An SUV that will please the eco-conscious
Trip to Indianapolis shows a little bit of effort can save plenty of fuel with Durango
It’s a great feeling to dive into an experience you’re dreading and come out on the other end of it very pleasantly surprised.
Such was my experience with the Dodge Durango Citadel, which I was recently tasked with taking on a road trip from Toronto to Indianapolis and back.
I’m a fairly eco-conscious type who believes every little bit saved counts, so the concept initially made me cringe.
That’s not to say that the Dodge Durango Citadel is not a worthy steed, though. In fact, it’s very aptly named: the vehicle is a temple to SUV culture. It’s a seven-seat bus, a 2,400-litre cargo van, a tow truck capable of pulling 3,350 kilograms and a very capable off-roader, all wrapped into one cushy living room on wheels.
But I didn’t need a bus, a cargo van, a tow truck or an off-roader. I didn’t have passengers to avail themselves of the leather-trimmed and heated centre-row bucket seats or the dualscreen Blu-ray/DVD entertainment system.
It was just me and a light load of luggage traversing a round trip of 1,600 kilometres in this 2,200 kg behemoth.
So, partly out of curiosity and partly to assuage my guilt, I decided to run an experiment.
On the drive down to Indianapolis, I took the Durango on an eco run and I drove it normally for the return trip. I wanted to see how low the fuel economy numbers could go with a little work and how wide the gap would be between the two driving styles.
My inspiration for this was the 5.7L V8 Hemi engine’s multi-displacement system, which is Dodge’s name for the feature that shuts down a bank of cylinders when the engine is idling or cruising at an even speed. It’s been a part of Hemi engines for almost a decade, but with an increasing consumer desire for fuel efficiency its relevance is higher now than ever.
It allows the Durango to achieve NRCan fuel ratings that people sometimes find hard to believe: 17.3 L/100 km city and 10.8 highway under the new measurement system from an engine that has 360 horsepower and 390 lb-ft. of torque on deck for when you need it.
Those numbers are already quite good for what the Durango is, but I wanted to see if my experience matched it and whether I could do even better.
I began my experiment at the Toronto-Etobicoke border and set out westbound on the QEW with a predetermined set of rules for the eco run portion of my trip, which included no tricks or special techniques that the average driver might find invasive.
I used the equipped eco mode, a new feature on the 2014 Durango, at all times. On top of managing the MDS, eco mode changes the gear shift schedule and throttle sensitivity for better fuel efficiency. It also enables interactive deceleration fuel shut-off, which cuts fuel delivery when the vehicle is coasting to reduce fuel consumption. I took a look at cruise control options as well. The Durango is equipped with both active and standard cruise control, and while I had found active cruise control to be useful and effective on prior drives I wanted to keep throttle movement to an absolute minimum for the eco run. I therefore opted to use standard cruise control and hold a steady speed as much as possible. On top of that, I doggedly refused to turn on the air conditioning or add drag by opening windows. Conditions were ideal — at first. I left Toronto just after morning rush hour and encountered no traffic slowdowns during my eight hour, 25 minute drive. The exterior temperature was in the low teens when I set out, which kept the cabin comfortable without sacrifice. While monitoring the real-time fu- el economy readout in the early going, I quickly found that the sweet spot for this engine was around 105 km/h. The MDS was engaged, the Durango was cresting hills comfortably and I wasn’t holding up traffic (much) while cruising along in the right lane. I crossed the border into the U.S. with no delays and continued through Michigan and Ohio. As I traversed US-24, the fuel economy reading was a delightfully low 8.9 L/100 km. Things were going even better than I’d hoped. Then, Indiana happened. Notoriously home to its own private pocket of bizarre weather, I crossed the Indiana state line and saw the outside temperature suddenly skyrocket to 29 C. By the time I reached Indianapolis, that heat had taken its toll on the engine’s fuel efficiency. My final reading was 9.5 L/100 km — still very impressive, but it felt like a disappointment after the early portion of the run had gone so well.
Still, I had driven all the way to Indianapolis on less than the Durango’s 90-litre tank of gas. That’s a victory in my book.
The return trip took place under similar conditions. The outside temperature stayed more consistently in the high teens, and I once again had smooth sailing.
This time, I turned eco mode off and let the engine roar. I blasted the AC as much as I felt like it, and I wasn’t shy on the throttle as I stayed with the flow of left-lane traffic.
I didn’t make it home on one tank of gas. But I did make it to Woodstock before I had to fuel up, which was a hint that things were perhaps not going as badly as anticipated.
I parked the Durango back at the same place, cringed a little and checked the fuel reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my attempts at gas guzzling still only managed to match the NRCan highway rating of 10.8 L/100 km.
SUV aficionados who log lots of highway miles can rest easy with the Dodge Durango. It’s not nearly as unfriendly to the Earth as onlookers might think. The vehicle tested by freelance writer Stephanie Wallcraft was provided by the manufacturer.