Test drive Dodge Durango 1997 - 2003 SUV

Archar

The new car of the Chrysler de Yure corporation is a compact SUV, it is almost full -size. Durango on average 300-400 mm longer, slightly wider and higher than classmates, and does not reach older brothers in length of 200-300 mm. To the conclusion that the machines are such - intermediate - the size will be in demand, the corporation came after polls of potential buyers, a considerable part of which did not suit the dimensions of existing compact models, but they could not purchase a car above the class due to higher prices. The cost of the new Dodge in the basic configuration is in the upper third of the CDs price scale. In terms of engine power, passenger capacity and cross -country ability, the car successfully competes with full -sized SUVs, and in terms of the thoroughness of the decoration and the number of additional equipment, it approaches some luxury models.
 

For the first time, Dodge Durango was shown to the public in January 1997 at a New York Auto Show. They created a car, one might say, with little blood. It is based on the Dakota pickup, which received the 1997 Truck Truck title from Off -Road magazine, and in the Dakota R/T version of the 1998 sports truck from Sport Truck. The alteration of the pickupa into the SUV cost inexpensively - more than 70% of Dakota details were used in Durango. Almost the entire front of the car is preserved. A set of three engines and a four -speed automatic gearbox is the same. Durango’s drive is full, in 1999, the rear -wheel drive version was promised. Differences - in the rear. To increase the capacity, the back of the frame has been expanded, and for the more convenient placement of passengers on the second and third (option), a number of seats had to raise the roof.
 

Durango has a courageous, deliberately rude look - this is clearly a car for men. In a recognizable front line, a single Dodge for all trucks and full -sized Van, the swiftness created by developed wings and narrow headlights is combined with the coolest capacity and the predatory of the radiator grille. Thanks to the embossed translasts on the side doors, visually the car seems lower than in fact, and the growth on the roof is concealed by the rally-kronsteins for securing the cargo. Tinted glass, bumpers painted in the color of the body, as well as the absence of hinged equipment - footboards, kangaroenet, gate (hinged frame for the spare wheel) give the appearance of the car to power and monolithic.
 

Despite the considerable external height of the threshold, there are no problems when planting - from the inside, its height above the floor is completely small, the seats are installed close to the doorway - to get into the car, one step is enough. Comfortable chairs are sheathed with skin, and quite thick, even rude. This has its own charm, because, in addition to more practicality and durability, gross skin causes associations with a cowboy saddle and thus contributes to maintaining the image of a car for real men.
 

The front seats have only two manual settings - the back and distance to the pedals, but they are quite enough - the shape, depth and elasticity of the seats are so accurately verified. The steering wheel is plastic, optimal diameter and cross-section, with a built-in airbag and cruise control keys. The steering column is adjustable by inclination, the adjustment range provides convenience of steering wheel coverage for a driver of any height.
 

Torpedo is made of soft plastic yellowish-brown color (in tone of the cabin). The panel of the devices and the beard on which the radio and the climate controls are located, the dark gray insert frames. The music says Chrysler and a branded star is drawn. The sound is very decent, in the FM range, most Moscow radio stations are stable. Under the musical center in a row - switches of the rear wiper, washer and heater, outlet for additional devices and cigarette lighter. The struggle against smoking in America reached the climax - the designers did not dare to completely abandon the ashtray, but placed it so far from the driver that you will think three times before smiling. A can of cola with a cut off, inserted into the cup holder, helped to solve this problem.

There are six turnouts on the dashboard. Four of them reflect the main parameters of the engine, the other two are a tachometer and a speedometer. The scale of the latter is fucked in miles and kilometers, American units are larger and are easier. Audometer with a liquid crystal display. Using a special lever, a common or daily run can be removed to it.
 

The height of the tunnel for the cardan shaft is minimal - the floor in the cabin is almost even. On what remains of the central console, there are two cup holders, a pocket for trifles and in the front, almost under a torpedo, a lever of control of a hand -box. With it, you can select a drive (full or only rear) and turn on the reduced series of transmission. In order to manipulate a lever, you need to lean forward strongly - not too comfortable, but during movement and unsafe. On most modern SUVs, the transmission mode is selected by buttons on the panel, but Durango is a car for men. The reduced range of transmission can only be turned on in a fixed car, transferring the automatic transmission selector to Parking.
 

Between the front seats a large box, the cover of which is also a armrest. The rear sofa is intended for three people, and it will not be closely, together there is generally luxurious. Especially if you throw the armrest in the middle of the sofa and adjust the back tilt at your discretion. We got a version with two rows of seats for the test, and we could not appreciate the convenience of passengers in an eight -seater salon.

