No more V6 Durango

John105 said:
From 30,000’, it would be fascinating to understand how V6’s became adopted so widespread. It’s a good thing if they start being removed in favor of inline 6’s and V8s. FWD is another phenomenon. I’m old enough to remember Audi pushing it saying it’s easier to pull than to push. Engines turned sideways also widely adopted. It would seem that physics would not be in favor of any of this stuff.

The above and where fake dual exhausts came from, as well as the Loch Ness monster, may simply go unsolved for generations to come
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Front wheel drive: more stable and better traction in snow vs RWD, more efficient than AWD, more passenger space for a particular size of car (no driveshaft hump)
Transverse engine: shorter hood means more passenger space for size of car, better packaging with crumple zone, no need for bevel gears to change direction of rotation
V6: acceptably smooth, small packaging (crumple zones, short hood) , short enough to allow transverse mounting
 
I'm pretty sure one of the writers on Married With Children once owned a Dodge.

Was Dodge always this crappy? Maybe even worse in the 70's / 80's?

Al Dodge.webp
 
goblin said:
C'mon now. That's just mean.
T'is a platform that is a gazillion years old. All the tooling, R&D, everything is paid off.

Every single one they sell going further is like squeezing more juice from a squeezed lemon - pure bonus.
And it's living in a market bracket that is getting emptier every day, by external pressures, not by clients' decision.

When the regulations change again - they'll just discontinue it. They would have sold several thousands in the meantime, and wouldn't have lost a penny invested in new machinery or R&D, if not for the little tidbits that they might still be able to grab from the Stellantis parts bin.

I think it's a smart decision, and that we are much better off with this thing existing, rather than not.

I'm much happier seeing this in the price list, rather than some newer 5000lb barge with a 2 liter turbocharged matchbox.
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Exactly... Give me cubic inches...
 
OVERKILL said:
Interestingly, the local police force must have decided on Durango for recent procurements as I see a LOT of them now, and didn't previously.
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In some cases, that tends to come down to availability.
I know of two agencies in a county close to me that both ordered new Explorers, only to be told by Ford after the fact that they could not honor the placed orders.
Both agencies ended up with Durangos.
 
brages said:
Front wheel drive: more stable and better traction in snow vs RWD, more efficient than AWD, more passenger space for a particular size of car (no driveshaft hump)
Transverse engine: shorter hood means more passenger space for size of car, better packaging with crumple zone, no need for bevel gears to change direction of rotation
V6: acceptably smooth, small packaging (crumple zones, short hood) , short enough to allow transverse mounting
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More stable? Since when?
All you listed, except stable, is correct, and all you listed means two things: compromise and cheapness.
 
Would be interested in the series of decisions that lead one to actually purchase a brand new Durango, or any Dodge for that matter.
 
Tdbo said:
In some cases, that tends to come down to availability.
I know of two agencies in a county close to me that both ordered new Explorers, only to be told by Ford after the fact that they could not honor the placed orders.
Both agencies ended up with Durangos.
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True. They have a somewhat diverse fleet, which seemed to happen once the Crown Vic's went away, they never really went back to a single platform again, which I assume was the case for a lot of agencies.
 
trd1zz said:
Would be interested in the series of decisions that lead one to actually purchase a brand new Durango, or any Dodge for that matter.
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Do you mean the Dodge nameplate specifically, or FCA/Stellantis in general? Because I've owned several of their products, as have many others on this board.
 
CKN said:
In my area I have never seen the cheapest version. It's almost always a higher end model.
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The cheapest version of some brands sits on the lot as it seem that most buyers want a higher trim.

I have a friend a few years ago purchased a base model of a very popular Toyota model when seemingly this model was scarce. It had sat on the dealer's lot for some time with buyers wanting the unavailable higher trims that had market uplifts at the time. The friend got the base model for MSRP with no market uplifts. Supply and demand and all that seems to still rule.
 
OVERKILL said:
Do you mean the Dodge nameplate specifically, or FCA/Stellantis in general? Because I've owned several of their products, as have many others on this board.
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Just Dodge. They only have 3 models now. And they all seem horrible. They should just kill the nameplate.
 
buster said:
Yeah it just seems their line other than RAM is pretty bad in 2025.

NJ is all Ford with LE.
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RAM has their own problems - sales have been down significantly. Trucks are overpriced, and no one wants the Hurricane inline 6. 2026 will be interesting to watch as they bring back the V8.
 
gfh77665 said:
Anything Stellantis ever does is met with skepticism. Every single thing, even extending warranties was scoffed at.
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Ah so SDS: Stellantis Derangement Syndrome

In all seriousness I think V8 options are cool. Who cares if the next administration kills it again -- it shouldn't be that difficult to switch to something more fuel efficient in production.

The problem is eliminating the option of a smaller engine now. Not all buyers will want a V8 in a Durango. Furthermore you should be able to charge MORE for the V8 if you have a "lesser" model available. A tiered system of good, better, best allows the consumer to at least perceive that spend more = get more (not saying such a perception would be correct or incorrect)
 
D60 said:
Ah so SDS: Stellantis Derangement Syndrome

In all seriousness I think V8 options are cool. Who cares if the next administration kills it again -- it shouldn't be that difficult to switch to something more fuel efficient in production.

The problem is eliminating the option of a smaller engine now. Not all buyers will want a V8 in a Durango. Furthermore you should be able to charge MORE for the V8 if you have a "lesser" model available. A tiered system of good, better, best allows the consumer to at least perceive that spend more = get more (not saying such a perception would be correct or incorrect)
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They seem to be on a mission to raise transaction price. Not sure the Durango can tote that note.
They should be offering the Pentastar in it as well to serve a wider array of customers and moderate the price.
Dodge is far from being the prestige marque they seem to think it is.
It is at best a dying blue collar brand with a performance niche.
 
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