2020 Dodge Durango GT

[parshisa]

I appreciate everyone with actual hands on experience chiming in. That's exactly what i was looking for - someone's feedback who owned it for at least 2-3yrs.

 

[Imp4]

Originally Posted by parshisa
I appreciate everyone with actual hands on experience chiming in. That's exactly what i was looking for - someone's feedback who owned it for at least 2-3yrs.

Thanks for the clarification.
Carry on...

 

[parshisa]

Originally Posted by Imp4
Originally Posted by parshisa
I appreciate everyone with actual hands on experience chiming in. That's exactly what i was looking for - someone's feedback who owned it for at least 2-3yrs.

Thanks for the clarification.
Carry on...

Don't get me wrong, any feedback is appreciated. Let me put it this was: i'm was looking for feedback on someone if now owning but closely dealing with the product (auto mechanic, shop owner etc).

 

[OVERKILL]

If you like the Durango, you'll probably also like its platform mate the GC, which is a touch shorter and lacks the 3rd row seating, depending on your intentions. I owned my 2016 for ~50,000Km and was considering getting an Audi E-Tron but ended up buying another SRT "built to order" this time around. In the 50K I owned it there were some things that you would't experience with a non-SRT, like it going through a set of brakes. Only real mechanical issue I had with it was a bad body ground.

There are some minor changes over the years on the vehicles, but at this point it is a very mature platform that is very well sorted. The powertrains are also well regarded, particularly the Pentastar after the early production head issue was fixed. The ZF 8HP transmission is a wonderful unit, the only critique I've heard is that FCA's programming isn't quite as precise/sporty as say BMW's.

Threads on my vehicles:

1. 2016 Durango Limited, which we owned for 2 years:
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4235283/all/2016_Durango_Limited

2. 2016 Grand Cherokee SRT, which I owned for 3 years:
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4256422/Jeep_Madness_-_2016_Grand_Cher
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4315070/Two_month_review_-_Jeep_Grand_
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru.../40-000km-update-2016-grand-cherokee-srt

3. 2020 Grand Cherokee SRT, which I currently own:
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru...86461/srt-part-3-2020-grand-cherokee-srt

 

[Srt20]

2014 Durango Limited 3.6L AWD Bought new, still own it with 85K miles on it. One set of tires and oil changes. Nothing else. Its been literally perfect so far.

Ive own a number of FCA trucks and SUV's and my biggest beef with them is wheel bearings in the trucks and rust around the box wheel wells. Otherwise they've been just as reliable as any other brand. I also currently own a 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL Rubicon 2.0T and a 2018 F150 Lariat 4x4 Ecoboost 3.5L.

Personally I tend to avoid GM product from past experiences.

 

[sloinker]

I work on all makes and models as a hobby and community servive. I make my living as an I&C technician, nothing to do with auto mechanics. That being said I have been a shade tree mechanic for over 40 years. I have a fully equipped shop including the software and cables to analyze many makes. My personal preference is for FCA and VW vehicles. They are not trouble free. Hondas/Toyotas/Nissans are not trouble free and I have worked on my share of them. Ford/GM/Subaru are not trouble free. etc etc..I haven't worked on a few makes yet. Mazda and Mini come to mind. I have a recurring number of people who bring their vehicles to me for repair. They provide the parts and most of the muscle and I provide guidance and tools. Free of charge. These people are co-workers and friends and family. I personally will never own another Ford. Are all Fords bad? Nope. I will say that Mitsubishi has a long claw if they want to become relevant in American markets again. If anyone remembers, Mitsubishi supplied many a drive train to vehicles under the formerly Mopar and currently FCA banner. Yep they were junk for the most part. I don't know the curriculum vitae of Imp4 but would be interested if it actually includes the repair of vehicles regardless of system or manufacturer. Does he have any personal working knowledge of the Pentastar engine?

For the OP: The Pentastar and Torqueflite 8 are tested and true this far along their manufacturing journey. IIRC they started in 2012. There have been teething pains. The supporting systems in the different models will have to be addressed by owners of those specific models. Looks like the poster with the '16 jeep has had a few issues.

 

[oldhp]

Daughter has a '16 AWD Drive Durango some fancy name thing. Bought it at least 2 years ago with 44K'ish miles, now over 109K miles. Headlight went out. I couldn't get to it fast enough........she paid $600 at the dealer.

