[00:11] vehicles of the year. This is the 2026 Dodge Durango RT392. Dodge Durango RT392. It now starts at $50,000. these for less than a used one of these, which is just crazy. They've scrapped
[00:28] which is just crazy. They've scrapped the 5.7 L V8 as the standard engine in the 5.7 L V8 as the standard engine in the RT and brought in the 6.4 L Hemi V8. It makes 475 horsepower, 470 pound- feet of torque. It's got an 8-speed automatic
[00:42] transmission. It's all-wheel drive. You've got SRT track and drive and sport and snow modes. And it's just it's a beast. It's one of my favorite vehicles to drive on the road. And I've got to say this is probably the best enthusiast
[00:57] you guys around it. Talk about what it's been like to live with for the last couple days. We're going to be spending some more time in this Durango this week. We're driving it up north to Traverse City for Substitute Toper's
[01:09] Bachelor Party. So, we're piling some people in the back. We've got a really nice six-seater configuration here. a barebones basic interior, switch gear from 15 years ago, an updated infotainment system, physical buttons,
[01:24] knobs, switches, nice enough interior materials, and for 50 grand, there is no complaining in this Durango RT because it sounds like this.
[01:42] Scorpion Zero AllSeason tires. These are two 9545 R20s and a square setup too so you can rotate them. Massive braking hardware. And I just love this spec. I
[01:54] love this color. Supposedly they've made the Durango a lot more difficult to steal these last couple model years with some updated electronics and safety modules and security systems. But let's be honest, you're still going to be a
[02:08] target in one of these things. And that really is my only reservation about just going out and buying one cuz it's just such a fantastic vehicle. I could take the family around in comfort. I could take it to the racetrack. I could take
[02:21] the family around in comfort to the racetrack. It's just one of the most versatile, best handling, fun to drive SUVs I think ever made. I put it up there in terms of handling versus the Porsche Cayenne, the BMW X3M, X5M.
[02:41] It may not have the interior materials, the quality, the fit, the finish, but it's 50 grand. Who cares? Lots of space in the back of this. You've got grab handles. It's easy to get up into. Rear climate vents. Look at
[02:54] that. You can adjust between upper and lower air flow. You've got more climate controls back here. Look at that. Yes, armrests. Nice big pass through. Here's what your third row looks like. And
[03:09] you can just go through the pass through. best third rows I've sat in in an SUV that isn't a minivan recently. Love to see that.
[03:22] And then if you want to get out, just do that. Look at that. Now that is ingress that. Look at that. Now that is ingress and egress for the third row.
[03:38] and it's fun. If you guys have seen any of my videos on the Durango SRT 392 in the past, you'll know I absolutely love it. Every time I get in one, I go online and think about, go ash, how could I just how could I buy one of these?
[03:51] Should I buy one of these? Should this just be my only car? just be my only car? Little bit of storage under there.
[04:03] tailgate. Look at this exhaust. Look at those pipes. Look at those tips. livable. No drone. I don't know why it keeps beeping at me, but Oh boy. Here's
[04:17] a key fob. You can remote start, lock, unlock, panic, and then that's not a button right there. All right, let's take a look at the heart of this thing. 6.4 L Hemi V8. I love it's got an old school parking
[04:32] brake like your mom's high school minivan. horsepower, 470 lb feet of torque, about 15 m to the gallon combined, about 19 on
[04:49] the highway. Cruising today, about 70 75 mph. I was averaging just shy of 20 MPG in this in eco mode. It'll go into four-cylinder mode occasionally and you
[05:01] get a little bit of a different tone from the engine. As far as fuel economy thing because you're going to be dipping into that throttle quite a bit.
[05:21] handling, its poise, its sophistication with its chassis. It's just one of the best handling SUVs I've ever driven. I think it drives better than the Jeep think it drives better than the Jeep Trackhawk.
[05:36] insane, but it's twice as much as this. It's not twice the car. We had one of these out on track earlier this year at the Mama Spring Rally at Road America. It was doing laps all day long. I think the brake pads were worn
[05:52] down to their backing plates, but it was just going non-stop. Cooling, brakes, awesome. I haven't made that video live yet. I need to. All right. So, I've actually liked
[06:08] All right. So, I've actually liked driving this around in auto and then eco mode this week. Throttle is super linear, super progressive, and you can just kind of putts around. You are locked out of the paddle shifters in
[06:21] this eco mode, but all you have to do if you want to engage them is just flip it over into manual, and you've got full paddle shifter control.
