As a reader of The Autopian, I can appreciate what it stands for; in part, bringing life to the worthless crapcans that were once rightfully neglected when new and then revived with passionate enthusiasm. Not every vehicle rolling off the production line will set hearts on fire – at least not right away. Maybe with time, age will bring the deliciousness of a fine wine.
Take David’s BMW i3 for instance. It was an early expedition into the world of EVs at the same time the Tesla Model S hogged all the attention. Years later, a replacement powertrain battery gives the initially unpopular compact a second lease of life that outperforms the EPA estimates. Holy bullfrogs! And just the other week, I learned about a very special Dodge Omni that saved DeTomaso. It definitely wasn’t my mom’s.
So there is potentially a market for bad new cars turned good when used. For instance, the recent praise for the PT Cruiser that, in my opinion, was never terrible. Just cheap.
I’ll take this point further and nominate an entire lineup of Chrysler cars released toward the end of the 2000s. This was the result of a corporate merger that bit off more than it could chew followed by a recession.
[Editor’s Note: For the record, while I think some bailout-era Chryslers can be reliable and cheap transportation today, I still think most are marginal. Hell, even the Wrangler (that 3.8 and four-speed auto!) somehow sucked during that era, and that’s about as easy a product to get right as it gets! Anyway, I’m happy to have differing opinions on this site, so Tyler, take it away! -DT].
The Memory
The year is 2006. I’m at a Dodge dealership in Glendale, Arizona that’s a suburb of Phoenix. My dad is in the process of purchasing a brand new Ram 2500 Super Duty. I wander about the lit showroom until I stop at a poster. It shows the back end of a Caliber with the trunk open. A pair of speakers hang from the liftgate. The car sits atop the platform of a concert stage overlooking a blurred audience.
I decided at 10 years old that was the car for me. Fortunately, I grew up to know better. But the Caliber was an early sign of consequences in the midst of a dark period for Chrysler.
I suspect someone in Dodge’s marketing department was feeling the gloom, which makes this ad funny to look back on:
In 1998, Daimler entered into a “merger of equals” with Chrysler in hopes of elevating its status with American buyers. It was only nine years later that it would cut losses and sell off its shares to an equity firm.
Then-Chief Executive of DaimlerChrysler Dieter Zetsche had this to say, according to the New York Times:
Daimler (he said) was unable to exploit the combination of its highly-engineered Mercedes-Benz luxury cars with the mass-market vehicles of Chrysler, because U.S. motorists could not, or would not, pay a premium for a Chrysler equipped with Mercedes technology.
In other words, a German-priced automobile with an American badge wasn’t the way forward. Look no further than sales of the Chrysler Crossfire—which would be about $50,000 in today’s dollars—to tell you why.
The Frugality
When it became apparent this was the case, the company had to conjure a new plan on the spot to ensure the cash flow kept coming in. This is where Chrysler’s on-again, off-again relationship with Mitsubishi came back in.
The partnership began as a way for Dodge to sell economical cars in the late 1960s, and for Mitsubishi to arrive in the United States. Browse through the classics classifieds and you’ll see cars with names like Dodge Colt or Chrysler Galant often mixing American with Japanese roots in (more or less) equal harmony. These were called captive imports, and versions of this still exist today.
It was never a full stake of ownership for either party but time and time again over the next 30 years or so prior to the Daimler merger, it brought us cars like the Dodge Stealth: essentially a reskinned Mitsubishi 3000GT in the 1990s.
A new platform was co-developed to support compact cars for both brands. Known as the GS platform, Mitsubishi would make use of it starting in 2006 while the Dodge Caliber was the first American model to take advantage of it. It would be far from the last.
In fact, the way Chrysler saw it, it could spin off multiple variations of the GS platform to build its own compact cars. These would adopt new chassis codes to carry the brand through one of American car manufacturing’s bleakest periods.
I shall declare this clique as the Chrysler Bailout cars. It resulted in the following to be produced:
- Chrysler Sebring/200 (JS platform)
- Dodge Avenger (JS)
- Dodge Caliber (PM)
- Dodge Journey (JC49)
- Jeep Compass (MK49)
- Jeep Patriot (MK74)
These may present different choices for varying buyers on a budget looking for value but as a unit, each of these were critically panned when new on account of meager powertrains and hard plastics that plagued interior quality.
