SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the stories.
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday August 12, 2009
I have gone on record elsewhere as saying that the Dodge Caliber has my vote for the title: “The world’s ugliest car”, while Dodge themselves have apparently marketed it as “anything but cute” and even (said by a cute cartoon monkey) “scares the s*** out of me.”
A certain British TV motoring programme labelled it: “as brash as Las Vegas,” so let’s just settle for that. It’s big, it’s chunky and it’s as blingy as a chrome plater’s workshop, but it has a certain charm nonetheless.
It’s an MPV, which is auto-speak for a tall station wagon, or an SUV without the wannabe four-wheel drive. Being tall, it accommodates four or five comfortably and places drivers who are easily intimidated, at eye level with taxis (elwt). Being American, the front pair of non-negotiable cupholders is marked with illuminated circles; just so you won’t overlook them in the dark.
The rear seats fold to provide a continuous flat and roomy loading space. Even the front passenger chair flips its backrest down to form a worktop, while in the interests of elwt compliance for all, the driver’s seat adjusts for height.
Equipment is pretty comprehensive: multistage dual front and side curtain airbags that, together with the body’s high strength construction in varying grades of steel, earned it the US government’s highest crash test safety award, leather upholstery, the usual aircon and power steering, one-touch power windows, ABS, EBD and ESP, a nine-speaker, six-disc Boston Acoustics premium sound system and remote audio controls on the steering wheel. It even brags with a “chill zone” for four cans or bottles in the glove box and a rechargeable flashlight.
Getting back to practicalities, the version tested was fitted with the European and Australian option of a VW-sourced 2,0 litre common rail turbodiesel. This 103 kW, 320 Nm unit hauls the Caliber from zero to 100 km/h in a very respectable 9,4 seconds and on to a top speed of 196 km/h, while using just over 7 litres per 100 km in real world testing.
It’s not the quietest diesel in the motor pool and the six-speed manual ‘box is not the most sporting, but together they get the job done. Stiff accelerator springing, mentioned in previous tests of Chrysler Group products, encourages frugal driving which is probably a good thing in today’s world of wildly fluctuating, but ever-upward, fuel prices. If you really want to test the boundaries, though, a good squeeze on the loud pedal makes things come alive.
So where would one place this Dodge Caliber in the great motoring hierarchy? If you truly live by the maxim of “I don’t care what it looks like, as long as it gets me from A to B,” if what you really need is a roomy and economical people and cargo carrier, and practicality scores higher than dash and flash, this could well be the car for you.
The numbers
Price: R267 900
Engine: 1968 cc VW I4 turbodiesel
Power: 103 kW at 4 000 rpm
Torque: 320 Nm at 1 750 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,4 seconds
Maximum Speed: 196 km/h
Real world fuel consumption: about 7,2 l/100 km
Tank: 51 litres
Warranty/Maintenance plan: 3 years/100 000km
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8