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rickm · **Posted:** Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:00 pm

I'm in Oak Ridge, TN for a couple of weeks. We rented a SUV today from Enterprise. They gave us an '08 Dodge Nitro.

I know this is all about the same as my '08 Liberty, but there's quite a bit of difference. The interior is quite a bit different. I have to admit, I like the darker color of this Nitro vs the light gray color in my Liberty. I know the roof is quite a bit lower, and I keep hitting my head when I get in the car. If you look, the Nitro windows are quite a bit smaller than the liberty. The engine sound is the same, but I have to say, this thing handles differently. I know I've read reviews of the Liberty where the reviewer complained that the vehicle needed constant steering input, or I guess the way to explain it is that you have to constantly pay attention and keep moving the steering wheel constantly. I never felt that in my Liberty, but I sure do in the Nitro. It's like you have to really pay constant attention to your driving, and keep steering. The Nitro is 2WD and my Liberty is 4WD. Not sure what the difference is, but there is a definite difference in the way this Nitro handles.

This Nitro has 8500 miles on it. Every time that I've started it, I get the chime and the Oil Change warning. I guess someone at Enterprise needs to figure out how to reset the Oil Change thingie. :lol:

Oh, and the Nitro has different rims, but the same crappy Goodyear tires on it.

rickm · **Posted:** Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:05 pm

One more thing. I don't think this Nitro has any extras on it, except Satellite Radio. There is no EVIC, no Compass, no Outside Temp, etc, so I'm guessing it's all standard equipment. The cloth on the seats is different than my Liberty. It seems to maybe be a heavier fabric. I'm not sure if it's the YES Essential fabric, but they can keep that stuff. Just about every time I get out of the car I get a large static shock. I'm blaming the fabric LOL :lol:

I don't get that in my Liberty

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:32 am

Thanks for the review...

toy4everyseason · **Posted:** Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:00 am

I think the YES fabric is suppose to cut down on the static discharge. I know I get zapped everytime I get out of my KK and it does not have the YES fabric.

johnb · **Posted:** Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:18 am

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FL RENNY · **Joined:** Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:30 pm **Posts:** 458

johnb wrote:

toy4everyseason wrote:

I think the YES fabric is suppose to cut down on the static discharge. I know I get zapped everytime I get out of my KK and it does not have the YES fabric.

I get that too and I do not have the YES fabric - I don't think it was even offfered on the KK. Am thinking about hosing down the car in static guard or wd40 or something...

I get zapped every FRIGGIN' TIME!! And i DO HAVE THE YES FABRIC grrrr :evil:

johnb · **Posted:** Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:07 pm

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rickm · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 2:43 am

well, I'm back home now and just drove my 08 Liberty again. I drove the Nitro over and dropped it off at the Knoxville, TN Airport. There is quite a bit of difference in the interior of the Nitro vs the Liberty.

I don't think the Nitro had the YES Essential fabric on the seats. It was a stripped down model, no EVIC, no Compass, no Outside Temp, no 120 Volt AC outlet, etc. I think it was the plain fabric.

I did NOT like the fact that the windows were so much shorter and the roof line was quite a bit lower. Every time I got into the Nitro, I had a hard time, and ended up hitting my head on the roof most of the time. I really had to twist myself up to keep from hitting my head when entering the drivers seat. Yes, I'm fairly tall, 6'2" but that doesn't happen with my Liberty. I think the view out of the vehicle is better for me in the Liberty also.

And I figured out what the driving problem was with the Nitro. The steering would track straight. In othe words, if it was going straight, it would continue to go straight if I took my hands off of the steering wheel. I did notice, however, that the steering wheel was not quite centered when the Nitro was moving straight forward, it was tilted just very slightly to the left, not too bad thought.

The biggest thing was, if you had to correct the steering to the left slightly, you would have to correct it back to the right to get the vehicle moving straight again. If I moved the steering wheel sliightly to the right and took my hands off, it would not recorrect back to center, it would continue tracking to the right. I would have to move the steering wheel to get it to go straight again. The same thing would happen if I moved the steering wheel to the left and took my hands off, it would continue tracking to the left.

All this seemed to cause me to have to constantly steer the Nitro.

In my 08 Liberty, if I move the steering wheel either direction and let loose of it, the steering re-centers itself.

I don't know if that's common to the Nitro, or to two wheel drive Nitro, but I was constantly driving the Nitro. I saw some reviews of the Liberty that mentioned something like that too, but my 4WD Liberty doesn't do that, you don't have to constantly steer the car one direction or the other.

After we got in the Liberty at the Fresno Airport tonight, my wife said she liked the Liberty a lot better than the Nitro. I'm with her, I think I like the Liberty better also.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 7:00 pm

the YES stuff is strange...kinda like leather

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