I have to admit that, a few years ago, I wrote the article “We Need To Have A Talk About The Dodge Nitro,” and it wasn’t exactly positive, per se. Now, eight years later, I’m seeing a 4×4 six-speed manual version for sale, and I think I have to revise my stance.
I’m going to quote my dumber, 26 year-old self, who wrote this for Jalopnik in 2017:
The Nitro had the same problem lots of Chrysler products had in 2007: terrible interior quality, an underwhelming powertrain, and styling that makes that “look back” owners do when walking away from their new cars a painful event every damn time.
Under the hood was a 3.7-liter V6 that made 210 horsepower, which, especially when mated to a “What Is This, 1970?” four-speed auto isn’t enough to get this two-ton monster out of its own way.
To be fair, that 3.7-liter could be mated to the same excellent six-speed manual that’s found in the Jeep Wrangler. Plus, if you were feeling like a big baller, you could get the R/T model, which made 260 horsepower and could get the 4,100 pound box to 60 in about seven seconds. But not too many people bought those…
But about six years later — last year — I had a chance to actually drive the Nitro to see the error in my youthful ways:
Oh wait, turns out I was right the whole time! The Nitro really is a steaming heap — unless you buy it in the versions I mentioned in my 2017 article: with the 4.0 V6 or with the stick.
I have always been intrigued by the stickshift Nitro, especially in 4×4 guise. At least on paper, it seems like a decent overlanding machine (even without the low-range transfer case that its sibling Jeep Liberty offered), and more importantly, there’s something about the Nitro that my younger self didn’t properly acknowledge: It’s interesting.
Seriously, the fact that I’m even writing about the Nitro — and that there are so many other “think pieces” (that’s really stretching the term “think”) about it — tells you that at the very least, the Nitro isn’t boring. And as I recently mentioned on a popular YouTube Channel reporting on the Tesla Cybertruck: Boring is the ultimate sin of car-dom. (That comment got ripped in the comments by Cybertruck-haters — check it out).
Look at the Nitro’s weirdly coordinate-grid-like grille, the split headlights, those giant fenders, the fake fender vents, that ridiculously boxy profile — the Nitro is just a Tonka toy but in full-size form, and it draws you in. It is both hideous and fun at the same time, and after almost 20 years, I’m now thoroughly a fan of its weirdness.
I’m particularly a fan of this one for sale near me, shown above. It’s got the Jeep Wrangler JK’s NSG370 six-speed manual transmission, and though those require a special fluid and are known for popping out of first gear, there are shift-kits that can fix that, and overall they’re fairly stout. What’s more, this Nitro is a four-wheel drive model! Again, it doesn’t have low-range gearing, but I’m curious if the transfer case could be swapped from a KK Jeep Liberty…
Either way, I like the idea of this as a cheap overlanding machine. It’s got short overhangs, it just needs a bit of a lift and some tires that are tall enough to give some good clearance but not so tall that the lack of low-range gearing would make low-speed rock crawling a stall-fest. Rocky Road actually makes a lift for this thing:
It’s possible I might be losing my marbles, but $4,500 for what looks like a clean, relatively low-mileage four-wheel drive manual SUV — especially one that isn’t that old — seems like a bargain.
The interior, while made predominantly of Playmobil-quality plastics — actually looks decent, and that stickshift is probably fun to row through, even if the 210 horsepower V6 that’s it’s hooked to is known for being largely forgettable.
Look at the clip above. Play it on a loop. Stare deeply at the Nitro’s boxy shape. Watch as it blasts through mudpits, slinging the stuff way up into the sky and onto the rugged roof rack holding its spare tire. Keep watching. Again and again. Listen to that modest V6. You want this Nitro. You want this Nitro. You want to call the seller and buy the Nitro right now before I lose control and end up with yet another car I do not need. Gaze into the big crosshair grille. Let it take over your motor functions. Allow it to type the seller’s number into your phone.
Please hurry.
Images: Craigslist
The 3.7 mediocrity is only slightly abated by the six speed. My buddy’s mom had one growing up and it had a hilarious habit of shedding door handles. Maybe 3 of the 8 interior/exterior handles worked by the time she traded it in. This example looks decent though! Not many rust free 4x4s available for this price. It is begging for a V8 swap
Can confirm that the 3.7 is largely forgettable, but my ’08 GC has 240k on it and never has given me trouble – only thing I’ve ever done to it was give it regular oil changes, nothing special. From what I’ve seen in user forums, that’s typically the case. It’s gutless and inefficent, but it runs. Considering how many vehicles this thing was put into, I think it’s reasonable to think that it may someday have the same kind of reputation as the slant-6.
