Viper killed off again
Poor sales have seen the Dodge Viper given its marching orders.
The Dodge Viper supercar, loved by enthusiasts and collectors, will die again next year. But it’s going out in style.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has said it is offering five limited-edition models to commemorate the final year of production and celebrate its 25th anniversary. Each model will be inspired by historic Vipers from the past and produced in very small numbers.
‘‘The Dodge Viper has had a great run and, 25 years after it was first introduced, it leaves the super car world reaching for the records it continues to set,’’ Tim Kuniskis, Fiat Chrysler’s head of passenger cars and the Dodge brand, said in a statement.
The Viper, with its exaggerated, curvy styling and reputation for being difficult to control on the road, has always been much bigger than its small sales volumes. The car exemplifies the bold spirit of the Auburn Hills automaker and is coveted by street racing enthusiasts and car collectors alike.
The car, which debuted in 1992, was discontinued in 2010 in the midst of the Great Recession and the automaker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, causing the plant where it is built to be idled. But the Viper rose from its grave just three years later in a project spearheaded by FCA head of design Ralph Gilles.
‘‘The history of Viper runs deep. The private equity guys tried to snuff it out, but it’s like the weed that keeps growing back,’’ Gilles said at the New York International Auto Show in 2012 as he took a swipe at Chrysler’s previous owner, Cerberus Capital Management. ‘‘It was done in the darkest hour you could imagine ... I threw this project to the designers to keep them motivated.’’
Unfortunately, sales of the Viper failed to meet even modest expectations of about 1500 units per year. Fiat Chrysler dropped the price by US$15,000 and introduced a new custom ordering website but neither move boosted sales. FCA US sold 676 Dodge SRT Vipers in 2015, down from the 760 the prior year.