Is Chrysler Selling Its Viper Soul?
Last summer, Chrysler LLC announced that they were shopping the Viper, its super duper sports car model that has been a terrific halo car for its Dodge division. When introduced in the early 1990s, the Viper quickly established itself as a niche vehicle of choice, contending with the Corvette for American super car supremacy.
Chrysler’s fortunes since the Viper’s introduction have ebbed and flowed, most recently coming to a near perilous end. Thanks to billions of dollars of federal loan money, Chrysler LLC has been given a reprieve. But, as January sales figures show, that reprieve could be short lived as the automaker saw its sales plunge by 55% compared to the year before.
Automotive News is reporting that Chrysler has had three offers for the Viper and is performing due diligence with the prospective buyers. In a conference call to automotive press on Monday, Jim Press — Chrysler LLC co-president — made the announcement that a Viper sale was progressing. This news comes as Chrysler is desperately putting the final touches on its recovery plans, information that must be submitted to the federal government by February 17th.
Chrysler must prove that they’ll be a viable operation going forward otherwise the government may call in the loan.
Viper has never been a mass production vehicle. Instead, it is handcrafted and assembled at a small plant in Detroit which has 100 workers. Just last year, the 25,000th Viper ever built was sold, underscoring what a low production model the car is. In most years about 40,000 Corvettes are sold, thus there is no contest in that area.
With a retail figure starting around $91,000, the Viper is by far the most expensive and profitable model for Chrysler LLC. Until it showed up, the Dodge division was considered bland and uninspiring, selling cars that were badge-engineered versions of Chrysler and Plymouth.
The Viper breathed new life into the division which then followed up with a number of exciting new models including the Dodge Ram pickup truck, Charger sedan and the retro Challenger. Still, with Viper out of the fleet, will the company be effectively selling its soul?
Chrysler’s prospects going forward are grim at best as a deep recession continues to hammer automakers around the world. Very few companies are escaping with even some of Chrysler’s larger competitors having a tough go of it. However, Chrysler’s financial position is especially terrible, necessitating drastic action.
I only hope that the Dodge Challenger can maintain some of the sheen for the Dodge brand once the Viper finally leaves the fleet.
[...] to Google Latest Content Is Chrysler Selling Its Viper Soul? – 4 hours ago Last summer, Chrysler LLC announced that they were shopping the Viper, its super [...]
[...] [...]
[...] Your page is on StumbleUpon [...]
[...] Chrysler Selling Its Viper Soul? view photo 1 vote [...]
[...] submitted 17 hours ago by alllie to worldnews from guardian.co.ukIs Chrysler Selling Its Viper Soul?3 points | comment | submitted 3 [...]
[...] Matthew C. Keegan | 5/02/09 [...]