Car Moon

Dodge doubled its new Durango offerings at the Chicago Auto Show with the launch of the Heat performance package that joins the R/T model. The two trim levels share most of their exterior and interior appointments as well as suspension tweaks, but whereas the R/T gets a 360-horsepower 5.7-liter HEMI V8, the Heat is fitted with a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 delivering 295 ponies and 260 lb.-ft. (353 Nm) of torque for an improved fuel efficiency of 16/23 mpg for the rear-wheel-drive model and 16/22 mpg for the all-wheel-drive version. Read more »

The Chicago Auto Show is the stage for the world premiere of an entire lineup of new R/T performance models from Dodge. The brand's performance moniker, which stands for Road & Track and has been in use since the 1960s, has now been applied on the latest iterations of the Charger saloon, Challenger Coupe, Journey crossover, Durango SUV and the Dodge Caravan minivan. Every R/T model receives exclusive exterior and interior design cues plus performance enhancements including special exhaust tuning and a sport suspension.

“Our Dodge R/T models give buyers the chance to stoke their love of driving while still taking care of their families and responsibilities. Driving these R/T models will absolutely leave a smile on their face,” said Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles.

Beginning with the 2011 Charger R/T, the sports sedan comes with a 5.7-liter HEMI V8 engine with four-cylinder mode Fuel Saver Technology returning 370 horsepower and a 0-60 mph (96 km/h) performance in less than 6 seconds. It is available in both rear- and all-wheel drive configurations. The MSRP for the 2011 Charger R/T is $30,170 (excluding an $825 destination charge).

The latest snow falls across the U.S. have prompted a flurry of commercials from automakers touting the advantages of all-wheel drive models. This one comes from Dodge and shows the new Durango, Charger and Journey, all of which are available with AWD. Nevertheless, we'd say that while power sent to four wheels instead of two does help in certain situations, one should never, ever underestimate the importance of a good set of all season or better yet, winter tires. Read more »

Launched in June, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee has enjoyed a massive success, as sales last month were up 291% compared to October 2009. So it comes to no surprise that Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler, is considering the use of the Grand Cherokee's architecture on a variety of new models including Fiat, Maserati and Alfa Romeo SUVs, and possibly for a future Chrysler variant.

Last night, the Chrysler Group's Mopar division held a special media event at its SEMA Show booth in Las Vegas to show off its new goodies, which include the 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 Inaugural Edition, Charger Redline, Durango and the Rich Evans Mopar-powered Challenger. This video from the presentation provides us our first glimpse of the 2011 Challenger SRT8's interior, which doesn't look any different from the current model sans the newly designed and badged three-spoke sports steering wheel. Follow the jump to watch the video clip.

Wrapping up our preview on the Chrysler Group's 2010 SEMA Show offerings, we've grouped up the rest of Mopar's products in a gallery after the jump. All in all, Chrysler's in-house tuning division will showcase a total of 35 vehicles in Las Vegas.

Aside from the 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 and RedLine Charger, and Fiat 500 that we've already told you about in previous posts, it's worth mentioning that Mopar is reading a luxed-up version of the 2011 Dodge Durango called "Black and Tan" as well as an "Off-Road Edition" of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee.

About a month ago, Dodge released pictures and initial details on its all-new 2011 Durango SUV model. Now that we have had some time to digest the crossover's exterior, the automaker has dropped the first photos of the 7-seater model's interior.

Being that the new Durango is heavily based on the 2011 Grand Cherokee, it comes to no surprise that -for the most part- the cockpit design is almost identical to that of Jeep's flagship model.

There are changes to the color schemes and trim, new steering wheel hub and instrument panel gauge designs, while certain switchgear such as the rotatable knob for the headlamps are unique to the Durango.

Dodge came out this weekend -so it's still happening- and got involved with the common folks at a half-marathon in Virginia Beach. Officially, the event is called the "Dodge Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon presented by SunTrust", but really it was just a nice chance to show off the new Durango (fully revealed here) in action as the pace car/truck/crossover.

[Updated] There have been no shortage of spy shots, teaser photos and even trademark sketches to be had showing the 2011 Durango SUV, but today Dodge finally came out with full blown pictures and initial specs on its brand-new 7-seater crossover that's scheduled to arrive in U.S. showrooms in the fourth quarter of 2010 competing against the likes of Ford's new Explorer.

Even though it makes use of an older name, the 2011 Durango is all-new inside and out. Under the fresh sheetmetal you'll find the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee's unibody structure and the same engine options including a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 and a 5.7-liter HEMI engine with the Chrysler Group's Multi-displacement system (MDS) four-cylinder mode.

Even though Dodge has started playing the striptease photo game with the 2011 Durango, the Detroit carmaker is still keeping test cars under cover for apparent reasons. Forum member GM4Life from 'Cheers and Gears' bagged these photos of a camouflaged prototype of the seven (or eight) seater crossover on the highway somewhere near Denver, Colorado.

Not to be outdone by Ford and its marketing tactics with the 2011 Explorer, the Chrysler Group published a few more teaser shots of the upcoming 2011 Dodge Durango. These new photos come in addition to those released during an earlier announcement today on the launch of a dedicated website on the crossover model which is equipped with three rows of seats.

After much speculation about the name of Dodge's forthcoming SUV model which is heavily based on the all-new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, an official teaser site that just went live confirms the use of the 'Durango' nameplate. The website also offers some new rendered images of the 2011 Durango including a cropped shot of the dashboard revealing the push-button start.

We've added a full set of images from the site after the jump, but for a better look of the SUV, click here for a completely uncloaked 2011 Durango snagged in the factory and here for a very accurate rendering based on the official patent drawings.

Thanks to Twitter user who posted a link to a Twitpic page, we now have the first photo the 2012 Dodge Durango, which could end up being named Magnum or something entirely different, without any trace of camouflage.

The full size SUV model is believed to ride on the same or lengthened version of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee platform, which was developed alongside the next generation Mercedes-Benz ML SUV.

couple of months ago we broke the story on the official patent drawings of the next Dodge Durango SUV (see here), or whatever else Chrysler LLC bosses decide to name it. Andrew Currie from the 'Cheersandgears' forums took a couple of these sketches and rendered them to offer us a more realistic view of Dodge's full-size SUV.

A Carscoop reader dropped these patent drawings of an unnamed Dodge SUV model in our mailbox last night. We performed a search of our own and can confirm that the images are indeed authentic.

And while there's always a possibility that we are wrong here, but from what we can tell by comparing the drawings to the latest scoops from around the web, it appears that the SUV - Crossover - CUV (take your pick) featured here is the 2012 Dodge Durango, or whatever else the Chrysler Group decides to call this model.

If you follow the jump and click the respective links, you'll see that the so-called 2012 (or 2011) Durango seen in the spy shots shares many styling cues with the vehicle pictured in these patent drawings.