Dodge kills off the Caliber and Nitro

The Dodge Caliber and Nitro SUVs were both developed during the Chrysler Group’s period with Daimler. The last unit of the Caliber rolled off the line at Chrysler’s Belvidere, Illinois factory earlier this month, while the Nitro ended production at the Toledo North plant around the same time.

Introduced in 2006, the Caliber was designed to replace the Neon sedan in the same way that Nissan tried to compete in the European C-segment with the Qashqai crossover. However, the Caliber was less of a success, due to its lacklustre drivetrain and an interior that was lacking in quality. Monthly sales of the compact five-door model peaked in May 2008 with 12,856 units, dropping to just 412 units in November 2009, with Dodge delivering 1,202 Calibers last month.

The Nitro also made its debut in 2006, as a more masculine and sportier Dodge derivative of the second generation Jeep Liberty with which it shared its platform but not the latter's more hard core all-wheel drive hardware. The Nitro also suffered from a dismal interior and poor on-road dynamics. The best sales month of the Nitro was in March 2007 with 7,532 deliveries, while the worst was in July 2009 with 1,115 units, with Dodge selling 1,661 units in November 2012.