Give credit to Dodge. The slings and arrows of the modern car industry have fallen on the brand, robbing it of time, attention, engines, and platforms. It’s been given the castoffs of its various parents and told to make do. Dodge is making do in a big way thanks to the Dakota.
Limitations can sometimes be your greatest strength, and The Morning Dump is no exception. Every morning I’m constrained by the limits of time, the concept of picking just four stories to summarize the vibes, and the lack of energy that comes from a cat jumping on my chest at 2 am and demanding scritchy-scratchies.
The market itself has been constrained by geopolitics, including high fuel prices and high tariffs. The early data from April show that this hasn’t turned the market as negative as you’d have guessed. Toyota is probably the poster child for making the best-of-it, although the company’s March was rough. On the other side of Mount Fuji, a capital-restrained Nissan didn’t actually lose money.
Durango Has Its Best Q1 In Five Years
Technically, the platform that underpins the Durango goes back 20 years to 2006, when Mercedes started work on the W166 ML and, with modifications, various SUVs for DaimlerChrysler and FCA. This current generation debuted in 2011, with a heavy refresh in 2013. This makes the Dodge Durango you can buy today either 20, 15, or 12 years old, depending on how charitable you want to be.
You know who doesn’t seem to care? Consumers. Dodge sold 48% more Durangos (Durangoes?) in Q1 of 2026 than they did last year, and the most since 2021, when they were one of the few vehicles not in short supply post-pandemic. Typically, the Durango lags what GM and Ford produce in the full-size, three-row non luxury space.
Not so far this year. In Q1, the much newer Tahoe was down about 10% to 27k units, Yukon was down 12% to just over 20k units, while Expedition was up 30.2% (the Expedition debuted a new model last year) to 17,544 units. Dodge? The 20,300 Durangos sold put it within striking distance of the Yukon, ahead of the Expedition, and closer to the Tahoe than usual.
What can explain this? Here’s Automotive News with some timely interviews:
“Durango continues to do extremely well for us, as we have positioned that properly in the marketplace, really focused in on the V-8s and offering consumers something they can’t get from any other vehicle in that segment,” Dodge CEO Matt McAlear told Automotive News at the New York auto show this month.
[…]
Dealers were excited to hear at the NADA Show in February that the 6.4-liter Hemi was back in the Durango, said Stellantis National Dealer Council Chairman Sean Hogan.
“We didn’t even talk about the redesign, we just literally talked about a single motor going back into a vehicle,” Hogan said after the company’s make meeting. “Let’s face it, this thing’s long in the tooth. [But if] you stick enough power in there and you price it right, we’re going to sell it.”
Dodge dealers are just like Dodge customers: They need that Hemi V8. As Brian wrote, you can now get that V8 a lot cheaper:
What’s even crazier is that the new R/T 392 is actually … affordable? Sure, $51,990 isn’t objectively affordable for the vast majority of Americans, but you have to admit, for the amount of car you’re getting here, it’s a damn good value.
Think of the new R/T 392 as a middle child between the base 5.7-liter V8-powered Durango, which makes 360 horsepower, and the full-fat, 710-horsepower, supercharged V8-powered Durango Hellcat. While it doesn’t carry the SRT badge, this is effectively a spiritual successor to the Durango SRT 392, which went out of production after the 2024 model year.
It’s a niche! The most powerful Yukon gets the 6.2-liter V8, but it’s 55 horsepower short. Ford doesn’t even offer a V8 anymore. If gas prices stay high for a while, that may not have its appeal, but that doesn’t seem to be tanking the market for these things yet.
April Car Sales Probably Weren’t So Bad
Because everything is wacky all the time, a year ago there was a burst of sales due to people reasonably worried that costs were about to explode because of tariffs. It didn’t quite end up that way, but sales now need to be compared to that sugar rush of sales.
High gas prices. War in Iran. Uncertainty about everything. The A’s are on top of the American League West and the Astros are on the bottom. It’s wild. Still, sales in April, as forecast by Cox Automotive, don’t look that bad. Overall, sales are likely to be down about 5.4% year-over-year to 1.4 million vehicles, or a SAAR of about 16.1 million vehicles.