Car and Driver called the 2008 Avenger’s interior “‘rental-grade.”’ (That’s never a compliment, to be clear.) CNET gave the 2011 200 a middling score of 5.0 out of 10 on account of its interior quality. Google each of these models from when they were new between 2007 and 2011, and you’ll see almost unanimous verdicts of questionable value, underwhelming engines, and interior quality that is next to nothing.
Of course, not every publication reviews cars the same. MotorWeek will find the good in just about every vehicle John Davis gets his hands on:
So perhaps then, the key is just to give this compact lineup time and maybe, just maybe, opinions would mellow. Take this Car and Driver review of a 2016 Journey for instance, which noted that roughly 100,000 units have been moved in previous years consecutively. And the V6-equipped Journey presented competitive stats even if they weren’t class-leading. It was still on the receiving end of the bargain scale.
And then the entire compact lineup received a second lifeline as a result of a fresh Fiat takeover, which ushered in an era of fresh capital, improved interior materials and updated powertrains. The Fiat-derived cars like the Dodge Dart came later, but until then, the Chrysler Bailout cars got some needed updates.
This gave ammunition to Chrysler’s marketing division, who pushed out new stuff to reflect this attitude. You can get the picture:
For the Dodge Avenger, Dodge Journey, and the Chrysler 200, that also meant the addition of the new 3.6-liter V6 dubbed Pentastar. (Editor’s note: Actually a pretty good six-cylinder engine, then and now. -PG) Suddenly, your choices for a new purchase improved and you felt less like you were driving something rental-grade.
Remember, the designs of this lineup dated back to the mid-2000s so there was no room for safety tech such as lane departure warning and blindspot warning; common standard equipment today. So the prices they demanded when new were considerably less as well. During most of their production cycles, MSRP rarely demanded more than $30,000.
The exception was the most expensive Dodge Journey and Chrysler 200 convertible equipped with the metal hardtop and aforementioned V6. These used a new six-speed automatic that was reportedly a marked improvement over the old slushbox.
The Jeep Compass and Patriot siblings got updated four-cylinder engines and eventually, a CVT option became available. But over the course of their production runs, a six-speed manual was available and you could equip with either front- or all-wheel-drive. Seeing the number of mechanical options these two had, it’s a good idea to look up which Jeep Patriot models were good and which Jeep Compasses to avoid.
By most accounts, the Chrysler Bailout cars were less than impressive. But Chrysler from that era showed more signs of ambition than people give it credit for today, even if a tough economy and shifting ownership stakes meant it didn’t work out.
Take the Ram trucks, Dodge Charger sedan and, of course, the staple minivans. It planned a roadster to rival the Miata, the Dodge Demon concept (before that name was reattached to the muscle cars later) that was even drivable. And it supposedly had an enticing line of—get this—electric vehicles in the works, including Jeeps and a minivan. This became known as the Environment and New Vehicles division, or ENVI for short. The potential looked like this:
An offering in every vehicle size turning away fossil fuels? Looks like something you’d see today, right? How appetizing! I spy a Dodge-branded Lotus Europa, as well as familiar faces in the Jeep Wrangler, Patriot, and Chrysler Town & Country. The designs weren’t evolutionary but the tech showcase was key.
There’s a caveat though, because details are scarce. MotorTrend reports that the company’s EV goals in 2009 targeted a range of 400 miles of range for the passenger cars—better than even the best EVs today, but likely impossible with the battery tech at the time.
The Lotus Europa-bodied Dodge Circuit EV was aiming for between 150 and 200 miles of range. At the time, they were reportedly on the lookout for battery suppliers to provide lithium-ion units that could meet their optimistic needs. It talks a big game in this press release, which laid out its hopes of putting half a million EVs on the road by 2013 and how the ENVI team “has access to the vast resources within Chrysler to allow the rapid proliferation of electric-drive vehicles.”
Unfortunately, that lineup never happened; today, the ENVI cars are written off as part of a play for bailout money, back when the U.S. automakers were being trashed left and right for not being as “green” as the Japanese or Koreans. V8-powered Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, anyone?
