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Ron Burgundy calls Durango a 'terrible car,' yet his ads help sales climb by 59% [w/videos]

Ron Burgundy was put on this planet to do one thing: to read the news. If that ever falls through, though, the womanizing, scotch-drinking anchorman could have a great career just as a Dodge salesman. Bloomberg points out that sales of the 2014 Dodge Durango have rocketed up 59 percent in the first month of Chrysler's funny new ad campaign (which began in early October). But then again, the entire year has been strong for the big SUV, with year-over-year sales increases in the double and even triple digit percentages - including an increase of 117 percent in August.
Of course, the Durango has also received a wealth of new content and a freshened look for 2014 in addition to the Burgundy campaign, and that has to be helping close sales, too. Whether or not the spots themselves are leading to more sales may be a moot point, since they are definitely getting plenty of attention. Almost two months into the marketing tie-up between Dodge and the movie Anchorman 2, Dodge's YouTube videos have received well over seven million views. More than just YouTube shorts and television commercials, the Durango has even received late-night attention, including when Will Ferrell showed up in character as Ron Burgundy on Conan earlier this week.
In the interview, he calls the Durango a "terrible car" that "cracked in half," a joke that probably had Dodge ad execs squirming uncomfortably in their Barcaloungers. Scroll down to watch the Conan interview as well as some of our favorite Burgundy-pitched Durango ads. And there's still plenty of time to "touch" Ron to win a new Durango.

2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon First Drive | Don’t fear the Demon

"If you're not hurt, we'll be really pissed. If you are hurt, we'll still be pissed, but not quite as pissed." These are the words from Jim Wilder, the vehicle development manager of the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, that echo through our head as we slide behind the wheel of the car for the first time. He was warning us about driving beyond our abilities, and keeping the car out of the wall. With 840 horsepower and 770 pound-feet of torque on tap from its supercharged, 6.7-liter V8, the Demon does 0-60 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds, and 0-30 mph in a second flat. If something does go wrong, it'll happen quickly. Following that talk, we had our guts sloshed as a passenger in a blurry eighth-mile run, giving us a taste of the G forces (the Demon can pull 1.8 G in a straight line) we'd feel when we got in the driver's seat for our own pass down the drag strip. We're already sweating. It had rained - you could describe it as torrential - the day before. The grassy parking areas surrounding Lucas Oil Raceway were still flooded, but any water on the pavement had evaporated and hung in the air. Combined with the heat, we were sticky and uncomfortable. In Drag Mode, the Dodge Demon's air conditioning turns off. Any condensation that it could leave on the track would be a problem, plus we need to reduce parasitic power losses for a faster run. The system is still working, though, the refrigerant diverted to the chiller system cooling the air coming into the engine. There's still condensation, but the Demon collects it on a catch pad to keep it from ending up on the pavement. We're also required to roll the windows up when entering the drag strip. For one thing, it helps keep the smoke out of the cabin during the pre-staging burnout. So, yeah, it's hot as Hell in the Demon. We pull through the water box and run through the sequence – which involves holding the "OK" button on the steering wheel usually used to navigate menus, and applying a specific amount of brake pressure before getting on the throttle to initiate the burnout. This gets any crud off the rear tires and heats up the rubber. There are multiple ways to launch the Demon. We had an instructor sitting in the passenger seat as we pulled up to the beams that trigger the Christmas tree at Lucas Oil Raceway. He walks us through the most complicated of the three he had explained to us just minutes before when we were in the passenger seat.

All-wheel-drive Dodge Challenger GT confirmed by EPA website

The US Environmental Protection Agency accidentally confirmed the upcoming Dodge Challenger GT by posting fuel economy figures for the all-wheel-drive variant of the muscle car. According to FuelEconomy.gov, the Challenger GT, which will come with the 3.6-liter V6 when it's released, is rated to get 18 miles per gallon in the city and 27 miles per gallon on the highway, giving the vehicle a combined rating of 21 miles per gallon. Those figures are slightly lower than the rear-wheel-drive Challenger with the same engine, which gets 19 miles per gallon in the city and 30 miles per gallon on the highway. While previous reports indicated that Dodge is planning to release the all-wheel-drive Challenger GT sometime in 2017, the automaker hasn't confirmed the vehicle. (Mopar's all-wheel-drive concept from last year's SEMA Show is pictured above.) With the EPA putting out the car's official fuel economy figures, the all-wheel-drive muscle car is definitely coming, and should be here before the entire Challenger lineup gets its expected redesign in 2018. And yes, we're still hopeful that the so-called Challenger ADR we saw in spy photos means we'll see all wheel drive and Hellcat power. Because Hellcat everything. Related Video: