I'm sure Alex(and everyone else who buys this and the Hellcat)will be more than happy to live with his bitter disappointment at his ever-draining bank account everytime he floors this mother.
"The right vehicle for you" really is how people should be car shopping. Take my mom for example. She owned a 2015 Fit that was practical, reliable and did what she needed it to do. After it was totaled by a drunk driver, she really wanted a Fiat 500 and being a former Fiat tech I helped her shop for a good used one. On an objective basis, there are WAY better cars out there, but she's owned her 2018 500 Turbo for a year and she constantly tells me how it's her favorite car she's ever owned (and she's owned a lot). For someone like her, the small size and quirky design is just what she was looking for. Japanese and South Korean cars are objectively better, but I can tell she is way happier with her Fiat than her dearly departed Fit. As long as the car that tickles your fancy doesn't have any serious problems or an excellent warranty, go for it.
You're right. My mom is planning on building her own new Maveirck, and I find it so weird how people hate on other vehicles, when no one is forcing them to buy it? My mom personally loves it because the EcoBoost is efficient, tows 4,000 pounds, and it's a really attractive price. She can reach into the bed without hurting her back, and getting in and out is easy. I've seen so many people bash it online, saying that it is bad because it is uni-body, front wheel drive, and a hybrid standard? To me, that sounds like a great little ute! Way to many people buy into a stereotype when car shopping, like they MUST get an $80,000 truck just to show they're valid, or a Toyota because every other brand is unreliable. I wish people would just understand there are different vehicles for different peoples, which is why we all are not driving a gently used Honda CR-V LOL.
@@evanlandry9503 but agree with you I am also tired of people insisting that there should be no expensive trucks on the market and that you should be forced to buy one for work purposes only. This is the United States of America if I want to buy a Ram 1500 to take my wife to dinner to take the dog to the dog park and to go grocery shopping and that’s what I’m going to do. And the spray lined bed will be immaculate without a spot on it. Ram 1500’s interior is nicer than most sedans at this point
@@Ryan2022 it is very nice. I didn’t get truck purchases till my buddy bought one. My opinion? They are like the giant body on frame sedans of old. People forget in this age of infotainment and panel gaps: personal space is a luxury all its own.
Half ton trucks make plenty of sense. Strong resale value, most are reasonably reliable, and they have plenty of seating room for a family where as most if not all mid size trucks are camper and uncomfortable inside.
@@reduxith What if they also need to tow, haul some stuff, get out to trail heads or whatever they go to? Or most importantly why not just get what makes you happy?
It's always interesting learning about what professional reviewers actually buy for themselves. Congratulations on the new purchase, not what I would have guessed after your last buy, the soul I think :)
We love our 2012 Durango AWD w/V6. It is super quiet on the freeway, gets 26 mpg cruising 74 mph, and tows our boat about 1200 miles every summer. AWD is decent, and ours has been trouble free so far! 120,000 miles and just keeps going. We'll get another one (or maybe the new Grand Cherokee) when the time comes! Very happy with it.
Always find these videos funny. People always chirp about the Durango (weight, chassis age, etc.) then they drive one and laugh. They're hilarious. And the AWD is actually really solid (quadra-trac II--which works great if you use more throttle than youd expect for a given terrain). The interior is comfortable, the brakes are amazing, and my last R/T was owned for 5 years and 100,000km with ZERO (yes, ZERO) issues. Just traded it in for yet another R/T, this one 2022 with the SRT bits and Tow and Go. Would have liked the 6.4L but I refuse to pay over MSRP.
Everyone is outraged that Alex bought a Durango since it is a Dodge and it gets ~14 MPG, but keep in mind he has electric and hydrogen cars and his house is off the grid. He’s free to buy what he wants, and he has good rationale for buying the Durango.
AWESOME!!! So glad you went with this. I feel like we are losing V8 options in this class and this is one of the best at what it does! The front end looks great and the interior changes look fantastic also.
Hope Alex keeps this forever so he can test the ultimate million dollar questions: 1. Will his Durango go 200-300K miles with simple cheap maintenance? 2. Will the cylinder deactivation system outlive Alex? 3. Can he prove to the world that automotive journalists know about cars better and are the go-to option rather than automotive mechanics who work on cars?
Really love the refreshed interior. I do hope that the Durango will have a new generation soon and that it won't be killed off for the Grand Cherokee L
Always loved the sporty look of the Durango and just can’t seem to get used to that frumpy look of the G.C. L. and don’t think I’m alone as there seems to be a lot of them but not much else at the Jeep Dealership
I owned a new Dodge many years ago. So many things went wrong with it, I'm surprised it didn't give me dysentery. Transmission went out. Unknown electrical problem meant I had to replace the battery every 2-3 months. Low power meant I needed spark plugs and wires replaced; only thing was they had to pull out the whole engine to do that costing me $$$. Door handle came off in my hand. In separate incident, door lock fell out. Sunroof cover was cheap two-piece (of crap) unit; it kept coming out of tracks. Air fan control knob froze in cold weather. I hope you have better luck with your Dodge.
