Police departments across Indiana, including the Indiana State Police (ISP), have been experiencing widespread engine failure in their new Dodge Durango Pursuit cruisers. Despite being just a few years old, oil coolers are failing in so many Durango cop cars and killing their engines that one department has decided to sell its vehicles at a big loss because Stellantis has allegedly failed to help.
“We are forced to make the difficult decision to prematurely sell these Durangos, incurring significant financial losses for our department and, ultimately, for you, the taxpayers,” Merrillville, Indiana Chief of Police Konstantinos Nuses wrote in an open letter to Merrillville residents.
“This situation is not just disappointing; it is fundamentally unfair,” Nuses continued. “All of us—taxpayers and police departments alike—have paid for a compromised product, and Dodge has failed to take responsibility or provide a viable solution. Nor have they offered any type of compensation for the downtime of these vehicles. This has left us in a bind, struggling to fulfill our duty to protect and serve.”
The issue stems from oil coolers failing, leading to coolant and engine oil combining to create that terrifying milky mixture that all car enthusiasts fear. That leads to engine damage, and sometimes complete failure. Many of the Durangos reportedly failed before even reaching 15,000 miles. After trying to manage the problem since late 2022, Nuses wrote that in May of this year, Stellantis finally promised it’d issue revised parts to the department within two weeks. But four months later, the department says it’s still yet to receive anything—no parts, no financial compensation, no help.
According to CBS, Stellantis released the following statement: “The Dodge Durango Pursuit meets or exceeds all applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards and is subject to severe operating conditions to which the standard, retail version of the Durango is immune. Further, certain oil-cooler issues are difficult to detect, which may lead to collateral damage and a highly complex remedy. We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused to our valued police-community customers and are working to expedite service for any affected vehicles. Since the model launched in 2018, it has been deployed with thousands of police agencies across North America, and overall feedback has been exemplary.”
Are “certain oil cooler issues” really difficult to detect? How about just replacing faulty ones with some that work? Without a fix from Stellantis, police departments were forced to put out even more tax dollars on expensive repairs and even entire engine replacements. Additionally, cruisers would often be out of commission anywhere from four to eight weeks during those repairs. A police cruiser breaking down on the way to an emergency can be disastrous, so you’d imagine Stellantis would want to help. Now, Nuses apparently doesn’t have much of a choice but to unload the failing Durangos at a loss, just to recoup some of the sunken costs, and begin replacing them. However, to “mitigate the financial impact” of the situation, Nuses has asked the Indiana Attorney General’s office for assistance.
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