What a manly man thing to say. Ridiculous. I would guess that more than half the D's sold will be the V6 version and I think that it is hardly a POS.

 

LOL. Especially considering the pentastar V6 has more power than most V8s did just 10 years ago. The 4.8l V8 in the 05 D only had 230HP. Heck, this V6 has more power than my 96 Z28 had!

 

And a short sighted opinion at that since auto engine technology is very quickly obviating the V8 for all but the largest industrial applications.

Much as I loved them as a kid (especially the gutteral sound), I'm guessing this may be the last V8 I ever own.

 

Wait a second here. Since when does Dodge make a diesel V8?

 

Oops, my mistake. But you get my point ;-)

 

Ha, yeah. It's a "know what I mean, not what I say" kind of thing. Just flipping you some sh*t.

 

I have a v6 tow package. I have 4 trailers I pull. 16 ft jon, 5x10 utility, 2 place inclosed snowmobile and a featherlight horse trailer. All aluminum. I can say the 3:09 gearing makes it sluggish until you kick it down. The gears are spread too far apart and slow to shift with the 3.09. My 205hp V6 Explorer with 3:73 gears felt more capable and at ease towing. I say 'felt', because the v6 D has lots of ambition and I know it outperforms my Explorer. Just seems you have to keep into it or keep it shift down for it to respond to any load. When towing think of it as a 3-4 speed. It will rarely see 5th towing. Now with that said it did pull our 3500# featherlight horse trailer up the highway at 70mph NP. (even medium grades). Just spent a lot of time in 3rd @ 3500 rpm to maintain 70mph. It would go into 4th if I eased up and let it shift up. It would do what I asked it to do and the tranny temp never wavered from 165deg. I wouldn't push my Explorer over 65..And always concerned about tranny temp. I get 11-15mph towing. For the occasional towing I do it's a trade off for 21-22mpg daily driving. To put the D's 3rd gear ratio into perspective. 3rd gear in the v6 D is the same as 4th in my daughters Mazda 6 with 5 speed. If they offered a lower gear ratio option, the v6 D would have serious towing potential. Would it pull your popup? Sure it would. Would you be happy on hills? Depends on if daily 22mpg is important to you.

 

I would never make the mistake of buying an SUV with 3.09 gearing. My 01 D with a V8 has 3.55 and i'm still not satisfied. That's how they get those high MPG numbers on the stickers. I don't know much about the new Durangos but I seem to read that a lot of the V6 owners are disappointed by it's sluggishness. It has 300HP, it should at least feel like it.

 

Yup, the Fords with the little 3.5L V6 EcoBoost are really a POS so we will forget the fact that they produce more hp and more torque than the 5.7 hemi in the Durango.

 

Hmmm no one here mentioned a ford v6 the question was regarding the pentastar vs. the hemi... His opinion is certainly shortsighted but its his opinion nonetheless.