I’d be very curious to talk to someone behind the ENVI project. The engineers disbanded once the Chrysler brand was absorbed in the Fiat merger, which leaves me wondering how they calculated that 400 miles of range was feasible back then. (Editor’s Note: Get in touch if you know anything! -PG)
But the point is, the Chrysler Bailout era was better than you may think. Initially a bargain lineup that was critically panned in the industry, these models would serve as stalemates as they oversaw the company transfer once again to new ownership.
Although the critical feedback was almost unanimously panned, consumers had rosier experiences. Presumably, they bought into the fact that the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler 200 twins scored consistently well in IIHS crash testing, with the latter notching a Top Safety Pick-plus nod in 2013.
Even today, Consumer Reports doesn’t have a lot of love for these cars, ranking them too low to be “recommended” even into the 2010s. On the other hand, owner testimonials show there is a lot of love for these despite issues that may arise, such as these Edmunds reviews that detailed the overall ownership experience of a 2013 200. Diving in a rabbit hole of consumer reviews between all the models and noting the ones that kept theirs for years, the majority rate their cars between 4 and 5 out of 5.
You’ll know they’re genuine when they detail the breakdowns at how many miles and the cost to fix, along with internet guidance of where to find the parts needed. This and taking into account that a lot of the critiques came around when they were new, means when they lose their shine, suddenly they’re pre-owned darlings.
Not Bad Today If You Need A Ride
Look, the average transaction price to purchase new rose to a shade under $50,000 by year’s end in 2022. On the used side, the average per state was at least $31,000. This far into 2023, prices are mellowing but only slightly. So you may have to get creative in order to place you in the right car that wasn’t your first choice. What I present to you is an entire lineup of solutions to keep you on the road.
Scour the classifieds and you will find low-mileage examples of each of the Bailout cars if you look hard enough.
There are examples littered like this on the internet. Take this 2016 Compass equipped with a six-speed manual for sale in California. It’s a clean-title car with just 58k miles. I doubt it will pop up in Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness so I’ll give it an honorable mention here. 
Here’s a 2013 Dodge Avenger with 72,000 miles that’s listed for $8,995, also in California. To ensure it’s not a fluke, here’s another example.
The odds of finding a compact Chrysler product with less than 100,000 miles for less than five figures are high. Parts are available since the compact lineup shares powertrain components. You should have no problem sourcing, especially for a Dodge Journey. Production lasted 11 years until 2020.
Ah yes, the question that the average reader will ask here, why shouldn’t I get something from Honda or Toyota lines with that legendary reliability for the same money? Well, the answer I have for you, good reader, is that your Japanese compact will likely have 200,000 miles. Any lower miles and you’re looking at a 2009 hubcapped Corolla that’ll command 5 figures on Craigslist.
So yes, the Chrysler Bailout cars we once reviled were witnesses to a turning point in what was the company’s lowest moment, and are now acceptable to society, almost to the point of goodness. And while they didn’t come to fruition, Chrysler’s plans from that era showed it wanted to be more than it was at the time. And that EV lineup alone feels almost exactly like what the automakers want to do today, just 15 years or so premature.
If you need one more convincing argument, my dad’s still driving around in the 2006 Ram Super Duty he bought all those years ago, getting ready to tick over 200,000 miles.
Tyler is a customer service professional whose life has been upended by cars somehow. When he didn’t write about them, he sold them. When he didn’t sell them, he read about them. Automotive lore discussion, anyone? If nothing else, he’s the owner of two Mazdas near and dear to his heart (including a Miata RF, of course). Support his website @ tygermind.com and socials at @tygermind.
Here’s an analogy that sums up these cars. Horse s**t doesn’t smell as bad after it sits out for a while on the trail.
Dried out old poop is still poop, smells less bad, but it’s still crap.
and still has its uses.
It’s worth noting that most brands aren’t wholly unreliable as much as they are consistently inconsistent.
It’s quality control.
10 guys can buy a Dodge Caliber. 9 will barely make it to the end of the lease and 1 will last problem-free for 18 years.
A very old school click-bait title…yet here I am commenting.
I give Chrysler a real “A for effort” in this period. You always got the sense that someone somewhere in the company was really trying. Granted, most of it was left on the cutting room floor once the money-men had their say (anyone too young to remember should Google Image Search the concept cars they made at this time).