Most the newer dodges are up to par or exceed with qc and reliability compared to their competitors. Early 2000s dodge wasn't the time to buy one even ill agree to that.
I’ve re ally enjoyed the passion and insight you’ve brought to the Durango over the years. This is one of my favorite of your videos. Keep up the great work! (Can’t wait for your Grand Wagoneer review with the same engine someday hopefully)
@@DUNGSTA I've seen many reviewers on RU-vid say this vehicle is an anachronism and lacks the refinement to effectively compete in this segment. I don't really have a dog in the fight, it's just what I've seen, I didn't make that comment up out of thin air.
Glad to hear Alex. It's great you don't let keyboard warriors dictate what you purchase. Far too often any American vehicle purchase attracts "but reliability" comments. People seem to be struck in the 80s for some reason.
What European car is reliable? American made cars are actually considerably more reliable than German cars. Japanese and some asian made vehicles have always been known to be the most reliable. Europeans love to hate for no reason.
@@SkinnySkinch While American cars are far less complex (on average) and cheaper to repair (on average), European cars (again, on average) are FAR more reliable. The big issue is the cost of failure, not the rate of failure, especially as the car gets older and older. For example, Volvos don’t fail often, but when they do, you can be sure it will be a costly and complex fix. To answer your question, Volvo, Audi and Mercedes always top reliability ratings around the world. Fiats, Renaults and Peugeots are just above average in most surveys as well.
@@afcgeo882 You say that like the US doesn't also have reliability ratings. Consumer Reports has some of the world's most comprehensive reliability surveys, and your characterization of these brands is far from what their results show. By their metrics Audi and BMW are below average (and below most American brands), and Mercedes is epically lousy, ahead of just the very worst brands like Fiat and Jaguar. No European brand scores anywhere near the top of the reliability rankings. These brands you praise so much have few of their problems in the first few years, so that newish cars look reasonably reliable, but after that the failures become increasingly common and major, until they fall far behind even American brands. There are very good reasons why Americans think the European luxury brands are trading on reputations they deserved fifty years ago, because their more recent products are not especially reliable, as well as complex and expensive to repair.
@@markmiller3279 Except CR is known to do the PREDICTED reliability ratings. Those ratings have proven to be absolute bullshit and CR has backtracked on many, many cars over the years. J.D. Power surveys are the only ones the industry in the US even bothers with. Look those up. Porsche right now is number two. BMW is number 11. Only Buick, Lincoln and Cadillac (unsurprisingly, only luxury brands do well) sit above those. Mercedes is ranked just below average, but Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, GMC, Ford, and Jeep are all below that. The issue with this list is that the US gets very limited European brands and models, often made purposefully worse and cheaper than ones anywhere else and often made in the US or Mexico instead of Europe. Volkswagen is a great example. They make direct injection engines for North America (in Mexico) for models that have switched to dual injection years ago. They also make completely separate models for North America like the Passat, Jetta, Taos and Atlas. They’re absolute garbage.
“ I would equate the Dodge Durango really in most forms to dining at Denny’s to sort of like dining at Denny’s - you know you won’t get dysentery there but there are probably tastier options available “ That had me rolling
Alex, You made us wait weeks between Durango reviews. We feared you had fallen out of love with the Durango - just kidding ;-) BTW your catchy tag line, "You Know You Won't Get Dysentery Dining At Denny's" is worth trademarking before some unscrupulous ad agency grabs it.
I would say for the power of the 392, the fuel economy is good. My mom's 2012 Toyota Highlander, with a 3.5 V6 and AWD, gets 16mpg is mixed driving. I would trade the 1mpg for the 200 extra HP.
Make sure she does normal maintenance on it, like changing the engine air filter and spark plugs. Could be the cause of the poor gas mileage. 16 MPG is really low for that car.
At low MPG, a difference of 1 mpg is quite big. That translates to about 66 more gallons of premium fuel per 10k miles. Depends on where you are it can cost upward to $200+ more in fuel per 10k miles.
