Is the retro Nitro a detour?

May 18, 2007 - By John LeBlanc

To describe today’s advancement in automotive engineering and product development as “rapid” is to suggest Paris Hilton needs some exposure.

In fact, the automotive industry seems to be delivering more innovative vehicles and features than ever before.

The reason? Simply put: Today’s new car buyers are a demanding lot.

In our purchases, we want unfailing reliability, extra performance and added versatility. While you’re at it, you can add loads of luxury, fuel-sipping economy and safe-as-a-hug-from-your-mum safety features to the wish list as well.

More ferociously contested than the post-war space programs between the Soviets and the Americans, this brisk pace of automotive innovation only heightens the expectations that there will be advancements when a new vehicle comes to market.

Sometimes it’s a giant leap.

Like gasoline-electric hybrid systems, dual-clutch transmissions or radar-based cruise control.

Sometimes it’s not.

Like a well-thought-out interior with easy-to-use controls, or a vehicle that delights its driver by simply being in motion.

Whatever. Today, when a new car is launched, it's almost a given that it will be a specimen of creative genius advancing along the Darwinian path of improving the breed. So if progress is defined as the common occurrence of what was once considered a miracle, then how did the new 2007 Dodge Nitro come into being?

Dodge’s compact sports-utility vehicle possesses a long list of confounding contrasts, beginning with its genesis.

Dodge markets Nitro as a sporty, on-road street machine, with a list price that starts at $23,490. Its most appealing feature is its retro-military styling highlighted by aggressive front fenders framing the traditional Dodge cross-hair grille work, giving way to a chopped roofline.

Unfortunately, the Nitro’s retro styling merely serves to accentuate its retro functionality -- mainly because the supposedly sporty Dodge is based on the decidedly off-road Jeep Liberty (a new version of which was introduced last month at the New York Auto Show).

The $34,240 3.7-litre V6 SLT Nitro I drove for a week had the uncommon quality of delivering both fair-to-middling performance and an as-tested combined city and highway 13.8 L/100 km fuel consumption number.

On the highway, the Nitro dips and bobs at any road undulation, its occupants’ heads bobbing and weaving along with it. Its excessive lean while cornering is only a prelude to its unsettled handling.

With uninspiring on-road dynamics, combined with limited off-road capabilities, the "one step forward, two steps back" Nitro seems to be the worst of both worlds.

Dodge seems to have taken a similar approach to the Nitro’s interior.

Its narrow cabin with small foot wells leaves little room for drivers to comfortably place their feet.

A steering wheel that doesn’t telescope, a gear selector that’s placed closer to the passenger and front seats with insufficient thigh support, caused all kinds of bodily grief during a recent back-and-forth drive from Ottawa to Toronto.

The kicker (literally) was banging my shin against the hard lower dash panel whenever I applied pressure to the Nitro’s long-travel brake pedal.

According to Neal Oddes, director, product research and analysis at J.D. Power and Associates, it’s essential that car makers consider how a vehicle relates with its customer.

“Consumers view how a car’s features interact with (them) as equal or more important than if the feature is reliable.”

Exactly. In other words, the Nitro is a good example of how the U.S.-based companies have for too long made products that consumers don't need or want. Arguably, that kind of thinking has put them in their current financial situation.

Dodge’s cleverly packaged Caliber and upcoming new Caravan prove the company gets this axiom, proving they can keep up with the current pace of automotive innovation — and then some.

Which hopefully means the retro Nitro only ends up as a slight detour on the path of automotive progress.

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com