But this was the beige era as much as it was the bailout era. Most mainstream automakers were churning out cars that were extremely phoned-in inside and out. Toyota was even cutting corners in it’s race to beat GM (unintended acceleration anyone?).
Chrysler had success with the K-Cars but most of that lineup was objectively worse than what became the Bailout era. So they really spiced things up with both the design and branding of their fleet once Daimler was aboard. Pop-out tailgating speakers, mini fridges and wild colors might be gimmicks but they definitely aren’t boring. There is a reason so many of those mid-Aughts designs still make up the (*gags* and does finger air quotes) “Stellantis” lineup.
Someone at Chrysler was truly a prognosticator and put money on a market where everyone will drop 50k on an over-engineered American EV with foreign pedigree. The big difference is that ENVI comes from a time when automakers still wanted to offer something for everyone.
The brand has now been widdled down to expensive oversized trucks, expensive oversized SUVs, Fast & Furious cosplay and the “you’re still alive?!” branch that makes one minivan and occasionally builds a luxury sedan that looks straight out of “Oliver and Company”.
In this respect the bailout-era Chrysler was better. For me, much of their offerings were attainable then. I can safely say I will never be able to afford the vehicles they put out now save for maybe the Dart (I’m not counting incentives on the Renegade here because dealers still get cute marking up these things, believe it or not). The Dart is so close to its Alfa counterpart (for better and worse) that it’s probably not worth it.
No, they were pretty awful. Dodgy quality and not in the least bit good looking. 200 and Dart were such stinkers that Sergio admitted publicly they were bad designs and tried to pawn the tooling off on another company.
I think it would be safe to bet the Consumer Reports reliabilty ratings for all these cars would be red dots as far as the eye can see.
I don’t know, man. I’ve had rental Calibers and 200s and they were particularly bad drivers even for rental-spec econo-crap.
When Fiat bought Chrysler Group effective 2009, they made two decisions immediately: (1) They commissioned new interiors for the entire lineup of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles, as well as some exterior refreshes where feasible; and (2) they re-started development of the Pentastar engine (which had started as project “Phoenix” under Daimler, but was cancelled by interim owner Cerberus well into development).
This was the absolute best thing they could have done. Development lead times meant that there would be no new models for probably four years. But a lot of the lineup had good bones — they just needed to be made more presentable. The refreshes started landing in 2011, and the result was the most drastic improvement in a lineup that I have ever seen. The new Journey interior wasn’t just good, it was class-leading. (I know because I was shopping in that segment, and I ended up buying a Journey.) The Sebring became the 200 and got a Superbowl ad starring Eminem. And the Compass went from being perhaps the ugliest car in the nation, to a small Jeep that wasn’t embarrassing to be seen in (and could be had without a CVT).
Sergio Marchionne was a mercurial and divisive figure, and toward the end of his tenure I think he was actively harming the US operations by lack of investment. But on the other hand, he not only saved the company, he made it profitable for years — and it all started with those first great decisions on day one.
Side note: Did anyone else expect this to be a David Tracy article?
“By most accounts, the Chrysler Bailout cars were less than impressive. But Chrysler from that era showed more signs of ambition than people give it credit for today…”
What you call ambition, I call desperation. AMC had ambition.
our latest “haul the kids, dogs and shit from the hardware store” vehicle is a 2012 Town and Country.
it has leather seats, a rear entertainment system, and can carry 7 people on a 2 week road trip one week, the dogs to the muddy dog park the next, and fold everything flat and haul 4X8 sheets of plywood after that.
Is it pretty? no, not at all. is it refined? well, the driver’s seat was plenty comfy to cruise for 13+ hours in.
Is it reliable? we just hit 130,000 miles and mechanically, it has only needed oil, brakes, and tires. one sliding doo sticks a little bit, and the other doesn’t always lock. the hard wearing plastics have held up well, but the exterior trim is barely holding on.
for what we need it for, it’s the ultimate vehicle, even if I’m not feeling super prestigious driving the damned thing around. my only stipulation when we were shopping for one was that it have the Pentastar ( 2012+ MY). i didn’t wanna get stuck with the old 3.3 Liter. our old 2004 Sienna was a nicer vehicle, but this one is more practical and abuseable in every way
If I recall my Chrysler lore correctly, the “Not Cute” ads were an overaction to the Neon “Hi” ads that somebody thought wasn’t manly enough. Or some such garbage.
