Looking to buy a Durango Hellcat? You’ll have to hit up a dealer with an open order slot.
Let me take a moment to speak not as a reporter, but as an enthusiast. To every one of the 2,000 people who manages to get an order in for the 710 horsepower 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat, I’m extremely jealous. As it turns out, dealers had little trouble filling the order books for Dodge’s single-year beast. As of Thursday, buyers have spoken for all examples in the limited production run.
Now, technically you can still buy one. If a dealer put in a Durango Hellcat order but hasn’t sold it to an end customer yet, you can still (possibly) buy one that way. At least, that’s what Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis says of the order book’s current status. “Based on anticipated demand, dealer allocations have already been reserved, but there is still some time to secure an unsold dealer order,” he said. That cuts both ways, of course: Sure, you can buy one, but now you’ll almost certainly have to pay dealer markup to get one, if you weren’t lucky enough to snipe one at MSRP.
What the Hellcat model is *supposed* to cost
Speaking of price, the 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat starts at $82,490, including destination. That excludes options, naturally, as well as the before mentioned wedge of cash your dealer may ask you to pay beyond that. Being part of the Hellcat family tree, the Durango packs a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 with 650 lb-ft of torque. All that grunt makes its way to all four wheels through a beefed up 8-speed automatic transmission. Dodge says this three-row family hauler will sprint to 60 in 3.5 seconds, and run the quarter-mile in 11.5 seconds.
From experience, it certainly does feel that quick. That’s to say nothing of the sheer visceral thrill a massive, forced-induction V8 provides when you stamp on the loud pedal.
There are a few reasons why the 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat is limited to a single model year. First, it did still take a couple months to fill out the order books (rather than selling out in minutes or hours). If anything, relatively few people are willing to shell out nearly $100,000 for a fully-loaded Durango, even if it is ostensibly the quickest gasoline-powered SUV on the road. Second, there is a new Dodge Durango coming. Inevitably tightening emissions regulations, particularly in light of the recent change in government here in the U.S., will undoubtedly seal this car’s fate as just 2,000 roll off the Detroit assembly line shared with its platform mate, the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Times are changing, and so are the ways we approach performance. I’m looking forward to what the future holds, but I will still salute every Dodge Durango Hellcat I see out in the wild, as I have with the equally ludicrous Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. Here’s to unbridled V8 power — and more proof that Dodge does insane performance better than most.
