Hey guys, i have been on this forum for a while. never really say much, just kind of lurk. but i have narrowed my next car purchase down to the CSRT or a HHR SS, unless something really awesome comes out in the next 6-8 months. i used to have a nsrt back in the day, so i have been searching for something that can replace it that has the same fun 4-banger turbo spirit while also having some good utility. i posted a review of the csrt over on the caliber forums earlier and just updated it with my hhr ss drive that i got to do yesterday. let me know what you think, i will post the link too so you can read their reactions too.

Caliber SRT-4 Review

Disclaimer: this entire post consists of my opinions, you are entitled to agree or disagree, just don't be a little ***** about it and turn this thread into a pissing match


Well i finally was able to get a good look at the caliber srt4 today. I live in tri-cities Washington and the one dodge dealership....well...sucks, they never have anything of much interest. This weekend, me and the girlfriend went down to portland to visit some friends. While she was doing her own thing i decided to mosey on down to beaverton dodge. they happened to have two 08 srt's (black and silver). i was excited to actually get a close at the vehicle. Luckily the sales person that helped was working his first day at the position, so i got to direct the course of the visit. my impressions are as follows.

Exterior:

The first thing that stuck me is that lowering the vehicle and adding a lower bumper in front and in back drastically change the way the vehicle looks size-wise. it actually looked smaller than the regular calibers, which is a good thing. i am still just amazed that people call this car a "suv", but that is a different thread for a different time. I will admit i am a sucker for hoodscoops, so the hood having 3 scoops made me happy (must be the ricer part in me).

the wheels actually dont look as big as i thought 19 inch rims would. they actually looked like they fit perfectly. the silver cooler may be a little less exciting than the other available colors, but it hides dirt very well. it looked almost clean, especially next to the black one parked next to it that looked filthy.

Overall the exterior creates an aggressive appearance. You have to be ok with getting attention with this car, because you will get it (both good and bad attention). While the scoops and vents on the hood might seem a little over the top to some people's tastes, they dont seem to reach to the ridiculous boy racer level of the previous generation STi.

Interior:

This was one area that i was very intent on checking out. From all the reviews i have read, i was being lead to believe that the srt's interior was almost as appalling as Hitler's war crimes.

Now i will say this; the interior is nothing to write home about or be very proud of, it is pretty bland. With that being said, it is not nearly as bad as i thought it was going to be. There is a lot of plastic, but i did not find it to be offensive. I think my priorities of what i want in a car do not have an award winning interior as the top one. Some people do, and that is fine, it doesnt make them less of a person. For some reason the steering wheel seemed smaller in the srt than in regular calibers ( i dont have any facts to back that up, so i could be wrong).

The seats are great, they are very supportive, just as the seats in my 04 srt were. however, i thought these seats were worlds more pleasing to the eye than the ones in the 04 srt. if the same quality and thought that was put into the seats was put into the rest of the interior, dodge would have a winner on their hands. I think the cost cutting that happens to keep the price of the car down is directly affecting the interior, hopefully with the union changes with the UAW things can change.

I still struggle a little with the rear of the car, i feel that the back is a little to flat, i am sure i could get used to it, but its the one thing about the exterior that rubs me the wrong way consistantly.

Driving impression/performance

This to me is the most important part of the whole experience, i am the type of auto enthusiast that can look past shortcoming in comfort and fit&finish if the driving experience excites me.

I had read a lot about the clutch being a complete 1.5 ***** (aka "a ***** and a half"). In fact, the salesperson nearly stalled it twice pulling the vehicle out of line. once i took the drivers seat and pulled out, i experienced the infamous clutch. It is a little tricky, but did not seem as horribly "on/off" as the clutch in the mazdaspeed3 i drove back in the day. With that said, i prefer the clutch from my old srt, but it isnt that big of a deal.

I was pretty impressed with the solid feeling of the car in city driving, it did not feel like a cheap car, no creaks or rattles or moans, felt very planted.

I was very impressed with the shifter. initially i thought it looked horrible coming out of the dash as it does, but it is actually in a very intuitive location, at least for me. The throws were satisfactorily short and seemed to slide into gears easily but authoritatively at the same time.

The other huge complaint i always read in reviews was the torque-steer that was as displeasing as "2girls1cup". I did notice some torque-steer, but nothing on the level that i was expecting, and surprisingly, a lot less than i noticed in the speed3. My "get me through college" cobalt seems to have more invasive torque-steer than the csrt. maybe i was lucky and just got a good model with the torque-steer delete option (sarcasm)

The driving position is somewhat awkward, you feel further off the ground than you really are and dont get the "sporting" feeling you do in lower sporty cars & coupes. for some people that is a deal breaker, but not a huge deal to me, just an adjustment.

