Dodge's "Brotherhood of Muscle" isn't a car-exclusive fraternity.
When the Charger and Challenger burn rubber with their trademark attitude in advertising campaigns, the burly seven-passenger Durango is usually right there with them, blazing a path of its own as a blistering family hauler.
The older the Durango gets, the more spry it becomes.
Dodge likes to think of the Durango as a three-row Charger, and the brand has given the aging SUV a new lease on life in recent years by touting its performance cred alongside the freewheeling cars. Dodge says it began marketing the Durango next to its muscle cars in 2015. In 2015, the 360-hp R/T was the Durango's speediest model, but Dodge has since added more punch with a 475-hp SRT trim.
The R/T edition continues to stand out as the segment's only rear-wheel-drive V-8 option.
The Durango in its current form debuted in 2011, but it's still seeing sales gains in 2019 despite growing competition in the three-row category. The Durango is on pace to have its best year since 2005. Sales are up 13 percent this year through June to 36,991, making it the third-best seller in the large-SUV segment.
"It's just a workhorse in the Dodge lineup," said Paul Tyll, a brand manager for the Durango. "We don't have a lot of three-row SUVs. The base vehicle [has] the 3.6 [liter engine], and then you get the 5.7 Hemi R/T and the SRT. It's a nice combination of engine choices."
The Durango's latest push alongside the Challenger and Charger kicked off this month with a summer clearance ad featuring a cover of the Motown classic "Dancing in the Street" from English rock band The Struts. The Durango's performance trims have appeared with the cars in other campaigns through the years, including the "Brotherhood of Muscle" ads starring actor Vin Diesel in 2017 that highlighted the R/T and this year's "Muscleville" campaign featuring pro wrestler Bill Goldberg.
Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book, says it's smart for Dodge, as a relatively small brand that isn't known for SUVs, to position the Durango as a "muscle-car hybrid" because it's a claim few vehicles can make.
With the Durango SRT, Brauer said the three rows suggest "hyperutility," but it also has "horsepower numbers that suggest hyperperformance. That's pretty unique."
The Durango, he said, has the same spirit as the Challenger and Charger with its rwd layout and V-8 power. The trio share the same engines and eight-speed transmission. The available racing stripes on the SRT and R/T, Brauer added, let the public further know what type of image Dodge wants to project with the Durango.
A brand spokeswoman said the vehicles have been developed by the same engineering teams, "whether it's a Challenger Redeye or Durango SRT."
The Durango's SRT variant continues FCA's penchant for packing elite horsepower into its utility vehicles, joining the 707-hp Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk with a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 Hellcat engine and the SRT version that came before it.
Brian Heney, COO of Kelly Automotive Group in Danvers, Mass., said the Durango SXT and GT models at the lower end are the volume players, but the pricey SRT draws showroom attention even though few are sold. Kelly Jeep-Chrysler-Dodge-Ram in Methuen, Mass., sells 50 to 60 Durangos annually, with around four of those being SRTs.
Heney said the persona Dodge has created for the Durango works.
"People definitely go up and check it out, and the ones that know about it will talk to you about it," Heney said of the Durango SRT. "But then when you get into the vehicle they're looking at, usually when it comes down to it, it's like a $20,000 swing — at least from the GT, and you can go even lower than that."
Although the Durango SRT, with a starting price of nearly $65,000, isn't a high-volume model, Brauer said it is a brand builder that could be having a halo effect on the more affordable R/T trim.
Dodge said the R/T has accounted for 29 percent of Durango sales this year, making it the second-most popular version behind the GT trim at 37 percent. The SRT makes up just 2 percent of sales. The percentage sold with V-8s is the highest it has ever been, according to Dodge.
"That's almost always the play with the top-line, really expensive models, whether it's Hellcats on Challengers, or SRTs in the Durango lineup," Brauer said.
"The price points are relatively high, so when people come in to look at it, they might realize, 'Well, it's cool that it's this powerful, but I still can't afford it,' or, 'It still seems like too much.' And then there's an R/T version sitting right there that still offers a V-8; it has plenty of torque. And you can even get some kind of cool performance-oriented cues on the R/T's, too."
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