Drive News – FIAT Bravo and Dodge Caliber also get facelifted
July 30th, 2010 
Russell 
Nip ‘n Tuck
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Clearly it’s facelift season in the automotive industry. I suppose summer is just around the corner. Time to get those nips and tucks in before packing up and strutting off to the beach, right?
As well as the new Corollas and updated 3-Series, Dodge have come along and refreshed its Caliber crossover, and FIAT has just announced a revised Bravo Sport. I reckon most car manufacturers have been a little tight on R&D budget the last couple of years and trying to stretch things a bit, but I’m sure they’d assure you it was for nobler reasons than that. Anyway.
The 2010 Dodge Caliber is pretty much, the same. Outside at least. There are new alloys, new chrome additions, and new colours to choose from. Inside though the changes are apparently extensive, a whole new “design theme” apparently combines with new, higher-quality materials and some strangely named technology (MusicGate articulating lifegate speakers, apparently) to create an altogether more welcoming ambience than before.
Although we aren’t the models biggest fans, they have done very well indeed, as anyone driving SA roads can tell you. You see at least one Caliber everywhere you go, and they are pretty sharp-looking machines. So a more refined interior, well can only be a good thing right?
Then there’s the updated Bravo Sport. First there was the Punto Evo, now this – it seems the FIAT guys may have forgotten how addenda to car names with sporting overtones, like “Sport” as a prime example, affect the way we see them. So you’re going to be quite surprised to hear that this updated Bravo Sport is… (drumroll).
Very much like the old Bravo 1.4 T-Jet. In fact the company is actually deleting all the other Bravos you could get before, and rationalising their range down to just the 110kW T-Jet powered model, and called it simply the Bravo Sport.
They’ve then changed the headlight clusters, the grille, and added two new colours to the lineup. Inside nothing has changed, although there’s less noise from engine, tyres, and road thanks to a softer, more compliant suspension setup which benefits NVH qualities of the vehicle very nicely, apparently. Good, that’s what Sports models are all about after all…?
Anyway, the one piece of good news is that this car, which has always been the best of the range by far obviously, and the reason why no-one bought any of the others, is now a bit cheaper than it used to be. R239 900 in fact.
Considering that it’s one of the best of the small-capacity turbo motors we’ve tried to date, the Bravo Sport at R240K combines decent urge for a lightweight, low CO2 emissions and excellent fuel economy. The one concern is, the old Bravo T-Jet felt far too softly setup in our estimation, almost dangerously so at times when you were enjoying the full 230Nm of torque on tap. We’ll have to book this Sport and its even softer setup soon and report back.
Russell Bennett
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