It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. It’s fine. And fine shows a strong amount of resiliency in the car market:
April is expected to mark the third straight month of annual sales declines, as vehicle demand continues to be shaped by competing headwinds and tailwinds. While fuel prices have risen significantly and signs of inflation have returned, strong tax refunds have added needed stimulus to the economy and the U.S. stock market has also returned to record levels.
Cox Automotive Senior Economist Charlie Chesbrough: “April sales appear to be holding up against a lot of uncertainty in the economy. Surging gas prices and historically low consumer confidence haven’t crashed the vehicle market. Sales in April, as in March, were expected to decline from last year’s temporarily high levels, but they haven’t fallen as much as initially expected, thanks in part to strong tax refunds and healthy equity markets.”
There were a ton of EV sales in the second half of the year that are unlikely to be repeated, meaning that year-over-year sales will probably look awful in October.
Toyota Hits Global Sales Record Even As It Sputters In March
It’s the end of the Japanese automaker fiscal year, and if you take all of the companies that make up Toyota (including Hino trucks and Daihatsu), the company hit a record 11.28 million sales. It is, by far, the largest automaker in the world. The company sells a ton of hybrids around the world, small cars in other places, and even electric cars in China.
March, though, was rough, as the automaker faced the same challenges as every other global automaker, as Bloomberg reports:
Global sales in March — including those of subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd. — fell 5.8% from a year earlier to 983,126 units, the company said Monday. So far, the company has been able to keep churning out cars, with worldwide production climbing 3.9% to 1.02 million units.
The numbers show how the world’s biggest carmaker has been able to remain on track despite turmoil in the Middle East, which has raised the price of aluminum and other raw materials and the underlying costs for automobile parts. Production may be due for further declines, with Japanese carmakers depending on the region for roughly 70% of their aluminum.
Toyota is still in a great position relative to other automakers.
Nissan Made About As Much As It Thought It Would Lose
Hand it to the new guy, Nissan originally forecast that it would lose more than $300 million for the fiscal year that ended last month. Instead, Nissan, under a new CEO, made about $314 million. That’s a little like setting up a three-foot putt, telling everyone you’re going to miss it, and then sinking it cleanly.
It’s not nothing!
There’s a bit of a caveat here, as Nikkei Asia points out:
Nissan’s President and CEO Ivan Espinosa has been involved in the company’s restructuring effort since he took the helm in April last year. Under his Re:Nissan restructuring plan, the company decided to cut seven of its 17 factories, reduce its global workforce by 20,000, or about 15% of total staff, and abandon a number of planned investments.
This does sound a bit like cutting your way to a profit, but Nissan’s past leadership acted with a worrying disregard for how much production capacity it had compared to the reality of demand. This was necessary. Cutting is easy, thriving is harder, so we’ll see if a reinvigorated Nissan can keep the numbers positive.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Weehawken’s own Kate Pierson, of the B-52s, turns 78 today. There are so many good songs to choose, but let’s go this weirdly Mondrian version of “Private Idaho.” Happy Birthday, Kate!
The Big Question
Why not Durango?
Top photo: Dodge
I mean sure, but the Tahoe and Yukon are the same damn thing and really should be counted together at which point you have 47k GM large SUVs sold, which is well over double the amount of Durangos.
If memory serves, the same goes for Silverado and Sierra, where combined would beat the F-Series trucks, but because they’re different model names the “F-150 is the best selling truck in America”
Definitely is. And yeah it again irritates me more than it should.
Why not Durango?
Because it can’t Rubicon.
My friend had a Durango as an insurance-provided rental while her Kia Sportage was being repaired. When asked her thoughts on it, her exact words were, “This car makes me want a work from home job.”
COTD
Re: Durango, it makes sense to me because it’s an attractive vehicle. I hate how modern society poo poos on “old” designs, because automakers GENERALLY F up restyling things.
See:
Integra -> RSX
2nd Gen Dakota sold like hot cakes -> 3rd gen was so awful it killed the model
01 Civic -> godawful 7th gen civics
Infiniti G35 -> horrible melted G37
The current Durango looks pretty good. As long as it passes safety requirements, they should just continue to make it with newer drivetrains and maybe tweak the lighting assemblies, and continue to refine the interior.
Same with the Pacifica. It’s a good looking design. Keep making it.
