Remember how it seemed like Dodge teased a new Hellcat model yesterday? Well, here it is, and I probably could’ve done a better job of predicting it. It’s the Durango SRT Hellcat Jailbreak, and while it’s not a mic-drop moment, consider this highly customizable trim level a bit of fan service.
[Note: Turns out, The Autopian’s fearless leader had received embargoed info about this new vehicle on Monday and didn’t tell us until after I’d written my article yesterday, hypothesizing that a new Hellcat might be coming. – TH]
Okay, so the Durango SRT Hellcat Jailbreak doesn’t add any power or performance hardware, but it’s still cooking with a 710-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V8. That means this three-row family hauler can go from zero-to-60 mph in 3.5 seconds, storm down the quarter-mile in 11.5 seconds, and keep on pulling to 180 MPH. Imagine outrunning a Lamborghini Murcielago in a Dodge family hauler. Kinda wild, right?
See, the appeal of this new trim is that it lets you go wild when spec’ing it out. Just like with the Charger SRT Hellcat Jailbreak and Challenger SRT Hellcat Jailbreak, the Durango SRT Hellcat Jailbreak lets you pair basically any color, upholstery, or trim option with any other color-related option, like you can on some of the world’s most exotic cars.
Right out of the gate, you can choose from six exterior colors: Green Machine, Destroyer Gray, Diamond Black, Octane Red, Vapor Gray and White Knuckle. What’s going on with the Plum Crazy Durango in the background of some photographs? Well, if none of the six regular colors float your boat, you can get a custom one-of-one color. Who’ll be the hero to order their Durango Hellcat in the Neon’s snot-rocket Nitro Yellow Green, or Yellow Jacket from the Charger, or that Purple Metallic from the Plymouth Prowler, or something color-shifting? From there, you get to choose from six different wheel options, and you can choose between red, black, orange, or yellow brake calipers.
Beyond that, there’s the badging. All the badges can be ordered in silver, red, bronze, or black, but only the fender emblems can be had in yellow or orange. If you want a gloss black hood, that’s also cool, and you can choose between five different stripe colors. Blue stripes over a white Durango serve up some Y2K-era Viper vibes, black-and-red stripes bring things into the ACR era, and for those looking for something different, there are red stripes, silver stripes, grey stripes, or the clean option of no stripes.
On the inside of the Durango SRT Hellcat Jailbreak, your color choices depend on how many seats you want. Black leather and Alcantara can be had with five-seat or seven-seat configurations, while ticking the six-seater box expands the palette to brown, red, grey, or dark red. A choice of black, red, brown, or grey seat belts finish off the color choices, but then you’ll need to select standalone options. How about a sueded steering wheel, or a sunroof, or black exhaust tips, or summer tires? I reckon the Premium Package is essential because it includes a 19-speaker Harman/Kardon audio system, the trailer tow group really is a no-brainer, and a suede headliner really ties the space together.
Once you’re done picking your options, your Durango SRT Hellcat Jailbreak will get its own serialized badge in the carbon fiber trim, and boom. Like Burger King, you’re having it your way. Sure, it’s not new performance bits, and it’s not going to really shake up the world of fast SUVs, but the Durango SRT Hellcat is great, so anything that gets more of them out the door is a plus in my books.
Top graphic image: Dodge
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THIS was worthy of an embargo?
I would love one in Crush Orange to match my Jeep but we know most will be sold in white.
Because the best solution to an aging lineup is a halo version of an even-more-aging SUV?
I would have been semi-excited about this a decade ago (and I was) but now it feels like they’re messing with us. I still like the Durango, I just don’t think the company has the cachet to try to sell fully-customized versions like they’re trying to do here.
My bet is that every second or third dealer will be allocated a Hellcat, which will be silver with black stripes, and 100% of them will be sold from the lot. Possibly with a small markup, but I doubt they could even pull that off at this point.
There are currently many on lots and most of them have discounts, some as high as $20,000 off MSRP. They’ll be lucky to get MSRP for these, and secondhand last call Charger/Challenger stuff is already available and depreciating just like any other ancient Dodge product. They’ve way, way overplayed their hand but they’re a bunch of idiots who sell cars to other idiots so I understand why they keep doing it and will do it forever.
They’ve already announced they’re making the current Durango through 2028, and if they stop then (unlikely, they have less than 0 ideas) it’ll have had a SEVENTEEN YEAR production run.
