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
Happy birthday to Kate! “Candy” by Iggy Pop and her just came on the radio as I got to the bottom of the article.
Why not Durango? I dunno, not for me but all y’all have fun.
I loves me some Durango and if I were a new car buyer, I would be very heavily looking at the 6.4. But instead I’m looking at 5.7s from the early teens.
Unless there is some expensive safety/structural re-engineering required, Dodge would do well to bring back the Journey. It would be a perfect fit for current and near future economic times.
And just to cheer me up, bring back the Neon too!
If I ever need a third row, it better be a very practical one. Either it’s easy to get into or it’s got room back there. The Durango doesn’t have it, nor does it have the 2-row option anymore.
A 2 row Durango is like the best (but likely to most, a “more useless”) SUV, at least to me.
That Hamilton soundtrack has really sunk in, and I love it!
I don’t think there’s any shame in continuing to produce a long-in-the-tooth design if enough people are still buying it to make it turn a profit. (Clearly, Stellantis doesn’t, either.) If anything, long production runs allow engineers and designers to slowly optimize the design, fixing pain problems that only show up after years of use and finding ways to cut costs that owners never notice.
I’m not interested in a Durango, but I’m a big fan of the Pacifica, and I’d happily cross-shop that older design if I was in the market.
I think part of it is the Durango is right sized and right priced. Not all of us need a Ford class Suburban or Nimitz class Tahoe. I don’t do any heavy towing so a 13 yr old Highlander meets my needs.
Lots of new cars are being purchased by relatively well to do people with kids and crap to haul around. It’s no surprise that larger vehicles are selling well looking through that lens. Even with gas at $4.25 a gallon around me, fuel just isn’t that big of a concern for that buyer. If it doubled then maybe. Aside from that happening, skipping Uber Eats once a month to hear V8 rumble daily is a sacrifice many seem willing to make. Besides, that pizza won’t deliver itself now! To the V8!
If any car manufacturer had been watching the motorcycle market in the 90s, they would have noticed that the Kawasaki Zephyr was a slam dunk.
We live in time where new models are no longer automatically better, but often they are just different – for better or for worse.
I would buy any modernized Benz base from the early 2000s. Given that we’re speaking of Chrysler here, it’s way past time to admit that in this case an old platform is a pro rather than a con.
On other markets people kept buying Hyundai Gallopers long after the original Mitsubishi Pajero was discontinued. A friend in Europe (a car mechanic) owns one, and claims it’s better than the original. Basically a Pajero with all the infant diseases weeded out. Including extra gussets where it matters on the frame and whatnot.
The Durango’s offering is not for everyone, but for the ones it works for – it absolutely ticks all the boxes.
Any brand that would bring me a CRX or a Prelude from the good years would get my money.
They offer a V8, AWD SUV for $46000. You want some cheap speed to haul your family around, that’s a pretty strong offering.
The Durango in no way competes with the full size two and three row SUVs from GM. I had to deal with one as a rental while our VW Atlas was in the body shop for a month 2 years ago, it was considerably smaller inside than even the Atlas. The Tahoe is much larger and roomier inside.
While I personally wouldn’t own a Durango, I see why people buy them. Updates have kept it current enough, and the interior isn’t awash in screens and touch capacitve buttons. The V8 definitely helps too, doesn’t matter if modern V6s are more efficient and can offer more power, some folks just want a V8. Looks like the base model starts at around $40k, not bad for the segment. I don’t think it’s the same value that the Journey offered near the end of its production run, but getting there.
I have to respect any vehicle that can sell well using an older platform. As an air cooled Beetle owner, I feel like I have to. The Beetle was built until 2003, long after you’d expect a vehicle designed in the 30s to sell for. I’ve personally never liked the Durango based on styling alone, but I’d never fault someone for buying one.
And police fleets are still buying Durangos, at least they are around here. I wonder what percentage of new Durango sales are to fleets, and if that’s why the platform has stuck around. If memory serves, that’s what kept the Panther platform around for so long.
My wife is waiting for a 392 to hit the lot so she can drive it.
I mean, the Durango sure is a hell of a lot cheaper than a Tahoe, that’s for sure. That segment is not exactly in my cultural wheelhouse though, so I’m probably not the person to answer the question.
I’d have to imagine Stellantis have been giving these, and the Wagoneer (which I have strangely been seeing everywhere, after a launch that I would say at least in my region, was pathetically unsuccessful) crazy discounts. I much prefer seeing the Durango, as the Wagoneer has become our area’s new “I don’t give a shit about anyone else around me” car. Seriously these things do not fit anywhere, and have become the scourge of our elementary school and surrounding area. Add that to me never seeing one not double parked.
Honestly, the Durango is basically automotive jorts. Incredibly uncool, stubbornly resistant to change, immune to mockery and somehow immensely popular. I don’t want one but lots of people do.
COTD
Site is unreadable with ads covering up content today…
Something went horribly wrong, I’m sorry. Turning off ads for new stories today.
Thanks Matt!
No Durango because fuel costs, reliability, resale, and you’re better off with a minivan for that job.
Even the gas prices aren’t a huge deal, when you take into account the transaction prices.
You can pay $53K for a Durango with all the goodies and a V8…or you can pay $66K (over sticker) for a Grand Highlander Hybrid with the features you want. It would take a lot of years to make up that difference, especially if you’re keeping the car and not trading it in. Also, the Durango is pretty reliable and understood, all things considered, so I wouldn’t be worried about it costing you a ton of money in repairs later in life.
I’m just thankful you didn’t propose Durango’s for the plural. You have no idea how much I hate mistaken attempts to pluralize with “‘s”.
Man, tell me about it. How are people getting past the 3rd grade and somehow thinking they need an apostrophe to make a noun plural? It’s the one logical and easy thing in the English language: JUST PUT AN S ON THE END
I hate to even type this, but the Durango looks sorta nice and I’ve seen a few around. If I was in the market for an SUV of that size, the engine and color choices really make it a good choice. If you can get over the fact its a dodge durango you just bought. And these days, I don’t think most people are gonna be too judgy.
Durango sales are up at the same time the 60 month powertrain warranty on the last model year of the Journey would have been ending. Coincidence?
I’m becoming more and more convinced that the average (non-enthusiast) car owner doesn’t have a clue what they’re riding in, driving, or even buying. They might be aware of the manufacturer, and possibly even a long-running model, which could definitely explain Durango.
TBQ,
I’m waiting for the Durango: Unchained version, where they drop the Hurricane in it
In 40 years or so, they’ll still be making the Durango in Mexico and Brazil and it will surpass the Beetle as the longest production run in history. Some guy named Tason Jorchinsky will be entertaining us with stories of how the taillights changed from year to year.
The first generation just used the minivan ones, above a panel gap between the body and rear bumper as wide as the Grand Canyon.
I thought using the minivan rear hatch in the 1st gen was a great cost saving idea and made for good loading of stuff.
Given that a Durango taillight rarely has all of its segments operational, I think the taillights change from day to day.
I’m going to posit that in 40 years Mexico and Brazil will be making much more advanced vehicles that the US.
Why not Durango,
Got me, but if I was in the market for one, I’d take a post-depreciation hit one, even at one or two years old.
More importantly, a plurality of Durango should either be Durangi, or Durangles.
That is all.
Just saying, but Plurango was right there.
I got you. Now, what if we pronounce Durangles like LosAngeles, instead of sounding like dangles?
Won’t that sound vaguely…um…dirty?
Make my Durangles Spicy Jalapeno!