Fritzo
Lifer
2011 Dodge Avenger Review:
We dropped off my wife's 2008 Town and Country for some recall work (I know, but was cheap and full of features), and since it was going to be in the shop for a couple of days the dealership pulled around a 2011 Dodge Avenger to use.
The outside of the car looks like a scaled back Dodge Charger...I guess Dodge is going for the "I need a family sedan but want some balls" segment. I found the styling a bit dated and...well...boring. It's one of those cars that you would never notice on a lot unless the salesman pointed it out to you.
The interior was a bit more exciting. Black leatherette covers the dash, with sporty red stitching and chrome accents. I'm reminded of the interior of a 1980's supercar. The seats were covered in an interesting fabric-mesh that proved to be pretty comfortable. Automatic seats allowed me to get things "just right", and my 6'4" frame had plenty of legroom. 5 people will sit very comfortably inside, making it a decent family hauler.
The dashboard in this car is a mess. The speedo has all of these crazy marks and designs all over it, so you have to look at it for a few seconds to tell exactly how fast you're going. The designers are also apparently colorblind: you have red backlights, greed digital displays, and a gaudy blue touch screen entertainment system in the middle. Couldn't they get a meeting scheduled and decide on a color scheme? (Note: I've been informed that they fixed this issue with the 2012 model, making the gauges white).
Under the fuel gauge, there is a mini-computer showing...for some reason...the time and the radio station. I'm not sure why since this information is also showing on the giant screen in the center console. You can toggle the display to show other things (like fuel milage, a timer, etc), but it always seems to default to the time and radio station. The touch screen entertainment system is the same one found in many Chrysler and Dodge products, including a 30 MB hard drive, sat. radio, a USB port for charging/external storage, and the worst interface ever conceived on a car stereo.
Overall impression: cheap, annoying, but functional.
My car came equipped with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, and it does what Chrysler products do best- get you moving forward as fast as possible. For a 3.6L engine, its 283HP output seems a bit tepid, but nearly all of it is hitting the front wheels, zipping the heavy 3600lb. sedan from 0-60 in around 6.5 seconds. Turning off the traction control gave some additional fun as the Avenger's rated 260 lb-ft torque produced some nice wheel spin on a couple of back-country roads.
Less fun were the Avenger's brakes, which felt WAY too small for such a heavy car. I'm betting you'll be lucky to get 30K miles out of a set of pads on this thing.
The handling is...well...terrible. I had the tires squealing around the laziest of corners (despite the overly-busy computer saying everything is properly inflated), and you just had that feeling of "Even though I'm turning it wants to go straight". Not impressed
The worst part- the transmission. When accelerating to highway speeds, the transmission often had trouble deciding when to go from 3rd to 4th, resulting in a lot of gear-jerks. The Avenger came with a 6-speed automatic with a manual shifting mode. Switching to manual shifting resulted in gear-shifts that took up to 2 seconds to engage. I'll rate the transmission "terrible."
The sticker in the window priced this car at $22,864.
Pros:
- Comfortable drive
- Decent power
- Nice interior styling
- Lots of interior room
Cons:
- Poor dash layout
- "Cheap" feeling components
- underpowered brakes
- indecisive transmission
- questionable handling
- boring exterior
Conclusion: A decent family sedan. Can inject a little fun on highways by passing people, but for the money and all the other baggage, there are better choices out there in this price range.
We dropped off my wife's 2008 Town and Country for some recall work (I know, but was cheap and full of features), and since it was going to be in the shop for a couple of days the dealership pulled around a 2011 Dodge Avenger to use.
The outside of the car looks like a scaled back Dodge Charger...I guess Dodge is going for the "I need a family sedan but want some balls" segment. I found the styling a bit dated and...well...boring. It's one of those cars that you would never notice on a lot unless the salesman pointed it out to you.
The interior was a bit more exciting. Black leatherette covers the dash, with sporty red stitching and chrome accents. I'm reminded of the interior of a 1980's supercar. The seats were covered in an interesting fabric-mesh that proved to be pretty comfortable. Automatic seats allowed me to get things "just right", and my 6'4" frame had plenty of legroom. 5 people will sit very comfortably inside, making it a decent family hauler.
The dashboard in this car is a mess. The speedo has all of these crazy marks and designs all over it, so you have to look at it for a few seconds to tell exactly how fast you're going. The designers are also apparently colorblind: you have red backlights, greed digital displays, and a gaudy blue touch screen entertainment system in the middle. Couldn't they get a meeting scheduled and decide on a color scheme? (Note: I've been informed that they fixed this issue with the 2012 model, making the gauges white).
Under the fuel gauge, there is a mini-computer showing...for some reason...the time and the radio station. I'm not sure why since this information is also showing on the giant screen in the center console. You can toggle the display to show other things (like fuel milage, a timer, etc), but it always seems to default to the time and radio station. The touch screen entertainment system is the same one found in many Chrysler and Dodge products, including a 30 MB hard drive, sat. radio, a USB port for charging/external storage, and the worst interface ever conceived on a car stereo.
Overall impression: cheap, annoying, but functional.
My car came equipped with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, and it does what Chrysler products do best- get you moving forward as fast as possible. For a 3.6L engine, its 283HP output seems a bit tepid, but nearly all of it is hitting the front wheels, zipping the heavy 3600lb. sedan from 0-60 in around 6.5 seconds. Turning off the traction control gave some additional fun as the Avenger's rated 260 lb-ft torque produced some nice wheel spin on a couple of back-country roads.
Less fun were the Avenger's brakes, which felt WAY too small for such a heavy car. I'm betting you'll be lucky to get 30K miles out of a set of pads on this thing.
The handling is...well...terrible. I had the tires squealing around the laziest of corners (despite the overly-busy computer saying everything is properly inflated), and you just had that feeling of "Even though I'm turning it wants to go straight". Not impressed
The worst part- the transmission. When accelerating to highway speeds, the transmission often had trouble deciding when to go from 3rd to 4th, resulting in a lot of gear-jerks. The Avenger came with a 6-speed automatic with a manual shifting mode. Switching to manual shifting resulted in gear-shifts that took up to 2 seconds to engage. I'll rate the transmission "terrible."
The sticker in the window priced this car at $22,864.
Pros:
- Comfortable drive
- Decent power
- Nice interior styling
- Lots of interior room
Cons:
- Poor dash layout
- "Cheap" feeling components
- underpowered brakes
- indecisive transmission
- questionable handling
- boring exterior
Conclusion: A decent family sedan. Can inject a little fun on highways by passing people, but for the money and all the other baggage, there are better choices out there in this price range.
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