Is it just us, or is Dodge on a bit of a roller coaster lately? Just a few years ago the Dodge Viper was finally discontinued for good after an on again off again feud with production. There were even rumors of the end of the Dodge Challenger, hence the insane amounts of horsepower the automaker was injecting into the muscle car year-after-year. Since then, the Dodge Dart, Journey, and Grand Caravan have all come to an end. Most recently, Dodge announced the end of Dodge Durango as the automaker makes room for green vehicles, and Dodge places its focus on the upcoming eMuscle lineup. Stellantis has all automakers focused on electric vehicle development, and that means putting older models to rest - but inside sources say the end of the Durango is a fake out.

Yeah, that’s right. You never know how much one can trust an “inside source”, especially when it comes to the internet and how rumors quickly spread as truth. However, this leak as it were comes straight from MoparInsiders, and they’re usually pretty keen to know what’s going on in the auto industry behind closed doors. They have their man on the inside that shares all the juicy details about what comes next, and it would seem that the discontinuation of the Dodge Durango is going to be short-lived. Yes, Dodge is making room for the Durango Plug-in Hybrid, but according to sources, the Durango will be returning as a next-generation model built on the same platform as the Jeep Wagoneer.

Why does this sound plausible? For the past few years, Dodge has been in the discussion of putting the Durango on a body-on-frame (BoF) architecture. Currently used in nearly all trucks in the U.S. market and many SUVs, a BoF architecture is one long frame with the body of the vehicle on top. It has great flexibility and offers more maneuverability in different road and terrain conditions. Many crossovers use unibody architecture, where the frame and the body are one piece and build a cage to house the interior cabin. With many SUVs and pickup trucks merging towards “lifestyle” vehicles, the Dodge Durango would need to be able to offer more with a BoF architecture, but that wasn’t available in the Stellantis toolkit until Jeep released the Grand Wagoneer and Wagoneer.

If the Dodge Durango adopts engineering from the Wagoneer for its next-generation, we could see a boost in performance. The Jeep Wagoneer already has a turbocharged 3.0-liter GME-T6 inline-six-cylinder engine just waiting to be revealed. Not only will a larger powertrain help, but the current Durango has a towing capability that taps out at 8700 pounds. The Jeep Wagoneer has a capacity of up to 10,000 pounds. In 2023, the current generation of the Dodge Durango is going to end, make no mistake, but word has it that production of the next-generation of the Dodge Durango will start in 2024, the same year eMuscle will make its debut. Just in case things don’t go well here, bringing back a fan favorite can always soften the blow.

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Photo Source/Copyright: Dodge