Durango Hellcat House owners Lose Lawsuit Over ‘Restricted Version’ SUVs

In a win for giant enterprise fanatics in all places, Dodge — and its father or mother firm, Stellantis — defeated a shopper fraud and false promoting lawsuit led to by 2021 Durango SRT Hellcat house owners. They claimed that their “restricted version” SUVs misplaced worth when the automaker spun up manufacturing two years later to make extra automobiles.

House owners within the proposed class motion swimsuit stated they shelled out premium costs, as excessive as $114,225, primarily based on the promise by the automaker that it could finish manufacturing after constructing 3,000 items in 2021in response to Reuters. These Durango Hellcatists stated they felt “shock and anger” when Dodge introduced the 710-horsepower Durango Hellcat again from the useless in 2023, which they (appropriately) felt lowered its exclusivity and dropped their vehicles’ resale worth. The ruling by the decide will be summarized as “too unhealthy, so unhappy.”

Okay, that is not precisely what she informed plaintiffs in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia, however that is form of the gist. Truly, U.S. District Decide Jennifer Corridor in Wilmington, Delaware, stated she discovered no proof that Fiat Chrysler meant to renege on its promise, or that its assertion amounted to an categorical guarantee, Reuters stories.

She went on to say that the automaker did not violate any state shopper fraud legal guidelines “the place the alleged ‘misrepresentation’ pertained to meant future conduct and was true when made.” Mainly, she’s saying Dodge and Stellantis did not promise — in a authorized sense — to not make extra of those vehicles. So, whereas it will possibly possibly be checked out as a crappy factor for the automaker to do to those house owners, within the eyes of the legislation they have no authorized recourse.

Let this be a reminder to you all: shopping for a automotive as an funding is sort of at all times a horrible, horrible, no good, very unhealthy thought. There is no solution to know the place the market is headed, and there are nearly no brand-new vehicles which are going to understand proper out of the field — particularly from a quantity automaker like Dodge. Even when the automaker have been to stay to three,000 items of the 2021 Durango Hellcat, it is unlikely that it could have held its $114,225 MSRP for very lengthy.

One of the best plan of action for these people is to simply take pleasure in their Durango Hellcats. The worst-case state of affairs is that they’ve an all-wheel-drive, six-passenger SUV with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 underneath the hoodpumping out 710 hp and 645 pound-feet of torque. It’s going to do 0-60 in about 3.5 seconds and dispatch the quarter mile in about 11-and-a-half. If that is not sufficient to make you content, I do not know what’s.

Certain, house owners have taken a little bit of a shower on depreciation. Proper now, AutoTrader exhibits there are 26 2021 Durango SRT Hellcats on the market within the U.S. with a clear title and no accidents. They vary in worth from someplace within the mid-50-thousand-dollar vary for high-mile examples to the mid-90s for examples with very low miles. I do know these aren’t the costs people have been in search of, however simply discover an open highway and hit the gasoline. You may really feel higher.