Bad news about the Pacifica…
https://share.google/gyQ7SucbJrTkfncJu
Is this implying that Nissan can’t even do forecasting of their finances properly?
I’ve had a few Durangos as rentals. They are “fine”. If you need a 3-row SUV-thing, they certainly do the job, and I assume rather cheaper than most in the same class. They drive pretty well, the interiors aren’t bad. No obvious fit-and-finish issues. Not something I would ever buy but they didn’t make me wish I was in something else. And I think they are a nice compromise size-wise. Big enough that the 3rd row is livable, but not battlecruiser big like a Tahoe. Better looking than most of the Asian offerings, IMHO. And very readily available I assume as well.
I see nothing wrong with old when there is nothing wrong with it in the first place.
I think that sums up Dodge perfectly. “Do you just need the cheapest thing in it’s class to get the job done? Bad credit? Here you go!”
Right. Here is your L87.
That is not a bad thing. For a lot of people that is just fine. Mocking them is elitist.
Thanks for the feedback, Jim.
One of my favorite car memories was driving a rental Dodge Journey and an old man came up to talk to me at the gas pump because of how proud he was of his own Dodge Journey he just bought as his first new car ever at 70 years old. I think of him often.
So this, cars for normal people.
It’s a good looking SUV-thing that gets the job done more than adequately for a reasonable price. Not seeing the issue. Old is fine when it was pretty good to start with.
I’m not seeing how my comment is an issue either. Guessing the bad credit part of it is what is triggering people.
Dodge makes the cheapest and most capable vehicles in their respective class is all I was trying to say.
I always wondered why all cars aren’t called antiques that have remained unchanged for a century, considering they all run on the same air-filled tires first put out in the late 1800’s.
Consumers don’t give a shit how old a platform it. If they like the styling and it fits their needs at a reasonable price, they couldn’t care less if it is an “old” design or not. Why should they care? All car designs turn old eventually, and people keep their vehicles for 5, 6, 7+ years before they decide to sell. In fact, many consumers see a car that hasn’t been in production for years as a good thing because they expect most of the kinks have been worked out.
The only people that give a shit about stuff like this are out-of-touch automotive journalists and early-adopter enthusiasts who always need the newest thing. So good on Dodge for continuing to see the Durango.
Well said! Thanks. Most people are NOT gear head car nerds who crap on everything.
Yeah, its always funny (and infuriating) when you see automotive journalists shit all over a car because it is “old” even though it came out just 3 years ago. But at the same time, those same journalists then shit on brand new designs for losing touch with what people want.
The Nissan Z is a PERFECT example. The press shat all over the car because it had the same door cards as the previous generation and shared a lot of components, but when reviewing other vehicles, they lament how new cars are too digital.
Yes!! and the online comments from the not journalists can be horrid and elitist also.
They can read like:
“Doesn’t everybody in the country with a drivers license know how to repair every vehicle ever made perfectly and have the space and tools and time to do it, and why should they not be able to pay cash for every single thing they’ve ever purchased in their entire lives, and they really should know more about cars than everyone just like I do”
Ironic too that this article is on a site that usually celebrates the direct honesty of vehicles past while lamenting the bland ignominy that they have become.
I wonder how much of the Durango sales boost can be attributed to Tahoe/Yukon sales being depressed due to the 6.2 failure fiasco, (assuming that’s why they are down)? If you’re looking for a V8 SUV for towing (it’ll tow 8700 with the 6.4) it’s one of the few options in this price range, or if you just really like the V8.
Good question, I am not sure how many people Durango shopping are even aware of the 6.2 issues and most buyers are not auto enthusiasts, They also may want something smaller than a tahoe/yukon and for less money.
A LOT less money. $30K less. You can almost buy TWO base Durangos for the price of a base Yukon. Tahoe\Yukons have just gotten STUPID expensive for what they are.
100%
“Durango continues to do extremely well for us, as we have positioned that properly in the marketplace, really focused in on the V-8s and offering consumers something they can’t get from any other vehicle in that segment,”
What is in the Durango that isn’t in any other vehicle in the segment? Well, other than shocking Stellantis quality and depreciation.
The cars with the worst depreciation are inevitably the ones that were discounted the most up-front, for any given class of cars.
