I considered Tech package because of Blind spot indicator and Adaptive cruise control. But finally we did not end up including in our build as we were not sure about the long term reliabilty of these systems.

 

When my wife and I bought our Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT a few years back (2014), all the tech package items were standard. We have gotten used to them and consider them safety items we would not want to be without. When we wanted to order the Durango SRT, we were surprised to discover that the tech package was optional. We didn't even hesitate. For us, it was "must have!"

 

Thanks for the updates..............I'm on the fence on this, I want it as a safety measure for my wife. I drove tractor trailer and I am used to knowing what and who is around me. These safety devices are mostly for her, but if she doesn't want to use or trusts them, then it seems senseless to buy.

 

Yes, you can turn most of it off.
BSM is very nice to have as is the ACC when in stop and go traffic or fog/low visibility situations.
Collision alert can be a pain in my view, but with all the distractions while driving, nice to have just in case.

I think in the end, I believe the insurance gives you a discount and coupled with resale, its worthwhile IMO.

As far as reliability, most of these systems have been used in Luxury vehicles for several years, Mercedes for instance.

 

IMO, the only features I would not want to be without are the BSM and the rear cross-traffic detection. Both of those should be standard.
ASM like I said, I only use in heavy traffic or low visibility, otherwise I prefer the standard cruise control.
Being an aggressive driver, me and the collision alert system just do not get along.

 

I've had all those Tech Pkg features on previous lux cars I've owned and ended up turning them off as I felt they were annoying & intrusive.
I do wish there had been a way to get the BSM as a stand-alone option, as that is very useful on a daily basis & I would have paid for it without a 2nd thought.
The ACC is nice if you do a lot of freeway driving & normally use your CC (which it sounds like your wife avoids).

For me, $2500 was too much for something I would have used rarely (the ACC) and a bunch of stuff I'd have turned off. I like the BSM, but not @ that price point !

 

I keep the Lane control turned OFF, it's a mess

i love the ACC, i use it CONSTANTLY, have you tried it in stop & go traffic, it's' GREAT! let off brake, hit resume and let the car do all the work.

i like the collision alert for "oh crap" moments.

 

Well so far it looks like I had better get it for the wife............
We were driving from Tucson up to the white mountains and it was a very LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG
discussion. How do you get a woman's mind to comprehend mechanical things? My wife asks how things work with the cruise and such, and lane departure
I explain, and then says to me: I don't need to know all that.
Her next statement is, Do you think I look better in this outfit or the one I wore 231 days ago.
I immediately put in my Carly Simon song "You're so vain" and that ladies and gentlemen is how most of our discussions go.

 

You can turn them all off. The blind spot is nice. You can even turn on a chime when you put on your turn signal that alerts you of a car in your blind spot. Lane keep asist is off in my car. Rear cross detection is awesome. Acc is good on long road trips. Even tho my wife just got a 18 accord and i gotta admit it works so much better in her car. Car doesnt brake suddenly when a car jumps infront of you. It actually slows down gradually. The brake asist is excellent. It saved me from a fender bender already. Basically payed itself off .

 

Thanks to all that offered both information and opinions...........we are narrowing it down in the next two weeks to hopefully have the Durango in our hands by the end of May at the latest.

 

