2000 Dodge Durango — 4.7L

The 1998–2003 model-run data traces a sharp complaint escalation to a peak of 2,043 in 1999, followed by a retreat that places the 2000 model at 1,116 complaints—roughly half the prior-year volume yet still well above the 686 and 436 complaints filed in 2001 and 2002. While complaints declined in 2000, recalls also fell to four, down from five in 1999 and six in 1998, marking the lowest recall count in this six-year span even as investigations edged up to four from three in the two previous years. That year’s complaint ledger is led by suspension at 435, followed by engine and engine cooling at 111 and powertrain at 85, with 118 crash-related and 33 fire-related complaints also on file; the data does not specify root causes. Because 2000 sits on the downslope after this run’s worst year but before the more muted complaint activity of 2001–2003, it represents a transitional model with improving but still material volume. Buyers should treat the 2000 Durango as a moderate-risk proposition: it carries the fewest recalls of this early sequence and improves on 1999’s peak, yet its 1,116 complaints—with suspension dominating the docket—make the lower-volume 2001–2003 models the better buy within the same era.