I went out yesterday and test drove the first of the December 07 batch made, here in Ypsilanti, MI. The test drive was to see how this new Caliber SRT compares to the Neon SRT...here below are some of the things I see between the two:

INITIAL:The Caliber looks are there, the hood scoop is functional, like ours is, almost identical, in look and functionality. The rear spoiler is massive and does block the snow and rain. The vehicle was Black with the sunroof and 19' chrome rims, standard. Had the navigation on it. This new engine roars!!! It is load and people will know where you are...the Exhaust is nice and throuty too!

INTERIOR: The seats are super nice and not as form fitting as the Neon's which was nice, the wheel feels awesome in your hand and the cruise control was easy to find. The shifter has a interlock to go to Reverse gear which is not on the Neon. I found the interior was for the most part, nice but the sunroof and overhead was pretty cheap, flimsly in fact...a shocker! Almost like a vinyl feel to it...Most of the rest of the interior was nice, there was some give and take from the Neon to the Caliber.

TEST DRIVE: The clutch on this thing was very touchy, it would take quite some time to get used to it IMO, the Neon has a much better "feel" to it. This SRT Caliber had 1 mile on the speedo, and at 20-30 MPH the front end is bouncey to the point of annoying, this may or may not be due to some shims that needed to be removed from the front suspension somewhere, IDK...very weird! Something about it fitting on the shipment truck. I had the car up to about 110 MPH, and 6th speed gear and shifting is flawless and exceptional, I wish the neon were this good. Accelleration was not up to Neon SRT par, IMO. I did a 3500 1st gear burnout, per the dealer to see what would happen, the results were not what I thought, this weird ESP braking system kicks in and wont let you do a super burnout with ease, it may have to be turned off to do it. Tourque steer is there, so be ready for it!
I only had time for 7 miles to be put on the Caliber SRT-4, but all in all it is a nice car.

It would take some getting used to, if I had one, but I feel IMO, I would be missing my Neon. This is just my .02 worth on this new Caliber...all in all...scale of 1-10 I would rate it a 6.8

Thoughts...questions...let me know!

 

wow, glad someone on here actually got to drive one. thanks for sharing the experience

 

cool beans... had the chance to drive a mule car summer of 06 for work... but... the darn thing was so jacked (the cal. was off... everything was a mess... it was literally a thrown together car)... it was hard to do anything without setting the MIL (overboost, compressor surge, etc, etc, etc).

I wasn't impressed then... but keep in mind the car was a mule... so... I too am glad to see someone drive a production car. Reminds me when I test drove an SVT Focus ... The Neon was very safe from trade-in's after that test drive... haha

 

The dealer in Ypsilanti, MI. said this was one of the first vehicle to come off the line...I should have chacked the VIN # but did not. It was a interesting experince, I dont think I would trade in the Neon for it...not at 24,874.00!!!!!

 

Interesting. I still don't like the car.

 

One more thing as I think back on my experince...the B-Billar was more of a vision obstruction than the Neon is, I found myself constantly rechecking for cars and traffic[:@]...but at least the wing on the Caliber did not take a bite out of the back window like the Neon..