DODGE DURANGO FORUM 2014 PLUS

You see, my wife is also plenty happy with our 2011 Durango, and sheвЂ™s got veto power. Earlier Durangos, like mine, had wider availability of those options.Д«ut thatвЂ™s not the main impediment to buying a new Durango. I want that safety gear without the stiffer-riding 20-inch tires that come standard with those trims. (And my sister is happy with her 2012 model.) My SUV has needed only one repair in 35,000 miles, and thatвЂ™s with more than 10,000 of those towing the trailer.ДЄs I mull the temptation to upgrade, IвЂ™m frustrated that you now need to buy a top-trim Citadel or R/T to get forward-collision warning, updated with autonomous braking capability for 2014. Otherwise, IвЂ™m plenty happy with my 2011 Durango. They might be better but still not as good as the great eight.) (The 2012-2013 Hemi-powered Durangos have six-speed transmissions. And my five-speed transmissionвЂ™s shift quality is far from smooth. You hardly notice the smooth-and-silky little steps between gears, and the transmission usually stays between fifth and eighth on the highway.Д«y comparison, the big steps among the just-five gears in my 2011 Durango deliver big jumps in engine noise as the V8 sometimes has to shift into a lower-than-optimal gear, typically hitting third to pull uphill. Eight gears instead of five means youвЂ™ll probably find one better-tailored to your quest for power. And in regular commuting without the trailer, I can eke out two more mpg with the 2014 than with my truck.Д«ut the subjective experience is more important than the numbers. I couldnвЂ™t resist measuring 0-to-60 mph times while towing my trailer on our track 14.9 seconds is a pretty strong performance. While some of the DurangoвЂ™s other changes, such as the new-for-2014 Uconnect touch-screen system, are welcome, the new transmission is the big draw here.ДЄcceleration is effortless, even when towing the trailer uphill, as the transmission better utilizes the HemiвЂ™s power. I hitched my trailer up to a 2014 Durango Citadel V8 CR recently paid Chrysler to try out a press car, since weвЂ™ll purchase a 3.6-liter V6-equipped Durango-the most popular engine choice-for our test fleet. Turns out that adding those extra gears transforms the towing experience.

DODGE DURANGO FORUM 2014 PLUS

My wife and I tow the trailer almost every weekend during camping season, plus an annual two-week trip, so our Durango spends a lot of time as a beast of burden. I own the Hemi-powered SUV for one big (well, 23-foot-long) reason: towing my 5,500-pound 2007 Airstream Safari SE trailer. ThatвЂ™s the number of speeds in the automatic transmission in the updated 2014 Dodge Durango-compared to the five-speed transmission in my 2011 Durango. It boils down to a simple equation: Eight is better than five. Usually, IвЂ™m capable of warding off temptation. One of the occupational hazards of this job is being surrounded by the latest-and-greatest cars and trucks.

Dodge durango forum 2014