What Keeps Dodge Afloat?

It’s interesting to note that the one new Doge that’s selling well is a 16-year-old Dodge. It’s the Durango – and this Dodge is pretty much the same today as it was back in 2010. “Selling well” doesn’t quite do the Durango justice. Automotive News reports that the Durango had its best year in decades last year – despite the fact that the current model might as well be a 2010 model.

But maybe that explains it.

The 2026 Durango is the only remaining Dodge that comes standard with a V6 engine. Back in 2010, this was nothing to get excited about because back in 2010, you could still get a V6 in small crossovers such as the Toyota RAV4. It was no big deal. Big SUVs – which is what the Durango is – came with at least a V6. It was expected. The minimum. Like the way you expect to see a dozen eggs when you open the carton you just bought.

Not eight eggs.

Fast forward from 2010 to now and you can’t find a V6 in anything RAV4-sized (or priced). The V6 engine has become a near-luxury item, just the same as eating a meal at a fast-food joint has become. With the difference that McDonald’s still at least sells Big Macs.

Dodge is still selling V6s – but only in the Durango. And for $38,995 – the base price of the 2026 GT. That’s almost manna from heaven in 2026, where that sum will leave you about $2,500 shy of the buy-in price of a base-trim Toyota Grand Highlander, which is a crossover about the same size as the Durango that lists for $41,860 and for that you get a 2.4 liter four, augmented by a turbocharger under the hood rather than the V6 that used to come standard in vehicles like the Highlander as recently as four years ago. And for $35,855 – which was the V6 Highlander’s base price back in 2022.

It feels like buying a Toblerone chocolate bar today – as regards the current Highlander and others like it – and noticing that not only is the price higher but there’s less chocolate inside the box. Meanwhile, you could spend less – thousands less – and get a V6, in a Durango. It’s like stumbling on some Toblerones from 2010 at the store that are still the same size inside the box as they were once.

How about a V8?

You can get a Hemi in a new Durango for $43,675 – not much more than Toyota wants for a Grand Highlander with a 2.4 liter turbo-augmented four. It is also noteworthy that the Hemi that’s optional in the Durango is not afflicted with “eTorque” – a compliance technology that got grafted onto the final run of Hemis installed in Ram trucks just before Ram ceased offering Hemis at all in Ram 1500 trucks beginning with the 2024 models. Ram hurriedly brought the Hemi back for 2026. But this Hemi is afflicted with the “eTorque” system, which is a “mild hybrid” set-up that uses a belt-driven starter/generator system to cycle the engine off as often as possible and has a 48 volt electrical system and EV-like battery pack to power accessories. It is a compliance technology that Stellantis developed to reduce the Hemi’s “emissions” of CO2 – by shutting off the Hemi – but people who like the Hemi hate the “eTorque” system because shutting off the Hemi is something like turning off the hot water when you’re wanting a hot shower. The federally imposed “water saver” toilet is another way to understand what these compliance technologies are all about – and why they are almost universally despised.

Also, while the 2025 Ram 1500 still came standard with the 3.6 V6 that’s still standard in the Durango, the Ram’s version also got afflicted with the “eTorque” system. Somehow, the Durango retained both its standard V6 and its optional V8 and neither of them got saddled with the unpopular “eTorque” system.

There are other things the Durango isn’t saddled with that could explain the doing-gangbusters sales of this sixteen-year-old new SUV. It lacks the latest “safety” and “driver assistance” crap that – contrary to the way it’s pushed by the car press as desirable – lots of people want to avoid having to pay for and do not want to have to fight every time they go for drive. Edmunds.com faults the Durango because “Many of the latest advanced driver safety features don’t come standard.”

They do not grasp that it isn’t a fault. It is a selling point. If all of this “assistance” and “safety” stuff is so desirable, then why was it never offered to people as a selling point; i.e., a desirable option they could buy? Lane Keep Assist – which interferes constantly with your steering – and Brake Assist – which obnoxiously applies the brakes when the computer decides you are too close to something in the vehicle’s path – are almost universally hated “technologies” that got pushed on people like the “vaccines” during “COVID.”

But – as with the “vaccines” – if you are hesitant about these “technologies,” you can still buy a new Durango without them.

Apparently, word has gotten out.

Dodge can’t stamp them out fast enough to keep up with demand created by the lack of demand for turbo-augmented fours in pricier rivals that all come standard with the very latest and most advanced “assistance” and “safety” technologies.

It is not going too far to say the Durango is keeping Dodge in business – because it is. The rest of the lineup sure isn’t. The Charger is a nice-looking car that costs almost $50k to start – which is nearly $20k more than the 2023 Charger cost back when it last came standard with a V6 (in 2023). It now has a standard 3.0 liter six, which is definitely preferable to the battery Dodge tried to foist on buyers in 2024 after pulling both the V6 and the V8 that had been available in the Charger – but in this economy, expecting people to pay nearly $20k more than they paid to get a V6 just three years ago for an inline six is a bit much.

There’s not much else, either.

The Hornet – which is a re-skinned Fiat – has been benched (due to slow sales caused by high prices and general incongruity with the Dodge brand) and that’s pretty much it.

Back in 2010, there was so much more.

Perhaps that’s why so many people are lining up to buy something from back then – before it, too, gets taken away.

. . .

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