Compare the2023 Buick EnclaveVS 2023 Dodge Durango

Safety
Warranty
Reliability
Engine
Fuel Economy and Range
Transmission
Brakes and Stopping
Tires and Wheels
Suspension and Handling
Chassis
Passenger Space
Cargo Capacity
Servicing Ease
Ergonomics
Economic Advantages
Recommendations

Safety

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For enhanced safety, the Buick Enclave’s middle seat shoulder belts have child comfort guides to move the belt to properly fit children. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages children to buckle up. The Dodge Durango doesn’t offer comfort guides on its middle seat belts.

In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Enclave are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Durango doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

The Enclave has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Durango doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.

Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Enclave offers optional Reverse Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Durango doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.

The Enclave’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Durango and is not available with SXT.

The Enclave offers an optional Surround Vision to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Durango only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.

Both the Enclave and the Durango have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available all wheel drive.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Buick Enclave is safer than the Dodge Durango:

	Enclave	Durango
	Driver
STARS	5 Stars	4 Stars
Neck Injury Risk	15.6%	34%
Neck Stress	198 lbs.	236 lbs.
Leg Forces (l/r)	53/40 lbs.	339/364 lbs.
	Passenger
STARS	4 Stars	4 Stars
Neck Stress	128 lbs.	156 lbs.
Neck Compression	51 lbs.	86 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

A significantly tougher test than their original offset frontal crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH small overlap frontal offset crash tests. In this test, where only 25% of the total width of the vehicle is struck, results indicate that the Buick Enclave is safer than the Durango:

	Enclave	Durango
Overall Evaluation	GOOD	MARGINAL
Restraints	GOOD	ACCEPTABLE
Head Neck Evaluation	GOOD	GOOD
Head injury index	61	119
Peak Head Forces	0 G’s	0 G’s
Steering Column Movement Rearward	3 cm	9 cm
Chest Evaluation	GOOD	GOOD
Max Chest Compression	18 cm	26 cm
Hip & Thigh Evaluation	GOOD	ACCEPTABLE
Femur Force R/L	.5/0 kN	5.3/2.5 kN
Hip & Thigh Injury Risk R/L	0%/0%	6%/0%
Lower Leg Evaluation	GOOD	POOR
Tibia index R/L	.74/.35	1.53/.59
Tibia forces R/L	1.4/0 kN	1.9/1.4 kN

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Buick Enclave is safer than the Dodge Durango:

	Enclave	Durango
	Front Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Chest Movement	.9 inches	1.1 inches
Hip Force	204 lbs.	236 lbs.
	Into Pole
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Max Damage Depth	14 inches	14 inches
Spine Acceleration	34 G’s	43 G’s
Hip Force	554 lbs.	714 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Enclave is 2.9% to 6.2% less likely to roll over than the Durango.

Warranty

The Enclave’s corrosion warranty is 1 year longer than the Durango’s (6 vs. 5 years).

Reliability

For smoother operation, better efficiency and fewer moving parts, the Enclave has an overhead cam design, rather than the old pushrod design of the 5.7 V8 in the Durango.

To reliably power the ignition and other systems and to recharge the battery, the Enclave has a 170-amp alternator. The Durango’s standard 160-amp alternator isn’t as powerful.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2022 Initial Quality Study of new car owners surveyed provide the statistics that show that Buick vehicles are better in initial quality than Dodge vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Buick first in initial quality, above the industry average. With 4 more problems per 100 vehicles, Dodge is ranked second.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2022 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the statistics that show that Buick vehicles are more reliable than Dodge vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Buick second in reliability, above the industry average. With 19 more problems per 100 vehicles, Dodge is ranked 8th.

Engine

The Enclave’s 3.6 DOHC V6 produces 17 more horsepower (310 vs. 293) and 6 lbs.-ft. more torque (266 vs. 260) than the Durango’s standard 3.6 DOHC V6. The Enclave’s 3.6 DOHC V6 produces 15 more horsepower (310 vs. 295) and 6 lbs.-ft. more torque (266 vs. 260) than the Durango’s optional 3.6 DOHC V6.

As tested in Car and Driver the Buick Enclave is faster than the Dodge Durango V6:

	Enclave	Durango
Zero to 60 MPH	6.5 sec	7.8 sec
Zero to 100 MPH	17.2 sec	20.9 sec
5 to 60 MPH Rolling Start	6.8 sec	8.3 sec
Quarter Mile	15 sec	16 sec
Speed in 1/4 Mile	94 MPH	88 MPH
Top Speed	130 MPH	117 MPH

Fuel Economy and Range

On the EPA test cycle the Enclave gets better mileage than the Durango:

			MPG
Enclave
	FWD	3.6 DOHC V6	18 city/26 hwy
	AWD	3.6 DOHC V6	17 city/25 hwy
Durango
	RWD	5.7 OHV V8	14 city/22 hwy
	AWD	5.7 OHV V8	14 city/22 hwy

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Buick Enclave uses regular unleaded gasoline. The Durango with the 5.7 V8 engine requires mid-grade for maximum efficiency, which can cost on average about 51.4 cents more per gallon.

The Enclave has a standard cap-less fueling system. The fuel filler is automatically opened when the fuel nozzle is inserted and automatically closed when it’s removed. This eliminates the need to unscrew and replace the cap and it reduces fuel evaporation, which causes pollution. The Durango doesn’t offer a cap-less fueling system.

Transmission

A nine-speed automatic is standard on the Buick Enclave, for better acceleration and lower engine speed on the highway. Only an eight-speed automatic is available for the Durango.

