>> It's the smaller of Dodge's 2 SUV's but where does it fit, high MPG, rightly performance, high technology, or a scarcity there
of? Let's check it and find out in the 2009 Dodge Nitro RT.
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>> Who am I, if you can get past the face, which I can't since it looks too much like one of those Rock'em Sock'em Robots when I was
a kid, the rest of the Nitro is clean, angular lines abound, definitely not gonna be mistaken for one of the dozens of other SUV's
out there with organic ovoid lines. And at least from the front it won't even be mistaken for its platform mate the Jeep Liberty.
Now here in the office our Nitro RT is top of the line but not really top of the line, I mean, gees it's got that kind of cheesy
cheap plastic dash that Dodge does too often and what the hell's that, that's orange, that's real orange. What is this the official
car of the Florida Grower's Association? Alright let's get past that and go to the technology; this is a scorching value for a
little over $2,100 look what you get. First of all one of my favorite navigation systems on a 6 and a half inch touch-screen, great
large buttons, I love the color icons, things are really distinct you can quickly figure out, oh yeah that's the button I want. Once
you do get your destination running you'll have a really good idea of what lies ahead because you've got Sirius Live Traffic in here.
Interesting quirk on this system, well I guess they'd call it a feature, is you can preview your route that takes you through a step
by step fly through of your route with audio prompts. Now because we're hard drive based on this guy you do have some space to store
your own media so you can get that music in there from either a USB drive, and note you can only import from USB you can't play natively
from the thumb drive, kind of interesting, or, of course, you can rip a CD into the drive as well. And, of course, you've got a standard
AUX jack here as well, no HD radio, no iPod adapter available in the truest sense and, of course, this package also includes UConnect
Bluetooth hands-free, microphone up here in the mirror. Oh, when you look at the web configurator for this car the feature list says
you can rip to the hard drive from either a disk, a USB drive or even your Auxiliary input, not true. And, of course, whatever you're
listening to on this upgraded system also goes out through 8 upgraded speakers and a powered sub way better than the bass rig and I say
bass for a reason, 'cause this upgraded rig has lots of it. Now part of what makes a Nitro RT an RT is this motor a 4 liter V6, nothing
exotic about it, 260 horsepower, 265 foot pounds of torque, zero to 60 is kind of a leisurely 10ish seconds. I'm more concerned about
the mileage 16/21 are your EPI estimates. Oh by the way, that's the number set on a 2 wheel drive Nitro our guy's all wheel drive
shave 1 MPG off the highway number. Your transmission's one choice only a 5 speed automatic they call Autostick. When you're in drive
you're already in the shift gate slap it left or right for up-shifts and down-shifts. A 2 wheel drive Nitro RT is in the low 28's
but you got to add $3,600 or so for all wheel drive, $2,145 gets you what they call the UConnect GPS head unit with all the bells and
whistles you must get this it's a great deal at that price normally you'd pay that just for nav. There's a convenience group that has
backup parking sensors, remote start, Bluetooth hands-free, it's Qwazi tech for $1,350 and the sunroof is about $900 more.
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