Dodge Durango 2011

Where to start... Oh I know, it couldn't get any worse than the previous model!  The truth is it only got a little better.  This is a classic tale of a car company that has two divisions, where two vehicles were forced to be designed around the same infrastructure. The problem is you risk watering down the design for one or both.  In this case, the car company is Chysler, and the two divisions are Jeep and Dodge.  It looks to us that the Grand Cherokee took priority when it came to designing the cousins and the Durango just had to make due.  The Durango just looks terrible to tell you the truth.  Dodge's new grill design looks like it is going to be a challenge to design around, especially when the rest of the sheet medal wasn't designed for it. 

The head lights are very blah, their is no real design to them, they are just there.  I wish that Dodge would have held steady with their leaning forward grill just a little longer, it gave there cars and trucks such a mean, distinctive aggressive look, which the Charger and Ram still sport.

The rear of the Durango is pretty much a copy of the Grand Cherokee, the designers could have been a little more creative. The tail lights look some what cartoon like and seem to big for the design.  I would like to give some design credit for the little jog that the tail light casing takes, but it's just stupid.  It looks like the designers sat down and tried to do as little as possible but still wanted it to look a little different than the Grand Cherokee, don't knock your selves out, you only spent millions to design it.


2011 Durango

 

2011 Grand Cherokee



  

The Durango doesn't have a continuous horizontal line, it begins, fades away, and reappears in the middle of the rear passenger door.  This is not a bad design feature but it does nothing for the Durango.  The biggest problem with the Durango's designs is that every time it is redesigned it carries nothing over from the model before. leaving the audience disenfranchised.   This often happens when a vehicle joins formats with another vehicle.  The first Durango was so strong and different, which is what attracted everyone to it, and since then it has been a slow, painful, gut wrenching, uninspiring, down hill decline.  Below I attached a photo a concept design for the 2011 Durango, I believe the Durango's Grade would have been higher if they would have stuck with it.



2011 Dodge Durango

 

2011 Dodge Durango Concept

2011 Dodge Durango
Grade: 3