After a one year hiatus, Dodge has
brought back the Durango for 2011 without a moment to spare.
The all-new Dodge Durango has a lot riding on its shoulders.
It's the first all-new model to emerge from Dodge after
Chrysler's restructuring and it enters a field that just
got extremely more competitive. It'll have to go up
against its own cousin, the new
Jeep Grand Cherokee, and one of its chief rivals, the
Ford Explorer. The Explorer was once the sales leader not
just in SUVs, but among all automobiles (aside from
trucks). It too has undergone a
major redesign that'll be ready for the 2011 model year
and Ford has pulled out all the stops to bring the
Explorer back to its sales glory that it once reveled in.
Both the Durango and Explorer have converted to unibody
structures which will please the average owner with
better fuel economy and on-road manners but may disappoint hardcore
off-roaders. The Durango certainly looks like it can
play the latter part though.
The last Durango looked like it was designed as a
Playskool truck marketed at a toddler. This new
one though, looks like it's designed as a Tonka truck
for adults. Restrained and understated are not in
Dodge's vocabulary. When it comes to their trucks
and SUVs, boldness has no bounds and intimidation is a
primary objective. The in-your-face grille and huge
crossbars can scare any driver out of your way just as
the Dodge Ram does. There'll be no question about
whether this is a guy or girl's truck (but I'm sure a few
will find their way into the hands of hockey moms).
The Durango looks the least refined compared to the
recent redesigns of its competitors but it has brute
strength still going for it. Every design cues looks
like it was designed to be as large as possible. The
headlights, wheels, fenders, and even side mirrors are
massive. Everything also looks like it is outlined in
chrome as if the painters needed guidelines like in a
coloring book. The only restraint on the Durango can be
seen in the rear where it shares similar styling with
the Jeep Grand Cherokee but of course, everything is
larger. The chrome placard looks like Jeep was crossed
out and Dodge was written in and the taillights have a
similar design even
though they appear fifty percent larger. It seems Dodge
was intent on scaring off the grocery-getting moms and
aiming straight for the tree-chopping men.
The new Ford Explorer maintains a more neutral design.
It focuses more on the details than the overall package.
Take the lights for example. Ford could've just stuck on
regular-shaped head and taillights but they decided to
contour and sculpt them into more eye-catching designs.
The grille is large but not vulgar like the Durango's
and gets intricate cheese grater vents in the upper and
lower bars. Ford has focused on aerodynamics as well, something untypical of traditional
SUVs. The lower air dam for instance, flexes at speed
that helps bring the drag coefficient to a best in class
0.35. The mixture of contoured body panels also give the
Explorer a fairly sporty look to
it now. Maybe not as fast-looking as a Nissan Murano but
more so than the Durango.
While the Explorer looks sportier, the Durango should
easily be able to keep up. Performance numbers aren't out yet but
considering Dodge has thrown in their monstrous
5.7-liter Hemi engine, it should closely match the Explorer in
acceleration.
The Durango weighs considerably more but has a 100
more horsepower than the 3.5-liter V6 running in the
Explorer. Oddly enough, rather than fitting the Explorer
with a V8 Ford has made an inline-four engine the
optional upgrade which means you'll sacrifice speed for
fuel economy. It actually makes sense in this economy
but then again, SUV buyers never had common sense in the
first place. If they did, they'd probably be buying
minivans, hatchbacks, or wagons unless their life
involved a lot of off-roading or snow. So we'll have to
see how buyers respond to Ford's gamble of choosing
frugality over power.
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