Durango Hellcat Owners Take Dodge To Court Over 'Bait And Switch'
Dodge Durango Hellcat owners are pissed, but not because of any issues with their 710-horsepower high-performance SUVs. When Dodge first announced the Durango Hellcat in 2020 it said the model would be a one-year-only special edition for the 2021 model year, but production of the SUV was brought back for 2023 and has continued since then. Those original owners have been locked in a legal battle with the automaker because they feel Dodge misled them over the Durango Hellcat's special edition status, and now both parties are going to court.
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The Durango Hellcat's combination of supercharged Hemi might and three-row family hauling capability was brilliant, putting it in a class of its own against myriad other high-performance SUVs. Buyers lined up to get their hands on one when order books opened at the end of 2020, especially after Dodge boss Tim Kuniskis confirmed that the Durango Hellcat would only be available for one model year:
"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."
In January 2021 just after the Hellcat first reached dealers it was nearly sold out; Dodge initially planned for a 2,000-unit production run but ended up building 3,000 2021 Durango Hellcats. Pretty impressive for an SUV that cost nearly $84,000. At the time, a company spokesperson confirmed to Jalopnik that there would be no Durango Hellcat allocations for 2022, reiterating that it was a 2021-only model.
Then, in the summer of 2022, Dodge announced that the Durango Hellcat would return for the 2023 model year, which immediately pissed off existing owners — some were so mad that they took legal action. In March 2023, seven Durango Hellcat owners filed a suit in the U.S. District Court in Delaware against Dodge. Their argument? Dodge misled buyers of the original run of Durango Hellcats by continuing the SUV's production. The owners claim that had they known Dodge would make more Durango Hellcats after initially saying it would be a one year only model, they wouldn't have paid so much for one at the dealer. According to Car Complaints, the owners reference both Tim Kuniskis' statements about the Hellcat being available for just one year and Dodge's promomotional and press materials as evidence for the case.
At the end of the day, this drama is all about value. The suit mentions that Dodge's implication that the Durango Hellcat would be a limited edition led the owners to purchase the SUVs as a "suitable investment." From Car Complaints:
"The lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs purchased their SUVs as a "suitable investment," the implication being the 2021 SRT Hellcat was to be a "limited edition" vehicle that was never to be built again.
The motion says:
"Each Plaintiff alleges that they purchased the SRT Hellcat based upon Defendants' representations that it was a 'limited edition,' 'one-year model run only,' making it a 'suitable investment' and 'eventual collector's item.'"
Dodge and the owners came close to resolving the case and had entered into mediation, but things fell through and the owners took the brand back to court.
Dodge doesn't believe it misled anyone about the Durango Hellcat's production and says the case should be dismissed. According to Car Complaints, Dodge claims that the company's language at the time, both in official announcements and the words of Kuniskis, never stated that the Durango Hellcat wouldn't ever go into production again. From Car Complaints:
"The plaintiffs quote Kuniskis from an article that also says: "[T]he Durango Hellcat is not limited, not serialized like what we do with [Dodge Demon]" and the 2021 model year run of the vehicle did "not imply the end of the product lifecycle."
Dodge is also claiming that the limited production of the Durango Hellcat had more to do with production difficulties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic; this is why just 3,000 were initially made. As for the owners who said they bought the SUV as an investment, Dodge called them out over those claims, saying that none of them mentioned storing or limiting their use of their Durango Hellcats, nor did any of the owners "claim they tried to sell their SUVs but the vehicles had lost value." Dodge also points out how none of the owners' Durangos are defective in any way or don't perform as advertised.
Whatever happens, this case doesn't seem as if it'll be over anytime soon. Meanwhile Dodge has continued production of the Durango Hellcat. There's currently three 2025 model year special edition versions available to those with deep enough pockets: The Durango Hellcat Silver Bullet, Durango Hellcat Hammerhead and Durango Hellcat Brass Monkey. Each one will set you back $114,920 including destination charges, a hell of a lot more than the original 2021 Hellcats.
This isn't the first time owners of a certain model have come after an automaker. In the 1970s, Cadillac Eldorado Convertible owners sued GM over a similar situation, with the owners claiming GM's continued production of the convertible misled buyers after the company said that it would stop making them.
Read the original article on Jalopnik.
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