The ease with which the passenger interior is transformed into a huge luggage compartment is worthy - just press the latch near each of the half of the sofa, and the back folds under the influence of the spring, and then it becomes vertically along with the seat. In the vacant space, a tool box with a lid is found. The second is the same in the back of the cabin, near the door itself. On its walls, mounts for a jack and a cylinder key are mounted, and at the bottom there is a bolt that fixes in the transport position a spare tire located under the bottom in the rear overhang. So the process of replacing the wheel will be very dirty. But in the cabin, spacious, and the rear review is not limited.
 

It was not at all easy to prepare for the movement. The machine gun selector is on the steering column and moves along a rather complex trajectory. The general direction of the selection of transmissions is vertical, but before moving the lever with P, it must be pulled to yourself, then, before turning on D, move somewhere along the steering column, etc. I had to study. In the positions of the selector, the pointer on the dashboard helps to navigate - in the window corresponding to the inclusion of one or another gear, a red flag appears.
 

There is no familiar handbrake in this machine, but there is a parking brake, and it turns on the pedal located next to the working brake. But it turns off ... At first, the hand falls on the handle in the shape of a fungus located to the left of the steering column. The handle is on - the overall lights are turned on, then the near light. Having carefully examined the torpedo around the steering wheel, I did not find anything else that could be pulled or pressed. Feeling the lower part of the panel, I came across an inconspicuous key, but in appearance and design I decided that it was designed to open the hood. Not finding anything else, he still took up her, and the signal light on the panel went out. It turns out that the hood opens with another lever, under the steering column. There are inscriptions on the levers, but you can read them only by looking at the torpedo.
 

The engine is all in sight. The baying necks are dispersed throughout the income space and are equipped with explanatory inscriptions in English, understandable, however, qualified mechanics from any country. And on the tank for antifreeze there is an explanatory picture.
 

In the urban mode of movement, this large, high and powerful machine is extremely easy to drive. Her dimensions are felt perfectly from the first minutes of driving. The review of the complaints does not cause complaints. Back - a little worse, since an intra -sulfate mirror is really intra -sulfate: only a huge interior in it is visible, well, maybe more fragments of roofs of cars traveling behind. Basically, the situation on the road has to be controlled with the help of outer burdocks of outstanding sizes. If you need to hand back, and even in the dark - through tinted glass, even turning into the seat, you will not see anything. More powerful reverse lanterns would not be superfluous.

From the point of view of aerodynamics, the body is quite successful. Even on the most dirty and wet road, spray from under the wheels of both their own and passing cars does not fall into the frontal or rear window, and if nothing is dripping from the sky (poured, pours), the wipers practically do not have to use the wipers.
 

A long base and a wide track make Durango extremely stable. When turning or stopping from a row to a row, the car holds the road perfectly.
 

Small irregularities suspension and high rubber are repaid instantly. In the cabin, only tread slaps are heard. Powerful reptile stabilizers do not allow the car to be very tag in turn or sway after it. Supervisor - with a variable characteristic, with an increase in speed, the steering becomes noticeably more acute. The automatic gearbox works smoothly and imperceptibly, and the acceleration is so powerful that you involuntarily look at the tachometer: is the engine twisted?
 

Starting from the traffic light, Durango invariably left everyone. The driver of Jeep Grand Cherokee, who drove a spectacular blonde in the passenger seat, had suggested that we chase with gestures. Challenge accepted. With a slip, we break off the traffic light and immediately win two buildings. Then Jeep catch up and even breaks forward. With identical motors, he used to the peak of torque earlier, and the car itself is easier to four hundred kilograms. But the triumph of Jeeper did not last long. After 90 km/h, Durango seemed to have grown. Cherokee was left behind, and then completely lost in the flow of cars.
 

Nonsense. We were ready to see his tail, but it turned out the other way around. Both models from Chrysler, although they perform in the same class, but Cherokee - a highway of a hero, and Durango is a serious all -terrain vehicle.

Included cruise control. Very comfortable thing. Moving on a flat plane, on the rise or under the hill, the machine always retains a given speed. True, going to overtake, instead of the acceleration keys, sometimes out of habit, you press the gas pedal, and then the automation immediately turns off.
 

We are approaching the highway selected for Durango for cross -country ability. The first obstacle was found, without even turning from the asphalt. The tractors, cleansing the side of the road, built two snow-ligaments on the road, eighty centimeters high. In order not to drive around the neighborhood, looking for the beginning or end of the shaft, we decided to try to move through it. It didn’t work out, it turned out through. The car scattered more larger with the wheels of the ice and ground those that are smaller. Similarly acted with the second, parallel snowdrift. And they ended up on a real off -road: a field set by ravines, a rifle, and followed by a 4x4 club, where all extreme conditions have been created for the competition.
 