That run is both impressive and sad at the same time. I think it’s a fundamentally sound chassis and they were probably right to leave it alone (if it ain’t broke…) especially amid changes in ownership and the need for cost savings.
I’d even go so far as to say the related Jeep GC was a step down when it got revised a couple years ago.
I am now over giving Dodge shit because the Charger Six Pack looks rad
Semi Excited? Viagra has a cure for that.
Raging Hemi?
Suede steering wheel is such a dumb idea. Hands go there! Greasy, nasty, slowly-abrading your textile HANDS!
Brought to you by the Coalition to Make Alcantra and Microfiber a Feature and Not a Flaw.
The question is, how many will just end up in custom shades of gray?
I could not care less about fast bad minivans, but I celebrate any company allowing such choice of colors, even if few will actually take them up on it.
Every Hellcat Durango I’ve seen has been primer gray
I am shocked, just completely shocked.
There is just nothing that soothes the normie heart quite like a car that’s devoid of color
I guess I am not a normie. My 128i is Space Gray, but only because when buying used beggars don’t get to be choosers, and it was the second nicest one for sale in the whole country at the time (I missed buying the nicest one by 5 minutes). Though at least Space Gray is a more interesting shade than shiny primer! <shudder> Had I ordered it, gray would have been second only to red in colors I would have avoided. Probably would have gone for LeMans Blue. My M235i was Estoril Blue, which is even better!
Of course, for the same reason, my Spitfire is bright red. If it ever gets painted again it won’t be. Almost certainly Inka Yellow, which was the color of my first Spitfire that became a parts car.
Can you get it with Rich Corinthian Leather? The last gasp of a decaying empire. They’ll sell 10’s and 10’s of these things.
Yay, another vehicle to be festooned with Predator stickers and the putrid aroma of toxic masculinity.
Nothing like the smell of burnt rubber and unwashed ass in the morning!
That’s for hubby in his RAM.
My wife’s Durango will have “Badass B*tch” and “If You Want to Ride My A$$, at least pull my hair” on the back.
Yes, these are both real stickers I’ve seen in the past week alone.
There are two parents at my kids daycare that have “Kids up in this b*tch.” stickers on their cars. Real classy peeps.
My wife and I saw a sticker that said “F-Bomb Mom” and when we passed by you could see her puffing away on a cigarette… with 2 kids in the car of course.
Is predator stickers something new or did you mean punisher?
Must mean Punisher but now I want a Predator sticker that flashes the three dot triangle on the forehead of tailgaters
“If you can read this, get to da choppah”
You’re one ugly mother f…….never mind.
Yes… I hadn’t had my caffeine this morning before I typed that out. But don’t worry, I realized the error of my ways and instead smoked a giant boulder of crack to overcompensate. Just like any good politician would.
Yawn. The “Hellcat in a Gran Sport” Cordoba or Hellcat Pacifica would have been so much more interesting.
Though I do like the optioning strategy, and wish that were more available in the market generally. Like, say, wanting the top trim interior with the base-spec wheels on an EV to maximize comfort AND range.
Many comments here are comically sour. Dodge/Stellantis can print cash with this machine, so they will continue making it until their strategy and numbers finally call for the end. Cry harder.
They aren’t going to print money though. There are hundreds of new ones sitting on lots despite having up to $20,000 on the hood and used ones are already available in the 50s. If they’d kept the numbers limited like they’d initially planned to they could’ve made decent money on them but since they’re Dodge and they haven’t had an original idea in 50 years they can’t help themselves.
With that out of the way, if you’re someone who’s into this sort of thing (which by the tone of your comment I’m guessing you are) secondhand ones are going to continue dropping in value and I think at 50 grand-ish they’d be pretty good buys if you’re willing to put up with the high costs of gas and insurance.
Exactly. They’re already struggling to sell new ones, so they basically said “Just tell us how you want it”
looks like you’re an FCA/Stellantis stan? I’m going to be following you to see what other sort of ridiculous comments you make. “Cry harder?” Tell me you own a Jeep with the grumper grille without telling me you own a Jeep etc.
My neighbor with an ANGRY HEADLIGHT Wrangler just turned his DRLs red because I guess merely making them angry looking didn’t get the point across well enough. MUH WRANGLER NEEDS TO BE LIVID!!!!
My response when I see these in the wild is always to exclaim, “Angry Jeep, grrrrr” to my wife lol.
I have a whole voice and several phrases I do for all the toxic masculinity mobiles. My wife used to be amused but I think it’s wearing thin and I need new material…
Remember, it’s not your fault. If there weren’t so many, you wouldn’t have worn the joke out.
