Filed under: Supercars, Chrysler, LLC., Dodge
Viper still selling like hotcakes, ACR sold out
Click above for high-res gallery of the Viper ACR
Chrysler may be burning to the ground like ancient Rome, but its craziest citizen, the Dodge Viper, is out dancing in the streets. Because even while General Motors prepares to ransack Chrysler LLC, the Viper sales are continuing undeterred. Although Chrysler sales overall are reportedly down a whopping 32%, Dodge continues to produce and sell Vipers at a rate of 100 units per month. Not just that, but the Viper ACR – the $105k track-prepped super-snake – is all but entirely sold out... not in spite of the poor economy, but because of it. Chrysler reports that with stock portfolios rapidly losing their value and dollar values plummeting, investors are seeing the Viper ACR – potentially to be discontinued and retaining a high resale value – as a sound investment opportunity. With smile inducing dividends, too.
While GM and Cerberus talk take-over turkey, the fiscal viability of the Viper unit is bound to make it an attractive asset for any number of buyers. So while Chrysler may be counting its days, the Viper is likely to live on for some time yet.
Gallery: First Drive: 2008 Dodge Viper ACR
[Source: Inside Line]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John P. 10:48AM (11/05/2008)
A great idea will always find a way. Long Live the Viper. Those pics are nice!
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Avinash machado 10:57AM (11/05/2008)
Maybe some tuning house like Shelby or Hennessey might buy the Viper brand and tooling and continue producing it even if Chrysler is gone.
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geo.stewart 11:00AM (11/05/2008)
I know the Vette is a better driver and all that, but there is everything visceral about the Viper that speaks to you in your soul; either looking at it or listening to it, or driving it.
Anyone shutting down production of this thing should be shot. Z06 or not, this should not be shut down as a threat but bolstered as complimentary to
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Dave 11:03AM (11/05/2008)
Selling like hot cakes? 50 a month doesn't sound like hot cakes to me unless you put it in the exotic catagory which I suppose it belongs in.
I believe they have sold less than 10,000 Vipers since it was first produced.
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TJ 11:14AM (11/05/2008)
Yes, Dave the hater, when you are selling every vehicle you build, the vehicle in question can be considered a hot seller.
I mean, gosh, the Veyron and the Reventon must be complete and total flops in your mind. And lets not forget others like the Bugatti Royale, Mercedes-Benz 38/250 SSK, Duesenberg SJ Speedster, Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 , Ferrari 275 GTS/4, Talbot-Lago, Mercedes-Benz 540K Specials, etc.
ambientFLIER 1:45PM (11/05/2008)
If I produced one vehicle per month, and sold one per month, would it still be selling like hotcakes?
TJ 2:35PM (11/05/2008)
@Ambient:
You could build one or one million, if each one is sold as it comes off the line then yes, you have a darn good seller.
thomas 11:05AM (11/05/2008)
ugh.
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Karan Shah 11:13AM (11/05/2008)
This is good news. I'd hate to see an American icon like the viper go.
@Dave
any car that's produced at such low volume is probably being sold at a neat little premium. The Viper's always been sold upmarket relative to Dodge's lineup. A Halo car in almost every sense of the word.
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TriShield 11:16AM (11/05/2008)
No surprises here, the car has always been red hot and true to it's mission.
The Viper should be a template for how all Chrysler products are concieved. Just as the Corvette should be for GM.
Chrysler is perfectly talented and capable of producing vehicles people want as we've seen many times before, it's terrible management and product decisions by their recent management which has brough the company to the brink. No different than Ford or GM.
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Judy Zik 11:31AM (11/05/2008)
Amazing proof of what the folks that work at Chrysler can do. Now if only Cerberus wasn't so busy abandoning ship maybe they could work some of this magic and rechryslerize the bastard cars Daimler left them with. It is mind boggling. For it's size Chrysler has a huge bank balance (the only reason GM wants it) and being the smallest came make major changes faster than it's rivals. If they had proper management and invested some of that money in their own products instead they could come out of this as the leanest and most competitive American brand. Heck they could end up buying the key assets of a bankrupt GM at a bargain price in a year or two instead.
Why do so few leaders in the Auto Industry today have any vision?
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Johnny P 12:14PM (11/05/2008)
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/first-drive-2008-dodge-viper-acr/962809/
Is that rust on the logo?? =(
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John P. 1:46PM (11/05/2008)
Nah, looks like blood stains. Ferrari red blood stains.
Johnny P 1:48PM (11/05/2008)
I see what you did there.
dizzy 12:32PM (11/05/2008)
Good lord that looks good in black.
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Nick 1:40PM (11/05/2008)
It's still the modern day Lambo Countach... I live in the land of exotics, the Viper still stands out..
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SeattleJeremy 1:52PM (11/05/2008)
"Chrysler may be burning to the ground like ancient Rome, but its craziest citizen, the Dodge Viper, is out dancing in the streets."
I LOLED.
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Gokartn 2:03PM (11/05/2008)
Between the halo effect of the Viper and Challenger, the new Ram that is being introduced, and the capable RWD Charger which is also a badass looking police car, I think Dodge could market itself as a nice little performance car company/division.
Someone like Fiat should buy them to enter the US market making use of their dealer capacity. Then they could purge Dodge of it's substandard small and midsize cars with a version of Punto and Croma to round out the small cars needed.
It would contribute more than the upcoming GM slash and burn
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tom s 3:29PM (11/05/2008)
My guess car collectors are buying them hoping they will appreciate in value in 10-20 years, seeing as they may be the last ones ever built...
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tariq 6:51AM (11/06/2008)
"Chrysler may be burning to the ground like ancient Rome, but its craziest citizen, the Dodge Viper, is out dancing in the streets."
lol nice one!
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