It has good months and bad months. Last month it sold less than in 2013 or 2011. Year to date sales are up 8% over last year. I'll bet they were hoping for more growth after the refresh.

When you consistently sell a half to a third of what the Explorer and Highlander sell, not sure an 8% increase still guarantees your future.

Your statement "no other 3 row SUV is doing this" is unsupported. The Explorer as just 1 example also increased 8% YTD in September, and it's grown each of the last few years. And it sells routinely sells over 3 times as much as the Durango.

I do hope the Durango somehow survives though....

 

Its ashame the Durango maybe discontinued after 2015. I believe its the best suv you can buy for <55k. I think low sales is from a lack of brand following from the type of people who buy suv's

 

I'd tend to not believe the story.
After all, they've been making DDs since 1998 and if they'd wanted to drop the model 2010 would've been a perfect chance when they spent that year redesigning it.
No one knows for sure what their goal is numbers-wise, but if they "paused" production for a year (2010) to remake it, then they must have seen something in the earlier numbers and demographics to have confidence the new DDs would do well in their niche.
The 1G and 2G DDs weren't blockbusters and had their problems but Dodge stuck with it until they made things right with the 3G.
Anyone here have a breakout of DDs sales-by-year 1998-2013??

 

See attached. Sales steadily (and greatly) declined since 2004. Seems kinda dumb to have brought it back in 2010 after looking at these numbers. But I'm sure it was because development costs were greatly reduced by basing it on the Grand Cherokee.

 

Well now days it is real rare to see a TV add on the Durango and there ton's of TV adds on the Jeep brand. Why would you spend a lot of $$$ on TV for a brand that will be discontinued? Just saying.


Auggie

 

According to that chart 2014 is 9 months sales. If they continue on this average Dodge will sell 64,000 units which will exceed 2013 by approximately 4,000.

Still though, not a lot of units.

 

If anyone has noticed wallstreetcheatsheet is a bunch of bs stories cobbled together. I would never call it reliable or consider it to have any journalist cred. Just saying.

Chris

 

What he said^^^

 

60,000 units x an average of $38,000 is 2.3 BILLION in sales
That's a nice bit of change + future parts and service sales

 

Dodge is being repositioned by Fiat as a performance brand. There's nothing performance about a 3 row SUV (with all deference to you guys who think your R/T is performance). The Challenger, Charger, and the like may continue, but it only makes sense to move the Durango into the Jeep brand -- which is full of "tall" vehicles. Having a 2 and 3 row version of the Jeep GC is a no-brainer. It's probably the best way to start selling as many 3 row SUVs as Ford. I don't know what it is, but the Ford (which is simply not as nice a vehicle) sells really well in affluent areas. I have to believe that soccer moms are more attracted to the Ford brand more, despite the fact that the D blows it away in ride, comfort, and features. So making the D a 3 row GC would put it head to head with the Explorer, with all the cache affluent buyers look for. And just think, once you get past the different grill and get inside, you won't notice any difference.

I don't have any inside knowledge, but this seems like a plausible argument to me.