Back in 2008, Dodge execs wanted to offer a small car in South America. The Neon had been already been dead for thee years. The Caliper existed, but it wasn’t exactly small, and Dodge was also trying to convince everyone that it was a miniature crossover instead of the hatchback it really was. With nothing else to offer, Dodge went to Nissan to borrow a small car.
The result of this was the Dodge Trazo, a badge job of the first-generation Nissan Versa sedan. Aside from Trazo badges, there was literally nothing that identified it as either a Nissan or Dodge. The Tarzo wore the C1.8 badge, denoting that its power came from a 1.8-liter I4 that was also capable of running on ethanol, a big fuel in places like Brazil. Weirdly, this is also around the same time Nissan was apparently developing a small car for the U.S. for Chrysler.
