I don’t get the Caliber hate, it covers a niche that few others do. I’ve driven the R/T version, and it is a perfectly acceptable little wagon. In fact, I think that it is the spiritual replacement for the Dart, a tough, utllitarian and versatile vehicle. The photo comparison is appropriate.
This is the thing that gets me about the guys ranting and raving about how bloated cars are with their “electronics and 12 airbags”. They’re *not*. If you look at sizes and curb weights from pretty much any time except the ’80s (with a small subset of cars that people cherry-pick – hey, the first gen Miata is lighter than a late model SLK AMG! We’re going to hell in a handbasket!) things are pretty much the same.
Anyway, Birddog’s post is emblematic of that disconnect. Everyone assumes that cars now are huge and heavy, but the Caliber is the same weight or less, and is much smaller. And this despite all the airbags! Remarkable.
I wouldn’t mind having that Swinger with the Slant Six and a Torqueflite. With some parts from Cliffords It would probably outlive me with benign care and a carport to keep the rain off. It will certainly outlive that ugly-asssed Caliber!
If I had to choose between the Caliber at today’s price and a brand-new Swinger at the then price updated for inflation, no question I’d take the Caliber. Let’s see…
Better acceleration, better gas mileage, better handling, way better brakes, way higher level of safety, way lower level of emissions.
What would I give up? The ability to squeeze five or six people into the car. Only this is of no value to me. In forty years of driving (including high school and college), I’ve never been in a situation where I wished I could get six people into the car.
The Swinger could be a nice period artifact to have. I wouldn’t mind having my first car – a ’66 Chevy Impala convertible – back, but only if it was magically transformed into an Impala SS 396 (needed the 396 or 427 in ’66 to get Turbo Hydra-Matic instead of the wretched Powerglide). For gas mileage reasons if nothing else (I never did better than 18 mpg even at steady highway speeds, and only got 12-13 around town with a 283 2-barrel, so the 396 must have been quite the hog), it wouldn’t be a daily driver, but it sure would be fun to have for some low-speed cruises around town in nice weather.
Maybe it was Darts like that that put an end to the customizing craze. When they came from the factory that smooth there wasn’t anything but the door handles to take off and fill the holes.
The Caliber, while it undoubtedly has all the modern conveniences mentioned above, is one of the lumpiest-looking cars on God’s green earth. Years from now, people will be amazed to look at old Mopars and find that the Neon was replaced with the Caliber instead of the other way around.
‘Lump’ is an accurate description for the Caliber, sort of the Chrysler version of the Aztek. The original Aztek concept was intended to be much smaller than what GM did with it, ie, basing it on the minivan chassis.
IOW, the Caliber is what the Aztek should have been, both in general appearance and sales, which is to say, mediocre (rather than being completely in the toilet).
I’ve spent a lot of time in Caliber rental cars. They’re not bad as a rental- comfy, fuel-efficient, satellite radio. But, they are hideous, and I really hate the CVT.
Agree completely–the Caliber occupies that space between “lousy car” and “car I wouldn’t mind owning”, the land of “great rental car”. I liked them because during my last consulting stint, they were one of the narrower cars I would end up renting, and they fit into the narrow parking spaces of the lot where I usually had to park. Getting bumped up to an LX car meant having to constantly be on guard against door dings and the resulting hassles from the rental company. The Ford Focus also fits this category–almost always came with Sirius, often with leather and a moonroof, and also relatively easy to shoehorn into a narrow space.
Doc – sorry you’re not a fan. As for me, I LOVED these cars! My Step-Mom had a sky-blue white vinyl top over sky blue ’72 Plymouth Scamp. Blue vinyl interior, but the e-ticket ride was the 318 2bbl V-8, and boy was that car a sleeper!
San Rafael Irwin Street northbound U.S. 101 on ramp “dragstrip” had me three car lengths ahead of my buddy’s ’69 351 (Windsor) Mach 1. Scamp got scary above 90.
