American Cars: Can Someone Educate Me?

[flipstah]

I'm more familiar with JDM and Euro cars and know jack shit about American cars. Are they reliable? Or not worth getting? Who are the best dealers in town? Which ones are to avoid?

Been eyeing some mid-size SUVs and curious about American offerings.

Has anyone tested or own a Chevrolet Traverse or GMC Acadia? The 2024 model lineup is a lovely refresh and I don't know if GM are great cars. Seems well priced and more robust than a Honda Pilot?

Dodge Durango is a sexy beast in R/T trim but are they worth almost 70k$?!

Ford Explorer is meh. At least I think so?

[Xtrema]

Just saying, Chevrolet is #4 in recent JDPower Dependability survey, after Buick, Toyota and Lexus.

Durango, like old Jeep GC, was based on Mercedes GL platform.

[sxtasy]

I've owned a GMC Terrain with the 3.6 V6 for coming up on 10 years now. No issues whatsoever, been very reliable and it gets beat up as the family hauler/ski hill commuter.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Durango is a three-row, not what I'd typically consider a midsize. Look into a WK2 Grand Cherokee (esp. with the 5.7) but stay away from air suspension.

[rage2]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Just saying, Chevrolet is #4 in recent JDPower Dependability survey, after Buick, Toyota and Lexus.

Durango, like old Jeep GC, was based on Mercedes GL platform.

It’s based on a 20 year old platform, from the 2nd gen ML and GL. The only highlight is how much they’ve saved milking such an old platform till today. Hilariously enough, that’s not the longest stretch of milking old shit. The challenger, charger and 300c which was finally retired are based off a 30+ year old w210 e class platform haha.

While I haven’t driven a Durango, I’ve driven a ton of 300c and challengers, they do feel like driving an old ass car but with modern amenities. The dependability makes sense, they’ve had 20-30 years to iron out the kinks.

[jutes]

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/...s/midsize-suvs

Traverse is rated 3rd on this list. I’d probably go with a CX-9 or MDX depending on budget. The 2024 Z71 Traverse does look sharp though.

[ExtraSlow]

Generalizing all cars from a country makes zero sense. You need to go car by car, as always.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

It’s been a long time but the first gen Traverse/Acadia/Enclave were fucking disasters, I hope GM has figured their shit out on those models by now. I’d avoid anything with a 5.7 Hemi as well personally.

[ThePenIsMightier]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Generalizing all cars from a country makes zero sense. You need to go car by car, as always.

But which oil is best?

[ExtraSlow]

This guys.

[killramos]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Generalizing all cars from a country makes zero sense. You need to go car by car, as always.

Yea. It’s not like everything America makes is a ford…

[flipstah]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Generalizing all cars from a country makes zero sense. You need to go car by car, as always.

Fair. I got curious because I saw the reveal of the new Traverse RS/Z71(?) and they looked nice!
@BerserkerCatSplat ooo GC SRT be bumping

[03ozwhip]

I really like the Explorer ST for domestic SUVs that aren't crazy expensive.

I drove a Durango SRT and while it was bad ass, it was too much of a RAM feeling and ended up not getting it and stuck with the X5.

[flipstah]

@03ozwhip what’s the RAM feeling?
@rage2 makes it sound like a horse drawn carriage

[ExtraSlow]

I have the same advice for anyone. Find a car that interests you, find which Korean version is closest, and same for Japanese version, then compare those three vehicles in person.
Mid sized or larger SUV's are something that the Americans have historically done well. Infotainment systems are likely quite different.

[03ozwhip]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

@03ozwhip what’s the RAM feeling?
@rage2 makes it sound like a horse drawn carriage

It's identical to a halfton ram inside, drives like a truck, not in a good way. Very cheap feeling for a 70k SUV

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

It's identical to a halfton ram inside, drives like a truck, not in a good way. Very cheap feeling for a 70k SUV

They also make you sign a form that you only wear Oakley Gascans too.

[ExtraSlow]

Yeah that Ram interior is it's own thing. Some people love it.

[killramos]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

They also make you sign a form that you only wear white Oakley Gascans too.

Fixed

[BerserkerCatSplat]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

It’s based on a 20 year old platform, from the 2nd gen ML and GL. The only highlight is how much they’ve saved milking such an old platform till today. Hilariously enough, that’s not the longest stretch of milking old shit. The challenger, charger and 300c which was finally retired are based off a 30+ year old w210 e class platform haha.

While I haven’t driven a Durango, I’ve driven a ton of 300c and challengers, they do feel like driving an old ass car but with modern amenities. The dependability makes sense, they’ve had 20-30 years to iron out the kinks.

WELL ACKSHUALLY

Close, but the WD Durango and WK2 Grand Cherokee are a derivative of the third-gen ML platform (W166), not the second-gen W164. Both debuted in MY2011 as one of the final shared developments of DaimlerChrysler.

The LX design being based on the W210 platform isn't exactly accurate either. The LX platform was already under development during the Daimler purchase/merger, it started life as an evolution of the LH platform. As a result of the new corporate connection, Chrysler decided to make the most of it and make the new platform RWD - they got to pick the brains of Mercedes engineers who had obviously been building RWD sedans forever. They basically went to Mercedes HQ and worked with the Benz boys to see if there were any off-the-shelf parts they could use with the LX platform. They ended up with effectively 3 major items they grafted onto the LX: the W211 E-class rear 5-link (which is basically the same as the W210, which is probably where the "based on the W210" thing came from) the W221 S-class front suspension, and the 722.6 transmission. They parts-binned a bunch of other small stuff but those were the big-ticket items. So rather than starting with the E-class platform and and adapting it to Chrysler, they basically did it the other way around and used Mercedes subsystems as a shortcut for finishing their own RWD platform.

Certainly there's no argument that Chrysler hasn't gotten their money's worth out of the platform, they correctly identified that the average buyer didn't give the slightest shit about platforms and suspension designs. I assumed they'd only kill the platform when the tooling finally wore out.