Everyone here always carries on about “Stellantis quality”, but I know an awful lot of people who actually own the things and are perfectly happy with them. The big exception being the diesel pickup trucks in the emissions-control era, but that is true of every one of them from every brand – they all suck. Minivans and things like the Durango, Charger, and Challenger? Meh, whatever, they seem perfectly fine and they are all rather cheap upfront at ATP, if not MSRP necessarily. There is no universe in which I would pay the Toyota Tax on a minivan vs. a Pacifica or Voyager. I’ve driven both, the Toyota didn’t wow me considering the ask for them. Same with a Durango vs. a Grand Highlander.
Agreed! We have a 2020 Pacifica that has been fantastic and was less than $30k new with stow and go and AWD.
Besides the Tahoe/Suburban, I don’t think there any other V8 non-luxury SUVs. And only a few offer a RWD-biased design. Plus a LOT of people are sick of tons of screens and no buttons, so the Durango is a throw-back to a more simple time that some people miss.
It is not the type of vehicle that I personally would ever get, but I do understand its appeal. And since you can get a V8 powered one for low 40s, its priced decently as well (until you get to the crazy HP versions that cross 80k).
It has that beautiful Dodge symbol in it.
My understanding is that it’s the default option for people who want to tow heavier without shelling out luxury money, moving up a size class or buying a pickup.
I don’t trust any new products from Stellantis. It takes years to get the kinks worked out. The Durango has been around long enough where it should be reliable and all the areas that are questionable have solutions on the aftermarket. The vehicle is a good price for what it is and financing and incentives are available. So, it’s not a horrible option if you just need that sort of vehicle.
I’m a minivan guy. The ancient Pacifica is interesting just because the last 5 years of them have been very solid and the new whistles and bells on the newer designs aren’t anything I actually need and the price of the Pacifica is better than for any other minivan after incentives. I would assume, someone looking for a big 3 row SUV would say the same about the Durango.
Durango is old enough that tolerances on fixtures and tools have drifted far enough to “meh, that’ll do”
That assumes the original fixtures and tools had a tolerance not measured in “someone else will make it work”
I’m not even hemi interested in the Durango.
The current Durango is not a full-size in the Tahoe/Expedition class but pretty squarely in the middle of the Pilot/etc. Larger than say, an Ascent, but CDJR’s own Grand Cherokee L is physically larger. A Mazda CX-90 is too.
Does Dodge strip out sales of pursuit models in those figures? It could be consumer sales, but the Durango is now the only model with a police package Dodge sells, isn’t it?
yes? https://www.stellantisfleet.com/law-enforcement-vehicles.html
Many rental agencies use Durangos as their “full-size” SUV option. We regularly end up with one as a rental (they have to have a few of them for the frequency we end up with one) – while we are all openly hoping for the prized Toyota Sienna instead.
Rental car sizes are not necessarily correlated for a vehicle’s intended segment, though. Many list the Corolla as the ‘midsize’ offering, Hertz lists the Jeep Compass as a “midsize SUV,” and so on.
It’s certainly not a small vehicle and makes for a unique value proposition if any mix of domestic, V8, & RWD are your key buying points, just it’s not quite a 1:1 comparison to something like the Tahoe.
Why not Durango? Allow me to quote from an authoritative source:
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It’s the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!
Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
[Krusty:] Hey Hey
The Federal Highway commission has ruled the
Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.
Canyonero!
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)
She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She’s a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!
Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)
Drive Canyonero!
Woah Canyonero!
Woah!
Also, have you seen gas prices lately? Sheesh. Frankly, I can’t make the case for buying anything huge and fuel-hungry these days.
Just make sure you don’t end up with the F Series..
Wanna’ improve your mood? Put on some B-52’s. Wanna smile too? Watch the video.
Regarding Weehawken, go to YouTube and look “Weehawken, Central Park, Rap.” Then enjoy.
I certainly smiled watching the video. Also note that the received the proposal for its 8-engined B-52 78 years ago; updated re-engined units may extend their life to 2050.
No Turbocharged anything option (sucks for high altitude folk)
No Hurricane I6 option
No manual option
Also it looks frumpy
I wonder if the 3.0 Hurrican twin turbo will find it’s way into it…
One can hope, but then again if I were buying a 3.0 Hurricane I6 powered SUV it would be a Grand Wagoneer LWB with the air suspension.
