DODGE NITRO - It’s hip to be square on Home Services

Jan

DODGE NITRO - It’s hip to be square

posted by admin in Window Cleaning

If you put a Jeep Cherokee into a Brooks Brothers suit and straightened its tie, you’d have a Dodge Nitro. The square-set Nitro could well be the box that the Jeep was delivered in, for although its underpinnings are roughly similar to the Cherokee’s, its body and truck-type chassis are larger in all dimensions.

A five-seater, with a clever “Load and Go” slide-out loading system, the Nitro has a selectable all-wheel-drive system, but this is mainly for loose surfaces and inclement weather rather than the Jeep’s rock-hopping stock in trade mud and gutsing. In fact, the Nitro has a simple two or all-wheel-drive selector on its centre console, without the low-range setting of its Jeep cousin.

Which suits Chrysler’s target for the car: the typical nuclear American family and all its weekend or vacation accoutrements %26#8211 those who enjoy the great outdoors without wanting to necessarily bash it into submission.

Sized a good half segment below the staple American family SUV class populated by the Explorer, Blazer and Durango, the Nitro is part of a Chrysler scheme to downsize the great American truck by being more realistic about its day-to-day use.

It may be downsizing in an American sense, but the Nitro is still a big vehicle, with a huge amount of space for its intended five occupants and a load space that looks like it could take enough kit to satisfy a troop of survivalists. The Nitro is, in fact, 99mm longer overall and 114mm longer in the wheelbase than the current Cherokee. Its also 36mm wider in the body and wider in the track by 24mm than the Jeep, although it’s a good 57mm lower over all, which crowds its approach angle a tad and helps justify Chrysler’s “occasional” off-road labelling.

The Nitro’s square-rigged styling obviously allows the vehicle to take full advantage of the extra between- the-wheels space, for it manages to carry almost 2 cubic metres of luggage with its rear seats folded. Impressive.

In a New Zealand context, the Dodge is about Pathfinder and Prado scale, and if it manages to be priced under $50,000 when it gets here in two months (I suspect it will be) then the attractively proportioned, albeit boxy, newcomer could easily take top-end CRV, RAV4 and Outlander customers along with the perhaps more obvious Santa Fe and Sorento brigade.

But, as with the Avenger sedan range we sampled a few weeks ago, Chrysler New Zealand is playing its cards close to its chest with the Nitro, and we won’t know the full extent of its options and pricing until the car lands here.

What we do know is that as well as a modified 3.7-litre 151kW/314Nm, V6 petrol unit taken from the Cherokee, with a four-speed automatic transmission, the Nitro will front up with its very flexible 2.8-litre four-cylinder VM turbodiesel too. This CRD engine makes 130kW at 3800rpm and 460Nm of torque at 2000rpm and will have a five speed automatic. A slightly downgraded 410Nm version of the CRD engine powers the entry- point six-speed manual Nitro, which is a full second slower to 100kmh than the automatic.

A 191kW 4-litre V6 engine is expected to be considered in a future R/T version of the Nitro, but for the time-being, the two-engine, two-trim level choice should prove attractive enough.

There will be expensive options on the Nitro which, like the Avenger sedan, offers a so-called MyGIG entertainment and navigation system, which lets you play downloaded music, as well as CDs and DVDs in the car stereo. We’d love to have it, but if the SatNav doesn’t work in New Zealand, we may have to let it go.

On the outside, the Nitro looks like the drawing any car-oriented child would render of a family truck. The tough, right-angled Tonka-ish look is reinforced by big double-level square headlamps and a fairly low-rise window area %26#8211 which looks especially sinister with privacy tinting.

Inside, the Nitro’s cabin is fairly plasticky, but its design and ergonomics are surprisingly good with a very easy to use air con system and chunky front seats that look ordinary but provide good support.

Out back, owners will be able to shuffle the Nitro’s seating and load potential by opting to fully or part-fold the three-place bench. The rear seatbacks fold forward for a nice flat loading surface, and the front passenger seat also folds down, a neat trick that accommodates long, bulky items when needed.

Storage points for smaller items are everywhere, with magazine pockets, a typical phalanx of cupholders and a two-layer stowage console between the front seats. Behind the rear seats resides the Nitro’s tour de force “Load and Go” sliding floor. You can pull it out and load your gear onto it and then push the whole lot back to the seatbacks. The floor will carry a good-sized adult with no bother, so don’t worry about what you put on it.