Durango pendants - an uncertain bridge on the springs from the rear and independent torsionic in front - provide a large wheel of wheels vertically relative to the frame, which allows the car to easily move along a complex relief. The height of the obstacles that the machine is on the shoulder is determined only by the length of the base.
 

Thanks to a decent road clearance (200 mm, Dakota is 25 mm more), you can move without fear along a deep rut. Before doing this, we carefully examined the car from below to detect fragile and protruding details. There were no such ones - fuel lines and brake highways were hidden inside the boxes, the cardan shaft resembles a telegraph column in thickness, and the crossbars of the frame form powerful protection for gearboxes. Under the engine is a thick steel shield.
 

When the road ahead seemed completely impassable for us, the steering wheel turned, and the car, easily getting out of the rut, went along the virgin lands. At first we strained a little, since unpleasant surprises could hide under a thick snow blanket. However, the car so confidently overcame the first fifty meters that it became clear - the fears are in vain. The car is shod in the rubber of Goodyear Wrangler - a great choice for Russian conditions, the wheels do not skill in the deep - snow - snow, nor on the sandy slope. Magnum V8 (as called 5.2 liters, 237-horsepower engine), without raising the voice, pulls out the car from the ravine from a steepness of a slope of at least 45 degrees, selling 407 nm of torque through a transmission consisting of a four-speed automatic and a mechanical gearbox with an interdosseum Differential of increased friction. Even being in the middle of the slope, the car is pressed by an accelerator pedal in a sharp jerk - there is plenty of power in reserve.

Having left on the field and making sure that there are no large pits and hillocks, we decided to try out the car for controllability in the conditions of off -road. I sharply turn the steering wheel at a speed of about 80 km/h. The car obediently, with the accuracy of the circul, draws the circle, returning to its traces at the place of gathering with a straight line. In the second and third circles, I consistently increase the speed by 10 km/h. The wheels effectively throw snow fountains. The spectacle is beautiful, but only for an outside observer. It is not particularly pleasant to be inside the car at this moment, since when passing small irregularities, a rather rigid suspension transmits significant vibration to the body. The steering wheel, at a lower speed held by two fingers, strives to jump out of the palms. Nevertheless, the car obediently describes circles. Durango refused to follow exactly in a given direction only at a speed of 110 km/h.
 

Having finished exercises on a flat surface, we again climb the hill. The task is to climb a spiral with a critical side roll. There are no devices fixing the deviation from the horizontal by car, but according to the results of past trips on cars with rollomers, we know that the slope of this hill is about 30 degrees - a value is quite acceptable for the SUV. The task is complicated by the fact that Durango does not have inter -long locks.
 

Under a layer of freshly conquered snow - ice after a recent thaw. Cloging behind the bagel and hanging on a seat belt, I try to drive the car directly and evenly. At some moments, it seems that the car is about to overturn, but it with amazing perseverance and amazing stability makes his way through the snowdrifts, conquering a meter after a meter. Directly along the course, a hollow of unknown depth is clearly visible. Contrary to logic, I decide to go around it at the top.
 

Caution, literally by millimeter, I turn the wheels to the left - towards the rise. The car leans already very dangerous. A little more - and he will overturn. The nerves can’t stand it, I bring the steering wheel to the left and sharply add speed. The rear bridge is slipping, and the car turns the car with the nose to the top of the hill ... We already passed right up. The car literally took off to the top, I did not even have time to stop, so that the photographer captured a spectacular shot. The descent in a straight line was neither complexity nor interest. The car smoothly rolled off the hill with a constant speed supported by the engine operating at idle.
 

In the end, they decided to test in action ABS. Through the field in which we drew circles, a beautiful road, rolled to continuous ice, was laid.
 

I accelerate to 140 km/h and sharply squeeze the brake. At first it seems that nothing happens - there is no familiar vibration of the pedal. However, the car slows down very efficiently, it is unlikely that this is possible with blocked wheels. I turn around and make a second entry, listening more carefully to my feelings. The leg still feels a small trembling of the brake pedal, and the beginning of the side departure is observed, immediately, however, suppressed.
 

For all the time, the test never had to not only go to a lower series of transmissions, but also use the locking of the highest gears in the automatic transmission.
 

The front bridge was constantly turned on since leaving the parking lot. Of course, there are several objective factors that distinguish the current trip from the previous ones, for example, winter tires, the state of snow cover, etc. Nevertheless, it is clear that as a Durango SUV is very good. On his hood, the Dodge signature sign is the head of the ram, but by nature the car is more like a mountain goat - Archara in our opinion. This animal is famous for the unique ability to overcome any twists, climb almost steep walls and easily jump over small abysses. We did not find the abyss, but Dodge successfully coped with all the other obstacles.
 

Evgeny Romantovsky
 


 

A source: Magazine Motor