I just purchased my SRT DD last night, and am extremely excited. For me, the purchase choice was between this, the Jeep SRT0 or originally, the Challenger or Charger. The price points are similar between the Hellcat Charger or Challenger vs the SUV SRT models, but I felt that I would want to park a Hellcat in the winter (I live in Canada) and find a winter-beater vehicle for nearly half the year. To me that just seemed like a lot of money for a car that I would drive for half the year, and as I'm honestly much more confident in the driving characteristics of an AWD SUV, and not at all familiar with that of a RWD Muscle car, the Durango/Jeep options eventually appealed to me over the cars. I appreciate the video, it was very concise and gives a lot of praise to what I believe to be a very underrated vehicle.
@@mikehawk120 I love this Durango. Get the fully loaded interior! I put 22"forged 2piece wheels and an airbag suspension on it and I am absolutely loving it.
@@srt_rissa9749 that sounds awesome! I’m looking at a us3d one, will prob get it today. It’s a 21 and my cat I’ll trade in is a 22. The Durango has everything except the sunroof and rear flat screens. Wife saw a pic and she doesn’t like the F8 color lol, but she will like driving it for sure. I really with the 6.2 was available as I’ll mist my cat, but the 6.4 is a great engine too. I’m originally from VT and I totally get what your saying about a winter beater, we now live in Kentucky, but maybe next year is Maine so I’m kinda thinking how you’re thinking tbh. Any suggestions on tuning the Harmon radio? When I test drove her, it sounded kinda weak compared to the cheaper alpine in my charger.
@@mikehawk120 I actually like the stereo for now, but I do plan on making some upgrades next year, intake, exhaust and stereo. I don't know what you're listening to but fpr my house and hip hop tastes, the stereo is good enough for the first year anyway. If you're getting a used one, maybe the stereo was abused and isn't as crisp as it was at new? I don't know.
@@srt_rissa9749 my music generally sits around old school hip hop, early 00`s trance and some rock. Depends on mood. It could just need to be played with, I didn’t look at any of the EQ settings to be fair. Was just a quick test drive
This is the first review I've watched in a while on this channel. I will say it has improved compared previous reviews which is why I quit watching this channel. Kudos. I will check out future reviews if they continue on this path.
I really liked your review of the 2021 Dodge Durango RT which is a super cool vehicle/SUV! I prefer the bench seating on the second and third row; although I could get used to the Captains Chairs on the second row; especially since they are heated! Well done! P.S. I am the Original Owner of my 1999 Dodge Durango SLT which has 223, 500 miles.
Exactly you nailed it. My 18 SRT durango fit my needs perfectly. Tow's my street/strip car with ease, hauls 6 and fun to drive. Win win win. Now I want to hellcat Durango.
I have a 2014 5.7 Limited and after 2 transfer cases I'm getting rid of it. All tires were the same and had the same pressure. I shouldn't be replacing transfer cases every 2 years and it only has 57K miles.
Agreed!!! Bear in mind most Durango's don't have this problem but it is what it is and you are right. You shouldn't be replacing Transfer cases that often.
As an older auto buyer have had Ford and chevy full sized vans 20 or more, 12 new Oldsmobiles, hardly Ford 150 pickup, chevy equinox, the 2019 and 2022 durangos beats them all in all respects! The hemi is fantastic, I also owned 3 challengers and the jailbreak is still in garage, no issues!
You'd have a hard time spending more than fifteen minutes in Gorda. It's just a gas station/store on a remote stretch of California Hwy. 1. It's one of just a couple of gas stations in a long stretch of higgway, and they know it.
Mom picked up her ordered Hellcat variant a few months ago and loves, Loves, LOVES that thing! Great review, she would agree with the visceral feeling you've shared.
Congratulations on the new vehicle! I’ve always said the same thing just because auto reviewers say one car is the best that doesn’t mean it works for you and your family. I chose the 2020 Ford Explore AWD. I’ve had it for over a year and I absolutely love it. 👍
The 3 row crossover segment is a large one that you can seek out specialization in the class. Fuel efficiency Maxie - Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Performance Maxie - Durangos with V8s or Explorer with TT V6s Interior Size - Chevy Traverse/Buick Enclave, Kia Telluride/Hyundai Palisade Car Seat Friendly - VW Atlas, Mazda CX-9. You get the picture.
Alex, why didn’t you mention the interior? The new interior isn’t worth buying on top of the towing and power? This is definitely competitive with any new entry. Materials, design, gauges, and especially infotainment are all competitive if not better.
Most people don’t realize how nice a Durango is until you give them a ride in a R/T or SRT. The models below look frumpy. When I was looking to buy mine, everyone said DON’T DO IT!!! Now that I have a 2018 R/T Octane Red w/Brass Monkey, the same people are in love with it!
@@DUNGSTA Eat out a few times less per month and the MPG’s will take care of themselves. Perhaps you are a starving college student I’ve been there it does get better and then you can afford to drive a nicer car than a Corolla
I'm glad you brought up the 'Tow N Go," package on the 5.7 RT! I absolutely love my 2021 RT, Tow N Go! It really is all SRT expect the engine - but I'm going to slap a Whipple 3.0 supercharger on her an it'll have more power than the 6.4. Great review!
