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A California man has filed a class action lawsuit against the makers of the Dodge Demon over claims the elite muscle car’s hood scoop is defective and causes damage to the vehicle.
Demon owner Joe Peralta says FCA USA, the automaking conglomerate that manufactures Dodge and several other car brands, mislead consumers, violated their car warranties and has failed to adequately fix the hood scoop’s design flaws. He filed a federal class action lawsuit against FCA in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Nov. 5.
Dodge began selling the Challenger SRT Demon in the U.S. in 2018, a variation on its established Challenger line that featured a unique hood scoop and greater potential horsepower, according to the Peralta class action lawsuit. The car was advertised to be “the most-powerful muscle car ever,” boasting 840 horsepower from its “supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI® Demon V-8 engine.”
The Demon’s hood scoop — a 45-square-inch vent — was designed to help cool the high-powered engine. FCA trademarked the design, which the company called bold and aggressive, the class action lawsuit says.
“This intake chiller system actively sucks heat out of the engine and supercharger coolant, lowering the intake charge system by 45 degrees … which allows the engine to keep making power regardless of the weather,” Peralta’s class action complaint says.
Demon owners, however, started to notice within months that the scoop was “sagging, buckling and bulging,” according to complaints posted on various online auto blogs dating as far back as March 2018, the class action lawsuit says. The warped scoops reportedly caused cracking and chipping of the hood’s paint.
In December 2019, the car company issued a service bulletin prescribing a fix for the problem: replacing the hood scoop bezel and, if necessary, refinishing the entire hood.
Peralta says that fix is not only inadequate, but makes things worse.
“In sum, the repair(s) offered to the … Dodge Demon owners are inadequate and represent an insurmountable departure from the vehicle as advertised, and … causes irreversible damage to the vehicle’s value, use, and future collectability,” the class action lawsuit claims.
Collectability is a key feature of the Dodge Demon, Peralta’s lawyers argue in their complaint. The vehicle was originally marketed as a collectible automobile, particularly because of its striking hood scoop, the class action points out. It was even featured on an episode of the television show “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
Although it had an MSRP of $85,000, the Dodge Demon’s marketing campaign ginned up so much interest in the muscle car that potential buyers throughout the nation put deposits down to secure their chance to buy one. Ultimately, some paid upward of $150,000 to own what they considered a one-of-a-kind car.
Peralta bought his 2018 Dodge Demon for $166,618.07.
“Unfortunately, and despite initially rolling out the red carpet to potential customers with exclusive gifts paid for by celebrity praise and a one-thousand-horsepower-fueled marketing campaign, Defendants slammed on the brakes at the first sign of chipped paint and have completely breached their obligations by failing to conform the vehicles to their express warranties,” Peralta claims in his class action lawsuit.
After driving the car for only 20 miles, Peralta says his Demon hood scoop began to warp. In late 2019, after having reported the damage a year earlier, Peralta says, he was informed the manufacturer was offering a fix — the new hood bevel mentioned in the service bulletin. That was “worse than doing nothing at all,” Peralta said.
“For starters, his once matte-finished Dodge Demon now has an entirely different finish … a different hood scoop insert … [and] numerous holes were drilled into the hood of the vehicle to replace the original inserts,” the class action lawsuit says. And a week after the new bevel was installed, the hood scoop began to warp again, the owner claims.
Peralta’s class action lawsuit claims FCA’s action regarding the Dodge Demon hood scoop violated state and federal consumer protection laws and constituted false advertising, violations of express and implied warranty, breach of express warranty, unfair business practices, fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. He is seeking monetary damages for himself and members of the proposed class of Demon owners with similar experiences.
It is unclear exactly how many other owners could be eligible to participate in the class action, but Peralta’s court filing says it is likely to be more than 300.
Do you have a Dodge Demon with a hood scoop that was manufactured between 2017 and 2020? Has your car been damaged by the scoop? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Lead plaintiff and the proposed Class Members are represented by Connor W. Olson of The Law Officers of Connor Olson and Tiangay M. Kemokai of Tiangay Kemokai Law PC.
The Dodge Demon Class Action Lawsuit is Joe Peralta, et al. v. FCA US LLC, et al., Case No. 5:20-cv-02307, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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2 thoughts onCustomer Files Class Action Lawsuit Over the Dodge Demon Hood Scoop
I have a Demon
I have a 2018 Dodge Demon, I have the hood chips around the scoop, dealer tried to paint a replacement hood 3different ones and mow wants me to have it painted by another shop. They offered to pay the invoice. But if I have someone paint this hood the paint warranty is void afterwards. This needs to be repaired properly as to not hurt the value of this beast.