Alright, I live and work over seas in the middle east. I'm a potential buyer. Originally looked at the Tahoe and Sequoia for towing purposes and size requirements (require the SUV for a daily driver and the ocassional road trip which will require loading and unloading+towing).

By chance I swung in at the Dodge dealership here and loved how the Durango looked, felt, and drove.

I was just wondering if you DD owners have any specific complaints. Reliability is a bigggggggggggggggg thing for me. I am already aware of it's towing capabilities but with any SUV that will tow, you need to make sure it's reliable to take it. I'm not going to tow every weekend. I'd say maybe once or twice a month. Though the dog, g/f and friends would enjoy the size of the SUV as well.

I'm quite an active chap. I work 9-5, 5 days a week (sometimes 6) in an office, then after that I am always looking for an adventure. I'm not going to say I'm interested in hardcore offroading or else I would have looked at the Cherokee or the 4 door wrangler. Though a rough ride every now and then will be required (ie: desert driving, some rocks here and there - though nothing too big, I'd say pavement step size).

Anyways, are there any issues with the durango considerig reliability? Also, I forgot to check out the sound system at the dealer. I understand from an earlier post that it isn't so great, but is it really THAT BAD?

Any other information that you'd like to share would be very helpful.

I'm still pondering what colour I should get if I decide to go on with the Durango. Probably white, black or navy blue. Not so sure yet thouh.

 

Sound system is just fine for me! Especially for a stock system I think it does everything I need and more. I'm really into music so a poor performing sound system would turn me off quite fast. Sound quality is great IMO so complaints here. Just like everything else, it can be customized to one's taste, just matters how much $$$ you want to spend.

Can't speak to the rest since I have not towed or taken off road to date. Seems reliable and I love the 2011 D R/T. Only 3K on it so far tho, no problems yet..... Stock set up is worth the money....

 

I still see a lot of older generation Durango on the road so as far as reliability that Hemi is a great power plant!

 

I've been very impressed by the D so far. I have not read the post about the sound system yet, so I don't know the complaint. However, I have been very impressed with the 430N.

Reliability, I expect, should be great. The Hemi & this transmission have been used for years now in the trucks. I put 126,000 miles on a similar setup in my truck, that I drove before this D. No issues.

 

I tow a 26', 5000lb RV trailer with mine and I hardly know it's back there with my 2011 R/T .

I have about 4000 tow miles on it with the trailer and am quite happy with it.

MPG highway while towing is about 11 mpg
MPG Hwy/Street 50/50 is about 18 mpg

My only issue is a problem with the passenger side door lock sometimes not locking (posted in another thread). But this is probably a one off thing as I don't see anyone else reporting it.

The sound system sounds great to me, although I haven't tried bluetooth streaming.

 

Wow you guys have been super helpful!! Sorry for they delay, I wasn't expecting such great detailed answers on such short notice! Thanks guys, hopefully end of this month/beginning of next, i will be a proud owner of a hemi citadel!! Any recommendations on colour? I live in Kuwait so it's pretty hot here (summers go 50+C). I love black but I feel the heat may take its toll.

 

LOL...I was going to say don't get black but looks like its your favorite color!! btw are you a Brit?

 

Can't speak for other owners here, but we owned the original 1st generation Durango (2000) for 10+ years and were quite satisfied with it's performance. (Although we always wished the interior and detail were better.)

The Durango, for us, has been a workhorse and very dependable.

We also towed our boat - about 5,500 lbs., w/trailer, once or twice a month during the summers here in New England and never had a problem. We followed the regular maintenance schedule as suggested in the manual and made sure to follow towing instructions/guidelines as well. (Don't run the air-conditioning while towing, etc. I have been told that's not the case with the newer models.)

We've been so pleased with our original Durango, we just purchased a new 2011 Citadel. (White gold color black interior. Awesome color.) As happy as we were with our original purchase, we are even more so with our recent one. So far, the new Durango Citadel has exceeded all expectations.

It's almost as if the folks at Dodge said, "What would you change about your current Durango, or add to it, if you were to improve upon it?", then went ahead and did exactly that. We've found that the attention to detail for an SUV of this price range far exceeds anything else we saw in it's class. It handles extremely well and gives a luxury-car type ride.

By and large it is the best vehicle we've owned to date. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Hope this helps.....

P.S. (I installed an Invisible Mask paint protectant film on the front hood, bumper, headlamps and front side-panels, I would highly recommend this product as well to protect your investment from dings on the body from flying debris and pitting on your lights.)

 

Thanks a lot guys!

@Fleet
Yeah I had a first(EDIT: first=friend) who owned a 1st gen durango and a chap at work owns a 2nd gen durango, they both told me that the reliability is absolutely stunning and both are currently still driving their durangos. My colleague at work says he wants to switch in his 2nd gen for the 3rd. My friend who's had his 1st gen still has it and says he'd never trade it in for the world. About the protective mask, I agree, I'll definitely have to invest in that. A lot of trucks and 18wheelers here on highways tend to release small rocks and debris and it tends to scratch the car. I'm currently trying to sell my 99-2000 nissan pathfinder, which also has served me soooo well. However, it's time for a change. I love my pathy, but I need more power for towing and was looking into a larger SUV. The Durango seems perfect so far! I'm convinced on getting it.

@sidewinder
Haha actually I'm a Canadian (originally half Palestinian half Lebanese). I was born in Kuwait and during the Gulf war, my family and I left everything behind and went to Montreal. After 2-3 years there (I don't recall I was still very young) we moved to Toronto. We've been there for so many years, we became Canadians, moved up the corporate ladder there. I studied there at York University and came back here to Kuwait. I currently work here as a business consultant, specifically business analysis. I'm not super rich as people tend to get that idea of us Arabs. General conception is that we're either "dirty terrorists" or "super rich oil sheikhs". Neither is true for the majority. I mean salary vs. standard of living here is quite cheap compared to outside so you are quite well off. With exchange rates and no taxes here we tend to be able to have much more disposable income. (I speak on Kuwait's behalf). My other ride is a used 1999 Porsche Carrera (996) Cabriolet. Red colour, beautiful beat. If you guys would like to see some pics I could slap em up for ya. I understand if I lived in Canada I would never afford this car, even if used haha. I mean it's funny my Salary isn't even that high. But I don't pay taxes and I don't really have any costs so my current situation allows me to fuel my petrolhead tendencies. Though maintenance and service for it is quite costly (I'm a dealer kinda guy, don't like going to garages here unless its the dealer cause the quality of non-dealer garages here are not so great).

Hah, I hope this gave some insight. Although I'm a Canadian on paper, I'm a proud Arab. No I'm not Anti-Semetic. I don't hate ****, I don't hate Israelis. I hate what's happening today since it's purely a game of politics and power. Majority of Palestinians around the world will tell you they dislike ISRAEL and not **** (note: not Israelis, but Israel). Only because we want to have a country as well and rights in our country. I know a lot of Israelis who would not mind living peacefully side by side with Palestinians. However, both sides also differ against each other. It's a shame that the people who generally don't want to live peacefully side by side are the ones in power. Sure I don't like what's happening to my people and the fact that Palestine doesn't exist on paper but I'm still proud of my roots. Something that tends to go either way when I tell people that.

 

Weird, when I wrote J-e-w-s, it censored it with ****. I didn't mean anything negative by it. I wonder why that happened?