I don’t much to say, but every time I see the Dodge Nitro I have to share this now decade old (just bury me already) RCR review with a young Matt Farrah(?!) at the 6:20-ish mark
I never got the hate for this era of vehicle. I have a 2012 Liberty, and my father has a 2011 Liberty that is a manual, and its a ton of fun to drive. Buy it, David…
My wife (GF at the time) bought a Jeep KK from Carmax… I think it was a 2010 and bought it with low miles in 2013. It even had the skytop! We did light fireroad offroading with it once in a while when living in Idaho and it was suprisingly good! It got up some pretty steep, rocky, loose inclines with a jeep-like ease and on street tires.
I would never buy another though. The skytop was so loud (luckily it never malfunctioned on us, but I knew it was a ticking time bomb). Interior plastics and seats were terrible. But what I hated the most: The transmission tunnel extended into the driver-side footwell, such that your foot was always at an angle, instead of just plain vertical, when using the gas peddle. It was terribly uncomfortable on long drives.
Omg please buy it please I need the rust-free Jeep-man obsessive smog-passing DT era to start NOW
Plus the road trip back down from Oregon would be stellar
I’m also gonna pose that you could have a fun post-honeymoon bro hang with Dirthead Dave or some of your other 4-wheeling pals on the coast and actually BUILD the damn thing as a series.
Oh, this absolutely needs to happen. DO IT, David.
YESSSSSS!!!!
I cannot figure out how to tag you, David (or @David ), so I have to trust that you meander back into this post. It’s important.
Why? Because it appears that, despite the new website and the move and the freaking marriage, you really don’t believe you deserve to be happy, because that’s the only possible reason for you to consider this purchase, even as a joke or to drive clicks or whathaveyou.
I know that things have been going reasonably well for you for a little while and that you really want to blow up that winning streak with this Nitro. Don’t. A Beverly Hills psychotherapist is both closer and ultimately less expensive than this Jeep-like substance. Get help.
lol goddamn calm down, he wrote about a car for sale on his car website
Ok, I never realized these were not the same powertrain as the Liberty. I always assumed they had a conventional part time – two speed transfer case. Apparently I was wrong. So were they actually just full time AWD? Or was it some kind of AWD on demand?
I had the misfortune of renting a Liberty once. No thanks to its little cousin here. David, do you hate yourself?…. lol
Some people never learn… I think he was brainwashed by Chrysler at too young an age to ever recover. Like how the cigarette companies get kids hooked for life.
I could imagine David accidentally stumbling into the Lee Iacocca day spa at some point.
I always kinda liked the look of these, especially compared to the Liberty, but knew to stay away. However, I always felt they needed running boards between the wheel arches, a la an old VW Beetle.
“ “What Is This, 1970?” four-speed auto “
If it was 1970 and a Chrysler product, it would be a THREE-speed auto.
And if it was a GM product in 1970, it might have even had a TWO-speed powerglide.
Hell, Chrysler kept using 3 speed automatics well into the 90’s. The Journey’s base powertrain was a 4 speed auto right until the bitter end. If team Mopar has a bunch of dusty old components languishing in warehouse somewhere they will find a use for them on the production line.
Even into the 00’s. I don’t think the TJ got a 4 speed automatic till the LJ came out in 04.
No David. Nobody needs to buy that. It’s still an objectively bad vehicle, with an objectively bad manual transmission.
Proof that literally everything is cooler with a stick.
I’ll back my guys up here. If I wasn’t buried under piles of bad German cars I’d be interested in some Chrysler products. I’d love to play with a Nitro, manual Crossfire, a diesel Liberty, and a Commander. 😀
Objectively the Xterra of similar vintage was vastly superior, here. And also came with a manual transmission option.
A bit if a shame it no longer exists despite its near-twin, the Frontier, lumbers along still underpinned by the same chassis.
Wasn’t the Xterra only available in 4×2 with the stick? I remember a coworker had one and it was basically the basest of models and I was surprised it was only 2WD.
Was that the first gen your coworker had maybe? You could get either transmission with either 2WD or 4WD in both gens, but in the first gen that meant a V6 as there was a lone base trim with the 2.4L I4 that came as a 5MT/2WD only. So probably pretty rare, though wonder if that or the supercharged/manual combo is rarer.
Some google-fu noted the old 3.3 and 3.3SC were both 5MT options.
The VQ of the 2nd gen was a 6MT. And looks it looks like the manual was available in froth base to top (pro-x) trims.
Yup, manual availability was pretty flexible all the way to the end.
