I like the looks. And if I can get 20+ mpg out of a rig I can sit 4 adults & the dogs in, plus tow my ATVs or boat behind it, then this should be a pretty cool rig. The 4wd will be great for snow, wet boat ramps, muddy forest service roads, etc. I haven’t been using my Dakota for hardcore offroad so there is no reason to think I’d use this for it.

The cheap plastic dash is a bit of a disappointment. I haven’t even sat in one yet so I’ll be looking at that in particular. But my 8 yr old Dakota is the same way so I’m not sure I ever expected anything different.

You would only be a hypocrite if you were building plywood cars in your backyard.

Personally, I don’t care about a car’s sales figures. If it’s crap, it’s crap.

See tanking Ford F-Series sales.

Proof is in the pudding. You can’t on one hand use sales figures and market share to dog American auto makers for not putting out good product, and then on the other hand dismiss great sales figures to once again dog American auto makers.

Apparently Caliber is a better product than Monty wants to give them credit for. It is also selling like hotcakes in foreign markets, it is Dodge’s first overseas hit.

In my own test drive, I noticed all of the above plus the real clincher, awful ergonomics. Visit a Dodge showroom and see what it’s like to get into one of these. I cannot recall a vehicle where I had a harder time not bumping my head–and I’m not tall. The front footwells are also narrow and force your feet towards the outside.

Someone might have already mentioned this, but the Nitro is actually much more closely related to the next Jeep Liberty than the current one. I personally feel that the current Liberty rides and handles quite a bit better than the Nitro.

If anyone’s interested in seeing how the pricing stacks up:

http://www.truedelta.com/models/Nitro.php

So cheap and underpowered that dealers can’t keep them in stock and Dodge will sell nearly 100 thousand of them this year alone.

The Nitro is going to be a big seller as well. Mark my words.

The specs on the Galaxie are not impressive either, but it is still running on the original drivetrain 38 years later. Grand Marquis is similar – simple, understressed, and overbuilt. When it’s gone, it’s the last of it’s kind to never be seen again.

Ah, how “father knows best”!

I rented a Merc Grand Marquis for a trip of about 3 hours up the jersey turnpike to western connecticut a few years ago. It was interesting. The ride was cushy and soft – perfect for cruising the ‘pike. I was quiet, too. There’s something to be said for low output V8s. They are so smooooth.

I spent about an hour playing with the power seat controls. However, I couldn’t reach the radio controls at all, i had to sit way up in the seat to reach them. Not an easy thing when u are ensconced in about three feet of soft foam padding. I suspect I looked pretty funny doin it.

The car was less fun in the parking lot, and way less fun on anything other than 75 mph in a straight line. Also nearly impossible to parallel park.

If I could have a few cars, this might be one of them, just for leisurly jaunts on the trunpike. However, there’s lots of better cars for me, ones that cruise well, but also do twisties nicely. Any Audi, most VW’s, most BMW’s do nicely. In the packed solid North East USA that I live in, smaller and better definitely rules.

might as well call it: Jumbo.

BINGO – Ford’s problem in a heartbeat – they’ve ruined the “McGarrett” (remember Hawaii-50 and his black Mercury?) attitude Mercury had for years, and now they killed that and tries to get women and metrosexuals.

My wife is pregnant, and wants a new car for her Corolla. I’m trying to talk her into driving my Grand Marquis, and I’ll drive the crackerbox Corolla. She says the Grand Marquis is too “masculine” for her – wants a small SUV (why when we already have one large/road trip vehicle?)

Made me think – old people like the Town Car/GM/Crown Vic because older people don’t get caught up in all this image stuff younger people seem to obsess about. Myself, – I’m only 40, but loved big American sedans since my first Catalina – throwing gravel ever since.

Modern masculinity is all about flash, and not quiet, simple confidence of the previous generations (even muscle cars were originally very plain). It comes out in the vehicles people buy today – all flash and little substance.

McGarrett manhood lives on in the Grand Marquis – the rest of Mercury blows big time.

“An underpowered can’t tow anything or get out of its own way “SUV” that can’t even go off road is going to attract the rednecks and NASCAR types? I don’t think so. If Dodge really wanted to appeal to rednecks, they would have made a vehicle that could tow the bass boat to the lake.”

They do. It’s called a Dodge Ram.

Yes. Dodge is planning to sell the Nitro in Europe.

Give the Nitro some credit. The standard 3.7L Nitro will pull 3,500/5,000 lbs (with/without towing package). That’ll easily pull any bass boat – unless you prefer fishing from the Titanic. That also out-muscles its Asian CUV competitors (as well as the V6 Chevy Equinox).

as a practicing metrosexual, i would never buy a ford

Amen!

I have no idea where I was going with this reply… I was just thinking about that film.