The average age of cars across the entire US is about twelve years and change, but obviously quite a lot of cars are older than that. There are plenty of twenty-year-old vehicles still on the road and for sale, though I’ve noticed that those twenty years present themselves differently depending on where in the country you’re looking. Today we’re going to check out a couple of SUVs from parts of the country that are notoriously hard on cars.
Yesterday we looked at two inexpensive cars with a ton of miles on their odometers, and wouldn’t you know it, Saab’s undefeated record remains intact. The 9-3 sedan handily beat that Mustang. It sounded like a lot of you were turned off by the Mustang’s cheesy aftermarket “enhancements.”
I get it – but that’s what Goo-Gone is for. And if it came down to it, you can probably find an ’05 Mustang dash in a junkyard, if that fake wood crap just wouldn’t come off. If it were going to be my only car, I think the Saab would be a wiser choice, but for something to mess around with, I’d take the Mustang.
Now, some of you are going to look at the photos of today’s cars and recoil in horror. And some of you are going to look at them and say, “Eh, that’s not as bad as I was afraid it would be. I’ve seen worse.” And based on those reactions, I can probably guess where you grew up. To me, they’re not bad at all, especially for the price. But let’s see what you all think.
2005 Dodge Durango – $1,500
Engine/drivetrain: 4.7-liter OHC V8, four-speed automatic, 4WD
Location: Chicago, IL
Odometer reading: 230,000 miles
Operational status: “Car is in working condition”
The Durango has been Dodge’s entry in the SUV wars since 1998, and believe it or not, it’s still available. Originally based on the Dakota midsize truck chassis, the Durango is smaller than a Chevy Tahoe, but bigger and brawnier than most crossover-type SUVs. It has never sold in the numbers that GM and Ford’s competitors have, but those who own them swear by them. Our resident cheap-car reviver Stephen Walter Gossin has a Durango about this age, bought for peanuts years ago, and it’s still earning its keep.
This generation of Durango was available with one of three engines: a 3.7-liter V6, a 4.7-liter “PowerTech” V8, or a 5.7-liter Hemi V8. The V6 was only available in the base SXT model, and this one looks fancier than that; it’s either an SLT or a Limited. And I would imagine that if it were a Hemi, the ad would mention it. Shout it from the rooftops, more like. So, by process of elimination, that means this one has the 4.7 liter. The ad is very terse, which I guess you can get away with for a cheap car like this. It’s functional, but that’s all we know.
It’s in pretty good shape inside, especially for the mileage. It has leather seats, which is what makes me think it’s a pretty high trim level. It also has a DVD player for the back seat passengers, and a third row of seats. I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot of legroom for the third row passengers, though; a Durango isn’t that big.
It’s got some rust outside, no doubt about it, but keep in mind this is a body-on-frame SUV. If you look underneath and the frame looks solid, you can be reasonably sure it won’t crumble away out from under you. It just looks like hell.
2005 Mazda Tribute – $1,600
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter DOHC V6, four-speed automatic, 4WD
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Odometer reading: 206,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Ford and Mazda’s symbiotic relationship produced a lot of cars that were almost, but not quite, the same. The Mazda Tribute was a near-clone of Ford’s Escape, but with a little bit sharper-edged appearance and a little bit stiffer suspension. This same formula had been applied to the Ford Explorer Sport in the early ’90s to create the Mazda Navajo. Unlike the Explorer and Navajo, the Escape and Tribute are car-based crossover SUVs.
The Tribute was available with either four- or six-cyliner engines, and with either front- or all-wheel-drive. This one has the V6 engine, a 3.0 liter Duratec from Ford, and AWD; this combination was only available with an automatic transmission. This ad doesn’t have much information in it either; the seller just says it runs well, but it has an exhaust leak, so it’s a bit loud.
It looks pretty good inside, especially considering it’s north of 200,000 miles. The upholstery looks fine, and nothing on the dash looks broken. This is a post-facelift Tribute, after Mazda moved the gearshift from the column to the floor. It’s nind of too bad they did that; I like a column-shift in an SUV. It feels right. But a floor shifter is better than that stupid rotary dial “shifter” that current Escapes have.
The seller has thoughtfully included a few photos of the underside, so we can see how bad the rust isn’t, really. The floors are intact, as are all the structural parts of the unibody. There is some surface rust underneath, and the rear quarter panels are starting to bubble and flake, but all in all it looks really solid for a twenty-year-old car from Minneapolis.
If you want a running, driving car for fifteen or sixteen hundred bucks, you’re going to have to compromise somewhere. And if you’re looking at cars in the upper Midwest, that compromise is going to come in the form of a little rust. These two don’t look too bad yet for the price. Which one do you trust to hold together longer?
I hate both options so I’m going dollar per pound and buying the Durango. I had a newer one for a year as a cheap daily, and it was perfectly fine, reminded me of my old 99 Dakota in a lot of ways, but had much more traction due to the weight over the rear wheels. Both were 2WD versions, that Dakota was a single ski on a frozen lake level of traction in the winter.
Voting for the one Made Outta Paint And Rust
Always remembered how the Durango, when it first came out, was hit with the gas-guzzler tax, a dubious honor shared with the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Rolls-Royce.
Yeah, pretty shocking about the cargo space in those Durangos. When I was raising my two kids in the early 00s I had a ’89 Toyota Corolla station wagon and then a ’02 VW Golf TDI and it was just surprising how much more stuff (strollers, coolers, diaper bags, etc, etc) could fit in those vehicles compared to my kids’ playmates/classmates’ parents’ fancy new Durangos despite the latter positively dwarfing the former.
Voted for the Mazda Tribute, FoMoCo contamination (lol) notwithstanding, partly because of the superior interior capabilities and the slightly better fuel efficiency…
I kinda like the Durango today. Not convinced of its long-term viability, but it might handle some work for a while.
If I’m on a tight budget, just looking for basic transportation, the Tribute.
If I’m looking for something cheap to have fun with and haul stuff until it breaks, the Durango. I wonder how it would hold up in LeMons?
Honestly, more than the rust, I just never liked the looks of the Durango after the first generation (which I liked a lot).
Durango, all the way.
I spent $400 on mine in 2017 and it has performed dutifully year in and year out and currently sits at 251K on the 4.7 V8. Original engine, transmission and rear end.
Thanks for the shout-out, and great Showdown as always, Mark!
So would you just replace that entire door? Because I can easily see other living beings pulling a Tracy and starting a new life inside that vehicle through that massive hole in the door?
Considering that there are always about 5-7 of them at the local Pick n Pull and that doors are about $60 (and only a bolts and a harness to remove), it wouldn’t be hard at all to find a clean replacement in the same color.
IMHO most of the reasons not to buy a new Dodge are the exact same reasons that makes them top of the list to buy used and cheap. So I went Durango
I saw a Durango in Scranton yesterday that was so rusted out that every panel but the roof and hood were missing at least 4-7 inches of metal.The rockers were completely gone and it looked like if the tailgate was slammed shut that it would just crumble to dust.,yet it had a pretty current inspection sticker.I guess those garages still do exist.I’ll take the Escape for the upcoming winter and then use it for a farm beater afterwards.
Neither of these are very great, but the prices reflect this. I guess it depends on what you would be buying these for. To me the Durango with the extra space and nicer interior is more appealing and as long as the rust is not into the frame or frame mounts, it would not matter much to me since this would be a winter beater for me. What to do with it come spring assuming the troublesome 4.7 still worked, would be the big question.