Dodge Just Sold a Brand-New Viper
Dodge selling a new Viper is big news as they have not built one in six and a half years.
It was August 2017 when we all lost a dear friend. That friend was the Dodge Viper. After 25 glorious V10-powered years, the Viper went out of production. But people are still buying brand-new copies in 2024. Stellantis recently released their first-quarter 2024 U.S. sales. Lo and behold the company reported that a single Dodge Viper was sold during that time. That may sound strange, and if we are honest, it is strange. But there has been a trickle of Vipers sold since the car went out of production. Two were sold in 2023, and four were sold in 2020. Are there still some unsold Vipers sitting in dealer inventory? The only way we will know for sure is to keep an eye on the sales charts.
The Viper sale was not the only surprising news in the sales chart. Somehow Dodge managed to sell two Caravans last quarter. The Dodge Caravan was discontinued in 2020. We can understand people still wanting a new Viper, but a new Dodge Caravan? Hopefully it was sold with a steep discount.
Dodge Viper
It has been a minute so a quick refresher on the Viper. There were five generations of the car, and they all were powered with a naturally aspirated V10 engine. In the final years it used an 8.4L V10 which provided 645 horsepower to the rear wheels. That power was controlled via a 6-speed manual transmission. The Viper was fast, loud, engaging, and brutal. If there ever was a poster car for the anti-EV, it would be the Dodge Viper. Even in 2017 it was old school. In 2024 it is practically a relic. A beautiful, drool-worthy relic.
Not a Car for Everyone
Even before the Viper went out of production it was not exactly a volume seller. From 2014 through 2017 Dodge sold between 600 and 700 of them per year. It was expensive, impractical, and inefficient. But fans of the car would not want it any other way. Sure, you could buy a Corvette like everybody else. The Corvette is a fine car, but you can’t drive for five minutes without seeing one. Or five. Seeing a Viper on the road is an event. Lifting the giant hood and staring at the big V10 engine is an event. Trying to master it on a racetrack is an event. It is a special car.
Viper Future
The Viper is gone, and it will never come back. Will the nameplate be resurrected someday? Maybe. But we promise you that it will not have a naturally aspirated V10 under the hood. Any future Viper is likely to be fully electric. It would make a lot of power and be fast, but it would just not be the same. So, if you still want an old school original, there are plenty on the used market. But if you want a brand-new one, that might still be possible as well. You will just need to search for a while. There is no telling how many new Vipers may still be hiding away somewhere.
Images: Stellantis
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