Durango Hellcat is supercharged.
I would much rather have any Hemi than the Hurricane if I was planning on keeping the vehicle past the warranty.
Nothing in this class has a manual unfortunately.
With the right body trim (GT/SRT) I think it looks pretty good. Certainly better looking than the Ford Exploder or the Chevy Traverse, though the latest Traverse isn’t too bad looking with its 3/4 Tahoe styling.
Fair point, but you shouldn’t have to buy something uber horsepower to get forced induction.
Hold out long enough and maybe that new 334hp Hurricane 4 in the current Grand Cherokee will be dropped into the Durango to replace the ol’ 3.6 lol
Durangeaux in South Louisiana.
Large size + large engine + reasonable price = sales winner.
So hath it always been in the land of the free.
A lot for a little is why Charleston Chew’s existed.
TBQ: because I don’t want to be associated with Durango drivers, most of whom I’m guessing are trading from Chargers and Challengers. Just this morning got passed by someone who revved their Hemi engine on the way past. And then proceeded to tailgate the person in front of them. Not exactly selling SUVs, pal.
The Dodge Durango: “I have two kids and the CJDR finance kid said yes”
I think the Durango still looks good on the outside, and it’s got good old knobs and switches on the inside, plus all the tech stuff. It would be a mistake to cancel it without a replacement and hopefully they’ve learned that lesson.
Safety. IIHS ratings are incredibly unfavorable and point to the chassis being a 15 year old design. It’s missing half of the small overlap testing which is notoriously hard for older designs, and the “Structure and Safety Cage” is rated at Poor, it’s lowest available rating. These are based on tests from a decade ago, meaning it may be even less favorable if judges freshly today. While the competition isn’t perfect, it’s far, far better, and if you’re buying one of these to shuttle your kids around it, safety should matter a LOT.
But, I’m not going to get into any accidents, says Davy Durango.
If you have kids and care about safety, you are getting a Volvo XC90. Everything else is a compromise in safety.
I don’t care about safety at all on modern vehicles, they are all light years ahead of the stuff I’m used to driving. My daily is a 99, I have quite a few tiny honda hatchbacks that are total deathtraps, and my newest car is from 2004. Guarantee the Durango is safer than anything I own.
That’s quite the statement. Yes, the Volvo is historically the golden standard. But it is not the highest rated vehicle on the market. I know the Mazda CX-90 actually has a better iihs score.
Regardless of what IIHS rates things, the XC90 is still the safest vehicle in the world. For the longest times it had ZERO deaths, which ended in 2024 when a shipping container full of heavy stuff fell off a semi and crushed everyone to death.
But yeah, it’s quite the statement because the thing has quite the safety record. If safety is paramount, literally every other car on the road is a deathtrap by comparison.
On that note, the Nissan Z hasn’t been crash tested since it was known as the 350…
Matt, not to be that guy… But I don’t think the Dakota is carrying much of anything for Dodge.
I saw that too, he clearly had a brain fart writing that first paragraph.
It took a bit of thinking to go through, “Was there a new mid-size truck announcement? Wait, that would be a Ram now. Is the Dakota platform somehow the forebear of the modern (ish) Durango?” before I finally realized it was just a typo.
The Dodge Durango: “I am 30 or 40 years old and I do not need this.”
Fun fact, if you were 35 years old, that same Durango would have been on sale for your entire driving lifetime.
If you are not going to need low range and plan on staying on pavement a durango is a very good price for the a 3 row suv.
Funny thing is that last I checked, 4WD/AWD V8 Durango’s get the two-speed transfer case!
I know it has crossover flexibility but I’ve been looking around to see if anyone’s seriously tried it off-pavement.
on the website they are currently listed as AWD, so I assumed no low.
Yea as much as us netizens try to define 4WD vs AWD, as far as the spec sheet it’s whatever the manufacturer wants to write down on it.
I just checked and it does list “2-Speed On-Demand Transfer Case” on the V8 feature list and I’m pretty sure it’s the unit in the Grand Cherokee.
good find, You did a better job hunting on the website.
it looks like it is part of the tow and go package. well found. I missed that