There were a few years early in the second gen that the Off-Road (pre-Pro-4x trim name) could be had with 2WD which feels a bit at odds with one another. Not that 2WD variants with most of the same off-roady upgrades don’t exist, just usually they carry different names too like Tacoma PreRunner. Nissan matched it with Desert Runner some years on the first Frontier and used NISMO early in the 2nd gen Frontier for either driveline before the Pro-4x name.
It would have been a 2nd gen. Want to say something like 2006-08 maybe? But I know it was a base model for sure. Which would make sense to have the option for stick. But a Pro-4x in stick would be freaking awesome! I can’t imagine there are many around of those
I got to drive one years ago, just on road, but it was surprisingly fun and a way better manual setup than a Toyota of the same era. I’ve thought about seeking one out but I don’t have enough of a need for one to justify the premium they seem to be fetching for their rarity. Better than say, any Toyota FJ, but still.
I owned an Xterra once! It was wonderful. It got something like 27 mpg on the highway and darn near drove over everything I pointed it at.
Considering my love for bad cars…oh gosh I just want more bad cars!
What makes you love pain so much :p
The Crossfire is my most embarrassing car crush. I don’t think they nailed the design with it, but they got close enough and made something interesting enough that it gives me some feelings. Nothing else on that car actually delivers on the looks, and I’ve experienced enough Chryslers of that era to know what I’m asking for, but I still have eyes for them.
Have you also experienced enough Mercedes of that era, assembled by Karmann? The only Chrysler part on that car is the badge and the manual transmission shared with Jeep!
Once bitten twice shy. I don’t know how much of a car needs to be a Chrysler before it’s a _Chrylser_, but I’m not willing to risk finding out.
I’ve driven manual diesel Liberty and it was two times at once experience : the first and the last time. My V6 TDi Touareg is like a Rolls-Royce compared to that.
Do you really want to reach a new low that’s THAT low?
Dodge Nitro?! Published at 4:20
Just sayin…
This one is probably a fine enough beater particularly with fresh tires. I don’t mind the styling, but that wasn’t so much its issue for its time and as a package it just doesn’t do anything for me.
I can get behind a gen 1 Liberty manual, or a same-era manual Compatriot. A Dodge-fasciaed (is that a word?) Patriot would likely have been more prudent and no less duplicative with the Caliber, than the Compass-Patriot already were on the Jeep side.
Dodge-fascia-ed Patriot was a Caliber.
The Compatriot and the Caliber were terrible, terrible cars.
And that’s why I said it wouldn’t be any more duplicative with the Caliber than the Compatriot were on the Jeep side. Less actually, since the Caliber was a few inches shorter in height and had the smaller motors (2.0 or 1.8), most Compatriots the 2.4L.
As for the worth, we’re in an article about the Dodge Nitro, so none of the vehicles in question were known for being…good. But with where the market headed at the time, a theoretically efficient crossover probably would have been more valuable than a trucky SUV.
They money-making Neon was killed, along with its better chassis behavior and more refined demeanor, for the Caliber. Unforgivable – it was ugly, noisy, filled with cheap materials, and built on a severely, obviously cost-reduced platform.
Shameful and terrible.
It’s tough to think of a new/redesigned product from Chrysler in that time that wasn’t a step backwards from its predecessor in most all ways. Even with how many of those predecessors had been cost cut over their run and were withering on the vine.
I have found one context where a Caliber was the right choice. I should note I’ve never liked them. Last year my fiancee’s dad’s $200 Volvo S40 finally gave up the ghost. He lives in a retirement home, and only drives like 2k/year, if that. My fiancee, his mom (the dad’s ex wife, she’s a good one for this), and I chipped in to surprise him with a $6000 car. That price range fucking sucks. “Buy a Corolla” people say but all the Corollas around here in that price range were beat to shit.
But then I found a 2011 Dodge Caliber, with only 80k miles for $6k. Four brand new Goodyear tires. New brakes. Only one scuff on one bumper. The interior was pristine and clean, and was fortunately the upgraded interior they gave the later Calibers. And the ride height is absolutely perfect for him, he had a stroke and walks with a cane, and he can just slide right in the Caliber. Honestly, it wasn’t as terrible to drive as I thought. It just drove like An Car. The CVT isn’t great but this car will spend 98% of it’s time being driven at speeds under 50mph. I can’t emphasize how much this looked like something with only 20k miles on it.
So yeah. Never thought I’d ever assist in purchasing a Caliber. But for this use case, I think it was the right car. And I liked that we were able to surprise him with something that looked nearly new, instead of some of the other things I saw while looking. He absolutely loves it though! Which is all that matters. That old Volvo of his was so, so, so trashed, anything was an improvement.
