
2026 Dodge Durango First Look: Yes, It's Still Standing
The remarkable thing about the Dodge Durango isn't only solely how long it's been on sale, it's also that it's remained fun to drive and somewhat competitive in terms of family hauling. Still, it needs an update, as the available safety and convenience technologies lag the segment's best. Sure, the engine lineup has been tweaked and the interior and exterior slightly updated here and there, but this three-row family SUV has survived for much longer than Stellantis has existed and existed under four CEOs including Fiat Chrysler leadership. It makes you wonder just how much longer the Durango will soldier on.
We know it will exist at least in its current form for the 2026 model year, when it will once again be the last Dodge product available with a V-8. The base level GT will continue using the 3.6-liter V-6 Pentastar engine, the Durango R/T will stick with the 360-hp, 390-lb-ft 5.7-liter Hemi V-8, and the SRT Hellcat once again rocks a 710-hp, 645-lb-ft supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V-8.
In familiar Dodge fashion, freshness is injected via packages and aesthetic add-ons. The Blacktop Redline is new on the Durango R/T's option list and adds blacked-out 20-inch wheels, black badging, and black SRT exhaust tips, as well as SRT front and rear spoilers. If you also order the $5,990 Tow N Go package, wider 20-inch wheels (including a forged option) and a set of black Brembo calipers are included.
Inside, the Blacktop Redline R/T gets SRT front seats and standard second-row captain's chairs wrapped in leather and microsuede with red accent stitching. Leather is also applied to the door trim and center console, and interior trim pieces are laser-etched with a geometric 'crypto sweep' graphic. The Blacktop Redline package adds $3,495 to the R/T Plus and R/T Premium trims.
The standard R/T can be ordered with a less comprehensive Blacktop package that adds black wheels, black badging, and black roof rails in a seven-seat configuration for $1,695.
If you're more into show than go, the 295-hp V-6 Durango GT's Blacktop Redline package features red stripes on the front fender and liftgate, a performance hood, SRT spoilers, and leather and suede SRT performance front seats.
Order books open next month, while pricing and further details on the 2026 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat will be announced later this year.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Associated Press
35 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Mooresville Ford Earns Prestigious President's Award for Third Consecutive Year
MOORESVILLE, N.C., June 5, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Mooresville Ford is proud to announce it has once again received the Ford President's Award, marking the third consecutive year the dealership has earned this distinguished title. Mooresville Ford is the only Ford dealership in the region to receive this award three years in a row, a testament to its unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction and operational excellence. The President's Award, presented annually by Ford Motor Company, is one of the most prestigious and sought-after awards in the automotive industry for Ford dealers. Reserved for a select group of dealerships nationwide, this accolade recognizes the highest level of excellence in customer satisfaction, sales performance, and overall dealership operations. Achieving the President's Award means a dealership has not only met—but surpassed—Ford's rigorous criteria, including consistently exceptional customer experience ratings in both sales and service over a full calendar year. For Mooresville Ford, winning this award is more than a milestone—it's a reflection of the dealership's unwavering commitment to delivering best-in-class service at every touchpoint. From the showroom to the service drive, Mooresville Ford is driven by a culture of transparency, integrity, and personal connection. Their team works relentlessly to create an experience that is seamless, honest, and tailored to each customer's unique needs. With a foundation built on trust, community involvement, and customer-first values, Mooresville Ford continues to raise the bar for what a modern dealership should be. Whether you're shopping for your next Ford, scheduling maintenance, or simply seeking guidance, Mooresville Ford stands ready as a trusted automotive partner for life. As a three-time President's Award winner, Mooresville Ford stands as a benchmark in the region for exceptional customer care and industry leadership. About Mooresville Ford Mooresville Ford has been serving the greater Mooresville and Lake Norman area since 1961, offering a wide selection of new Ford products, as well as pre-owned vehicles, expert maintenance and repair services, and an unmatched customer experience. For more information, visit MULTIMEDIA: IMAGE LINK for media: Caption: Mooresville Ford Earns Presidents Award for the Third Consecutive Year NEWS SOURCE: Mooresville Ford Keywords: Auto Dealer News, Mooresville Ford, auto dealership news, Ford Motor Company, Ford President's Award, NYSE:F, Lake Norman area, MOORESVILLE, N.C. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Mooresville Ford) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P126753 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.