[06:37] Lots of different pages here with your digital cluster. They are very sluggish, very slow to load like they always have been. Dodge has not changed a lot here with the Durango. It's mostly the same
[06:52] All right, let's go into, you know, I'm is transmission in sport, paddle shifters on, all-wheel drive, stability steering in street, and we'll see how
[07:04] steering in street, and we'll see how that handles. is absolutely fantastic. Really neutral, really well balanced
[07:17] around a corner, just starting to squeal tires at 60 mph.
[07:33] It's definitely not as quick as the Hellcat,
[07:45] And the gearing is short, so you can enjoy that engine note.
[07:58] This 8-speed is so responsive. Does exactly what you want out of it. It's actually pretty quiet on the highway. Close the sun shade. conversation with your passengers here. Maybe have to project a little bit to
[08:14] get back into the third row, but very decent. We get an adaptive cruise control system that does feel a little bit more rudimentary, but it's not as bit more rudimentary, but it's not as bad as what Honda's doing these days.
[08:29] It works. There's a little bit of lane sense again. Feels kind of rudimentary, like it was from 5 or 10 years ago. That's okay.
[08:45] Press our SRT button. Let's go into sport. I like sport. Track mode, the transmission tends to shift a little bit too hard. And in sport, it'll just putts around in eighth gear, too. On the highway,
[09:06] for an SUV, for a three row SUV. It's not uncomfortable, but it doesn't let you forget that you are in a track capable performance SUV. Especially that rear end. It's just a little bit firmer. It's more akin to something like a Civic
[09:21] Type R, Civic SI, uh, you know, a Focus ST, a performance hatchback, maybe like ST, a performance hatchback, maybe like a BRZ or G86, you know.
[09:54] Your inputs here are absolutely fantastic.
[10:39] rips. We're going to go back into custom and then set up our transmission. You know what? We're going to set up our suspension in sport. I like sport suspension. Then we're going to go back to our CarPlay. There we go.
[11:27] reliable. You take good care of them. They go 150, 200,000 miles without any major engine work. Not as many issues as GM with the Not as many issues as GM with the cylinder deactivation either.
[11:54] we can. No one's behind us.
[12:12] Nothing prepares you for that first 30 m an hour. Even in the 392, Hellcat aside, your brain just kind of bounces against the back of your skull and you go dizzy for about two seconds. I'm used to it because I've done it about 30 times over
[12:26] the years in these Durango and Trackhawks, etc. But it really launches hard in a way that most vehicles don't launch anymore. that most vehicles don't launch anymore. It's just it's brutal.
[12:39] Good turning circle, too. For how big this SUV is, it's very maneuverable. It's easy to park. I forgot to show you guys the reverse camera. It hasn't changed since 2010 or whenever this thing came out.
[12:53] 2010 or whenever this thing came out. 2009. It's been a while.
[13:13] for other vehicles that feature this same engine. And in the Durango, it's one of the best executions for the least amount of money. 8-speed auto is a little bit rough to
[13:27] shift sometimes if I had to nitpick, but you can always do your custom mode and put it in street. I like street. Street is good.
[13:39] Sport, it bumps you around a little bit between shifts. Track is a little bit too much. It feels like you're going to break something. Sport is probably okay. break something. Sport is probably okay. I like sport. We'll stick with that.
[13:57] proper paddle shifters. I don't know if they're metal. I don't know if they're plastic. They almost feel metal, but they're way higher quality than the garbage paddle shifters they put in the new Charger.
[14:11] new Charger. Look at that turn.
[14:23] It's just so good. Let's take it down a notch. We're going to put us into Let's just go back into auto. See how this treats us just in normal mode. I'm
[14:38] this treats us just in normal mode. I'm going to turn eco off, though.
[14:57] Now it really smooths out. That feels great.
[15:33] The list of SUVs that have that level of poise around a corner like that is tiny. poise around a corner like that is tiny. Teeny tiny.
[15:45] This handles better than some BMW M cars, MS SUVs. car track day enthusiasts got together, built an SUV, and put three rows in it
[15:59] so that you could bring your family along and basically just sell it to your spouse as a practical vehicle. That's exactly what this is. It's a race car where you could just fit six people in it
[16:12] it with a Durango body over it.
[16:28] on these would be. I know so many people who have had their Durango stolen. I'm sure insurance rates on it are not cheap.
[16:42] is okay. It's actually been really bug-free this week. media, but you have physical buttons for everything down here. You've got your heated and ventilated seats. You got your heated steering wheel. I mean, what
[16:57] And then you can turn the whole thing off with a press of a button. I off with a press of a button. I absolutely love it. nice, but everything is consistent. All the touch points are consistent. The
[17:11] steering wheel leather feels good. The shifter feels high quality. This kind of feels like Audi's old shifters in like the 201s when they made really, really nice interiors with physical knurled knobs and things. They've kind of taken
[17:26] that from Audi and feels fantastic. You've got some more USB and ox ports down there. I like that there's a mix of digital and analog gauge clusters here. It just works.
