What Car Is The Best Representative Of Its Brand?

"MtrRider Just Wants Doritos" (MtrRider) 09/27/2013 at 05:39 • Filed to: None

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The Avalon is a great representative of Toyota. It is a reliable, cushy sedan for people that like to play it safe. It's not a horrible car, but not very advanced either. It's just like every other Toyota. What car is perfectly suited for the company that builds it?

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > MtrRider Just Wants Doritos 09/27/2013 at 06:11

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Dodge Dart. I had the (mis)fortune of helping my younger cousin car shop, as she was intent on getting a compact sedan, but not the Focus, Mazda3, Fiesta, Sonic, or anything Japanese, leaving us to test the Dart. You think hey, some Fiat parts could make this a decent little driver, right? Nope. As usual, Chrysler half-assed the important stuff: the exterior design looks like an early/mid 2000's job that surely won't age well, the turbo lag is horrendous for a car producing only 184 hp from a 2.4, it's about 200lb too heavy, the Hyundai-sourced auto trans shifts on a geological timescale, the dual-clutch was too finicky for her, the manual has a spongy, vague clutch, the seats are uncomfortable, the electric power steering is hopeless, and above all else, it's a Fiat and Chrysler product, and I had already heard horror stories about this car's reliability. The chassis and suspension (the hard parts) were actually pretty good, but everything else was completely forgettable. The one she felt was best stickered at $23k. It was a 6/10 car with a 8/10 car's sticker. Had she not excluded a Focus or a 3 or a Corolla, I'm sure we never would've looked at the Dart. It felt like a car built to a budget, not one built to fulfill a purpose, and I think that's Chrysler's problem: they conceptualize a good car, but they can't be bothered to design and build it properly, they just slap some shiny bits on to appease the uninformed public and tout their innovation.

The Transporter > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him 09/27/2013 at 08:05

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The 2.4L engine doesn't have a turbocharger, that's the 1.4L engine. The lag you're experiencing is the MultiAir variable valve timing kicking in, yo! And somehow Chrysler managed to screw up a transmission that they don't even make.

But that's not the car that's best representative of the Dodge brand. For that, I would nominate the current generation Caravan.

I'd be willing to put good money on the wager that almost every single American has, at one point in their life, either driven or have been driven in a Caravan, so it's the brand's most widely known product. And this is a perfect reflection of what the Dodge brand has become. Once a flagship for innovation with cars like the Dodge Charger Daytona, it is now most widely known for making a mediocre suburban people mover that is about 10 years out of style. It's engine is surprisingly powerful, but manages to hold the dubious honor of being the only powertrain in the Hertz fleet to leave me stranded on the side of the road. Many of its notable features, such as the power sliding doors, seem cool at first, but quickly become incredibly annoying and counterproductive. The only thing that the Caravan has going for it is the Stow & Go © seating, but that's only because current American patent laws prevent Dodge's Japanese competitors (both GM and Ford have given up on the minivan) from taking the idea and making it better.

highmodulus > MtrRider Just Wants Doritos 09/27/2013 at 08:44

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The Avalon is a great representative of Toyota.

Yep- its beige, boring, a bit over priced, sells mainly to old people.