This was back in ’77-’78. Yesterday’s papers . . . ..
I can’t remember… was that before or after they put the southbound lanes on the west side of the center support of the pedestrian bridge? It’s weird. I can remember that at one time all the lanes were on the east side, but I have no clear memory of what it looked like or when it was changed.
By any chance did you ever buy gas at the Arco opposite Strawberry Shopping center (in Mill Valley) in the early 80s, after 10PM?
I had a ’71 Valiant Scamp very similar to this Swinger. One thing about it that I really miss in modern cars is that the sheetmetal was tremendously strong. Friends skateboarded on it without leaving a mark in the metal, although the shine of the paint was long gone. You could close the doors with your hip without leaving a dent. The bumpers were pre-regulation, but they could literally drive through flimsy cars like the supposedly sturdy Volvos of the ’80s. As for carrying a bunch of people, this car was one solution. One time my highschool closed early because of flooding and we put 10 people in the interior for the ride home. We didn’t even have to use the trunk that time, which held another two people. It wasn’t perfect, but it was sturdier than any other car I’ve ever owned.
Friends skateboarded on it without leaving a mark in the metal…
The ability to play sports on my vehicle not really something I consider when buying a car… I mean, at the point where you care so little about your ride that you’re skating on it, is leaving a dent in the metal really a serious concern? I think I’ll take the reduction in curb weight in trade for hosting parties on the hood.
Also, I can close the door on my ’05 Saab without risking a dent. I wouldn’t, though, since I don’t want to f*** up the paint – which, unlike sheet metal, tended to be pretty thin back in the ’60s.
Great shot. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of either one of these vehicles.
Don’t worry Doc… you’re hardly alone in the ‘Caliber hate club’. What an awful, cheap and cheesey vehicle!
I don’t get the Caliber hate, it covers a niche that few others do. I’ve driven the R/T version, and it is a perfectly acceptable little wagon. In fact, I think that it is the spiritual replacement for the Dart, a tough, utllitarian and versatile vehicle. The photo comparison is appropriate.
I used to be a Caliber hater.. I have changed my ways after some wheel time in the SRT version. Caliber did leave brand C with no small car though.
One thing is for sure. ChryCo likes big butts..
I have $10 that the Caliber outweighs the Swinger by 1100 lbs.. Not looking up stats either. Just a guess on the honor system.
So lets see the curb weights I’m seeing online for the Swinger is around 3000lbs with the slant six. From Allpar on the Dodge Caliber…
Caliber SE: 2966 lbs
Caliber SXT: 3039 lbs
Caliber R/T FWD: 3156 lbs
What do ya know? Darn close.
This is the thing that gets me about the guys ranting and raving about how bloated cars are with their “electronics and 12 airbags”. They’re *not*. If you look at sizes and curb weights from pretty much any time except the ’80s (with a small subset of cars that people cherry-pick – hey, the first gen Miata is lighter than a late model SLK AMG! We’re going to hell in a handbasket!) things are pretty much the same.
Anyway, Birddog’s post is emblematic of that disconnect. Everyone assumes that cars now are huge and heavy, but the Caliber is the same weight or less, and is much smaller. And this despite all the airbags! Remarkable.
I wouldn’t mind having that Swinger with the Slant Six and a Torqueflite. With some parts from Cliffords It would probably outlive me with benign care and a carport to keep the rain off. It will certainly outlive that ugly-asssed Caliber!
If I had to choose between the Caliber at today’s price and a brand-new Swinger at the then price updated for inflation, no question I’d take the Caliber. Let’s see…
Better acceleration, better gas mileage, better handling, way better brakes, way higher level of safety, way lower level of emissions.
What would I give up? The ability to squeeze five or six people into the car. Only this is of no value to me. In forty years of driving (including high school and college), I’ve never been in a situation where I wished I could get six people into the car.
