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Thinking of buying a 18' RT AWD

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#41 ·
So those are the colors you narrowed it down to? Id say white. I have captains with no center console now. Wish i had gotten bench. Who knows maybe i would have gotten bench and then wanted captains. Its a 7 seater to begin with add captains and your down to 6. Thats 1 more than your average sedan. When i take 5 people and we go to the beach cargo space gets limited since 1 chair has to be folded up. It might work for some. But thats my biggest gripe with my car. Maybe if this was a suburban it would make sense to me. For a durango with limited space. Ill take bench. When i upgrade to my next durango ill factory order it since now i know what i want.

So what are the options your gonna choose?
 
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#43 ·
The bench/captains is definitely a trade-off, advantages to both. I have captains and no console. It is surprising how many times I've wished I had that 7th seat, so if I ordered another D today I'd likely get a bench. But, the captains are definitely a more comfortable seat if you are sitting for any amount of time, they recline and have armrests. Mostly I'm just really glad to not have the console, makes the space in between more useful, for me anyway.
 
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#44 · (Edited)
DurangoRT305 said:
So those are the colors you narrowed it down to? Id say white. I have captains with no center console now. Wish i had gotten bench. Who knows maybe i would have gotten bench and then wanted captains. Its a 7 seater to begin with add captains and your down to 6. Thats 1 more than your average sedan. When i take 5 people and we go to the beach cargo space gets limited since 1 chair has to be folded up. It might work for some. But thats my biggest gripe with my car. Maybe if this was a suburban it would make sense to me. For a durango with limited space. Ill take bench. When i upgrade to my next durango ill factory order it since now i know what i want.

So what are the options your gonna choose?
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I'm getting the Tech, Tow and sunroof along with the Black Top. I'm leaning towards the Granite, if to do that I won't get the top rails, just looks sleeker and I know I won't use them. Red interior to bust up the black.

As far as the captain's chair. It'll mostly be me in the truck, a few long trips with other adults so...a thousand bucks for something rarely used.... I'm getting this to replace my Charger and give me some cargo and towing ability.
 
#46 ·
ajcjr said:
I drove a GT the other day and I thought it rode well. I'm assuming the RT will ride just as good if not better. Curious how are the RT's in the snow and do you keep it in AWD mode all the time?

So I have ruled out the Tahoe, the other truck I was looking at was the Nissan Armada. I have to be honest that I have never owned a dodge before and spending $50k on this truck I want to make sure its the right decision.

Thanks again for all the replies
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The RT is advertised as having stiffer suspension, so it might ride firmer. I think the consensus is that all variants do fine in the snow, as fine as your tires allow. AWD drive versions are indeed in AWD mode all the time; there's no way to turn it off.

50k for a loaded Durango is a bargain compared to what else is available. I have my money where my mouth is as I just spent that on mine... and I'm blown away by this thing! No regrets.

The ride in the Citadel is stately and plush. Maintenance should be noticeably cheaper than the Q7... and maybe less complex? Idk. 10,000 mile intervals for the Durango with really not much more than oil changes to the 6 figure mile mark.

Longevity? A strong suit of the D IMO. The 5.7 Hemi was developed 20 years ago and probably has hundreds of millions of miles on the road. That's a good while to get all the bugs and kinks out. My preference is for a motor with long track record rather than a newly designed motor. I bought this with every intention and expectation of putting 200,000 miles on it.
 
#47 ·
Anything 2016 and up I dont believe has any difference in suspension. Ride heights have been higher since mid 2015 and almost all models sit at same height.
 
#48 ·
FSTDANGO3 said:
Anything 2016 and up I dont believe has any difference in suspension. Ride heights have been higher since mid 2015 and almost all models sit at same height.
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I believe it was Tweak who said in 2016 a lot of suspension bits changed.

Edit - according to east coast moparts it's 2016 that the change occurred.

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#50 ·
srt8-in-largo said:
That's an interesting change... wonder why they did that? The lower, sportier RT suspension seemed like a compelling reason to get it. I prefer the higher ground clearance and softer ride myself.
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To make it more suv like. Pretty sure my citadel is lower than a new rt. I believe they changed the exhaust system as well, 2011-2013 rt's are a bit louder.

