No more V6 Durango
- Thread starter SEBZX79
- Start date
The only late model Durango I've seen lately was a Hemi. I was behind it at the light and could tell it was a Hemi because of the tick.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
It doesn’t have anything to do with politics.
CAFE standards are still same.
It was their bungled strategy that got them into this mess. Obviously that old/new guy is having different approach and IMO, it is far better than what they were doing so far.
Also, that old Mercedes platform to me is better than this new one.
I don't know if its dying or not, but I SALUTE it wanting to be a "blue collar brand with a performance niche"!
More stable in snow -- a RWD will tend to fishtail in snow and a FWD will tend to plow straight ahead.
When I read posts like this, I wonder what the acceptable vehicle for them to drive would be.
On top of that, if you don't know what they were doing, its easy to say they were standing around.
Full disclosure: I manage multiple teams that inspect road infrastructure and manage contracts for design and maintenance of said infrastructure. There are a huge variety of reasons a team may meet on site to review something - and not all of our stuff can be seen sitting a desk and has to be done where ever it may be. And one of our first tasks when a team meets is to do a safety brief / talk about the work we are about to complete. Working in moving traffic has risks.
The district I work in can have me travel 1 1/2 hours one direction and nearly as far in the other. That's what happens with over 4000 lane miles to maintain.
Our normal vehicle is an F150/F250 or equivalent GM product. I have access to a variety of Minivans and SUV's when I need to move a larger group - which the Durango can do. Its also readily available for order and is generally lower priced on our fleet contract than some other options. All we see are the V6's.
I had a great experience renting a Durango in Florida, so when I got home, I visited the dealership and sat in one on the lot. To my surprise, it wasn’t as comfortable as I expected. I believe it was a fully loaded Hellcat version, but the leather seats were firm and not very comfortable. I then stepped over to a Charger on the showroom floor, and it was a whole different story. It was very comfortable, with noticeably more cabin space compared to the SS. By that time, though, I was already waiting for the SS I had special-ordered to arrive.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
The EV Charger is, well, not selling. It's a nice enough car, but there are some considerable practicality limitations not present in other EV's due to the body style they chose. We've owned a Durango, they are still on the WK2 platform (same platform as my SRT Grand Cherokee) and it was a good vehicle, we had no problems with it. It's a very mature (dated) platform, but it held its own and Mercedes is still using a variation of it to this day, so Stellantis isn't the only one milking it.
Dodge is in better shape (as a nameplate) than Chrysler, which literally has one vehicle: Pacifica.
But, it's a redneck youth-oriented brand and trying to sell $100K EV's to people that have been buying 392's and Hellcats was going to be a challenge (it wasn't a bright idea, even if the vehicle is in fact decent).
The Hornet, well, it's a Fiat. It's actually a pretty decent little vehicle, but should it be sold as a Dodge model? Based on the sales, I'm going to say probably not. The Charger/Challenger gas models, along with the Durango sell/sold well enough. I think the brand is struggling with finding additional models that have the same appeal, to the same audience, as those.
I considered buying a 392 Durango at one point. It got the updated UConnect that the WK2 Jeeps didn't get (because Jeep moved to the WL platform). However, the Jeeps get a more luxurious interior trimming, so it would have been a downgrade for me. No leather door panels or centre console, a reduction in luxury, so I took a pass on that one.
Crappy? That was the same car Al drove in high school when he scored FOUR touchdowns in ONE game at Polk High.
My RWD 300 did better in the snow than my FWD minivan. Both on 3PMSF rated tires. But yeah, any nose heavy RWD vehicle (like my truck) will do worse.
Just like every other brands techs all do
Dont forget, its the only car mentioned in this thread that will hit 1,000,000 miles.
Somewhat true, but subjectively, it's definitely worse there than at other brands.Just like every other brands techs all do
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
No it won't.
Both will spin with bad tires. No RWD will fishtail unless pushed or bad tires. There are many BAD FWD vehicles, especially appliance ones that have excessive torque steer. Our Honda FWD is absolute junk in the snow.
I drive a Sequoia in RWD in the city through most of the snow we have, on snow tires. No issues. It is, though, nose-heavy, and I turn 4WD sometimes, but no one died from not going forward fast enough.
BMW RWD? I will take that over Honda Pilot FWD in snow any day, all day.
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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Al should have gotten the neeeeew Alante. Maybe Kelly could have gotten him a discount.
You're simply incorrect
Daimler-Chrysler did that with the Jeep 4.0l engines. That's why so many later ones have hurrendous piston slap and shatter pistons
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
Yeah, what would I know.
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Why automatically slap "worn out" along with the rest ? Nothing wrong with taking platforms and cobbling extended time out on them anyway they can. Doesn't automatically mean they are worn out. My understanding is that most mainstream personal firearms nowadays are base on platforms and schematics more than a century old.
That too would be an assumption. I don't think any of the large displacement things they have put on the market in the last ten years were a sign of lack of resources. They simply do what works for them. More power to them. They might not have a scheduled full refresh from scratch every five years, but that's not a minus in my book.
And I give them huge respect for filling niche markets for products that are sorely needed, even if it makes them look low grade.
The Journey, as ridiculous as it might have been, filled a need.
Much more so - back when the Grand Caravan still existed, it was an amazing offering. It was a Chrysler watchamacallit, Town&Country or whatever, for 35% less. Was about $22k when the Chrysler was starting north of $33k (and was already less expensive than everything else). The Grand Caravan was the same thing, with less bells and whistles, but with all the essentials: the needed number of seats, the same power, and a working AC. Same vehicle, without the Stow'n Go option. It kept selling years even after the Pacifica came out. And it was the only choice for fleet vehicles, and for families who had plenty of children and not plenty of money, and who needed a simple kid hauler that worked. It generated foot traffic at the dealership, it didn't compete internally with any other product, it was pure bonus. Most of its buyers needed it to have an engine, for this engine to work, and for the thing to bring them from point A to point B, in numbers. Which it did.
It's a perfect example of listening to the client. They might be crap, but they do listen. They don't pull the rug from under your feet, shoving a new one that is worse while screaming that it's their way or the highway. That Carlos ceo of theirs tried, big good it did him.
How about dropping in the Hurricane engine? Seems like a good idea to me.