Got my '14 Citadel 3.6L AWD, first impressions
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From: Walnut Creek, CA
Got my '14 Citadel 3.6L AWD, first impressions
2014 Durango Citadel 3.6L AWD Standstone, tan interior, Tech & Tow package and captains chairs with mini console.
I give it an A- grade right off the bat. It drives and feels more like a luxury car than I thought. Got a few minor gripes but overall very nice. Ok, here's my story.
Picked her up at the dealer and it had 9 miles on it. I got it for $43,385.26 before TTL. The dealer only tried to screw me out $500 which was my deposit they forgot to add in, "whoops" they said, ya right.
Most surfaces inside are soft to the touch, not much hard plastic you'd reach out and touch. I've only driven 40 city miles and it really felt like my Dad's '13 ML350, very luxurious. The ride is not too firm and not too floaty, just perfect for me. The tranny is ultra smooth. I could just barely feel the shifts in the lower gears and not at all above 3rd. I really like the rotary shifter, didn't think I would, very solid feel to it. The voice navigation worked like a champ. I hit the VR button and said "Navigate to 1249 Woodside drive, Danville, California" (not my real address). A few seconds later it was on the Nav screen and asked if I wanted to start. I tried a few more like "Find Starbucks" and presented a list of all the nearby Starbucks and I just say a number off the list and it puts in the directions. When starting up I'm really pleased not to have to hit an OK button to gain access to the screen. A warning and accept message comes up but goes away after a few seconds.
I got tons of leg & head room with the seat all the way down & back and I'm 6'4" 250lbs. The visibility is excellent all around and the blind spot monitoring is really cool. If someone is in the blind spot a yellow icon is in the mirror and if you turn on the blinkers it will chime at you although I find it a little conservative leaving a lot of room before the alert goes off. The collision mitigation system scared the crap out me. I had one false alert and its chime was quite loud and flashed BRAKE really big in the speedometer screen. I was on a slight curve with traffic in front of me when it went off. There are two settings for it, default if FAR so I set it to NEAR which will reduce the false alerts. I made a bluetooth call and its output is not thru the stereo speakers but thru 1 speaker on top of dash near the window. It was still very clear though and you could adjust the volume using the stereo volume dial. The other party said I was crystal clear and had no idea I was in the car let alone driving down the road.
I love the EVIC system, really enjoy having many choices to customize it. Currently I like have the digital speedo and the oil temp screen. I find myself scrolling thru the sub screen watching the oil/tranny temps & pressure. The ventilated seats are something I've always wanted and boy can you feel it when it's on high, really keeps you from feeling hot & sticky on your legs, butt and back.
I like the HID lights too. Bright and they have a good beam pattern. The high beams are HID too the best I can tell, there's no visible halogen bulb for the high beams I can spot. When starting up at night they do some sort of level check lowering and raising the beam. I'd like an articulating cornering feature but hey, can't have everything.
I think Chrysler has a home run on their hands here. I'm impressed enough I'll buy a Town & Country soon as they put in the 8.4" uConnect screen, 7" EVIC screen and ZF tranny to replace our Odyssey.
Gripes: I find the seats very hard. Not sure if it's a lack of foam or the foam cushion is very dense. Time will tell if they break in. The steering is a little over boosted for my taste but not ridiculous like the Mercedes. I found a little Uconnect bug, my version is 13.33.7. In the settings menu I changed a bunch of settings at the dealer while it was running. At home I just hit the ignition button twice, not running the engine, and made some setting changes. The changes would stick for 5 seconds then revert to the previous setting. They only stuck if I made the changes while the engine was running. The sun roof gasket/seal isn't flush with the roof on the rear, sticks up about 1/8". The cruise control on doesn't stay active after a restart and neither does the active cruise control. After every restart you have to turn them on again before you can hit the set speed button.
Thanks to all the dedicated engineers, line workers, executives with foresight and alike who made this come together.
I give it an A- grade right off the bat. It drives and feels more like a luxury car than I thought. Got a few minor gripes but overall very nice. Ok, here's my story.
Picked her up at the dealer and it had 9 miles on it. I got it for $43,385.26 before TTL. The dealer only tried to screw me out $500 which was my deposit they forgot to add in, "whoops" they said, ya right.
Most surfaces inside are soft to the touch, not much hard plastic you'd reach out and touch. I've only driven 40 city miles and it really felt like my Dad's '13 ML350, very luxurious. The ride is not too firm and not too floaty, just perfect for me. The tranny is ultra smooth. I could just barely feel the shifts in the lower gears and not at all above 3rd. I really like the rotary shifter, didn't think I would, very solid feel to it. The voice navigation worked like a champ. I hit the VR button and said "Navigate to 1249 Woodside drive, Danville, California" (not my real address). A few seconds later it was on the Nav screen and asked if I wanted to start. I tried a few more like "Find Starbucks" and presented a list of all the nearby Starbucks and I just say a number off the list and it puts in the directions. When starting up I'm really pleased not to have to hit an OK button to gain access to the screen. A warning and accept message comes up but goes away after a few seconds.
I got tons of leg & head room with the seat all the way down & back and I'm 6'4" 250lbs. The visibility is excellent all around and the blind spot monitoring is really cool. If someone is in the blind spot a yellow icon is in the mirror and if you turn on the blinkers it will chime at you although I find it a little conservative leaving a lot of room before the alert goes off. The collision mitigation system scared the crap out me. I had one false alert and its chime was quite loud and flashed BRAKE really big in the speedometer screen. I was on a slight curve with traffic in front of me when it went off. There are two settings for it, default if FAR so I set it to NEAR which will reduce the false alerts. I made a bluetooth call and its output is not thru the stereo speakers but thru 1 speaker on top of dash near the window. It was still very clear though and you could adjust the volume using the stereo volume dial. The other party said I was crystal clear and had no idea I was in the car let alone driving down the road.
I love the EVIC system, really enjoy having many choices to customize it. Currently I like have the digital speedo and the oil temp screen. I find myself scrolling thru the sub screen watching the oil/tranny temps & pressure. The ventilated seats are something I've always wanted and boy can you feel it when it's on high, really keeps you from feeling hot & sticky on your legs, butt and back.
I like the HID lights too. Bright and they have a good beam pattern. The high beams are HID too the best I can tell, there's no visible halogen bulb for the high beams I can spot. When starting up at night they do some sort of level check lowering and raising the beam. I'd like an articulating cornering feature but hey, can't have everything.
I think Chrysler has a home run on their hands here. I'm impressed enough I'll buy a Town & Country soon as they put in the 8.4" uConnect screen, 7" EVIC screen and ZF tranny to replace our Odyssey.
Gripes: I find the seats very hard. Not sure if it's a lack of foam or the foam cushion is very dense. Time will tell if they break in. The steering is a little over boosted for my taste but not ridiculous like the Mercedes. I found a little Uconnect bug, my version is 13.33.7. In the settings menu I changed a bunch of settings at the dealer while it was running. At home I just hit the ignition button twice, not running the engine, and made some setting changes. The changes would stick for 5 seconds then revert to the previous setting. They only stuck if I made the changes while the engine was running. The sun roof gasket/seal isn't flush with the roof on the rear, sticks up about 1/8". The cruise control on doesn't stay active after a restart and neither does the active cruise control. After every restart you have to turn them on again before you can hit the set speed button.
Thanks to all the dedicated engineers, line workers, executives with foresight and alike who made this come together.
Last edited by vertrkr; Aug 26, 2015 at 04:46 PM.
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