Because 95% of customers don't care or notice how the calipers look as long as they stop their cars. Forum members like us have a much higher desire for them to look nicer which is usually why we are all here.

 

Most vehicles end up with their calipers encrusted in brake dust. Very little added value in 'pretty' calipers for 99.44% of the market.

 

I will note that one of the other vehicles I was looking at when I chose the Durango R/T was the Explorer ST, here's what it gets for comparison: (Powdercoated non-Brembo's) This would be a nice option on the non T&G R/T trim level. I see that GM is now putting on some form of Brembo's on the front of the full-size SUV's

 

I would not purchase a vehicle with brightly colored brake calipers

 

Because only enthusiasts would care, and the vast majority of durango buyers are not enthusiasts. They care much more about practicality and value.

As for adding color as an option, adding any "option" on an assembly line is a very expensive process, and they have to plan on selling a high number of that option in order to make it worthwhile. Also remember that the base durango brakes are the garden variety sliding/floating caliper design which are rarely, if every painted, and are usually rough cast or rough machined. The fixed caliper/opposing piston designs are the domain of Brembo and other high-perf brake companies, and are more commonly painted/paintable.

 

Don't need no Steenkin Pretty brakes!


LOL!

I would think the silver/metallic look would blend in better with different color finish wheels. As indicated earlier many people don't notice nor care about the caliper color. If you want different colors...pull them and professionally paint/coat them. Just my opinion.

 

4 piston breaks would be considered a performance brake. You can get aftermarket calipers, but last I looked, it was about $2500. If they added them as standard, they would just increase the price of the overall vehicle. Might as well just buy the aftermarket. Just look it up on the Brembo or Wilwood websites. Most people don't need a multi-piston caliper for daily driving.

 

The Toyota units are inexpensive two piece castings, the are no where near the build quality of Brembo and similar. In terms of added costs, seems like people forget the car already has brakes on it that are part of the cost of goods sold. Sure it would add marginally to the MSRP, but no where near the retail cost of a Brembo upgrade and it would look great and perform a little better.

 

I'm with you... make them all at least an option for red or black... even if not brembos... I selected the red brembo option on all 4 of my scat packs, it makes such a nice difference... and now i'm in your boat lol... I didn't get the T&G and am stuck with these metal looking ones and I too don't like the idea of covers especially as some are telling me they don't fit clearance wise... only other option is to paint them but I don't see myself doing that lol.... with my luck I'll mess something up so I'm stuck. maybe it's a money issue? although a little red paint from the factory would have gone a long way and can't be that difficult ?

 

If you want some black ones that say Durango on them I will be putting red R/Ts on my black DD and I will post the black ones for sale after that.

 

I would have loved to have some nice red calipers but don't lose any sleep over it.

 

I would just like calipers that don’t look like a blind monkey molded them out of concrete!

 

Because they need money making options, aaaand... they leave some meat for the aftermarket. Make sense?

 

Yeah, I get how we got here. I also give Dodge some credit for coming out with the T&G which would be everything I would want different from my R/T without jumping all the way to the SRT (even though I want that but can't afford it right now) Its just interesting that so much money was spent on the design and aesthetics of the vehicle yet the brakes are the same as they were 30 years ago when they were hidden by the tiny wheels of the day... You could cast the garden variety brakes to be somewhat more stylized if they want to. Any way, for now I will stick with the covers until I can upgrade in the future.

 

I was looking for parts for my Lesabre and I saw that Rockauto now offers pre-coated calipers for it. They are painted red or black. Otherwise, you can buy aftermarket caliper covers to dress them up a bit.

Personally, I don't care if I have pretty brakes. I live in the midwest with lots of salt on the roads in winter. Both of my cars are rusty, but they are reliable and get me where I need to go. I have no need to polish a turd. If I had something worth bragging about, I would dress it up, sure. But I am married and the only places I go are to work, pick up the kids from school, and a few trips to the hardware store on the weekends. I have nobody to impress. I have never had brakes fail because they were ugly. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

They don't have to be powder coated, but I agree can we at least get a cast 4 piston caliper like Toyota uses on the Tundra (and maybe other rigs)? The 1 and 2 piston sliding caliper is fine on an appliance, but the D deserves better.

 

After mine started to look dingy, I took a few hours one day and painted them red. Not a fan of the covers either, they just end up looking too fake to me. You either get standard calipers or unGodly expensive bigger ones. Some manufacturers provide better looking calipers than others. I didn't buy my DDRT for the way the brakes looked, but I can see some of the points here. I believe the RT calipers and pads in the front are larger than standard...…..I know the rotors are a bit larger because I have made the mistake of getting 330mm rotors since I have owned mine. Doh!

I tend to look at vehicles while they are in motion. You can tell the one's that have larger braking systems pretty easily, but that's only if you are paying attention. As stated here, about 95% of people aren't like us.

 

Indeed, looks like we both have all black Durango's. Normally I wouldn't care about how the brakes look either and wouldn't notice them nearly as much except when now when you have a murdered out vehicle (from the factory) with 20" wheels you see the silver cheapo brakes stand out like a sort thumb. If I didn't have the blacktop package I might not notice them much.

 

It’s cheap to mass produce them the way they do now.

 

Simple. MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!! More material equals more money.