2004 Dodge Durango XLT review from North America

Where do I begin? That truck was one of the WORST vehicles my family ever purchased. It was not right the day it came out of the factory because of the dog house over the engine could not repel the heat created by the massive engine, which literally melted the computer equipment for the car's "brain" and stereo equipment. It was so bad that Chrysler had to recall it and put in heat shields to protect the controls.

Then, the computer equipment itself was faulty to begin with. The novel idea of shutting down half of the cylinders while cruising to save fuel was the one thing the computer could not handle. It constantly revved irregularly on its own and eventually came to the point where it fried itself. Once again, the company did a recall around the same time and replaced the computer units.

Another problem was fuel consumption. It was a thirsty beast, around the same time that the country was going through the Iraqi gas crisis. It had an AWD system that could not be shut off.

The worst problem, though, was its faulty advertising. Chrysler advertised it as a true mountain goat S.U.V. like its Jeep cousins. We took it into the Gila National Forrest in New Mexico, where most of the ride, it was never on more than three wheels. On the way back home, there was a horrible sound of wind whipping through the cabin. It never went away because, as it turned out, the frame was bent! The entire truck was practically built off of a minivan chassis and could not stand up to any severe offroading. We had to get rid of it.

The only good part of the truck was that the engine was brilliant. It was zero to sixty in about ten seconds, which is incredibly good for a production S.U.V. You would be flying past traffic in a vehicle high enough to look into neighboring cars.

The cabin was pretty cheesy. With the plastic dashboard, plastic doors, and cheapo carpeting that lined the entire interior, it felt like you were back in the 1970's driving in your Chiffon Yellow AMC Pacer.