For the past 30 years, MotorWeek has reviewed the state of the automotive business and judged the best new trucks of the year. This year’s winner of the Drivers’ Choice Award for Best Large Utility goes to the 2011 Dodge Durango. Dodge Brand President and CEO, Ralph Gilles was presented the award at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show. Born out of engineering work shared with Mercedez-Benz, the Dodge Durango is all-new for 2011. It is a much more refined, mature, and modern take on the SUV formula.
“The Dodge team is truly honored that MotorWeek has selected the Dodge Durango for a Drivers’ Choice Award,” said Gilles. “The Durango represents where the Dodge brand is going with its six new or refreshed products for 2011–striking vehicles that are thoroughly engineered and fun to drive. It’s always rewarding when third party sources recognize that we’re creating quality products that will delight our customers.”
“The team that worked on the Durango really put their hearts into creating an SUV with a soul,” Gilles added. “When consumers get behind the wheel, they’ll experience a performance-tuned SUV that has an interior spaciousness of a crossover, still delivers best-in-class towing, and starts under $30,000. It’s a tremendous package.”
The annual Drivers’ Choice Award reviews vehicles from a buyer’s point of view. Scoring takes into account trends, innovations, value, and reliability to produce a list of winners that make sense and can be used as a practical guide for car shopping.
With its sleek exterior design, modern and spacious interior, world-class suspension dynamics, and intelligent, fuel-efficient, and powerful powertrain options, the all-new 2011 Dodge Durango delivers driving excitement expected from a performance vehicle, together with the refinement of a luxury vehicle combined with the interior flexibility of a three-row SUV.
With its new unibody structure, it is more than 25 percent stiffer than its predecessor, making it a driver’s SUV that delivers impressive on-road handling. The new 2011 Dodge Durango also delivers best-in-class towing capacity of 6,200 lbs. with the V-6 engine and 7,400 lbs. with the V-8 engine.
The base Durango Express is priced just below $30,000 and includes a pretty impressive feature set but Bluetooth is an option and upgrades like power seats, seat heating, push-button start and a power telescoping steering wheel are not available. With the R/T comes much more, like 20-inch wheels, Bluetooth, a hard drive for music storage, and the HEMI V-8. A top Citadel model, for about $42,000, bundles almost every option and features include a sunroof, blind-spot monitors, adaptive cruise control, a Garmin navigation system, and a heated steering wheel. The HEMI V-8 is an option on Crew and Citadel models, so is Sirius Backseat TV and a more rugged towing package.
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