You’re not wrong. Seemed like an industry-wide trend though. I blame the VW New-Beetle and Mattel’s Barbie line.
The Caliber was so bad, that a local PHX dealer was offering them free if you bought a Cummins Ram in 2008-2009(?).
Also, did you call the Ram 2500 a Super Duty?
of course that was a recession period and their were massive discounts to be had on the overpriced big trucks. the caliber was like the Aveo in that vein. you basically paid for the gas sipper daily driver by not taking the rebates or discounts on the truck.
I keep coming back to the comments as I read this more and more. The world powertain is god awful, it’s loud and slow unless you’re flooring it. The EGF in the early journeys was loud but it could haul ass
the later 3.6 AWD journeys are pretty reliable if I dare say so. Also they have plenty of power and are a Minivan crossover I suppose. essentially a van in sort of SUV clothes. so decent mom wagon material.
My parents drive a 2008 caliber and 2009 journey, and I must say they both suck in their own right , though at least the caliber is just due to aesthetics, cheap interior and road noise.
When one talks about this era, Chrysler products seem to get the most attention. Most would agree that all three domestic marques and most imports were producing cars of similar levels of crappiness; hard plastics everywhere, underwhelming engines, wheezy CVTs, cloth seats that turned to canvas, just a lack of overall “refineness” that could be directly attributed to cost cutting efforts. I owned/drove cars from all three domestic mfgs. in this time, and it was similar across the board.
We still have one in our fleet – a 2008 jeep grand cherokee that we use as our third car. Maybe you’ve seen it…it was recently featured on RCR. It’s currently got 230,000 miles on it and it keeps chugging. It’s got all of the maladies described above (albeit with a vinyl-grade “leather” interior) but it just keeps going and doesn’t ask for much in return. It’s gone completely around the horn from my wife’s daily to being a college car for both of my sons at different times, to going to Georgia and back when my kid took a job down there. It’s back here in PA now and still serving as the third car…the one that gets to do the dirty work.
My point is that these cars aren’t *bad* in the conventional sense of being unreliable or having multiple chronic issues that affect safety or everyday driving. They’re bad through the lens of the 2020s – a time in which we’ve gotten used to having better things. As a person in my fifth decade of life, I’ve seen and driven a lot worse. I guess that’s damning with faint praise, but ultimately cars are about transportation. These things get that job done.
Since when did North America get a 6-speed Compass/Patriot? The 6 speeds were generally European transmissions as they were for the diesels, but I think some gassers over there got it too. NA got the T355 5-speed manual instead.
Also, you could get the 62TE the Pentastar came with in the Avenger and 200 with the 2.4L. I have no clue as to why they didn’t give it to the Journey, however.
In 2014, way towards the end of the Patriot/1st gen Compass’s life, they added an optional 6 speed auto.
I know the Compass got a 6-speed automatic in 2014…. I own one.
I only mentioned speeds because it’s something I hear and see usually when people talk about stick shifts, and you just add auto if that’s what you mean.
“The Jeep Compass and Patriot siblings got updated four-cylinder engines and eventually, a CVT option became available”
You got this part backwards. The Compass, Patriot, and Caliber were all launched with the CVT (a licensed Nissan design). They were horrible. After Fiat, they were retrofitted with a traditional automatic that, unless I’m mistaken, was supplied by Hyundai. This was because the CVT was absolute garbage and the Hyundai trans was used in its place as a quick retrofit since the 4-cylinder was based on a shared design between Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai (it was their engine design) in a deal that was brokered by Daimler .
It wasn’t just because the JATCO CVT’s are trash: DaimlerChrysler said the CVT got like 4% better gas mileage then the 4-speed automatic, just for FCA to say 7 years later that the Hyundai 6-speed got even better gas mileage than the CVT!
All that could’ve been avoided if they just reworked the chassis to support the Chrysler 6-speed, but I digress.
