Greetings from the Middle East

baedaebok · #1 (**permalink**) 03-11-2010, 09:26 AM

Hi...I'm an English Teacher and I have lived in the Middle East for the past few years. I bought a Dodge Nitro 2 years ago. Most of my driving is city-driving but occasionally I want to drive and camp in the desert so I choose the Nitro for this reason.

But the Nitro is not living up to all my expectations for off-road driving for two reasons.
(1) The front grill is so low that the clearance is vastly reduced. It's OK for the city but doesn't help when off-road.
(2) I've gotten stuck a few times before. Once I was at the top of a sand dune but on pretty firm sand (not that soft), I got stuck. Even in 4WD mode, all wheels wouldn't move at all but were not stuck in sand. Perhaps the automatic transmission or slip differential was confused. I sometimes wonder if the old-model Pathfinder would have been a better deal.

Thanks. David

**rickaren** · #2 (**permalink**) 03-11-2010, 09:51 AM

Welcome and thanks for your Post! What is a Nito 2? Any pictures? Here in the US we really don't consider a Nitro 4X4 an off-road vehicle for the same reason you note. However a 4X4 Nitro here are great to drive in the snow, but not sand.

Let us know more about your vehicle and how you came to buy it and have it serviced. Enjoy and Good Luck with the sand!

baedaebok · #3 (**permalink**) 03-11-2010, 10:09 AM

I meant that I bought a Nitro in 2008 which was 2 years ago. Since we don't have much snow in the Middle East, I'll have to consider my trade-in options. I wonder if I could trade it in for something else. What would a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep showroom trade-in for the Nitro? In my city here, the place where I bought Nitro sells Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep. Are they all made by the same company?