Somewhere in here a set of front brake pads and a set of tires at 95K miles, I believe this set of tires was the 3rd set on it from being new.
Other than that, nothing else at all. Full leather, power everything. Everything works, rides smooth with plenty of power from the 3.6 Pentastar.
This is a Mom haul kids 5-6 days a week for sports PLUS she is a teacher who also uses it for her school stuff.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by parshisa
So, in Miami now for some days off with the family and got a subject car as a rental (shouldn've been VW JETTA but they didn't have any at the time i was picking the car up so works for me). Back to the topic, i'm actually quite impressed with the truck, plenty of power for 3.6, transmission shifts quite smooth and effortless, very nice minimalistic interior, comfy leather/alcantara seats etc. What i'm really curious about is a long term experience with these rigs. Can anyone share how's the reliability etc? How often do you guys visit dealer for any repairs etc? Just all that jazz about FCA products on this platform makes me wonder...

Noone I know ever kept a Durango very long. It's an FCA. They break. Often and a lot.

I bought ONE FCA product, a 2010 JGC. Everything you can imagine had issues. A friend of mine, she kept buying them for a while, the latest being a 2016?2017? Anyway, after its transmission left her stranded, she traded it back in. They just break a lot. Hers was a RAM1500. I believe they use same/similar drivetrains as the Durango RT.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by parshisa
So, in Miami now for some days off with the family and got a subject car as a rental (shouldn've been VW JETTA but they didn't have any at the time i was picking the car up so works for me). Back to the topic, i'm actually quite impressed with the truck, plenty of power for 3.6, transmission shifts quite smooth and effortless, very nice minimalistic interior, comfy leather/alcantara seats etc. What i'm really curious about is a long term experience with these rigs. Can anyone share how's the reliability etc? How often do you guys visit dealer for any repairs etc? Just all that jazz about FCA products on this platform makes me wonder...

Noone I know ever kept a Durango very long. It's an FCA. They break. Often and a lot.


It took you this long to show up? All we need now is the guy complaining about his 1965 Dart.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by parshisa
So, in Miami now for some days off with the family and got a subject car as a rental (shouldn've been VW JETTA but they didn't have any at the time i was picking the car up so works for me). Back to the topic, i'm actually quite impressed with the truck, plenty of power for 3.6, transmission shifts quite smooth and effortless, very nice minimalistic interior, comfy leather/alcantara seats etc. What i'm really curious about is a long term experience with these rigs. Can anyone share how's the reliability etc? How often do you guys visit dealer for any repairs etc? Just all that jazz about FCA products on this platform makes me wonder...

Noone I know ever kept a Durango very long. It's an FCA. They break. Often and a lot.


It took you this long to show up? All we need now is the guy complaining about his 1965 Dart.


I'm sure in 2-3 years without changing any of who makes what, and where, or anything, FCA has magically improved.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted by Ws6

I'm sure in 2-3 years without changing any of who makes what, and where, or anything, FCA has magically improved.

I can provide you a long list of Chrysler vehicles that have served my family well. We've owned at least two dozen, never been let down and never had any major powertrain failures going back to the early 1980's. The only major powertrain failures the entire family has experienced were in Japanese vehicles with 5 speed transmission failures in a Nissan and an Acura.

More relevant to this thread, my 2015 Grand Cherokee was solid. I owned it for 3 years and put 70k miles on it, the only issue in that time was a strut.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by Ws6

I'm sure in 2-3 years without changing any of who makes what, and where, or anything, FCA has magically improved.

I can provide you a long list of Chrysler vehicles that have served my family well. We've owned at least two dozen, never been let down and never had any major powertrain failures going back to the early 1980's. The only major powertrain failures the entire family has experienced were in Japanese vehicles with 5 speed transmission failures in a Nissan and an Acura.

More relevant to this thread, my 2015 Grand Cherokee was solid. I owned it for 3 years and put 70k miles on it, the only issue in that time was a strut.



I don't feel like 70K miles is very much. I tend to look at vehicle reliability at 1-300K miles.

Also, this thread and these answers are flawed because of small sample sizes. Both my, and your, experiences are simply anecdotal. I tend to look at Consumer Reports, as they are a much larger sample size. They are literally the same as this thread, but if it went for 1000+ pages. They don't paint a good picture of FCA. I remember I looked at it and disregarded it when I got my Jeep. Woe was me

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by Ws6

I'm sure in 2-3 years without changing any of who makes what, and where, or anything, FCA has magically improved.