Yeah, and some of those dipshits get rung up around here for the illegal color, which I find glorious
Have you read Stellantis’ earnings reports? The only ones crying harder are their shareholders as that train wreck of an org circles the bowl
Buyers will not read the comments here, nor would they care about those who make them. They will buy those brash and brutish machines while still available, and enjoy the hell out of them.
Yeah, not what you said or meant, but keep being you, dunce
Meh..
Weird name for a minivan with shitty doors.
So basically a trim level to get people to pay sticker for a custom ordered car, rather than buy the one that’s been sitting on the lot for 8 months with $10k off.
Finally, a car you can steal to bring the whole family to the street takeover!
<Insert “Make your cars better of draw 25” Uno meme>
And what will all the “exclusivity” cost?
Sounds like Stellantis is trying to do a Porsche with “customization.” Won’t help much, as you first have to have a vehicle that people actually want to, you know, buy.
They’ve already made too many of these and the approximately 11 people that actually wanted one already have one. They have new 2024s (and maybe even 2023s) sitting at dealerships for 5 figures off MSRP and you can already used ones in the 60s. They’ll be on buy here pay here lots in the next 2 years if they aren’t wrecked or stolen first.
It’s a fucking 20+ year old car with a 10+ year old engine that has had 0 changes other than tuning. You’d really have to be an idiot to buy one of these at MSRP and even dumber to participate in the bootleg paint to sample program…because for as easy as it is to mock Dodge one of the few things they do well is colors. While naturally Dull Primer Gray is the most prevalent it’s not like it’s hard to find these in cool colors as is.
I suspect the Bring A Trailer crowd will disagree with us.
I doubt it. There are myriad people with more money than sense on that site (and Doug’s) making things worse for everyone with their rampant consumerism but there are just too many of these out there and the market for them is too limited.
I’m fairly certain like 80% of Hellcats are sold to Boomers that are already trying to MY HELLCAT BEST HELLCAT them Corvette and jorts style and that the rest are sold to insecure men/pick me women stretching their budgets recklessly thanks to Stellantis’ extremely lax financing. The joke around here about Chargers and Challengers has always been that 392 is the driver’s credit score.
Other than that they often wind up with athletes/celebrities but I don’t really think they’re en vogue anymore now that they’ve depreciated. Anyway…it’s a very limited market and most of the people that want one already have one or even two. Not to mention with the war on the environment in full swing I’m positive the other American manufacturers are going to soon have even more obnoxious V8 powered stuff to sell to people who make $60,000 a year on 120 month loans at 17% APR…
When David Frieburger gives his “Final Edition Challenger” away as a contest, you know they have jumped the shark.
Okay, I guess I won’t be bidding on “One-of-one 50-Mile Dodge Durango Hellcat” anytime soon….
Nah, if you want one just get a lightly used one for $65,000 or less
Do the stripes go down the tailgate in back too? I can’t quite tell.
I enjoy how b/c of the Viper channeling the Shelby Cobra, over the body striping went from being a Ford thing to also (and these days, more so) a Dodge thing.
Incredible work, Dodge. We expected nothing and you still managed to disappoint!
I wonder if the factory is capable of doing Stryker Red.
Ultimate Power! But, the frogurt is also cursed. It’s a Dodge. That’s bad.
D’oh
Can I go now?
Woof
Selling about 14 of these will really keep Dodge afloat.
They should offer new colors like Ashes Grey, Dodgey Brown Stripe, Firesale Red, CEO Blues, Clutched Pearls White Metallic.
I’d have to imagine much of their market for these at this point are current Durango Hellcat owners who just want to get a newer one, or in this case, a customized one.
All the people still salty about buying a Final Edition Hellcat itching for the next Final Edition Hellcat.
Spot on. Thats why its stickered at $105k so they can roll their negative equity into the new one
Yeah, Catchme Copper, Statutory Grape, Gang Green, Hi-Ho Silver, and Unforeseeable Fuchsia were great Mopar names.
You think Ford will bring back Anti-Establish Mint, Hulla Blue, Original Cinnamon, Freudian Gilt, and Thanks Vermillion?
Did GM ever get into the funny paint name game?
Yay colors!
Now put the drivetrain in the Pacifica, cowards.
detonator yellow. black stripe. or maybe just Giallo Orion with no stripe.
I’ll have mine in Panther Pink with Mod Top.