2011 DODGE Nitro

The little engine that could..tow a house

Comfort Rating: 4 Performance Rating: 4 Interior Rating: 4 Reliability Rating: 5 Safety Rating: 4 Technology Rating: 3 Value Rating: 4

I got my wife a 2011 nitro heat 3.7 with 55k miles about a year ago because we needed a little more room but didn't want to break the bank. She likes the smaller suv's and I've always liked the Tonka truck look of the nitro. My experience with dodge so far has been very good so decided to stick with it. The nitro is an old fashioned old school suv that feels like a truck, drives like a truck, and is tough like a truck. There's nothing fancy about this rig but it has it where it counts. We take it all over and have put on 20k miles in year without a single issue. What did surprise me was what the nitro could actually do. We're big out doors people and own a 4k+ pound 21+ ft travel trailer we take out a few times a year that we thought we were going to have to park for a while since I no longer have a truck to pull it with. Unbeknownst to me was the heavy duty 5 link suspension, heavy duty chasis, transmission cooler and 5k pound towing capacity of the nitro. Once I discovered that I quickly installed a hitch and brake controller ,due to our nitro not being equipped with the tow package, and we were ready for action. Well we recently took a week long trip where we towed our trailer from az to camp on beach in San diego and the nitro preformed flawlessly never even heating up anywhere, mountains include, along the way. We were looking for a small/mid affordable suv with unique looks and got a helluva lot more than we bargained for. It's not the suv for everyone as it has a stiff ride and modest mpg at best, but if you're looking for something that takes you back to the pick up truck feel of a few years ago, has unique styling and can tow mountains above its useless crossover counterparts, than the nitro might just be what you've been looking for.