Dodge Is Back in Court with First-Year Durango Hellcat Buyers
'The Hellcat Durango will be a single model year run," Dodge's then-CEO Tim Kuniskis said at the launch event for the 710-horsepower supercharged SUV. Those words, and a few other statements like it, are at the center of a lawsuit-turned-mediation-turned-lawsuit between the automaker and its customers. The sticky issue is now heading back to court after the parties couldn't come to an agreement — and the strange part is that none of the legal wrangling has to do with a defect or flaw.
Seven 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat owners sued the automaker in 2023 for deceiving customers. They call it a "classic bait and switch scheme," in which the carmaker encouraged people to buy the car based on its limited production duration — Then, lo and behold, the Durango Hellcat returned for the 2023 model year.
On its face, it's easy to see where the plaintiffs' complaints are coming from. Kuniskis's statement above is only a tiny piece of Dodge's marketing at the time. Kuniskis himself went on in that same quote to say, "When we turn the order books over to the '22 model year, the Durango Hellcat will be gone. So you've only got one shot. The 2021 Durango Hellcat is only a single model-year run, ensuring that it will be a very special, sought-after performance SUV for years to come."
Dodge, however, isn't just rolling over and going along with this claim. The carmaker asserts in the suit that none of the plaintiffs have proven that they bought the car for its rarity, or that the company's marketing statements at the time influenced their buying decision.
For its part, Dodge explained its move to restart Durango Hellcat production because it managed to meet emissions requirements it hadn't expected to. The two sides had entered mediation but CarComplaints.com reports that they're back in court after those talks fell through.,You can read the lawsuit in its entirety here. In the meantime, Dodge currently offers three 2025 model year Durango Hellcat variants, according to its website.
You Might Also Like
You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox
Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners
The Man Who Signs Every Car
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
How many abomination-supporting Arizona congressmen will Elon pay to defeat?
Donald Trump and Republicans loved it when Elon Musk pumped what analysists say was at least $288 million into the 2024 election campaigns of Trump and others. I wonder if Arizona Republican U.S. Reps. David Schweikert, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar, Abe Hamadeh and Juan Ciscomani are worried that he might spend something close to that amount going after them and others in 2026. Because if Elon is a guy who still puts his money where his mouth is, he will. Musk got bamboozled into believing the Republicans he bankrolled actually wanted to cut federal spending and reduce the deficit. HA! Instead, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' will hand out trillions in tax cuts (to people like Elon) while raising the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion over the decade and leaving nearly 11 million more Americans without health insurance. The 215 House Republicans who voted to advance the bill thought a billionaire like Elon would love the idea that he'll be getting to keep even more of his billions. Instead, Elon came out on social media and said, 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.' He kept going, saying the bill would saddle Americans with 'crushingly unsustainable debt.' House Speaker Mike Johnson said Musk's criticism was 'very disappointing.' It must have really spooked him when Musk also said, 'In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.' Yes! The big bill passed the House with Republican support only. In our case, it was supported by all of Arizona's GOP congressmen. Although, Rep. David Schweikert actually said that, while he supported the bill, he was so tired he 'slept' through the vote. (Not sure which is worse. Supporting the bill or sleeping through a monumental vote.) Opinion: Biggs' coronation rally wasn't really about him One of only three Republicans who didn't support the bill, Rep. Thomas Massie from Kentucky, is encouraging Musk to spend money defeating the bill's supporters. He said, 'I just think he made one mistake — he said take them out in November. I would take them out in primaries if I were Elon Musk.' Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs need not worry. He is getting out of Dodge by running for governor. But his GOP cohorts in Congress — Schweikert, Crane, Gosar, Hamadeh and Ciscomani — are still there, still giving tax breaks to billionaires, raising the debt and tossing people off insurance rolls. They loved Musk when he was shoveling mounds of cash into Trump's campaign. How will they feel, I wonder, if he starts shoveling cash onto their political graves? Reach Montini at Like this column? Get more opinions in your email inbox by signing up for our free opinions newsletter, which publishes Monday through Friday. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Elon Musk's new 'kill the bill' target: Arizona congressmen | Opinion
Motor 1
18 hours ago
- Motor 1
Ram Just Proved America Can't Quit the V-8
Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis said the brand "screwed up" by dropping the Hemi V-8 for the 1500 pickup, so now it's making a much-heralded return . It turns out that even as we head towards an electric—or at least an electrified future—eight cylinders, grouped in fours, and spaced 90 degrees apart, aren't going anywhere. It's not just Ram. Last week, General Motors announced an $888 million investment in its Tonawanda, New York, plant to prep for an upcoming sixth-generation small-block V-8. Mercedes is developing a new V-8 , too, which it plans to offer across its entire lineup. BMW's R&D boss recently said it's keeping V-8s for the foreseeable future , specifically because of the American and Middle East markets. Porsche has also committed to building V-8s into the 2030s. Especially here in America, we can't quit the V-8. Photo by: Ram Kuniskis's statements are illuminating. "Ram will continue to offer the more powerful and more efficient Hurricane Straight-Six Turbo, but we heard loud and clear from consumers: there is no replacement for the iconic Hemi V-8. At the end of each month, we count sales to customers, not statisticians or ideologues. Data be damned—we raise our flag and let the Hemi ring free again." It tracks with the image that marketers inside Ram and its cousin Dodge have meticulously crafted over the past few years: draped in the flag, and representing everything that is good and right about America, from apple pie to burnouts. In reality, this decision was made for the most American of reasons, the bottom line, at a time when Ram's sales have been tanking for a while now. 'We heard loud and clear from consumers: there is no replacement for the iconic Hemi V-8.' That, however, may have had less to do with the demise of the 5.7-liter Hemi for one model year and more to do with Ram prices skyrocketing for years . It is highly unclear whether the revival of the Hemi will drive prices down or boost sales even if prices stay high, but at least the narrative has shifted: the V-8 is back, as is America. The V-8 is not an exclusively American invention, but there is no engine configuration more closely linked to our car industry. Ford's flathead V-8 arrived in 1932, and after getting through some early teething troubles, it started the eight-cylinder revolution here in America . Eight-cylinder engines were once the exclusive domain of luxury and performance cars; the flathead made the V-8 almost a default engine layout here. A Ford flathead V-8 Photo by: Wikimedia Commons / Michael Barera There's a fundamental rightness that applies to the flathead, and all V-8s that followed to this day. A V-8 is no bigger in length than an inline-four, and shorter than an inline-six. With a 90-degree bank angle, a V-8 is not too much wider than most inline engines, either. But despite its compact dimensions, the V-8 is powerful, owing to its large cylinder count. And thanks to Cadillac's invention of the 180-degree, "cross-plane" crankshaft in the 1920s, the V-8 has perfectly balanced primary and secondary forces. So, compact, power dense, smooth running, and thanks to Ford's manufacturing dominance, cheap and plentiful. In America, where fuel economy and emissions only became heavily regulated and of bigger importance to consumers in the 1970s, it's no wonder that the V-8 was popular. Especially earlier, in the post-war boom time, when people had money, gas was cheap, and that brown haze hanging low over LA? Don't worry about it. The Clean Air Act and the 1973 fuel crisis definitely diminished the V-8's popularity, but it still had its place in large cars and trucks. Europe jumped on the bandwagon, too, with notable V-8s from Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and others for luxury cars, especially since the US was typically the largest export market for these cars. Japan only started making V-8s in big numbers in the 1980s and 1990s for luxury cars and trucks, though it is now retreating from this engine type; meanwhile, Korea has never been a big V-8 producer. (China skipped over this entirely to focus on groundbreaking electric power and fast-charging performance, but presumably, the minds at Stellantis have a plan to deal with this as well—we just have not seen it yet.) In the era of downsizing and electrification, a lot of automakers have tried to move away from V-8s to varying degrees, and to varying degrees of success. Ford was the first to make a big push with its EcoBoost twin-turbo V-6s, and while they've proven popular in the F-150, Ford has continued to offer a V-8 in the truck. GM brought out a 2.7-liter turbo-four as a base engine in the Silverado 1500, though its model mix leans heavily on V-8s and a diesel straight-six. Ram probably took the biggest step of all. For the 2025 1500 , it dropped the V-8 entirely in favor of a newly developed 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight-six. The "Hurricane" was (and is) offered in two power outputs as an upgrade to the base Pentastar V-6. If Kuniskis' statements are anything to go by, the I-6 didn't get the reception Ram was hoping for. Otherwise, it wouldn't have gone through the trouble of upping 5.7 V-8 production and adapting this old engine to work with the truck's new electronic architecture, which wasn't exactly the work of a moment. While the turbo inline-six is, as Ram points out, more powerful and more efficient, it's not necessarily the better truck engine. We haven't heard any horror stories about the Hurricane, but in a truck, where customers often put strain on the engine with towing and payload, they don't with regular cars, simplicity is a virtue. A turbo 'six might hit the numbers—and inherently, a turbo straight-six is a great thing, as BMW proves—but here with two turbochargers, the associated plumbing, and intercoolers, it is a more complex thing. Hell, compared to the Hemi V-8, the Hurricane I-6 has space-age complexities as multiple overhead camshafts. And while the standard-output Hurricane inline-six offers a 15-horsepower and 49-pound-feet bump over the Hemi V-8, the customer gets no great benefit in fuel economy for having two fewer cylinders. You get 21 MPG combined in the I-6 vs 20 MPG for the V-8. And somehow, their tailpipe emissions are almost identical, with 433 vs 443 grams of CO2 per mile, respectively. Photo by: Ram However, there is something very culture-war about all this. The 1500 Hemi gets a new badge with a Ram's head on the front of a V-8, which Ram calls the "Symbol of Protest Badge." A protest against… what exactly? Ram's press release leaves this to your imagination. But it's not like the current presidential administration is pushing for more fuel-efficient, lower-emission vehicles right now. In fact, it's doing very much the opposite. The Hemi may have