Jeep

About a year ago, I spent a week driving a Dodge Nitro, and I came away from the experience with one question: Why would anyone buy this thing?

The interior is unattractive and cheap, the ride is harsh and the steering has more slop in it than a pig trough at breakfast time. It isn't even very fast, which is galling in a car called Nitro.

For all that, you can't even take the Nitro off-road. Not much, anyway. It lacks an all all-wheel-drive low setting for serious crawling.

My time in the Nitro, I knew, was a preview of the 2008 Jeep Liberty that would be revealed months later. The two vehicles are very nearly identical, built on the same Toledo, Ohio, assembly line.

Imagine my surprise, then, as I ended my first day inf the Liberty with a smile on my face. I couldn't help myself. I really liked it. I could see buying one as a perfectly sane thing to do.