I’ve had many Dodge and Chrysler products over the years, and for the most part the bailout-era cars are for me a cautionary tale of how far the mighty fell. Prior to the bailout-era, the minivans were super innovative, the GLH Turbo was crude but a ton of fun, the Shelby Lancer was less crude but even more fun. The whole LH cab-forward line was again a revelation and the LHS I had was a show car the went almost straight into production (which the ‘old’ Chrysler did a lot of back in the day) and it was for me the first introduction into how a top-line vehicle’s quality and reliability was just noticably better and worth a price premium.
And I liked the PT Cruiser a lot except for the meh gas mileage. The interior was OK for the time, but I really liked little touches like how the leather seats had suede where your legs in shorts would touch so they wouldn’t fry when you got in, the cargo and seating flexibility was outstanding with the flip and fold rear seats. It was amazing how I could fit me and 3 players, their equipment bags, and all my coaching bags into it. It was like a clown car all the stuff coming out of it at the field, LOL.
While they had their quirks (the GLHs shift linkage nylon ball and socket was forever popping out, who knows where the PTs battery was?), they tended to be easily and cheaply repaired. I liked the pre-bailout stuff they had, had a lot of miles and fun with them, which made for me the bailout era cars even more tragic. Very happy with my current Pacifica PHEV, another innovative platform, just sad that that’s all that is left of Chrysler.
I owned several Calibers, and I don’t see people comparing them to equivalent cars, or thinking about them as the type of buyer they were intended for.
They are compared to either smaller cars, or to more expensive cars. They fit a niche in the market, and for me, they did exactly what I needed. I did a TON of research when buying (admittedly USED), and there was nothing else with comparable interior space at an equivalent cost. It was an effective appliance. I found my spreadsheet from 2016 when looking to replace another Caliber (that I crashed). The spreadsheet lists size, weight, interior dimensions, safety ratings, projected “cost of ownership”, storage capacity, and many other parameters for every car. Buying used, I really wanted something with at least a little factory warranty left (so <36k miles) to mitigate buying a lemon.
Now imagine that you are pretty poor, and if you clean out the couch-cushions, you just might be able to scrape together about $12k.
Actual cars for sale in 2016:
2012 Caliber, 28k miles, $11.5k
2013 Volkswagen GTI, 38k mi, $18k (smaller interior, price)
2012 Mazda 3 hatchback, 36k mi, $13k (smaller interior)
2011 Impreza, 16k mi, $16k (smaller interior, price)
2013 Chevy Sonic, 35k mi, $12k (smaller interior)
2012 Toyota Matrix, 48k, $15k (smaller interior)
2015 Chevy Trax 3.4k mi, $18k (smaller interior, price)
2013 Subaru Crosstrek, 31k mi, $20k (price)
2011 Honda CR-V, 44k mi, $16k (miles, price)
2015 Mazda CX-5, 26k mi, $17.5k (price)
2013 Ford Escape, 33k mi, $15k (maybe?)
2013 Chevy Equinox, 32k mi, $15k (maybe?)
2014 Chevy Captiva, 35k mi, $14k (bad safety ratings)
2014 Nissan Rogue, 37k mi, $13.5k (miles)
2012 Jeep Patriot, 28k mi, $13k (maybe?)
2012 Toyota Rav4, 34k mi, $16k (tempting, but price 140%)
2011 Outback, 48k, $20k (price 174%)
Other than maintenance, I only had to replace a crank position sensor.
Dodge Caliber was a fine car.
That list is missing the Fit
Good point. I know I did look at the Honda Fit too, but I don’t remember why it’s not on that list. There was a reason.
You dodged a bullet on the Equinox. That’s a very regular, “I told you so” from mechanics. Especially at that price compared to a RAV4.
I’ve only experienced these as rental cars, but from what I’ve been able to gather, the trick is to pony up for the big engine. The two I can remember were a basic four-cylinder Avenger sedan and a V6 retractable hardtop Sebring. The Sebring I could have lived with – it was obviously not a “premium” car, but it was unremarkable to drive, and it was nice with the top down – but that Avenger was awful. Gutless, laggy throttle response, absolutely refused to downshift unless you dented the firewall with the gas pedal, and had a weird drone at highway speeds.