In a driving context, both the handling and ride quality of the Nitro are better than what I remember of the Cherokee. It really is quite nimble and remarkably refined for its type, probably because unlike its Jeep counterpart, the Nitro is not compromised by serious off-road equipment it will never use.

The whole plot rides well, especially when heavily loaded. Delivering four colleagues plus luggage on an airport run %26#8211 a roughly 700kg-plus payload %26#8211 the Dodge cornered with less body roll than I expected and erred to a safe, balanced cornering attitude rather than the tyre-peeling understeer so much a signature of SUVs. Ride quality %26#8211 an American speciality %26#8211 was unflustered and well contained, even on broken potholed surfaces that may not have seen repair for a decade.

Taking the Nitro off-road just to see how it would fare, I was surprised: the all-wheel-drive system may be simple, but the Nitro scrambled away merrily and shouldn’t let a sensible fire-road and riverbed wanderer down at all.

The car’s V6 petrol engine is a smoothie, but hardly possessed of sufficient urge to excite sports car owners, although even when blunted by that payload, it would gather-up slower traffic on the motorway without too much trouble.

The diesel is a better bet. I drove it in 460Nm automatic and 410Nm manual form and would advise any owner to forget about waggling their own gear lever. The automatic keeps the Dodge on the boil easily and that great wedge of torque actually makes it no busier than the 3.7-litre V6 petrol unit, and as quick to 100kmh.

At low speeds, the automatic versions of the petrol and diesel cars shifted ratios almost imperceptibly, possibly a result of the units’ ability to “learn” the driver’s requirements as they go along.

Although the Nitro’s window openings are shallow, the view out of the car is really quite good. Big truckish side mirrors give a good view behind, but we’d still be very careful when reversing down driveways, for despite there being no sight-line blocking spare on the back door, the five headrests provide interference instead.

So how will the Nitro go in New Zealand? The diesel is frankly a no-brainer. It’s relatively clean (228gm/ km CO2), nicely lusty and easy on gas (8.6L/100km combined cycle). I’m not sure about the petrol V6. It’s smooth enough, but that’s not sufficient to make it an attractive option, as it’s no quicker than the diesel.

The 4-litre R/T might do the trick with its measurable performance advantages if and when it arrives. But in the meantime, the square edged Nitro is at its best in diesel form, providing the kind of defence against sticker-wielding carpark greenies that similarly-priced petrol SUVs and family sixes probably can’t.

DODGE NITRO

Drivetrain: in-line mounted RWD with selectable all-wheel-drive.

3.7L V6 - 3700cc SOHC 12v injected V6.151kW at 5200rpm. 314Nm at 4000rpm.

Four-speed auto - Max 190kmh, 0-100kmh 10.3secs, 288g/km.

2.8L CRD - 2768cc, DOHC 16v turbodiesel four. 130kW at 3800rpm. 410-460Nm at 2000rpm. Five-speed auto - Max 180kmh, 0-100kmh 10.5secs, 8.6L/100km, 228g/km.

4.0L V6 - 3952cc SOHC 24v injected V6.191kW at 6000rpm. 360Nm at 4000rpm.

Five-speed auto - Max 202kmh, 0-100kmh 8.5secs, 11.3L/100km, 269g/km.

Chassis: Independent front, by upper and lower A-arms, live trailing arm rear axle. Power-assisted rack and pinion steering. Vented front, solid rear disc brakes, ABS, ESP, Traction Control and Brake Assist standard. Wheels from 17-inch to 20 inch alloy rims.

Dimensions: L 4584mm, W 1856mm, H 1773mm, W/base 2763mm, F%26R track 1549mm, Weight 1875-1995kg, Fuel 70L (petrol), 73.8L (diesel).

Pricing: To be announced prior to June launch. We’d expect a sub $50,000 starting point.

HOT: Square-set look; good interior volume; lusty, thrifty diesel; realistic design for everyday life. NOT: Square-set look; looks like an SUV but isn’t; low-rent interior materials. VERDICT: If you’re even on a six-cylinder sedan budget, the family would love you if you opted for one these instead. In diesel form, of course!

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