2011 Dodge Durango: The SUV is Back

It’s no surprise that the Chrysler Group’s recent sales success is being helped immensely by a certain retro-themed product without much in the way of direct competition—but who would have expected that product to be the 2011 Dodge Durango?

Yet as most of the automakers are zigging toward high-efficiency new-generation products that are pushing the EPA envelope ever further, Dodge has zagged back in time to the era when “real” SUVs ruled the road and real men drove them. That’s the current positioning being established for the Durango as seen in its new “The SUV is Back” marketing campaign, in which it takes on the Ford Explorer— exactly the sort of high-efficiency new-generation product the Durango isn’t. Which allows the battle between the two vehicles to represent another interesting referendum on U.S. customer preferences—and the two automakers’ current product strategies.

Heart to Heart

The 2011 Ford Explorer and Dodge Durango showcase two very different approaches to filling the roughly 200-inch space that used to be occupied by full-size body-on-frame SUVs, and a key to this is their respective powertrains. Both deliver robust V6 engines as their starting point, with both delivering very similar power numbers. Ford’s popular 3.5-liter unit makes 290 hp and 255 lb.-ft. of torque, while Dodge’s much-hyped 3.6-liter Pentastar goes 290/260.

But putting the two vehicles’ market positioning in sharp focus right off the bat, the Durango is configured to offer a tow rating of 6,200 lbs., while the Explorer is “only” rated for 5,000 lbs. The result is a 24 percent advantage for the Dodge in a key measure of SUV/crossover capability, and without much in the way of a penalty for fuel economy: The EPA rates the V6 Explorer at 17 mpg city/25 mpg highway/20 mpg combined and the V6 Durango at 16/23/19—an 8 percent difference in highway mileage. And this is with the former using a six-speed automatic and the latter hampered by being a cog down to its rival.

That’s a strong achievement for Dodge, and at the same time highlights how, up until recently, Ford’s ability to tout vehicles like the Explorer as the most fuel-efficient in their class is based on relatively incremental differences.

Things really start to change when you look at the two vehicles’ optional powerplants, however. Dodge naturally offers a HEMI, in this case the proven 5.7-liter version capable of making 360 horses and 390 torques, upping the Durango’s tow rating to 7,400 lbs. (with rear-wheel drive) and no doubt slicing some time off its 0-60 runs. The Blue Oval’s bonus engine relies on half as many cylinders to produce power numbers of 237/250, but with a pretty drastic reduction in towing capacity: The EcoBoosted Explorer can only pull 2,000 lbs.

The flipside of this comes through at the gas pumps, where the most efficient Explorer gets 20 mpg city/28 mpg highway (its combined number is not yet available) and the HEMI-powered Durango gets 14/20.

Now, on a percentage basis, the Durango’s superiority in towing is much greater than the Explorer’s advantage in fuel economy, but that’s set off by the fact that the Ford earns its advantage every time its driven, while for most people, towing 7,000 lbs. isn’t an everyday occurrence.

The SUV Never Left

Let’s also remember that the whole idea of pitting the Durango against the Explorer in this way is more than a bit disingenuous on Dodge’s part, since it ignores the inconvenient reality that GM still happens to offer its own family of actual body-on-frame SUVs. The similarly sized Chevrolet Tahoe can be configured to hold two more people than the Durango, tow an extra 1,100 lbs. and still offer better fuel efficiency, with an EPA line of 15/21. And while their overall results are going in opposite directions—at least for now—the Tahoe even outsold the Durango last month, as Chevy reported 5,741 July delivers for the former and Dodge rang up 5,064 for the latter.

The Explorer? Well, the Blue Oval’s entry here scored 9,897 customers last month and continues to run more than 100 percent ahead of its previous year’s pace both in and through July.

The Voters Have Spoken

It’s still early in the Durango’s life cycle, but I’m thinking Dodge may have gone a bit too far with its “The SUV is Back” business, because the numbers show that, along with the capability of a “real” SUV, the Durango seems to be bringing back the sales numbers of a “real” SUV, too.