CNN
35 minutes ago
- CNN
The entirely predictable Trump-Musk divorce threatens Musk's business empire
Elon Musk's decision to go all in on Donald Trump never made much sense. His scorched-earth approach to breaking up with Trump is even harder to square. As a close Trump ally, Musk's actions inevitably affected Tesla – the biggest piece of his business empire and the maker of one of the most visible and expensive items that Americans can purchase: electric vehicles. First, Musk turned off Tesla's core customers, Democrats on the coasts, by pouring money and using his influence to help Trump return to the White House. Then he took a chainsaw to the federal workforce. Trump confirmed their relationship has soured, with Musk repeatedly blasting the president's sweeping domestic agenda bill in recent days and a public fight on social media on Thursday. Now, Musk's war of words with the president risk turning off the same Trump voters who may have considered buying a Tesla until this week. Not only that, but Tesla's ambitions for self-driving vehicles require government approval, something that no longer looks like a sure thing amid the Musk-Trump feud. Other Musk businesses like SpaceX are built on government contracts – contracts that Trump wasted no time threatening on Thursday. The past 12 months – with Musk marrying himself to the polarizing Trump brand and then breaking up with him – look like a textbook example of what a CEO should not do, especially a consumer-facing CEO. 'It's a bit of a head-scratcher that Musk is going so rogue-negative towards Trump so quickly. It's a potentially very hazardous path,' Dan Ives, a senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities and a longtime Tesla bull, told CNN in a phone interview on Thursday. The Musk-Trump break-up, playing out on the billionaires' respective social media platforms, was both entirely predictable and shocking nonetheless. After Musk blasted Trump's policy bill as a 'disgusting abomination' earlier this week, Trump suggested Musk has 'Trump derangement syndrome.' Musk responded by undercutting Trump's political prowess, saying: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election.' As two of the world's most powerful people continued to trade public barbs, Tesla shares dropped lower and lower. Tesla shares (TSLA) plummeted 14% on Thursday as the bromance between Trump and Musk imploded in front of the entire world. The selloff erased about $152 billion from Tesla's market value and $34 billion off Musk's net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Tesla shareholders are dismayed on multiple levels. First, Musk taking on the president so publicly could further shrink the car maker's customer base by angering Trump backers. 'You could end up alienating both sides of the aisle in the course of just a few months. When you're a consumer-facing company, that's the opposite of what you want to do,' Ives said. Secondly, Tesla relies on the federal government for tax credits and for approval of its controversial full-self driving technology, a green light that investors had been hoping for after the election. Neuralink, Musk's brain chip startup, is also reliant on FDA approval. Bigger picture, the Trump administration will help set the regulatory landscape for autonomous vehicles, not to mention artificial intelligence and other Musk priorities. And the president has not been shy about flexing the power of the federal government to hurt his opponents. 'You want Trump nice in the sandbox. You don't want Trump on your bad side,' Ives said. Bill George, an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School and former CEO of health tech company Medtronic, described the recent feud as a 'brutal breakup.' 'Never go to war with the president of the United States,' he said. 'There's going to be a lot of collateral damage to your business.' Trump threatened on Thursday to go after Musk's business empire. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. 'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it! SpaceX, Musk's privately held space company, relies heavily on federal contracts, especially from NASA. SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet recently won business from the Federal Aviation Administration to help the agency upgrade networks used to manage US airspace. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, said the lesson is not about CEOs taking political positions. 'The lesson here is that there is no honor among thieves. These are two mob bosses that have had a parting of ways. And now they are going to take each other down,' Sonnenfeld told CNN. Harvard Business School's George noted that Musk and Trump had been acting like 'best bros' just days earlier. 'The lesson here is that you can either work in government or run your business,' George said. 'But you can't do both.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
7 Republicans stuck in the middle of the Trump-Musk divorce