And as much as I love Neons, especially the first-gen ones, I just can’t bring myself to like the Caliber. I’m fine with (manual) PT Crusiers, but the Caliber… No. Ew. And that “It’s Anything But Cute” ad sums up everything that has gone wrong with automotive style and marketing in the past 15 years. Cute is good. Cars should be friendly and approachable. Why does every new car have to look like it’s posing for its Ultimate Fighting poster photo? What happened to “Hi!”?
So, my parents don’t have the best luck with cars, which means they go through cars crazy fast. In 2008, they picked up a 2003 GMC Envoy with over 100k miles on it. First, it got into a crash, then the engine seized. Finally, the air suspension failed. All of those happened only months from each other and it meant that we had rental cars for two years straight.
That also meant that I got to experience the era’s rental cars: A 2008 Dodge Caliber, a 2008 Chevy Aveo, a 2009 Chevy Aveo, and two 2009 Chrysler PT Cruisers. Later, I got to drive a 2012 Dodge Avenger when the Envoy broke again.
All of these cars had 30,000 miles or less, so they were still new enough. I remember hating the Caliber’s CVT. It did the job of moving the car, but if you floored it, the revs went to near redline and stayed there. It felt like a big scooter.
Yes, the interior was the same kind of plastic that you’ll find in a Harbor Freight tool case, but it was a notable improvement over the Aveo’s plastic, which seemed to be made out of recycled McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.
As a teen, I also thoroughly enjoyed the Caliber’s stereo, which had just all bass and nothing else.
Today, as an adult, I bet I would enjoy a Caliber SRT4. The Caliber seemed to have good bones, you just had to pick the right features.
The PTs I drove were the facelift ones and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I loved the pool ball-style shifter, I loved the color-matched interior, I even digged the gauges. I get it, PTs are lame for… reasons, but I thought they were neat. Every once in a while, I consider a facelift PT as a Gambler car…
The FCA-facelift Avenger was interesting. The car itself was definitely “meh” but the interior update was a solid effort. It went from the horrible plastics of the late 2000s to a place you won’t mind being in. I liked the soft touch dash, the sporty gauges, and the metal (?) trim, good touches!
As for the Aveos, well, they got us from point A to point B?
I drive a neglected PT nearly every day as a delivery car and it’s Awful.
– the hatch only opens half the time, rear passenger door doesn’t
-non working ac
-wheels make clunking noise at high speed
-brakes squeak when applied
-makes metal scraping sound switching into reverse
– the button on the shift knob spins in place, which prevents you from taking the key out of the cylinder.( If you get past this I’ve taken the key out only for the car to ding and tell me it’s still in)
– the windshield wiper fluid doesn’t dispense
-the entire engine shakes when starting, probably needs new mounts
-it needs a quart of oil every month or it shudders, makes a metal grinding sound and acts lethargic
-it gets 7-13 mpg depending on Ac being on or off
-its extremely hard to do any routine maintenance on .
In the past , it would get to around 20 mph and basically studder until I let go of the gas and reapplied( boss got that fixed). This thing gets put through the wringer, it’s a liquor delivery vehicle that gets used every day, and there are times it’s hauling 20+ cases of liquor. If the oil were changed regularly instead of topped off, and the issues weren’t left to “fix themselves”, this car would be absolutely insane. Its got a cavernous interior, a 2.5 in it that wants you to floor it, and it’s only 169 inches long. Theres not many options for things smaller than that with comparable cargo space, and when there are theyre usually Hyundai products with a 1.6 that would blow trying to haul anything
I would think the r/t cruiser would enter levels of “seriously fun”
*the EDZ engine is a 2.4 not 2.5
When I was a lowly E-4 in the Air Force with an extended cab Tacoma and my wife and I had a 2nd child on the way, we had a genuine NEED for another real seat. We found a 2 year old Journey with the v6 for $11,000 and less than 20k miles. It had been bought by a family then the guy immediately deployed and the wife preferred her minivan. A brand new one from aafes (I was overseas) was still under $20k with a third row which made them very popular with military families.
I brought my daughter home from the hospital in that car. And my third daughter as well. We drove it all over England when I was stationed there then drove it all over Texas afterwards. The only problems we ever had were front brakes wearing quickly (early models used tiny brakes. Post 2012 refresh got bigger brakes that didn’t wear so fast), the heater y tube cracking, and expensive tires, but a swap to grand caravan wheels and tires were a great upgrade. When we had a small holding, I removed the third row temporarily and made a goat cage and used it to move goats and chickens to and from our farm in air conditioned comfort.