its virtues, but its return is colored with corporate pandering to the aggrieved, which is as savvy as it is cringeworthy. Stellantis is hurting big time, and this is a very easy win for them, and a good hedge against electric pickups—which even ardent EV defenders will admit aren't fully up to the task yet . Ram has an electric pickup in the pipeline, but EV trucks from Ford and GM haven't exactly caught on. Maybe Ram's upcoming range-extender EV pickup, the Ramcharger, will do well; it seems like it could be a good mix of electrification and capability, but it's early, and the company keeps delaying the truck anyhow. Still, it's embarrassing to see a large, multinational corporation make it seem like buying an expensive V-8 pickup is an act of rebellion, of sticking it to the man. But who's the man right now? Near-powerless Democrats? California? EVs, like the ones Stellantis also makes? Joe Biden? It's a strange message from the company that also makes America's best-selling plug-in hybrid . Photo by: Ram Ram is more explicit in how it's targeting customers who respond to that message. But everyone else refocusing on V-8s knows they're appealing to those who resist change, or at least aren't so open to it. And hell, those people aren't wrong to love the V-8. It is a fundamentally excellent thing. Perhaps Ram's biggest issue is that the V-8 being revived dates back to 2003 and is not something new or innovative or groundbreaking in some way, as we'll see from those other companies. Stellantis can only fall back on its old standbys for so long. The company seems to understand this—it's why it developed the new inline-six, why it's developing electrified Ram 1500s, and why the Dodge Charger went electric. But it missed the mark. So far, these haven't been game-changing, do-everything vehicles, especially not at the high prices Stellantis charges. There's a happy middle ground. Other automakers continuing V-8 development are also heavily pushing hybrids and EVs, and BMW and GM especially are seeing big success as a result. Automakers need to walk and chew gum at the same time. If the last few years have proven anything, it's that emissions and fuel economy rules won't stay lenient forever. When that changes again, and it will, Stellantis had better get ready for what's next. More on the Hemi's Comeback The Hemi V-8 Is Back: 'We Screwed Up,' Says Ram CEO Ram's 'Symbol of Protest' Badge for Hemi V-8s Is Ridiculous and Genius Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
CNBC
18 hours ago
- CNBC
Ram resurrects Hemi engine for popular pickup trucks in 'Symbol of Protest'
DETROIT — Stellantis is resurrecting its popular V-8 Hemi engine for its Ram 1500 full-size pickup trucks beginning this summer. The return of the 5.7-liter engine comes after the company discontinued the powertrain amid tightening fuel economy regulations and a company-wide push toward electric vehicles and more efficient engines last year under ex-Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis, who unretired from the automaker late last year, admitted the decision to cancel the Hemi engine for its popular consumer-focused Ram 1500 was a mistake. "Everyone makes mistakes, but how you handle them defines you. Ram screwed up when we dropped the Hemi — we own it and we fixed it," Kuniskis said. "We're not just bringing back a legendary V-8 engine, we're igniting an assertive product plan and expanding the freedom of choice in powertrain for our customers." The decision is the latest reversal in automakers' plans this year, as EV adoption has been slower than expected, and as the Trump administration has sought to unwind many of former President Joe Biden's initiatives to push the auto industry away from gas-guzzling internal combustion engines. The Hemi announcement, which comes as the automaker delays plans for its electric trucks, is part of a new product turnaround plan by Kuniskis that includes 25 product announcements over an 18-month period. Ram's sales have been struggling for years amid price increases and production mishaps, as well as the automaker killing off the Hemi engine — a staple of the automaker and its predecessors since the 1950s. Kuniskis expects Hemi to represent 25% to 40% of the Ram 1500's pickup trucks' sales. Ram has continued to offer Hemi engines in larger pickup trucks. Ram discontinued the Hemi in exchange for a more efficient twin-turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder engine called the Hurricane. That engine will continue to be offered, with the Hemi as a $1,200 option on most models. Another 3.6-liter V-6 engine is standard on entry-level models. Kunkiskis said his top priority when he returned in December was to get the Hemi back into Ram trucks. He initially said estimates were for it to take 18 months, which the company cut down into six months through a special project team — codenamed F15. The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 delivers 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque. That compared to the Hurricane that replaced it at 420 horsepower and 469 foot-pounds of torque, while a high-output version of the Hurricane engine is rated at 540 horsepower and 521 foot-pounds of torque. Unlike previous generations of the truck, the vehicle will not feature "HEMI" on the side on the vehicle. Instead, the company has created a new badge that features a Ram's head coming out of a Hemi engine that it's calling its "Symbol of Protest." The new logo and name are an effort to regain customers who may have decided not to buy a Ram truck because the company attempted to push more efficient engines and EVs upon them. "They hate the fact that we took away the freedom of choice," Kuniskis said. "We, as Americans, probably even more so truck buyers, hate the fact that we said, 'This is the choice you get.'" Kuniskis said the automaker is still expected to eventually offer electric or hybrid pickup trucks to assist in meeting emissions and fuel economy requirements for Ram, but he declined to disclose an updated timeframe after several delays.
