That Dodge Durango in Your Rear-view Might Be a Cop

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Once upon a time, fearsome variants of conservative full-size sedans roamed America’s highways en masse in search of speeders and felons, but the emergence of the SUV as the preferred tool of law enforcement relegated the traditional four-door car to the back of the pack.

It’s no wonder why Ford had no problem ditching the Taurus. Some 80 percent of the automaker’s police fleet orders specify the Police Interceptor Utility — a butched-up Explorer — instead of its sedan stablemate. Chevrolet’s Tahoe PPV offers law enforcement a more rugged SUV option.

Not wanting to be left behind in the switch to high-riding cop cars, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has debuted a competitor — the Dodge Durango Pursuit.

Offered alongside the existing Charger Pursuit for 2018, the Durango Pursuit fields FCA’s 5.7-liter Hemi V8, an engine good for 360 horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque. An eight-speed automatic handles shifting duties. While all Durango Pursuits come equipped with full-time all-wheel drive, the extra traction only appears when the rear wheels can’t handle the job. (It’s nice having another cop car that’s rear-biased.)

A two-speed transfer case should allow responding officers to reach that crime scene on the side of a mountain, or, perhaps, give that fleeing Jeep Wrangler a run for its money.

Compared to Ford and Chevy, Dodge’s newest police offering tops its rivals in terms of standard power. The Tahoe’s 5.3-liter V8 makes 355 hp and 383 lb-ft, while the standard 3.7-liter V6 under the hood of Ford’s cop SUV delivers 304 hp and 279 lb-ft. However, law enforcement agencies have the option of upgrading to a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, with 365 hp and 350 lb-ft on tap.

In the twist wars, Dodge emerges the victor.

“Unofficial testing results at the Michigan State Police 2018 model-year vehicle evaluation event created such a stir among law enforcement agencies that we simply had to find a way to build this vehicle,” said Steve Beahm, head of passenger car brands at FCA North America, in a statement.

As one would expect, FCA outfitted this Durango with all the necessary rough-and-tumble trappings of a pursuit-rated vehicle. That means a heavy duty oil cooler and water pump, upgraded brakes, a 220-amp alternator, and 800 cold cranking amp battery. There’s also a place to mount a spotlight, should the force choose to.

Ground clearance on this rig is 8.1 inches. If hanging a trailer or boat off the rear bumper is part of the job, the Durango Pursuit’s 7,200-pound towing capability should be able to handle it.

The vehicle seems capable, but FCA claims it’s available for order only “for a limited time.” A next-generation Durango is expected to appear sometime next year.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Hummer Hummer on May 10, 2018

    I hope the Durango drops the Crossover and switches back to an SUV in the next generation, maybe it can finally give the GM fullsizers some competition. Especially seeing everyone else putting out more crossovers, having real SUVs available is a huge brand builder.

    • Flipper35 Flipper35 on May 11, 2018

      Jeep will have that covered for you. The Durango has never been a full size competitor, though the 2nd gen was close, based on the Ram platform of the time.

  • Carrera Carrera on May 10, 2018

    Hmm...the Durango would be nice but we just got 7 Chevy Silverado Crew Cabs V6, 5 Explorer Interceptors, 1 Explorer XLT ( very weird) 2 Chargers replaceing 2 2010 Hemi Chargers. The Explorer Interceptors are very spartan, no non-sense and FWD. The XLT is very luxurious in comparison and is an AWD. Must have been a mistake. The lack of any arm rest makes the Explorer Interceptors a bit uncomfortable. The interceptors come with Goodyear Eagles but the XLT has Michelins. We are good for the next 8 years.

    • OzCop OzCop on May 11, 2018

      As the retired fleet command guy in charge of a 500 vehicle police fleet, my best guess for that "one off XLT" is most likely the Chief's new vehicle. It is not unusual to spec out vehicles for a specific individual, particularly a police chief or the high sheriff...

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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