2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid review: 2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid

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2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid

It takes a long time to lose a bad reputation. The 2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid looks like the kind of big SUV that says you don't give a damn about the environment and are OK with importing the majority of our oil. But looks can be deceiving. Although the Durango sits up high on its 18-inch wheels, has three rows of seating plus cargo room, and swaggers about with 1990s hedonism, it gets fuel economy around 20 mpg. Some may scoff at this number, but it's a drastically better than straight gas-powered SUVs, especially in the city, and equivalent to plenty of V-6 sedans we've tested. If the Durango Hybrid had come along two or three years ago, it might have countered flagging SUV sales.

The hybrid system in the Durango is the result of a joint development effort between GM, Daimler, and BMW. Dodge seems to figure that, if you are the type of person who would want a hybrid SUV, then you are also the type of person who wants all of the cabin tech, as the Dodge Durango Hybrid comes standard with the excellent UConnect GPS, UConnect Bluetooth phone integration, and Alpine audio system. In fact, the only option in our tech-loaded Durango Hybrid was the rear-seat entertainment system with Sirius Satellite TV, which Dodge also puts under its UConnect brand.

Test the tech: City drive
The hybrid system in the Dodge Durango Hybrid uses a transmission that's half continuously variable and half traditional automatic, along with an 87-horsepower electric motor and a 300-volt battery pack, similar to the hybrid system we tested earlier in the GMC Yukon Hybrid. In normal driving situations, the continuously variable transmission operates, with the four-speed automatic taking over when towing or on more difficult terrain. For low-speed cruising--less than 30 mph--this big truck runs under electric power, with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 kicking in only when greater speed or acceleration is needed.

We paid close attention to this screen while trying to achieve good mileage.

To test out this 5,609-pound behemoth, we put it in terrain where big-engined SUVs get their worst mileage: city traffic. We first drove south of San Francisco on the freeway, giving the trip computer time to get near its maximum average fuel economy, which hit a plateau at around 19.5 mpg. According to the EPA, this number could average 22 mpg on the highway, but freeway driving around here tends to run faster than the EPA highway test, at 65 to 70 mph speeds.

We exited in Palo Alto, and drove surface streets back up to San Francisco, over 30 miles with frequent stop lights, traffic, and speed limits maxing out at 35 mph. Fortunately for our fuel economy, the Durango Hybrid shuts off its big engine when stopped, so we didn't burn fuel at red lights. Although the Durango can drive up to 30 mph under electric power, it takes gentle work with the gas pedal to keep the gas engine from kicking in when accelerating. As we matched our pace with traffic, we had to hit the pedal a little harder, maybe a quarter depressed, which usually brought the engine into play.

Fortunately, the electric motor assists on acceleration as well, so we weren't burning too much gas on our starts. As we cruised up the peninsula, we found that the Durango Hybrid saved the most gas when we could manage a stretch of steady driving around 25 to 30 mph. At this steady pace, the gas engine would shut down, letting us cruise under electric power. The more green lights, the longer we could run without burning any gas. To get the car running in this mode required us to take our foot off the gas pedal once the Durango was up to speed, then just massaging it to keep our speed up.

The trip computer on the overhead display registers our top fuel economy of 19.6 mpg.

Taking surface streets over this distance took about an hour and a half, and as we drove, we watched the Durango Hybrid's trip average slowly climb. We hit a high point at 19.6 mpg just before reaching San Francisco--not bad for such a big truck, especially considering a gasoline-only version would probably get about 14 mpg for this kind of driving. Anybody should be happy to get a free 5 miles for every gallon of gas.

In the cabin
The 2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid's roomy cabin holds the usual accoutrements of a big SUV, such as yards of plastic across the dashboard and a column-mounted shifter. But high-tech touches and hybrid instruments show up here and there, letting you know the Durango Hybrid isn't just another SUV. The most notable feature is the charge gauge to the right of the speedometer, which shows when the battery is being charged and when the car is running in its optimum fuel-saving mode. LED cabin lights are also a nice touch, suggesting the Durango is a thoroughly modern SUV.

We found the maps a little small on this display, but the traffic reporting was convenient.

The heart of the cabin electronics is the UConnect module, a double-DIN unit fronted by a touch-screen LCD. This unit encompasses hard-drive-based GPS navigation with live traffic, onboard music and photo storage, Sirius satellite radio and TV, and Bluetooth phone integration. This UConnect unit is essentially the same as we saw in the Dodge Challenger and the Dodge Ram. UConnect gives the Durango many cutting-edge cabin tech features, but its implementation is a little weak. Dodge sets it into the dashboard with little integration with the rest of the car. For example, the unit has telephone and voice command buttons on its face, but no similar buttons on the steering wheel, forcing the driver to reach across the cabin to answer the phone or initiate a call. There are audio control buttons on the back of the steering wheel, letting you adjust volume and skip songs.

