’s six-speed lever were judged the most satisfying of all the shifters.

The old Neon-based SRT4 had a boomy track-rat crudeness that has been expunged from the quieter, slightly plusher, more thoroughly integrated Caliber SRT4. Yet a persistent tinny feel—the hood prop falling off in our hands, the wads of foam insulation sliding around in inadequate glue, the various engine rattles on shutdown—kept our hearts from fully defrosting for it.