2003 Dodge Stratus R/T Coupe Road Test

These are good days at Daimler Chryslers American arm. Build quality has dramatically increased throughout the Dodge and Chrysler product lines in just the past few years, and our friends at Auburn Hills have gotten considerable mileage and profit from tweaking, packaging and extending the life cycles of their passenger car product platforms.
Witness the Dodge StratusR/T Coupe. The ex-Avenger projects a confident new look thanks to all-new front and rear fascias, grille, headlamps, tail lamps, fog lamps and side sill moldings, as well as new hood and trunk lid designs. Its stance is strong, the profile, sleek, with visual cues reminiscent of the old Dodge Challenger muscle cars. The doors close with a solid thunk. Our R/T Coupe was also dressed up with Deep Red Pearl Coat paint, a bright exhaust tip and optional 17 chromed aluminum wheels, providing a bit of showbiz glitter.

Our R/Ts interior completely redone for this model year had the optional leather interior group ($1,215; the package includes power drivers seat controls and an auto-dimming rear view mirror equipped with thermometer and compass) in black. Nifty white gauges had faux carbon-fiber bezel accents. The low-back bucket seats were our only real beef with the car; surfaced with a perforated leather, they were slippery, low, narrow and lacking in thigh support. The mounting points for the front seat belt buckles seemed low as finding the buckles was often frustrating.

Belt buckles aside, the rest of the cabin was ergonomically correct, thanks to a new center console, Chrysler groups perfect environmental system controls, and stereo switch gear on the steering wheel. It was also a quiet environment, as Dodge engineers paid close attention to noise, vibration and harshness characteristics during vehicle development, adding more sound-deadening materials and utilizing a single-piece body side aperture. The cabin thus provided a nice, neutral background for enjoying the smooth, low-toned burble provided by the R/Ts 200-hp, 3.0-liter V6 and the soulful crooning pouring from the stereos seven Infinity speakers, which can be modulated with steering wheel controls. Fit and finish are excellent, both inside and out.

The interior is the biggest giveaway of the platforms heritage as a Mitsubishi Eclipse. (The Stratus R/T Coupe is actually built by Mitsubishi at its Illinois plant; the Stratus sedan and convertible are completely unrelated vehicles with Chrysler power trains.) The baseball-stitched leather-covered shifter knob, for example, was identical to the one found in the Eclipse Spyder GT I had driven earlier in the year.

The cabin has generous leg and shoulder room both front and back, but the low seating position and the fall-away curves of the cars exterior isolate the driver from the cars true size. We were surprised to have tapped a wall during a back-up parking maneuver. There is plenty of leg room in back, and the front seats slide forward to make installing a baby seat in back an easy proposition. The trunk is also generous, and you’ll be grateful for the cargo net after you’ve discovered how much fun the Stratus R/T Coupe delivers while you’re carving turns at speed.

The drive train, sourced from Mitsubishi and used in its Eclipse/Spyder platform, wont cause late Boomers to forget Mopars muscle-car glory days, but it is spunky enough for a Generation Y market not old enough to remember. The familiar cast-iron block/aluminum-head mill delivers 200 ponies at 5,500 rpm, while the 205 lb-ft of torque reaches maturity at 4,500 revs, providing a linear onset of power thats readily available for passing maneuvers. Dodge wisely mated the engine to Mitsus notchy, quick-shifting five-speed transaxle for the standard package this year; a four-speed AutoStick-equipped automatic is optional. The 3.33 first gear in our standard-fitted R/T wants some revving when you dump the clutch pedal, but we soon adapted to this quirk. Our mileage averaged 24.7 mpg during our week with the car, numbers that should prove kind to growing families.

The engine nicely complements the R/Ts upgraded suspension package. Up front are independent, performance-tuned MacPherson struts, coil springs and a 0.67-inch stabilizer bar; in back is a multilink platform with a beefed-up sway bar and lateral link bushings. Maneuvering is precise and fairly quick, although there’s a bit of a dead feel to the power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering system. Its a fine package for smooth roads, but a tad skittish on bumpier surfaces. Torque steer is almost non-existent, another fine characteristic carried over from the Eclipse.

This is a great value for ex-street racers who have grown up a bit, a well-integrated platform that provides an honorable solution if youve got to trade in the time and expense once spent in the aftermarket for friends and family. The Stratus R/T Coupe lets you behave responsibly yet have fun at the same time.

Specifications

Standard Equipment

• Five-person seating capacity
• Power steering
• Sport suspension package
• AM/FM/four-disk CD changer
• leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob
• Cruise control
• Halogen headlights
• AM/FM cassette in-dash single CD player stereo
• Infinity premium brand speakers (seven)
• Power mirrors
• Fog lamps
• Trunklid spoiler
• Aluminum wheels

Major Available Options

• Four-speed automatic transmission
• Leather interior group
• Side supplemental airbags
• Chrome aluminum wheels
• Power Glass Sunroof
• Four-wheel antilock disc brakes