Number of cars built by configuration

[AAA96]

I have been told that FCA needed to make 1,000 Vipers a year to break even. That seems like a low number but the person that told me this should know. He said they would have been very happy making 2,000 a year as they would have then turned a bit of a profit. Making less than 1,000 per year meant that FCA was losing money and the only reason to keep making the car was because of the publicity that a halo car generates.

Re-engineering the Gen 5 to meet federal side air curtain requirements was what I understood killed the car. Convertibles, I am told, were exempt from this so if FCA had made a Vert they could have kept on making them. Not sure how much of all of this is true but this is what I've heard.

Good info if it’s true! Don’t make another one! Let the GEN V die with us.

[Patentlaw]

Postulate the following:

From 1992 to 1998, from what I recall, there were about 9500 Vipers made. That would average 1500 cars per year. The statistics for Gen V show a max of 1000 made in the first year.

If, in the past, it was worth continuing to invest in Viper at 1500 units, but not at 1000 units, something had to drastically change.

In 1998, fewer than 1000 cars were made, putting the Gen V production on par with what may have been considered the start of the "high water mark" for Viper.....Strange indeed.

[Scott_in_fl]

As we've all discussed previously, there were waaaay too many hurdles to overcome if they wanted to keep the car. The side curtain airbags is one. The terrible dealer network is another. The likely inside knowledge of the upcoming C8 Corvette, poor marketing, the cash crunch at FCA (and resulting void of any racing program), the perceived quality of a Dodge product, etc., etc., etc.

If you want to talk about a Gen VI, the case study that should be in college textbooks is Ford and its GT. How a blue collar brand eventually pulled off a $500k sports car is incredible, but they did it very well, and very strategically (over a 10-12 year span).

They built a brand in SVT, developed some awesome product targeting younger generations (Focus RS, Mustang GT350, Raptor), and used social media and smart marketing to build excitement. They had the success of the '05-'06 FGT, which was an instant classic, which gave them credibility for a follow up, and they waited until the right time to build a successor. And when they did, they went big. They took the dealer experience away from dealers by using a concierge program, engineered something that is truly out of this world design-wise, and knew what their multi-millionaire clientele wanted and needed. They had the resources to pull it off, to race the car, and the rest is history.

Dodge will stick to its Hellcat powered $80k vehicles for the time being. It seems to do well with them.