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Dodge launched in the UK last year with a series of amusing in-your-face adverts for the lower medium Caliber, declaring the car anything but cute.
Now the time's come to extend its model range into the huge, if shrinking, upper medium market, and the US brand has chosen another aggressively-styled model, complete with combative name: Avenger.
Things take a turn for the worse, however, as soon as you drop behind the wheel, because although the company claims it's learnt from criticism of the Caliber's horribly cheap interior plastics, things are only a little better in the Avenger. To be fair, in some parts of the cabin it's OK, but there are too many hard, cheap surfaces, the kind of thing the Korean brands grew out of years ago (for example, the door linings or the top of the instrument binnacle that flexes so much it looks like it's not attached properly).
It's easy to find a comfortable seating position, though, with the driver's seat adjusting a multitude of ways and the steering wheel moving forward and back as well as up and down. All cars also get a 'chill zone' capable of cooling four cans of drink.
While the VW-sourced 2.0-litre diesel is adequate for both performance and volume, the ride quality falls away quickly on any road less than billiard table-smooth. The car's set on the firm side of average, not a problem in itself and it makes for an acceptable motorway cruiser, but it doesn't deal well with any kind of bump, which appears to be a legacy of the Avenger's American roots. In its favour, though, is that there's no crash or thump over big bumps, just a wallowy lack of control.
There are also little quality touches British buyers will find surprise omissions. There's no passenger grab handle, for example, an odd thing not to fit, and the boot lid isn't lined, leaving just the bare metal, although the boot is spacious. And while rear passengers get enough room, the plastic backing to the fold-flat front passenger seat digs into the shins, and that kinked styling line on the rear door means the rear passenger has a plastic panel level with their head instead of a window.
Summing up the Avenger is too similar to summing up the Caliber. It looks strikingly different to its rivals and has some attractive qualities, but dynamically and in terms of quality it's not quite there.
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