@@lazie445 LOL! Damn it - what was I thinking?! Oh yeah, keeping about $30,000 in my pocket even after the Whip install. And actually you won't get more power in your 392 VS my 345 - the 6.4 can only take up to 8 psi whereas the 5.7 can take much more boost up to about 12 psi. Maybe wait to buy a used Hellcat here but I've already done too much to my Rango. Damn it again!
I remember that more than half of them 392 GC had electrical issues when equipped with the 6.4 engine for some reason. I really hope that the 392 Durango does not have any issue and congrats
I had a 2017 Durango GT that I loved but after replacing 3 electrical components in 4 weeks, I was afraid of what else would go wrong so I traded it in for a 2022 Genesis GV70.
@@Natethegreat200c Uh, a _very_ few Hyundai/Kia engines sometimes caught fire, but those are older engines. They're not even related to what the GV70 has in it.
@@markmiller3279 they’re not older. Call a Kia Hyundai dealer and ask how many NEW brand new cars they have on the lot for engine replacements. The fire recalls keep rolling in on newer cars as Kirk krifles on RU-vid has always pointed out. You’re misinformed big time.
Maintain their value, as the car falls apart around the motor.. mopar is junk.. I've owned several different vehicles. I'll never buy mopar stuff ever again.
@@mmmzzz8 Scanning Cosumer Reports reliability since the last (2011) full redesign, it's more what isn't unreliable. In cabin electronics seems a particularly problem, even on the newest models. As they are, engine problems, including serious ones, became a big problem, with transmissions, suspensions, brakes also troublesome. The actual bodies seem OK, and the exhaust systems are well above average, but those are among the few bright spots.
I’ve had one since 2017. I can get 20mpg on the round trip to truckee and back to SJ. Also this car holds my personal record for the run to Truckee. Biggest complaint is the exhaust on longer hauls. The noise cancellation when in tow/haul helps a little.
Not many muscle trucks like that one. May as well buy one before Stellantis shuts down dodge. Too bad they never put any substantial effort into improving the quality of Chrysler products.
Love my Durango for towing as well, but wish the aftermarket made slip on moulded mirrors. Considering the fact that there are zillions of these and Jeep Grand Cherokees on the road, it’s really a missed opportunity!
I love your in depth reviews.. Hemi in Canada is a good 10000.more than a well equipped GT. Opted for the v6 V6 GT with the destroyer grey best looking suv love it.. does everything I need and for the family and doing it all with respectively decent mpgs 👍
I’ve still got my 2012 SXT with the 3.6, the first year of this generation and it’s been the best vehicle I’ve ever had but I drive like an old man. I drive at speed but I hit the gas and breaks gently and my cars almost never give me trouble except for the 2002 Accord that I got rid of because it did but that was a proven bad year.
Nothing beats Lexus reliability, but Dodge is really good nowadays. Like Lexus, the Dodge V8s have long production history (ie they're old) which means there's been a lot of time to work out the bugs. I put 150,000 miles on a 6.1L Hemi. I currently have a 5.7L Hemi. Not one single problem!
@@user-cx2bk6pm2f interesting. From what I’ve heard, there are still problems with the Hemi engines even though it’s an old design. I think the problem was lifter tick
@@garrettw99I think that's true but more or less isolated to engines that have been idled for long periods like police, taxi, or fleet. There is also a population segment who think they know better than Dodge and use non approved grades of oil. Modern tight tolerance engines, especially with cylinder deactivation, need the proper oil and regularly changed. If you get a used one, look for maintenance history and avoid fleet Hemis.
i love your reviews. They are the best on the net in my opinion. I really love the Durango. I like the looks, the room, and it’s towing capacity is awesome. Two things though: first, when talking about towing capacity can you include payload? Second… the Durango is off my list. I need a tow vehicle to replace my commander. I need the extra seating. But the small offset crash rating is a disaster. And I’m shocked Chrysler hasn’t done a thing about it.
Those comments usually come from people that drive 2003 Toyota Corolla. Alex has had many FCA vehicles, this being his 2nd Durango. And he uses it in work situations far greater than most owners ever will with no issues.
@@damilolaakanni yea you would think it wouldn’t discontinue since crossovers are the new wave and every car manufacturer is making crossovers in all different sizes. This Durango is a very popular model and you see them everywhere all the time
Humans didn't evolve until the Cenozoic era. It's chronologically impossible for any vehicle to have been developed in the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs roamed the earth. And no, the Flintstones don't count.