The Swinger could be a nice period artifact to have. I wouldn’t mind having my first car – a ’66 Chevy Impala convertible – back, but only if it was magically transformed into an Impala SS 396 (needed the 396 or 427 in ’66 to get Turbo Hydra-Matic instead of the wretched Powerglide). For gas mileage reasons if nothing else (I never did better than 18 mpg even at steady highway speeds, and only got 12-13 around town with a 283 2-barrel, so the 396 must have been quite the hog), it wouldn’t be a daily driver, but it sure would be fun to have for some low-speed cruises around town in nice weather.
Maybe it was Darts like that that put an end to the customizing craze. When they came from the factory that smooth there wasn’t anything but the door handles to take off and fill the holes.
The Caliber, while it undoubtedly has all the modern conveniences mentioned above, is one of the lumpiest-looking cars on God’s green earth. Years from now, people will be amazed to look at old Mopars and find that the Neon was replaced with the Caliber instead of the other way around.
‘Lump’ is an accurate description for the Caliber, sort of the Chrysler version of the Aztek. The original Aztek concept was intended to be much smaller than what GM did with it, ie, basing it on the minivan chassis.
IOW, the Caliber is what the Aztek should have been, both in general appearance and sales, which is to say, mediocre (rather than being completely in the toilet).
I’ve spent a lot of time in Caliber rental cars. They’re not bad as a rental- comfy, fuel-efficient, satellite radio. But, they are hideous, and I really hate the CVT.
Agree completely–the Caliber occupies that space between “lousy car” and “car I wouldn’t mind owning”, the land of “great rental car”. I liked them because during my last consulting stint, they were one of the narrower cars I would end up renting, and they fit into the narrow parking spaces of the lot where I usually had to park. Getting bumped up to an LX car meant having to constantly be on guard against door dings and the resulting hassles from the rental company. The Ford Focus also fits this category–almost always came with Sirius, often with leather and a moonroof, and also relatively easy to shoehorn into a narrow space.
Doc – sorry you’re not a fan. As for me, I LOVED these cars! My Step-Mom had a sky-blue white vinyl top over sky blue ’72 Plymouth Scamp. Blue vinyl interior, but the e-ticket ride was the 318 2bbl V-8, and boy was that car a sleeper!
San Rafael Irwin Street northbound U.S. 101 on ramp “dragstrip” had me three car lengths ahead of my buddy’s ’69 351 (Windsor) Mach 1. Scamp got scary above 90.
This was back in ’77-’78. Yesterday’s papers . . . ..
I can’t remember… was that before or after they put the southbound lanes on the west side of the center support of the pedestrian bridge? It’s weird. I can remember that at one time all the lanes were on the east side, but I have no clear memory of what it looked like or when it was changed.
By any chance did you ever buy gas at the Arco opposite Strawberry Shopping center (in Mill Valley) in the early 80s, after 10PM?
I had a ’71 Valiant Scamp very similar to this Swinger. One thing about it that I really miss in modern cars is that the sheetmetal was tremendously strong. Friends skateboarded on it without leaving a mark in the metal, although the shine of the paint was long gone. You could close the doors with your hip without leaving a dent. The bumpers were pre-regulation, but they could literally drive through flimsy cars like the supposedly sturdy Volvos of the ’80s. As for carrying a bunch of people, this car was one solution. One time my highschool closed early because of flooding and we put 10 people in the interior for the ride home. We didn’t even have to use the trunk that time, which held another two people. It wasn’t perfect, but it was sturdier than any other car I’ve ever owned.
Friends skateboarded on it without leaving a mark in the metal…
The ability to play sports on my vehicle not really something I consider when buying a car… I mean, at the point where you care so little about your ride that you’re skating on it, is leaving a dent in the metal really a serious concern? I think I’ll take the reduction in curb weight in trade for hosting parties on the hood.
Also, I can close the door on my ’05 Saab without risking a dent. I wouldn’t, though, since I don’t want to f*** up the paint – which, unlike sheet metal, tended to be pretty thin back in the ’60s.