Eventually, we realized it simply wasn’t practical for family of 5 with 3 in car seats. We bought an odyssey and I daily drove the journey to and from work for about a year longer before trading it in on a focus st. Dodge journeys are what they say on the tin. It’s like the marketing execs said “build a three row suv for people with bad credit,” and that’s exactly what they did. They weren’t spectacular cars, but they got families moving reliably and safely and in reasonable comfort. They aren’t as practical as minivans (I used to call ours the impractical minivan), but I’d argue they are a far better option for most growing families than a Toyota or Honda at the same price point.
I guess I might be the weird journey enthusiast.
My mom needed a 3 row that wasn’t too big to park in Queens and narrow enough to fit in the driveway, 14 years later and it’s still going
One of the things I find most striking is the press photo of the Chrysler lineup from less than 20 years ago. NINE vehicles in that lineup! Today there’s two. A minivan and a large RWD sedan that’s been cancelled. So, really just a minivan, to represent the entire “luxury” brand. Talk about letting it wither on the vine. Shit even the Dodge photo has seven. Today there’s three and they’re all based on a decade old (or more) platform, due for replacement. Not one CUV in the lineup of both brands. Yes I know Dodge just showed one, but still. Then look at the Jeep photo. The profit darling of the Chrysler group. I don’t think they have many more models today. Where do their R+D dollars go? All to Rams and Wranglers?
You raise a good point I’ve wondered about for a few years now – can they/should they actually kill off the “Chrysler” brand name?
A single vehicle can’t really make a brand BUT when the brand name used to be represent a third of the Big Three in the minds of plenty of still-around consumers, is it a good idea to ditch it?
In just the last 20 years, we’ve seen the demise of a number of storied American brands. Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Pontiac. Whispers say Lincoln, Buick, and Chrysler could be on the chopping block. To me this seems foolhardy. Most of these brands are/were around 100 years old. That’s quite a legacy to just let go of. I would think it would be worth the effort to try and reposition or market what you have. I’m aware that it’s probably hard to pass on juicy profits from $70k Ram 1500s, but it’s called the “Chrysler” corporation for God’s sake, show it some love.
Well for a while they were paying off Chrysler’s massive debts that Cerberus dumped them into. Then paying for Alfa Romeo’s re-entry into the U.S. so FCA could bankroll more European vehicles for Dodge. Now I’m pretty sure they’re paying for Peugeot’s EV development program that’s supposed to be used by all of Stellantis in the coming years.
I just realized I made Chrysler sound like my fellow working poor contemporaries… If that isn’t indicative I dunno what is.
I can’t speak to these but we do have a 2006 PT Cruiser sitting on our property. It was bought 6 years ago for one of my children who still doesn’t drive(!). I’ve had to drive it a handful of times and it’s not so bad (as I always presumed). The interior is not soft but it looks interesting and it doesn’t feel like being in a penalty box. It drives well enough; a bit slow but it feels solid to drive. The exterior is divisive but it isn’t boring. I’m a bit sick of looking at it in the yard, but, hanging on to it with some forced interaction, it’s grown on me.
My grandmother has a 2007 pt that her and my grand dad bought the day before he passed away. Buying that car was the last thing they did together. She didn’t like driving then and really doesn’t like driving now in her 80’s, but she takes really good care of that car. I’m pretty sure it has less than 20k miles. I’ve driven it a few times and have always been impressed with it for what it is. Interesting, reasonably comfortable and practical.
It’s almost an entire sub segment of vehicles for people who need cheap transportation appliances for a buyer segment: who also do not read reviews, who do not do research and often do not make good financial decisions.
These things were super popular with military families for the aforementioned reasons.
I always respect a well argued “in defense of shitboxes” article.
Yes!, even when I have anecdotal evidence to the contrary. It’s fun in a “convince me” kind of way. Also, all my cars are cheap & old so I’m on the hunt for that next unearthed tip.
There is something truly endearing about a shit box. Especially a shit box that is a shot box because it was cheap, not because it was bad. Dodge journey, cheap. First gen Kia sorento, bad.