The tension between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk finally burst into the open Thursday, likely closing the chapter on one of the most significant alliances in recent political history. In the wake of the schism, some Republicans are stuck in the middle debating their next moves. Do they side with Trump, the leader of the party whose influence and authority looms over so many aspects of life? Or do they back Musk, whose massive fortune could provide a boost to anyone running for reelection — or running to succeed Trump in 2028 — even as he threatens to withhold donations to lawmakers who back the Republican megabill? Could they attempt to appease both? Musk, 53, is already drawing a future-forward line between himself and Trump, 78, and urging Republicans to come to his side. 'Some food for thought as they ponder this question,' Musk wrote on X in response to far-right activist Laura Loomer wondering how Republicans would react. 'Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.' Here are the Republicans who we're watching closely to determine how to navigate the fallout: The vice president and possible heir to Trump's political movement could be the biggest loser of the blowout. With Musk's future potential campaign contributions now in jeopardy, Vance, an expected 2028 presidential candidate, would have an incentive to mediate the relationship. Vance wouldn't want to jeopardize a donor relationship with Musk, but he also needs Trump's support if he wants to inherit his base. He will be constrained in how much he can realistically break from Trump if the feud continues. Musk appeared to endorse Vance in 'in an X post calling from Trump to be impeached and the vice president to take his place, suggesting their relationship remains intact for now. And the two appear to share some political stances, including supporting Germany's far-right party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD). In April, after it was first reported that Musk intended to leave the White House, Vance said he expected Trump and Musk to remain close, a seemingly lousy prediction in hindsight. 'DOGE has got a lot of work to do, and yeah, that work is going to continue after Elon leaves,' Vance said in April. 'But fundamentally, Elon is going to remain a friend and an adviser of both me and the president.' The Florida governor has had a tortured relationship with Trump, his former political benefactor-turned-2024 rival who bulldozed him during the presidential campaign. But since Trump took office, DeSantis has publicly supported the president and signed into law a Florida immigration law that furthered Trump's immigration agenda. He's also a big fan of Musk. Musk was an early booster of the Florida governor's failed presidential campaign, offering to host a glitchy, error-ridden launch event via X Spaces, the audio livestream feature on the Musk-owned social media site. Musk also contributed $10 million to DeSantis' campaign before he dropped out and endorsed Trump. In Musk's final week as part of the Trump administration, DeSantis praised his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency and echoed Musk's criticisms of the reconciliation package for not doing enough to reduce the deficit, calling the bill 'a betrayal of the voters.' He went further on Wednesday, singling out Musk in a fundraising solicitation. 'Elon Musk stood tall and took the hits to lead the fight on DOGE, cutting wasteful spending and exposing bloated government programs,' said a fundraising email Wednesday from one of DeSantis' political committees. 'The media attacked him. The Left panicked. But now? Even Republicans in Congress are backing down.' It's unclear what DeSantis' political future holds — he's term-limited as governor from 2026 — but Musk's backing could play a role in whatever he does next. A spokesperson for the governor's political operation said the fundraising language was approved May 29 — the day before Trump prepared to extol Musk during a friendly send-off at the White House. The Trump-Musk rift sets up some potential awkwardness between Stephen Miller, Trump's powerful deputy chief of staff, and his wife Katie Miller, who joined DOGE as an aide to Musk and left last week to work for the billionaire entrepreneur. The New York Times reported in January that Stephen Miller had been advising Musk on his political donations. But it's unclear if that relationship is still strong. And after Musk started attacking the Republican megabill, Stephen Miller became a staunch defender of the legislation. On Thursday, after Trump and Musk traded barbs, Musk appeared to unfollow Miller on X. If there was ever a path to peace between Trump and Musk, the Millers could play a role — or it could cause a rift in their marriage. Once tapped to co-lead DOGE with Musk, Ramaswamy split off from the administration before Inauguration Day and ultimately mounted a run for governor of Ohio. But the former presidential candidate, who raised his profile by passionately defending Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries, has always aligned himself with the cost-cutting, Libertarian brand of conservatism that Musk embraces. However, if Ramaswamy seeks to grow closer to Musk in the vacuum left by Trump when he leaves office, he'll have to overcome the fact that Musk thinks he's annoying. Sacks, a South African entrepreneur, came into Trump's orbit by way of Musk, and now heads artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy for the White House. But if the White House withdrawing Jared Isaacman's nomination to head NASA is any indication, Sacks may not be long for Washington. On the other hand, Trump's embrace of the crypto industry — and Sacks' role as crypto czar — could prove to be tempting enough for Sacks to side with the president against his longtime friend. As Trump and Musk clash over the reconciliation bill, Senate Republicans are left to pick up the pieces as they continue to argue over changes to satisfy at least 50 members and pass the bill. Tillis in particular is facing a tough reelection battle and could surely use strong support from Trump and Musk. On Wednesday — day two of Musk tweeting attacks against the bill — Tillis told CNN Musk is a 'brilliant guy,' while noting he's 'got resources.' With Republicans looking to approve the bill this summer, Tillis could be forced to take a side earlier than he might like. How he navigates the rift may offer a roadmap for other battleground Republicans ahead of 2026. Vance, DeSantis, Stephen Miller, Katie Miller, Ramaswamy, Sack and Tillis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.