New Durango any good?

1968FormulaS340 said
First, I'm not talking about Ram Trucks. Those are Ok.

Some manufacturers aren't much better to be honest and I could talk about this all day long but I don't really feel like it.

I will say, with every car you have depreciation, build quality and repairability. Of all the brands I have worked on, modern Mopars have the fastest rate of natural deterioration.

They also have a high rate of depreciation and poor repairability. The front end of the new Challenger is especially cheesy and the brake lines run along the radiator core support.

In the real world, anyone can have a collision (you hitting something or someone hitting you) With a modern mopar you have the highest risk of being upside down, should your car total and a higher likelihood that it will total.

They have a layered, exposed structure that requires significant structural disassemblely (drilling and cutting apart) to make minor structural repairs.

For the same money, you can get a much better vehicle from another manufacturer.

Chevy is almost as bad, but slightly better. Ford is significantly better, just about equal to the build quality of some of the Asian imports.

Hearing the other point of view is always good as it helps make an informed decision.

Can you provide some facts/stats to back up your statement that owning a Chrysler product will result in it more likely being totalled than another brand?

Car companies market and sell their products based on the most important features/stats that the average consumer cares about. I think that fuel economy and safety/crash ratings are likely the two items that the majority of car buyers look at (in addition to the purchase price). Most buyers don't care about the car being totalled if they are in an accident. Most buyers care about being able to walk away or not be seriously injured if they are in an accident. That drives car companies to focus on crash ratings for the occupants instead of how badly damaged the car is after the accident. A car company selling the feature of "our ECM is located in the middle of the car to reduce the need to replace it should you be in an accident" or "our brake lines are encased in carbon fibre sheaths so they won't get punctured/severed should you be in an accident" isn't going to sell more cars if the fuel economy isn't the same or better than a competitors car. Plus all that extra stuff (length of additional wiring so the ECM is not in the front of the car) adds weight which increases the build cost of the car and the weight which also reduces the fuel economy.