We do like the colorful and clear maps from the GPS system, which can be viewed in 3D or 2D. It even shows the outlines of buildings in some urban areas. But we did find the maps a little small, as the LCD isn't very big and some screen real estate is taken up by onscreen buttons. Also, the zoom only goes down to 250 feet, making it hard to distinguish individual streets in dense areas. The system offers many different ways to enter destinations and inputting a street address is made easy with the touch screen. The system also has a feature called My Trips, which lets you save a multidestination trip under a customizable name, good for planning a road trip.

Route guidance graphics were good, and the system has text-to-speech, but the map size hampered guidance a little. The system was fast to calculate routes, although we did notice little pauses when we entered individual letters of a street address, as if the system was taking a while to narrow down the list of streets in its database. Live traffic reporting, which receives data over the Sirius satellite network, works well, showing traffic flow information for major roads, along with incidents such as accidents and road work. The system can also automatically route around bad traffic.

The Bluetooth phone system worked well for pairing our phone, and it had decent call quality. We couldn't get the address book to transfer from our Samsung SGH-D807 phone to the car, and had a similar problem with a T-Mobile Shadow phone and the Dodge Challenger. Dodge's UConnect site should show compatible phones, but hasn't been updated for the 2009 model year.

The stereo lets you browse ripped music by artist, album, and genre.

The stereo works nicely with digital music, ripping CDs to its hard drive. There is also a USB port on the face plate of the UConnect unit, which lets you copy over MP3s from a thumb drive to the car. The system tags ripped CDs from its internal Gracenote database. Sirius satellite radio is also present. We found the interface for selecting music from the hard drive and from Sirius easy to use. Strangely, iPod integration isn't available on the Durango Hybrid, although we had it as an option on the Dodge Challenger.

Music plays through an eight-speaker Alpine audio system, which uses a centerfill and subwoofer. Although there are only two tweeters and four mids to fill a large cabin area, the sound quality is pretty good. It's a strong, neutral sound that doesn't emphasize one frequency over another.

Sirius satellite TV gives you three channels to choose from, all with children's fare.

As an option, we also had the Sirius satellite TV, an interesting feature designed to keep the kiddies entertained. It shows three channels, Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network, on a ceiling-mounted rear-seat LCD, and also on the dashboard LCD when the car is stopped. The rear LCD can also be used to show DVDs, and there are RCA jacks for auxiliary audio input, along with a composite video input, if you have an external device to hook up. An AC jack near those ports lets you keep that external device powered up, as well.

A very necessary rear-view camera and sonar parking sensors round out the cabin tech.

Under the hood
We described above how the hybrid system works. Dodge calls this car a Hemi Hybrid, because the gas engine part is a 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. This engine, by itself, makes 345 horsepower at 5,300rpm and a mammoth 380 foot-pounds of torque at 4,200rpm. Dodge estimates that the combined power from engine and electric motor is equal to about 385 horsepower. As with many hybrid vehicles, the Durango Hybrid includes a power flow screen that can be shown on the LCD. Watching it, you can tailor your driving to minimize use of the gas engine.

The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 gives the Durango plenty of power, but we would like to see Dodge try out a more economical engine.

With this big engine, and the immediate torque from the electric motor, the Durango Hybrid really takes off when you mash the gas pedal, letting out a substantial roar. But as we found during our economical driving, it's pretty easy to make tame starts, as well. The hybrid system means some odd power changes during acceleration, as the engine cuts in, but the continuously variable transmission smoothes the power delivery.

Handling is what we would expect from a big SUV, lumbering, but electric power steering evens out wheel input, making low-speed maneuvers easier than with hydraulic power steering. The ride quality is nice, with the suspension and tires damping out road imperfections. The Durango Hybrid puts power to all four wheels, but there is no special off-roading gear, making it more suitable for inclement weather than rock crawling.

Along with achieving very good fuel economy for a vehicle of its size in city driving, the Durango Hybrid is also designed to handle serious loads. Push a button on the end of the shift lever and it goes into tow mode, meaning the continuously variable transmission gives over to the automatic transmission's four fixed gears. In this mode, the gas engine won't shut off, but you will still get assist from the electric motor. Don't expect to get great fuel economy in this mode.

In sum
As the hybrid model in the Durango lineup, the 2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid is only available in Limited trim with four-wheel drive, a configuration that would be the top of the line in the straight gasoline version. In its Limited trim, GPS, Alpine audio system, and Bluetooth are all standard, with a base price of $44,540. We added the back seat LCD with Sirius satellite TV for an extra $1,765, and $225 for Pearl Coat paint. Along with the $800 destination charge, our total came out to $47,330. The GMC Yukon Hybrid, which uses a similar hybrid system, runs substantially more than the Durango Hybrid, and has inferior cabin electronics. Likewise, if you option up the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, you can easily end up at the $50,000 mark, making the Durango Hybrid a bargain in this full-size SUV segment.

There is a lot we like about the Durango Hybrid, even without being big SUV fans. It uses a fairly attractive exterior design and has room for seven inside, plus cargo. The power train is impressive, getting fuel economy equivalent to many V-6 sedans, but we still would like to see Dodge try out a smaller, more economical gas engine with this hybrid system. The cabin electronics are full-featured, offering much in the way of convenience, although we had a few issues with implementation.