I say they’re terrible cars mostly from the point of view of dynamics, value, and competitiveness.
They were not competitive at the time, they weren’t great cars, limited as they were to the hard points of the platform. They felt cheap. Cheaper and more half-assed than the Neon. Because they were. The GEMA engines were underwhelming and growly. Hooked to a CVT made it even more dynamically unpleasant. Ride and handling was okay, they’re surprisingly buttoned-down on the highway.
THAT SAID: they’re generally simple cars, there’s a ton of them out there, so they are, again, another one of those things that’s cheap to run if you can get past the stigma.
INTERESTING POINT: a 1st gen S40 is….a Mitsubishi. A Caliber is….a Mitsubishi.
(if it was a second gen S40 – electrical nightmare! – it’s a Ford/Mazda)
The 2011 S40 (T5!) he used to have was possibly the most ruined S40 in existence, and still on the road. It didn’t even have AC. It wouldn’t even be good for parts, because every panel was dented or severely scratched, the interior was just disintegrating.
You are definitely correct on all of those points though, the Caliber is not really a great car, but I stand by what I said about it being not as bad as I expected. The original interior they came with was truly horrible, the later ones are still cheap and plasticky but felt reasonably well put together and are less hideous. And you’re right about how it feels on the highway, that was a pleasant surprise.
Really, the decision was more about condition than anything. My father in law used to be wealthy, big house, nice cars, but lost it all in a bad divorce combined with a stroke. I wanted to find something for him that didn’t look run down or worn out, and the Caliber fit the bill. Damn near everything else in the price range had nearly 150k miles, and were in much worse shape.
At a minimum, Playmobil deserves an apology for you comparing their product to the interior plastics in the Dodge Nitro. Playmobil stuff is really nice quality stuff! Lots of charming details! And I can guarantee my daughter’s Mystery Machine rattles less than the interior of that Nitro.
Can’t agree more. Playmobil lasts forever, unlike that plastic covered cardboard used inside of the Nitro.
I will admit, I’ve never minded the styling of these. I like boxy and a little different. But when you get inside, it’s pure plastic fantastic misery. It’s so bad it’s almost insulting. And David was right, the auto equipped one I drove could hardly get out of its own way. It was also unusually ungainly to drive, especially around town. I’ve driven larger vehicles that feel more maneuverable. I guess it could be a good base for an off-roading build, but as a road car, it’s dreadful.
Well, at least the 3.7L engine is pretty decent. It’s a close relative of the 4.7L V8, for one thing. Although the 3.7 is a 90 degree V6, it has an even-fire crankshaft so it doesn’t sound weird like the old 3.9L V6 did. The 3.7 has a balance shaft so it doesn’t have the harshness of the old 3.9L, either. Just don’t let it overheat (they drop valve seats when the heads get really hot) and be sure that somebody was doing their maintenance on it – they don’t like to skip oil changes.
Trivia: You might think that the 4.7 and 3.7 engines were built on the same production line, but they were not! The 3.7L had a separate building (Mack avenue engine plant 2 in Detroit) on the same property with its very own assembly line. I had an opportunity to tour that plant, way back in my Chrysler days.
“Don’t overheat it” and “change the damn oil” apply to pretty much all engines built in my lifetime – nearly 50 years, lol.
Well, yeah, but some engines tolerate overheating better than others. Old-school engines with iron heads & blocks can generally tolerate an overheat a lot better (less likely to experience damage) than an aluminum head engine. The Chrysler 3.7, 4.7 and 1st generation 5.7 Hemi engines like to drop valve seats if they’ve been overheated. As far as oil changes go: All engines need regular maintenance, but some engines are a lot more prone to oil sludging then others if neglected.
My idea of overlanding is way different than most it seems. There is no way you’re driving that to Rio de Janeiro while sleeping in it, cooking in it, and living in it.
Turtle Expedition » The Turtle III
Well, I checked the VIN and it did pass the CA emissions check two weeks ago so it’s got that going for it. It’s curious the owner didn’t bother though to register it in CA in their name.
I hate to yuck your yum here, but…as someone whose partner had the Liberty version of this car, I find it stunningly charmless. It represents the nadir of DaimlerChrysler quality and execution, and earns no points from me for being off-road capable or having a manual transmission, when it’s this hideous inside and out.
*sing-songy playground voice*
Well, if you like it so much, why don’t you sleep in it for a week?
Look its not really a nitro. I mean it’s not currently on fire. You know that’s abnormal for a nitro.