The suspension seemed pretty good, not groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but good. It was a lot better than i had imagined it would have been. If i were to make the car mine, i would tighten up the suspension a tad (can't leave well enough alone)

Probably the most interesting part of the driving experience is that the car doesnt "feel" as fast as it is. in the nsrt you felt and heard everything, so you always felt like you were going fast. the csrt isolates you somewhat (probably due to the increase in refinement). Getting on the on ramp and flooring it produced linear power delivery, but it did not feel as though you are rocketing way like the nsrt did, but when i looked down at the speedometer, i was going quite fast. Road noise and the firm ride were noticeable but not bad considering it is a budget car with a big engine.

Summary

Just like the nsrt, i think there is a large "love it or hate it" reaction that comes with this car. it is not as ground breaking as the nsrt was when it came out. the competition is a lot more competent this time around than when the original srt came out. some of the competition does somethings better than the new srt (interior, options, etc) but not soo much that it renders the CSRT as irrelevant.

I think this car might become my next vehicle once i am done with my degree, especially with the used prices being as low as they are.

PS

I do not have a negative view of the speed3. i think it is a very competent vehicle, may be even more so than the CSRT out of the box. However, it does have some annoyances that i do not enjoy (crappy shifter, more apparent torque-steer than srt, some of the owners, etc). I just dont live that it looks almost identical to a regular 3. Some people like the sleeper aspect, but i dont enjoy it, seems like it has no personality to match its very exciting driving experience.

it is a great time to be an auto enthusiast, there are a lot of vehicles that are very quick at very affordable prices.

hope you enjoyed my long ass post.


UPDATE

So yesterday i got a chance to take the HHR SS out for a quick spin. Well, it has left me conflicted. i actually pretty impressed with the car. i expected it to be mildly quick, and a good handler (like the original cobalt ss, a good performer, but nothing too exciting) but i was wrong. It actually felt pretty quick, had a very good highway punch when the turbo kicks in.

It handled very well, little to no body roll to speak of. it was good at mixing some of the raw feeling fun that my nsrt had with some refinement.

Where it leaves me conflicted is that it and the csrt both have what the other doesnt. I'll explain: the two cars seem pretty close to each other in performance that it wouldnt be the deciding factor (both manufacturers provide kits to boost power to around 300hp). each of the cars plays to different parts of my personality. The caliber has a much more aggressive styling concept, where as the hhr is a little more subdued with some sporty touches (different bumpers, large wheels etc). sometimes i like the styling of the csrt because it catches the eye and looks like it wants to kick some ass, and hood scoops are cool, ha. but sometimes i want to fly a little under the radar and not look so fast and furious, and that is when the HHR SS's looks seem to attract me.

i did like the power drivers seat compared to the manual seat in the srt, but on the same token, i liked the supportiveness of the csrt's seats vs the hhr ss's seats. seems like each advantage one has over the other always comes with a trade off.

i did however like that the hhr has a limited slip diff, wish the csrt had one.

it will be a difficult decision to make, they are very close


http://www.caliberforums.com/forums/...t=10462&page=4

 

I haven't driven the other, because when I found the HHR SS I stopped looking. What is the fuel economy on the CSRT? I love the fact I could do 150 or get 30 MPG...

Also no problems so far for me at around 10,000 miles.

 

I like the outer appearance of both. Have not driven the Caliber though. Now if it was Turbo and AWD that may have made me take a look.

 

the EPA states that it is a mile or two less than the hhr on the highway, but from all the reading i have done, the real world mpg on these cars seems to be almost identical. both cars seem to average mid 20s with regular (non-race car driving)driving

 

I get 30 easy on the Highway...here in Hawaii being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic to and from work each day I still get 24.

 

Look at both of them from the back, then decide. I just can't get over how ugly the CSRT-4's are from the back.

I do dig the Caliber's hood, and I wish the HHR had something more aggressive. I've got a project in the works to "fix" mine.

My decision was made on looks alone, as to me the HHR has that old school hotrod look to it. I totally dig the retrofuturisic thing. Just a matter of taste.

Something to think about is that the Caliber has much more in the way of aftermarket support right now, as you don't have the limitations that we have with tuning and direct injection. If you plan to do alot of aftermarket work to your car or have lofty performance goals, it'll be easier to do with the Caliber.

 

I prefer the looks of the CSRT over the HHRSS, however, I felt the interior the CSRT was hideous compared the the HHRSS, but the front seats in the CSRT were MUCH sportier than those in the HHRSS. What made me choose the HHRSS over the Speed3 or CSRT was 1 factor, neither the Speed3 or the CSRT wads available in AT! The only 1 that offered this requirement for me was the HHRSS. I would honestly have chosen 1 of the others if I knew how to drive a MT or had a wife that was willing to learn as I wanted to, but with that I was limited to only the HHRSS. Just my $0.02.

 

one of the things i did not like about the hhr was the absence of an armrest. it didnt bother me during the short drive, but i imagine on a drive longer than 15 mins, i would begin to miss it

 

You can add an armrest to the HHR. There's nothing you can add to the Caliber to make it not so stupid looking. I swear they get uglier every time I look at one.

 

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/hhr-ss-45/hhr-ss-vs-srt-4-interesting-read-anyway-19567/

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/com...s-dodge-srt-4/