When I was shopping for my R/T ( 2017), I was not including the Tech Package in my spec. I didn't think I would need it and I also liked the lower cost without it.
When I was ready to order my Durango as I only has a few months left on my lease(2014 Pathfinder) I called my Salesman and gave him my spec. He told me "actually we have this exact model on the lot but it also has the Tech Package if you want to come in and check it out". My spec was White paint, Black top , Sun Roof , Tow Package, R/T package . So He also said he would give me a discount if I wanted to take this one over ordering one without the Tech package.
So I went up there and learned all about the Tech package and I will be honest here, I will never order another Durango or any Doge vehicle without the Tech Package. It's something you look at money wise and think this could be a waste of money. Not so my friend, it's absolutely awesome. The Adaptive Cruise control all by itself is totally worth the full asking price of the package. I never realized how awesome that feature is until you drive on the highway and have to constantly turn on and off the cruise control. The Adaptive cruise control varies your speed which is incredible. You don't need to even hit the brakes when someone comes into your lane, the adaptive cruise control will slow you down and then speed you back up or match the person in front of you. It's so awesome.
You do have control over the features as you can turn them on or off but why would you turn them off? Trust me when I say if you never had a vehicle with a Tech package, you will absolutely love these features. The Lane departure feature is also well worth the cost. Its one of those things you don't think about but it happens to you once in a while where you could drift into the other lane without thinking about it. The Lane departure feature will push you back into your lane. At first this feature takes a little to get use to as it's strange when it happens for the first time. You think something is wrong with the alignment or something. But once you realize whats happening, it's such a fantastic feature and helps make your journey a safer one.
The Tech package is all about safety. The Adaptive wiper blades and high beams is another feature you might not think about until you have them. The High beams is really good as we all have traveled down those dark un lit back roads and constantly have to turn on and off your high beams so you don't blind the on coming vehicles unless your some kind of asshole. But this feature I find so useful. The Wipers are also crazy awesome. How many times during a rainy drive do you adjust your wiper speed? I don't adjust anything anymore with the Adaptive wipers, they vary on their own. This is feature I have had on my BMW which I thought was crazy cool and love it on the Durango R/T.
Do yourself a favor and pay the bill man. It's well worth your money.

 

Wow now that is a great post.........I am glad I posted this thread since I am so old skool that I have been able with the grace of God to stay accident free for many many years. My company thankfully taught me to be a safe driving instructor and those skills have seen me through a lot of close calls. This is more about my wife who, no matter how much I try to teach, just seems to be uncomfortable driving, that I end up getting assigned almost ALL the driving duty. So, even if the tech package does not make my wife feel better when driving, at least I will enjoy some of it's features. The ACC sounds awesome as Interstate 10 between Tucson and Phoenix is notorious for drivers ranging from 55 to 85 on just two lanes. It's a highway that is well overdue for at least three lanes, one for grandma, one for travel, and for the the ticket bait.

So thank you all for some opinions and thoughts on the Tech Pkg.........as I said I hated to spend $2500 on items I will end up turning off 80% of them. But with the posts it seems like a wise investment in OUR SAFETY and it may just pay for itself saving us.

 

I didn't like the Lane Departure feature "tugging" on the steering wheel either; I turned it off completely.

You have the option in Uconnect to adjust the strength of both the sensor range and how hard it "tugs" the wheel IIRC.

There's also a hard-button on the front panel to turn this feature off and on.

In terms of this feature, nicely implemented IMO as far as giving the user a range of options for how it works.

 

Beating a dead horse here, but I would also never get another Durango without the tech package. I don't have lane keep assist on my 2015, but the BSM and rear cross path detection are worth the price of admission alone for me. Front collision is a good options as well, althogh has given me some false readings at times (cars in front of me which turn slower than I expect).

I like the ACC as well, but do't do much highway driving, so I don't use it as much as others. As Mantis stated, the auto wipers and auto high beam are nice as well.

Chris

 

Rain sensitive wipers are standard on 2018 R/T, they are not a part of Technology pack.

 

As are the auto high beams & front & rear park sensors/assist.
Net is the price of that pkg went up in '18, but it actually has less content as more things are now std on the R/T !

 

The shame of it is, I went to Larry Miller Dodge in Tucson and they had one DD WITH the tech package and I wanted to take the DD out on Interstate 10 to test it out and the salesman said we were not allowed to go there and that we had to stick to a designated route which consisted of 3 blocks north, 3 blocks east, 3 blocks south and 3 blocks west. For you that didn't do well in math that equals a square and we never went over 40-45 mph. In order to do anymore testing we needed to sit down with the sales manager and get permission. I laughed at the salesman as he told me to try the lane assist feature using just the lines on the street. And of course the ACC and so forth. My wife never got to drive the DD and when we drove back in to the dealership I parked the car in front beside our car and my wife and I got out of the DD and got in to our car without going in to the office of interrogation and mind control. Then they had the nerve to keep contacting me telling me the manager said we could take the DD on Interstate 10. Sorry, first impressions leave lasting impressions and I was NOT impressed with any part of the entire experience. And thus..........they deservedly lost our business.

 

My wife noticed that since we have been looking for some time now and when she went to build hers she said........hey, i think the prices increased

 

They did go up a bit. I noticed it on my build sheet from two weeks ago.