Brakes and Stopping

The Enclave stops much shorter than the Durango:

	Enclave	Durango
60 to 0 MPH	130 feet	144 feet	Consumer Reports
60 to 0 MPH (Wet)	141 feet	160 feet	Consumer Reports

Tires and Wheels

The Buick Enclave’s wheels have 6 lugs for longer wheel bearing life, less chance of rotor warping and greater strength. The Dodge Durango only has 5 wheel lugs per wheel.

The Enclave has a standard easy tire fill system. When inflating the tires, the vehicle’s integrated tire pressure sensors keep track of the pressure as the tires fill and tell the driver when the tires are inflated to the proper pressure. The Durango doesn’t offer vehicle monitored tire inflation.

Suspension and Handling

The Enclave has standard front and rear stabilizer bars, which help keep the Enclave flat and controlled during cornering. The Durango’s suspension doesn’t offer a rear stabilizer bar.

For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the Enclave’s wheelbase is 1.1 inches longer than on the Durango (120.9 inches vs. 119.8 inches).

For better handling and stability, the track (width between the wheels) on the Enclave is 3.4 inches wider in the front and 2.9 inches wider in the rear than on the Durango.

The Enclave Avenir AWD handles at .83 G’s, while the Durango GT pulls only .75 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

The Enclave Avenir executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver quicker than the Durango GT 4x4 (28.4 seconds @ .6 average G’s vs. 28.8 seconds @ .58 average G’s).

For better maneuverability, the Enclave’s turning circle is 2 feet tighter than the Durango’s (39 feet vs. 41 feet).

Chassis

The Buick Enclave may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 400 to 700 pounds less than the Dodge Durango.

The front grille of the Enclave uses electronically controlled shutters to close off airflow and reduce drag when less engine cooling is needed. This helps improve highway fuel economy. The Durango doesn’t offer active grille shutters.

The Enclave uses computer-generated active noise cancellation to help remove annoying noise and vibration from the passenger compartment, especially at low frequencies. The Durango doesn’t offer active noise cancellation.

Passenger Space

The Enclave has 15.9 cubic feet more passenger volume than the Durango (157.3 vs. 141.4).

The Enclave has 2.7 inches more front headroom, .9 inches more front legroom, 2 inches more front hip room, 3.7 inches more front shoulder room, .1 inches more rear headroom, 2.2 inches more rear hip room, 3.9 inches more rear shoulder room, 6.1 inches more third row hip room and 6.9 inches more third row shoulder room than the Durango.

The front step up height for the Enclave is 1.7 inches lower than the Durango (18” vs. 19.7”). The Enclave’s rear step up height is 1 inches lower than the Durango’s (18.7” vs. 19.7”).

Cargo Capacity

The Enclave’s cargo area provides more volume than the Durango.

	Enclave	Durango
Behind Third Seat	23.6 cubic feet	17.2 cubic feet
Third Seat Folded	57.7 cubic feet	43.3 cubic feet
Second Seat Folded	97.4 cubic feet	85.1 cubic feet

The Enclave’s cargo area is larger than the Durango’s in almost every dimension:

	Enclave	Durango
Length to seat (3rd/2nd/1st)	26.2”/54”/90”	20”/50”/83”
Max Width	52.7”	49”
Min Width	48.5”	42.5”
Height	30.8”	36”

Pressing a button automatically lowers or raises the Enclave Premium/Avenir’s third row seats, to make changing between cargo and passengers easier. The Durango doesn’t offer automatic folding seats.

To make loading groceries and cargo easier when your hands are full, the Enclave’s liftgate can be opened and closed just by kicking your foot under the back bumper, leaving your hands completely free. The Durango doesn’t offer a hands-free gesture to open its liftgate, forcing you to put cargo down if your hands are full.

Servicing Ease

J.D. Power and Associates surveys of service recipients show that Buick service is better than Dodge. J.D. Power ranks Buick fifth in service department satisfaction. With a 32% lower rating, Dodge is ranked 21st.

Ergonomics

The Enclave Premium/Avenir has a standard heads-up display that projects speed and tachometer readouts in front of the driver’s line of sight, allowing drivers to view information without diverting their eyes from the road. The Durango doesn’t offer a heads-up display.

The Enclave’s power parking brake sets with one touch and releases with one touch or automatically. The Durango’s parking brake has to be released manually.

The Enclave’s front and rear power windows all lower with one touch of the switches, making it more convenient at drive-up windows and toll booths, or when talking with someone outside of the car. The Durango’s rear power window switches have to be held the entire time to open them fully.

In case you lock your keys in your vehicle, or don’t have them with you, you can let yourself in using the Enclave’s available exterior PIN entry system. The Durango doesn’t offer an exterior PIN entry system.

The Enclave has a standard heated steering wheel to take the chill out of steering on extremely cold winter days before the vehicle heater warms up. A heated steering wheel costs extra on the Durango.

The Enclave Premium/Avenir has standard massaging front seats in order to maximize comfort and eliminate fatigue on long trips. Massaging seats aren’t available in the Durango.

To quickly and conveniently keep personal devices charged without cables tangling and wearing out, the Buick Enclave has a standard wireless phone charging system (Qi) in the center console. The Durango doesn’t offer wireless personal charging.

Economic Advantages

According to The Car Book by Jack Gillis, the Enclave is less expensive to operate than the Durango because typical repairs cost much less on the Enclave than the Durango, including $76 less for a starter, $272 less for front struts and $153 less for a timing belt/chain.

Recommendations

Consumer Reports® recommends the Buick Enclave, based on reliability, safety and performance. The Dodge Durango isn't recommended.

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