I am looking for a good 4x4 Winter vehicle/ daily driver. I have a summer car and live in Michigan so I'm looking into this Durango to get me though the snowy winter months. I am considering a 2000 Durango 4x4 with the 5.9L, sitting right now it looks to be in good mechanical shape with lots of new parts and 230,000 miles for $1600. Is this a truck that has life left or is it ready to go. I know the Magnum 5.9 is a great reliable engine, just wondering about the rest of the mechanics. Worth considering or continue looking for a different Durango?

 

Depends on how much they want for it. Also, the 5.9 is not a Hemi. That's the magnum motor.

Unless it was EXTREMELY well taken care of, I would pass on it. 230K is getting toward the end of life for most the expensive parts of the driveline.

 

Bought mine at 215,000, now have 265,000. Paid $1800. Do I like the truck? Yes, it's the second one in the family. Had a 99 when I was a kid and bought a 98 4 years ago because I've always liked them. Was it worth $1800? Absolutely not. I don't tend to believe these are designed to last much longer than 200,000 miles. I have a list a mile long of things to fix on mine.

 

How much life is left in it is really going to come down to how it was taken care of. In my immediate family we have multiple vehicles with over 400k miles on them on original drivetrains.

 

It may be better maintained than mine. I just haven't had good luck with mine. I'm not getting rid of it, but it needs work. It just seems to me that since the 90s dodge/chrysler has been pretty cheaply building vehicles. I think there are plenty that will hit 400k and keep going on original drivetrain. Just don't know about these.

 

Personally, if you get a good feel from the truck while driving it, and a good thorough inspection of it doesn't reveal any major issues, I'd say go for it. Although, and this goes for any car with a good amount of miles on it, expect that you will need to replace things. Things like suspension parts, U-joints, wheel bearings etc. will wear out from the mileage regardless of maintenance, rubber and plastic parts can degrade simply by existing for so many years, even if not used at all, gaskets and seals will leak. These trucks are just reaching that age. Just be expecting to fix some things if you buy one, they're all getting up there in miles AND years. I love mine, yes its had some costly repairs lately, and most people would probably have walked away from it when the transmission went out 24,000 miles ago, and definitely would have when the engine went, but when I bought the truck I planned on keeping it until or unless the body is totally destroyed in an accident. Might seem strange for it to be such a common vehicle, but I've wanted a Durango exactly like the one I've got now, color and all, since they were new. I'm lucky enough to be able to drive one of my "dream cars" every day.

I'd imagine even a well maintained engine would be starting to show a bit of wear after so many miles. Right up until it dropped a valve seat at 203,000 miles, my 4.7 was running great, made no sounds, it ran very clean and still had a slight vacuum under the oil cap during idle (PCV valve causes this), really worn out engines can have pressure in there from too much blow by, but used oil between changes. One of the things I noticed the most with the new engine is that it has more power, not a huge amount, but enough to notice.