I've had my 2012 Dodge Durango Citadel model for a little over six months now and thought I would share my thoughts on it for those considering buying one. The bottom line is that I love it. I replaced my 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee with this vehicle, so that forms some of my basis of comparison. I also own a 2011 Subaru Outback (and still have the Jeep GC)

Pros:
- Huge capacity compared to the Jeep GC in terms of load capacity. It also has a very spacious interior for the standard seating.
- To me, it rides like a car but drives like truck which is exactly what I want. It is a very smooth, comfortable ride.
- Tons of options. I won't say how much I paid (don't want to start a flame war) but it was a great deal. It was easily $10K less than what I would have paid for any other comparable vehicle on the market out there. I love the automatic cruise control feature that slows down when vehicles are in front of you and accelerates when they move out the way or accelerate ahead of you. In fact, I like it too much. I've almost rammed other cars in my wife's care because I rely on it a bit too much. I also like the features which warn you when backing out if there are cars coming form your sides that you can't see. I also like the blind spot warning while driving down the road.
- Great towing capacity. I regularly haul a 14" trailer with two motorcycles in the mountains of Colorado and I barely even notice it.
- Good gas mileage for an eight cylinder Hemi; I average about 19 MPG with a mix of city, mountain/hill, and interstate driving. That is about 2-6 MPG better than my V6 Jeep GC. Note: I don't have a lead foot and usually drive within about 5-10 miles of the speed limit and don't rapidly accelerate from stops.
- Did I mention Hemi. Yeah, that should be enough but I'll expound. The Hemi has tons of power. Tons. However, it has the eco mode which shuts down four cylinders when it doesn't need that much power saving a lot of fuel.


Cons:
- I HATE the front end height. It barely clears even regular curbs. If the curb is anything above regular height, it will catch and scrape. Woe to anyone who pulls to far forward on those curbs that have rebar sticking out it to hold the parking curb in place. Also, fair warning for those new drivers or those who will do even a modest bit of driving on rough roads. I didn't notice this when I bought it (way to enamored with the other features). I got the skid plate option, but these will rarely hit as your front end will not clear most obstacles that are in the way. The height, as measured on my vehicle, is right about 8". My Subaru is 11 1/2" and my Jeep GC is 13" as points of comparison.
- The antennae is right in the way of rooftop cargo boxes depending on how long they are. I do a lot of outdoor activities, to include skiing, and use long skis (~180cm and longer). My box is a Yakima Skybox Pro 18 and the antennae is right in the way regardless if you mount it offset to the left or right. It is however flexible, I'm just worried that to much bending, especially in cold weather, will damage it.
- The third row seating is uncomfortable for adults on any long trips as there is very limited leg room and the floorboard is at the level of the bottom of the seat. They are OK for kids probably up to 13 or 14. However, to me this is a minor issue as I rarely use them and I really didn't see others on the market that were better. Just FYI if you think third row seating equates to "mini-van like" seating.
- I had a lot of noise coming from the front end during acceleration that sounded like a low growl of air. It went to the dealer twice and they never found the problem. However, it did become far less quieter after the second WEEK in the shop. I suspect that a air intake seal was ill-fitted and as they put it together, it was rectified to a large degree. Not sure about that one, but it is definitely something I'll monitor.
- The UConnect Software sucks. I have the 730N system on my vehicle. Do a search on this forum and online and you will see that the system has a lot of bugs. Note, this problem is not unique to the Dodge Durango as the system is used in many other vehicles. However, Dodge and the vendor need to really work on some software upgrades. It is buggy and has hung and crashed on me several times and the only way I could get it to come back on was to shut the vehicle off. Also, loading files onto the hard drive is a pain (so much so that I just quit even trying anymore make the 40 Gig HD useless). Also, the phone will drop calls regularly. I've seemed to notice this at about the 20 minute mark. It is not a signal thing and others are experiencing this as well. I haven't taken it to the dealer yet, but will after my upcoming trip.

Overall, I'm very happy with my vehicle. I normally drive my vehicles to the ground I and fully expect this one to last a decade plus.

Cheers

 

Nice write up!

 

Nice review. We have V6 Citadel. Great vehicle. Rides great. Love all the toys. Radio sound is sub-par. No issues.

 

Testoner,
I agree with you, except for the $10k less part. Im not sure what vehicles you were comparing, but our Hemi-Citadel's sticker price was $30k less than any other V8-3 row-crossover, or V8-3-row-mid sized SUV that I found. None of the v6 crossovers we tested compared, including the turbo models. It's not perfect, and the frustrating part sometimes is that it seems like it could be pretty easily, but was a no brainer for us, and we are very happy with it despite its quirk's also.

 

Sounds like we have almost exactly the same vehicle, and I concur with most of your observations. I moved up from a 05 Durango, and it took us about a minute to appreciate the relative lack of body roll as compared to our old Durango. I noted that my initial mileage was worse than my 05, but around 2,500 miles it started improving with break-in. On a two hour trip at about 4,000 miles, I got 23.1 MPG without even drafting semis - which get me as high as 30 MPG for short stretches.

 

Same here! Every 7/8 seater in this price range did not offer a V8 or just didn't have the 3rd row leg room!

 

I could see $30K if you included the large size SUVs like the Escalade, Infiniti QX, Lexus LX, etc. In my opinion, they are extremely overpriced and selling on their name only. The Durango is a mid-size SUV, though it is pretty large for a Mid-size which is what we were looking for. We looked at the Suburban and a few other large size SUVs, but we did not include the "luxury" SUVs in the large size SUV class. Posters are accurate in that we didn't find many midsize SUVs with a V8 and seven/eight seating. I wasn't actually looking for a V8, but like any guy, once the dealer mentioned he had a Hemi in the color I was looking for, well, you know...

 

Right, we definitly wanted a V8 but did not want another full size either. So for mid size with V8 all we could find was the MB GL450 (started at $74K) and the RR LR4($72K when equiped like the Citadel). We drove both and did not see $30K worth of extra's in either of them. I know the Pathfinder was offered in the V8 and has a 3rd row option, but there were none available within 500 miles for us to test drive, and they told us it was due to it being discontinued.

 

testoner,

Just two comments;
1. The antenna can be removed easily by just twisting it off, lefty-loose, righty-tighty.
2. The noise may be your hood alignment, there is a TSB about it, or maybe your window washer tubes.

I have both of the issues you described, and I agree with everything, besides gas mileage, I don't have enough miles on mine to be able to say but it seems reasonable from the two gas tanks, that I've put, or maybe 3.