Dodge Nitro

It's essentially a Jeep Liberty with new body panels. So at least we're talking about a serious offroad-capable breadbox with 260 hp.

Not only that, the styling will almost certainly be a hit. I would have to say the breadbox look has sold pretty well, although I think it looks pretty silly. To me the Nitro is the best of the milktrucks so far.

Oh, dang it - I can't believe I'm posting in a Desert bob thread! Gaaaaa!

Gets a ho-hum write-up in today's Sunday Times, the UK's largest-selling quality Sunday paper:

DAS

Another ugly monster from Chrysler! Surprisingly (I'm a conservative senior) when I went into my dealer's show room last week to look at the new Sebring, the salesman insisted I get in a Nitro first. Perhaps he thought being a box it would suite my conservative taste. It's a high step in and out (I'm 5'-11"), the seating position is good, but this truck probably can't handle two sets of golf clubs across the back. The Sebring has adequate trunk for me.

When I got out of the thing and looked at it from the front side the salesman wanted my opinion my first reaction was: "too high for me and it looks funny".

Trying to interest me, who said I'm interested in the new Sebring, illustrates the problem they are having getting buyers for their monsters. Of course it is Halloween!

I don't expect it will interest the same buyers who buy the similar looking Honda Element- middle aged and older women, much to Honda's surprise.

No, that means they had a "spiff" running on Nitro sales that day.

They think they're "safe" in such things as SUVs, although data from NHTSB paints a completely different picture. If you examine Honda's marketing, they're targeting middle aged divorced women with such puffery as more cup holders and other inconsequential features that these broads seem to think are more important than a good drive train, safety or durability.

A recent multi-car pileup on a freeway near here illustrates this alarming misconception well. Cars involved were a 300M, a Chevy Malibu sedan and a newish Suburban. No one was seriously injured in the two cars, but there were serious injuries and one fatality in the Suburban, which rolled. Of course, truck-based SUVs aren't bound by the same safety or emissions requirements as are cars....that's why the Big 3 loves them so much.

The "boxiest" box of them all, the Scion whateveritis, has a strange demographic trend, as well. Older men seem to be buying them now, when the original buyers were almost exclusively males aged 18-24. Personally, I think they're laughable...as aerodynamic as a brick, I'm sure their highway mileage isn't all that great in reality, either, despite Toyota's hype.