Dodge: end of production for the Caliber and Nitro

                    

now in the lap of the Fiat group, the Dodge brand said goodbye to two models 100% yankee.

Launched in 2005 and restyled five years later, the compact crossover Caliber shared two things in common with the Nitro SUV presented in 2006: a design rather clumsy and controversial as well as interior finish only perfected at the time of launch.

last copies of these models are then released from the shackles of U.S. manufacturing located in Belvedere in Illinois and in North Toledo, Ohio.

Note that the Caliber, which was once marketed in Europe, will give way to a model of entry-level new and more accurate in the minds of two generations of Chrysler / Dodge Neon.

Indeed, the American manufacturer develops on the chassis of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta sedan a trunk that revives the body sedan, abandoned on segment since the disappearance of the Neon in 2005 2.

A time approached to be called Hornet Neon or 3, the competitor of the Volkswagen Jetta could eventually revive the Dart family name used by the firm between 1960 and 1976 . The story does not end there, since this model could then be three volumes in recarrossé Fiat Linea 2 and in a variant Lancia, heir to the Prisma and Dedra.

Cousin of the Jeep Liberty, sold under the Cherokee name in our region, the Dodge Nitro and the tuning range should not experience any children. A strategy not really surprising when we recall the statement of stripping Sergio Marchionne, CEO of the new Fiat-Chrysler alliance, about Nitro: “this car would never see the day” .