I can provide you a long list of Chrysler vehicles that have served my family well. We've owned at least two dozen, never been let down and never had any major powertrain failures going back to the early 1980's. The only major powertrain failures the entire family has experienced were in Japanese vehicles with 5 speed transmission failures in a Nissan and an Acura.

More relevant to this thread, my 2015 Grand Cherokee was solid. I owned it for 3 years and put 70k miles on it, the only issue in that time was a strut.



I don't feel like 70K miles is very much. I tend to look at vehicle reliability at 1-300K miles.

Also, this thread and these answers are flawed because of small sample sizes. Both my, and your, experiences are simply anecdotal. I tend to look at Consumer Reports, as they are a much larger sample size. They are literally the same as this thread, but if it went for 1000+ pages. They don't paint a good picture of FCA. I remember I looked at it and disregarded it when I got my Jeep. Woe was me

Agreed 70k isn't much, but at this point in my life I have no interest in owning high mileage vehicles. The 2015 Jeep in discussion was reliable and held it's value VERY well. Years ago I picked up a number of used high mileage Chrysler vehicles that worked out as well, along with a new one that held up to high mileage. No complaints here.

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by Ws6


I'm sure in 2-3 years without changing any of who makes what, and where, or anything, FCA has magically improved.

To be fair, the only thing they carried over from the WK you had was the drivetrain, and even that save the 5.7 was changed in 2014. 2014+ v6 models have shown to be a bit less problematic than the 5.7's over on the Facebook pages and forums. 2016 models saw a few teething issues with the stop start system, but even those posts have died down to almost nonexistent.

But yeah... pre-Fiat Chrysler's were meh IMO. Mercedes certainly didn't help. Fiat really has helped them step up their act, as ironic as that sounds. I still wouldn't touch anything with their 2.4L 4 banger though.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Ws6


I'm sure in 2-3 years without changing any of who makes what, and where, or anything, FCA has magically improved.

To be fair, the only thing they carried over from the WK you had was the drivetrain, and even that save the 5.7 was changed in 2014. 2014+ v6 models have shown to be a bit less problematic than the 5.7's over on the Facebook pages and forums. 2016 models saw a few teething issues with the stop start system, but even those posts have died down to almost nonexistent.

But yeah... pre-Fiat Chrysler's were meh IMO. Mercedes certainly didn't help. Fiat really has helped them step up their act, as ironic as that sounds. I still wouldn't touch anything with their 2.4L 4 banger though.

I hope they also found new suppliers for all the other parts. Seals, bushings, etc. Whole thing fell apart.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by dishdude

Agreed 70k isn't much, but at this point in my life I have no interest in owning high mileage vehicles.

Which is fine and great, and I fully look forward to hitting that some day. But my "newest" vehicle is going onto 9 years old and has over 200k on it. Next newest has a measly 156k on it, and then my daily driver, if it was autonomous, could drive itself to the store and buy booze (does that mean it's now E85 compliant?).

Ergo, I'm one of those guys who gets dumped on in these discussions. Performance and cost at high miles matters greatly to me. [Performance as in reliability, not zero to sixty.]

Originally Posted by dishdude
It took you this long to show up? All we need now is the guy complaining about his 1965 Dart.

I'm waiting too, I know what you're talking about!

 

[Imp4]

Originally Posted by sloinker
I don't know the curriculum vitae of Imp4 but would be interested if it actually includes the repair of vehicles regardless of system or manufacturer. Does he have any personal working knowledge of the Pentastar engine?

Certainly not hands on with Pentastar engines, but that is hardly a disqualifier for commenting on FCA reliability.
Also, vehicle repair for me is of the shade tree variety only.

Is there any other personal information I can provide that will advance the discussion of FCA reliability???

If these threads are intended for owners only or professional mechanics only maybe that could be a selection as part of the initial posting. Then we could all register our cars and professions with the mods and it could lock out anyone who doesn't qualify. Maybe that would make the site better. /s

 

[Bighorn2500]

22,XXX miles on the wife's 2018 Durango GT and no real issues to speak of. V-6 is smooth and averages 20-21MPG for here combined city/highway. On trips we typically see 24 highway with full vehicle, kids, luggage, etc. doing 70+ MPH.

 

[Danno]

AoA has an update on their long term Durango. Interesting comments on reliability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZASYK9vqzJg

 

[Ws6]

FCA has an good v6 and v8. It's not the engines that seem to be the issue, but the vehicle in general.