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#51 ·
thornstein said:
Just went from a 2014 limited to a 2018 RT. Had the bucket seats in the middle, now have the split bench. The buckets folded down to store haul larger items, but the console stuck up higher than the folded seats, so it wasn't completely flat. Then I had to cover the arm rest on the console so I wouldn't ruin the material. So, went with the split seat on the 2018 and it's much nicer. As far as the difference in the comfort of the seats - None.

Have the blacktop package as well. Love the black front, the black wheels grew on me. Would do it again.

I went with the blacktop package because it was the only R/T around with the factory tow package, which I had in the 2014. Definitely stick with the factory package. An aftermarket tow hitch cuts your capacity almost in half. The tow package is a great one in the Durango.

I had the Tahoe before my first Durango. Love the Durango over the Tahoe.

The R/T sounds awesome and really is a "7 seat Challenger" in my opinion.
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Curious... I see a lot of people talk about the rear center console sticking up.... does everyone not know there is a button that flips the whole top forward when the buckets are folded down so that it is flat (and the leather doesn’t get damaged) it is a brilliant feature but I keep reading about people that talk about having to having to cover it and it sticking up.
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#53 · (Edited)
Have no idea if you've purchased yet or not, but I can help a little with the bench vs. captains chairs too.

We traded our 2014 RWD Durango Raylle that had captains chairs without center console, for a 2018 AWD R/T that has a bench. The wife didn't want the bench, but I was over the captains chairs and here's why. We have 2 kids, 10 and 13 currently, and 2 50lb dogs. The console may have helped a bit here, but everyone would walk between the seats. In our case mostly because of the dogs, if we had the console it would have been ruined too. So that cup holder and plastic piece we had that was between the seats on the floor looked like garbage after 4 years. Doesn't matter how many times you tell a kid something, they will do what they want in the end, so the seats were never lifted up to get to the 3rd row. That drove me nuts, ruining the truck like that. So I wasn't completely sold on the look of the bench when we looked at the R/T because I had buckets in the old one. We needed the 7 passenger fit a lot, but couldn't do it before, and now we can. The bench has grown on me in terms of looks. Functionality, hands down it's a win. It forces the kids to lift the seat up, and the dogs have more room to sprawl out now too. Now if you don't have kids, dogs, or haul more than a few people around, the buckets are actually really nice.

We don't have the tech package, although I wish I did, nor the roof rails, we never used them on vehicles we had years ago either. We also have the tow package, and don't have a sunroof.

The handling coming from the Raylle to this is eye opening. It's stiffer, but hugs the road very well. We got it in October when they first started showing up here, so between all the rain then, and the snow now, I've yet to open her up! Traction is better than our 2016 Charger AWD Raylle, probably due to the Bridgestone Ecopia's that are on the Durango. Was kind of surprised by that, we have factory installed Michelin's Primacy Mx4's on the Charger. Had Michelin's before on different vehicles and they have usually performed well, just hadn't heard of that series before. They do handle very well though, the Durango however, seems to handle better in the same conditions.

Someone here mentioned colors so here is my take. We traded in our Torred 2008 Charger SXT for our 2016 that is in the Maximum Steel color. We traded our Brillant Black 2014 Durango Raylle in for our Redline2 2018. The Redline2 is obnoxiously red in direct sunlight, but will change to a deep blood red, almost like it's dirty, in cloudy conditions or at night. Our Maximum Steel color is a very dark blue color in direct sunlight, and changes to a dark grey in cloudy conditions or at night. In terms of keeping any of the vehicles I had/have clean, they all suck Lol! I am a clean freak though, so my opinion here may be slanted. When we had our Black Durango, dust and pollen were very noticeable on it. It is very similar to our Maximum Steel color on our new Charger. It's dark in most lighting, so things on it show up a lot like if it were black. The Redline2 in direct sunlight, is very close to the same color as our Torred charger was. Red is more forgiving with the dust and pollen and what not, but can still look very dirty when not clean. Black is my preferred color choice, however, the white Durango's I've seen look very nice IMO!

Goodluck!

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