What's Wrong With This Picture: Yeah, It's Got A Hemi Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Jeep’s Grand Cherokee has earned consistently positive reviews by maintaining its off-road capability and nailing one of the few untouched crossover market positions between mass-market minivan replacements and high-end luxury SUVs. Does that mean the Dodge version, which will bear the Durango nameplate, will be similarly received? Not necessarily. Expected to be less off-road capable than its Jeep cousin, the Durango will compete head-to-head with the new Ford Explorer, GM’s Lambda juggernaut, and a pack of established mid-large CUV competitors. The Durango will also be the toughest trial yet for the tortured relationship between Dodge and the ostensibly spun-off Ram brand, as the Durango has traditionally resembled the Ram off which it used to be based (need proof? Dodge is calling the Durango a “three-row performance SUV”). On the positive side of the Durango’s balance sheet: an optional Hemi engine. Sure, the Grand Cherokee offers that too, but the Jeep brand doesn’t get to call it a Hemi. Now that’s what you call differentiation!


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Mjz Mjz on Aug 16, 2010

    Ay least the JGC and the Durango will have more differtiation than Traverse/Acadia/Enclave.

    • GarbageMotorsCo. GarbageMotorsCo. on Aug 16, 2010

      That's not hard to do. The Outlook rebadge was gone and made way for the Traverse. All 4 followed the same mission, same engine, same transmission, same seating for 7, same ride height, overlapping price structures. Same problems with snapped camshafts, bad trannies, water leaks and goofy electrical gremlins like rear hatches that would open on their own or interior electrical systems farting out. I know way too many folks who have had all of these (and more) problems and it is not left to the "lesser" Chevys and Saturns but more Buick Enclaves than anything. And once these things get up in miles and start having belt stretching problems like my CTS had (same HFV6) it's going to get real ugly. Now we wait for the Caddy version to appear next and voila, GM the rebadging "circle of Lambdas" is completed ;/

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Aug 16, 2010

    There are four four-letter words keeping Chrysler alive today: 1. Jeep 2. Hemi 3. Vans 4. Fiat Maybe this new Durango entry will help a bit.

    • See 5 previous
    • Th009 Th009 on Aug 17, 2010

      @M1, the Sprinters are great vans -- but they are doing nothing to keep Chrysler alive. The OEM contract between Daimler and Chrysler has been terminated, and the Dodge dealers can no longer sell them. Instead, it's the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter now, like it always has been in Europe. Sometime in the future, Dodge is supposed to be getting new commercial vans from Fiat and/or Iveco.

  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
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