[17:44] to get into a ton of trouble with this thing. You kind of have to work for your speed. Whereas in the Hellcat, that's not quite the case. I don't get me wrong, I love the Durango Hellcat. The supercharger wine is
[17:57] intoxicating. The power is amazing. The hardware for street driving, track driving, just it holds up so so well. It's a beast. But it's literally twice as much as this. And I I think this is 90% as fun as the as the Hellcat. You're
[18:14] 90% as fun as the as the Hellcat. You're just missing a supercharger.
[18:27] have it screenified everything. They still have physical controls everywhere. still have physical controls everywhere. It's just this nononsense interior. And I don't know why they're selling this for so little. Maybe Dodge finally
[18:41] paid off their tooling for the Durango and they're just passing that savings on and they're just passing that savings on to the customer.
[19:16] It's not even really that fast. It's just so much fun. all the brakes and exhaust and power. I mean, it's like the complete package.
[19:29] There really isn't anything else I would want from this as a performance SUV. And it handles better than just about all the other performance SUVs that claim to have all this German engineering and libering lap
[19:43] times and yada yada yada, all this technology. This just gets it right. And it's it's so simple. All right, I want to play around with track mode just a little bit.
[20:01] you get this thing out in the snow in the winter on a set of good winter tires and it would just be a complete and total hoon.
[20:19] Now we're really shifting in track mode. manual mode engages, but it doesn't shift.
[20:32] You have to kind of enter manual driving mode and then you can use the paddles.
[20:58] the camp of, ah, performance SUVs are a little bit silly and pointless and they pull at my heartstrings like a performance sedan or a sports car does. performance sedan or a sports car does. Go drive one of these
[21:15] and you will be charmingly convinced otherwise. I guarantee it. Yeah, suspension stiffens up. Exhaust gets a little bit louder in sport mode.
[21:37] Porsche because it's got a shifter down here. You can change gear down below. And it's the proper direction, too. Forward to downshift, direction, too. Forward to downshift, back to upshift.
[22:02] lot of fun, and we're actually not really going that fast. I love it. Oh my really going that fast. I love it. Oh my gosh, I love it.
[22:19] these because again, the used Durango 392s cost more than this new RT 392.
[22:33] This used to be a 6065,000 Durango and Dodge just tossed the 64 in Durango and Dodge just tossed the 64 in there, lpped off 15 grand on the price and they're calling it the RT now. Good on them. Good on them. That's all
[22:47] I've got to say. Okay, Durango RT 392. There's a launch edition. And you can get some options. You can you can spec these up to close
[23:00] to 509 58 grand.
[23:17] guys have seen some videos this year. Have I been excited about any other vehicle as much as this besides my Viper and my Miata? [laughter] I don't know if I have. As far as press cars go, this really stands out.
[23:33] to want to look elsewhere. If you're looking for luxury, h you got some nice ventilated seats. The sound system's decent, but ultimately this interior
[23:45] decent, but ultimately this interior doesn't scream luxury to me. It's definitely nice enough. It's nicer than some $50,000 cars out there, that's than some $50,000 cars out there, that's for sure.
[24:05] stability, all-wheel drive, paddles, trans. Let's do we'll leave it at sport. Steering. Yeah, that's fine. I like that. I like my custom mode setup. And charming because it's kind of ridiculous. All of it is just a little
[24:19] ridiculous. All of it is just a little bit silly. But we love it for it. Should
[24:31] something? Is it branded? I don't think it's branded. Get our copyright free music queued up here.
[25:04] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat.
[25:21] Oh, it bumps. [music] Really heavy bass, which is not a surprise.
[25:48] >> Sound system is actually really good for the price point. It's really good. earlier? Look at that. I did that with the paddles and my right foot and it
[26:01] the paddles and my right foot and it just it just gets it done.
[26:51] I've ever driven without a doubt. X3M, X5M bounce around a little bit. Even the Macan bounced around a little bit. around a little bit. Under hard cornering, this is composed.
[27:52] composed. There goes the Camaro SS1LE.
[28:16] Okay, that's enough fun. Back into auto eco. We We burned about a Back into auto eco. We We burned about a quarter tank of gas.
[28:32] Go buy one. Don't let anyone steal it. All right, that's it for this one. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you guys in the next video. That was truly I filmed all year. I I just I love this thing. I'm so excited to spend the rest
[28:45] of the week in it. I don't know if we're going to be filming anything during Subzu's bachelor party, but if we do, great. If not, this is what you get. Thanks again. We'll see you guys in the next video. Take care.
[29:16] coax the front end in, the rear end comes around.