Sunroof went up $100.
RT overall went up $50.


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The tech package is amazing. I'll never buy another new car without it. It has made me a safer driver, because of lane departure warnings, blind spot warnings, back up alerts, and yes, even collision avoidance. I can't wait to see how these feature are improved in the future.

 

Thanks for the post, I have no problem with technology as long as it remains user friendly, and is reliable. I still have a GPS that wants me to jump the Grand Canyon when I get to the edge. It's a shame when manufacturers bring us products then expect us to be the R&D department for their lack of real world testing. I am still not a believer in autonomous cars, and if you look at their testing now, if I see a car with no driver, I'm giving that car a lot of room for when the system goes in to fail mode. Just my .02

 

This occurred last night:

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (Reuters) - A woman was killed by an Uber self-driving sport utility vehicle in Arizona, police said on Monday, and the ride-hailing company said it had suspended its autonomous vehicle program across the United States and Canada. The accident in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe marked the first fatality from a self-driving vehicle, which are being tested around the globe, and could derail efforts to fast-track the introduction of the new technology. The vehicle was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel at the time of the accident, which occurred overnight Sunday to Monday, Tempe police said. "The vehicle was traveling northbound ... when a female walking outside of the crosswalk crossed the road from west to east when she was struck by the Uber vehicle," police said in a statement. The woman later died from her injuries in a hospital, police said. Her name has not been released because her next of kin had not yet been notified, police said.

 

She probably assumed the driver would see her and yield.
Going to have to be a bit more careful now with autonomous vehicles on the road.

 

OP, what did you decide? I have to choose between one with the tech package and one without. $2495 is a lot of coin. It prices it within $10-12K of an SRT because of the other options I want which are standard on the SRT- Bucket seats and black wheels.

I test drove one with the package and it was cool, but not sure I would use anything other than the ACC. The lane assist might be nice on long trips where you start to daze out towards the end of your driving day or on those days where you are running on little sleep.

My dad loves it on his new Jeep, but he is also 65. I am 36 and still like to drive my cars and not have them drive me

 

Had a '15 SXT Blacktop for 3 years without the Tech Package that I recently traded in for an '18 RT Blacktop with the Tech Package. It's money well spent and I would buy another one with the Tech Package in a heart beat.

 

I have it on my Citadel, most all of the features have settings and can be turned off, mine is a 2013 and all of the features have been reliable, though I did have a problem with the auto highbeams and had to have that module replaced under warranty...

 

Do they remain off when you turn them off, or do they all turn back on every time you start the car?

 

If they are like the technology package that I had in my Chrysler SRT 300 they come on when needed when set to Auto. If the swich is off they do not turn on. The Tech feature has the lights auto dimming from the default high beam setting whenever oncoming traffic is detected.

 

When I was looking for my used '14 Limited 18 months ago, they had the packages grouped a bit differently, plus lane departure was not available at the time.

SAFETY/SECURiTY AND CONVENIENCE GROUP — Cargo compartment cover, cargo net, rain-sensing windshield, Auto High Beam Headlamp Control, HID headlamps, headlamp leveling system, power tilt/telescoping steering wheel, Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM),[11] Rear Cross-Path detection.[12]

TECHNOLOGY GROUP — Forward Collision Warning Plus (FCW),[3] Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)[13] with STOP, BSM,[11] Advanced Brake Assist, Rear Cross-Path detection[12] and Blindspot Protection.

I had already decided that I wanted one with the Safety/Convenience group. I love the rain sensing wipes. The blind spot monitors saved me twice on the freeway driving home from the dealership, so I was sold on the system from day one. The rear cross path truly sees things that I would never have seen, like a speeding car in a parking lot. I have tried the auto high beam controls, but never really liked how it functioned so I keep it turned off.

I test drove a used '14 R/T with the Technology group. Two turns off the dealership lot during the test drive someone was backing out of their driveway and didn't see me (really, a big ass SUV in Redline Red with the headlights and fog lamps on and you didn't see me?!?) but the Durango stopped itself and there was no trading of paint. It shocked and surprised the hell out of me when it happened, but it gave me a whole new appreciation for smart technology. There are times that I wished I would have just paid the extra $3-4K for the '14 Citadel with the Technology package that I had also looked at before settling for the '14 Limited.