The Dodge Viper will end production in 2017 when the current model expires, according to approved language included in the United Auto Workers’ contract with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
According to Automotive News, the Conner Avenue plant, which makes the sportscar, doesn’t have future product planned beyond 2017, effectively sealing the fate for the flagging car. The Viper was re-launched in 2011 after a three-year hiatus and has struggled ever since.
According to letters in the approved contract between the union and the automaker, Conner Avenue Assembly would complete production of the Viper in 2017 without a future product.
Included in the product-planning schedule, approved by union workers, are future products for Toledo (Wrangler Pickup), Sterling Heights (Ram 1500 coming in, Chrysler 200 going out) and Warren Assembly (Jeep Grand Wagoneer).
According to the timeline, up to 2,406 workers at Warren Truck Assembly could be laid off. Nearby Sterling Heights could add up to 1,751 workers at its plant. The two plants are approximately 15 minutes apart.
A spokeswoman for FCA didn’t comment on future products at the North American plants.
Included in the product pipeline are two new engines for FCA at its Dundee and Trenton facilities. Dundee currently produces mostly four-cylinder engines, including the 2.4-liter Tigershark in many FCA products. Trenton produces FCA’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6, which was developed in 2007.
A spokesman for FCA didn’t immediately comment on future powertrains for the company.
FCA’s transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana will also develop a second generation of the 8-speed transmission used by the automaker. That transmission is used in rear-wheel drive vehicles, including the Ram 1500, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Charger/Challenger.
Hey, they can buy a 4-cylinder Alfa instead, Sergio demands it!
GOOD.
Another stupid small car with a manual falls prey to the laws of Bigtruckseriesreview Darwinism.
“Street Racing Technology” is supposed to be about taking a big car- putting a big, thirsty gas guzzling engine in it -and allowing families of 5 to drive around listening to Engine roar.
If you morons had simple he built the Dodge Magnum using the new technology you would’ve had a hit seller. It probably would have even outsold the Jeep grand Cherokee and if you offered all-wheel-drive .
If you continue listening to the “enthusiasts” you will continue watching your products fail.
Big cars, bigger engines, automatic transmissions.
LEARN FROM ME
Or be annihilated by Bigtruckseriesreview Automotive Darwinism.
The Magnum out sell the Cherokee? Ummm never going to happen. Soccer moms need that elevated view so they can feel “safe” in a lumbering vehicle that encases their off-spring in acres of metal, leather and fake wood accents.
As for the Viper going away it is very sad, while the ‘Vette is a great car the Viper was the top dog of in-your-face American muscle. Anyway I’m sure Barrett Jackson will be making money off Vipers for years to come.
The Viper has one thing that the Corvette will never have: the 1 of 1 program.
If I had the money, I’d pay to have one built.
SC5door – – –
Unfortunately it is precisely the C07 Z06 Corvette that put coffin nails in the future of Viper. And if you want to REALLY beat the pants off the Viper, send your new Z06 to Callaway in CN, and get it back with 750 HP, for about the same price as a VIper. Bye-bye, Viper. I loved ya’ while you were here.
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Well, that is if the Z06’s engine doesn’t grenade while it’s going there!
sgeffe – – –
You bring up a good point. Any engine that is that severely supercharged with 22 psi risks enormous stress on new engine components when not broken in properly. That’s why I finally backed away from putting a Pro-Charger on my old ’96 Dodge Ram.
But a friend of mine did have his Z06 Corvette shipped from Bowling Green to Old Lyme for the Callaway package. He had to change the oil (all oils) at 500 miles, and take it easy for about 2,000. Now he’s good to go, and I mean GO.
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Where in my post was I talking about performance?
I was talking about having a hand built, custom vehicle from the factory. Something Chevy CAN NOT match.
I think you have it slightly wrong about the meaning of SRT. Street & Racing Technology is slightly different from as you put it Street Racing Technology.
The & is only to keep the lawyers offof their backs.
“LEARN FROM ME
Or be annihilated”
My God, it’s TTAC’s own Donald Trump.
I wanted to say “or die”, but that sounds harsh.
Annihilated is a much better word choice.
I am Lrrrr from the planet Omicron Persei 8
I WILL DESTROY YOU
I would rather say Hillary Clinton. She annihilated whatever comical opposition she had (including Biden) from the race. Next is to get elected and annihilate that country as well. I think she can do it better and faster than Trump. But don’t underestimate Trump either. Trump or Hillary – comedian or certified liar – that is what America become in 21st century while the rest of world sinking into chaos.
Oh, man, she so won that showdown. And from what little I know about who screwed up Benghazi and at which levels I think she’s clean on it.
Lower levels at State pursuing the idiot nation-building started by Bush and the coddling of scumbag local militias were so distant from Hillary’s world that I have no problem with her floating over the shards of Gowdy & Co. like a battleship over shattered sailboats.
Hill-arious can’t even protect her data inside an organization she practically controls, but wants us to ignore security issues in her email server while she was trying to keep what she knew about Benghazi out of the National Archives.
Trump “lies”…really, distorts the facts on issues for one reason: to force the media to publish the real data, thus getting the issues into the minds of voters who have been told “don’t worry, we know what we are doing” by the inside the beltway crowd for decades.
Trump may come off like a bit of a clown, but he is far from being a dummy. More like the last and largest of all the political clowns, that all get out of a small car in the middle of the circus’ main ring.
Although I don’t agree with all of his policies and pronouncements, Trump is at least forcing the media to focus on real issues. Plus, he knows how to delegate to get things done, and done by those who are familiar with the details of their post.
As contrasted with our Commander-Asleep, and his Tweedledum and Tweedledumber Secretarys of State.
And these are the people who said Bush 43 was dumb because he spoke slowly and had trouble speaking on his feet, and who said Dan Quayle was dumb because he mistakenly spelled potatos the old English way?
Time to spin the dial…I’ll take a popular populist Republican for $100 please.
Trump obviously lies,and Mrs Clinton does not make me laugh. I must be missing something.
THE VIPER V10 IS A HUGE ENGINE AND GUZZLES MORE GAS THAN ANY OF THE OTHER SRT PRODUCTS. YOU SHOULD LOVE IT.
I think the Viper engine is fairly big and thirsty at 8.4L.
Waking up in the morning after making passionate love the night before, Bigtruckwhatever turned lovingly towards his right hand and whispered: “You were an animal last night”
It would be ironic if Big trucks is a woman
It would be more ironic if BigTrucks WAS a woman. One who is going to ANNIHILATE you with the big hammer that they are now swinging.
But isn’t it ironic that we are seeing record storms in the west and the midwest in the middle of global warming? So much so, that they are forced to announce to us that according to the data that they have adjusted (to account for unverified alleged changes in equipment readings caused by age) has still shown record warming.
Anybody wanna buy some carbon credits cheap? Meet me under the Brooklyn Bridge and bring cash…
What does this have to do with Viper production ending? Everything and nothing…why do you think that muscle cars are slowly being squeezed out of existence.
Not all at once, and perhaps never entirely. But their days in affordable configs and adequate numbers for the average guy are fading fast. The Viper is just one data point. Mustangs with V8’s becoming expensive, exotic configs is another. Vettes needing to be so overly compressed that the Gas Laws of Physics virtually dictate that heat soak will occur, is just another casualty of aggressively tweaking more and more out of vehicles that never used to need that to be at the head of their class.
Ferrari folds and begins bolting on turbochargers to reduce the world’s pollution by perhaps a billionth of a per cent, but by God, and by the EU wise men and women, they need to be contributing to the cause, so hello tricky ways to reduce throttle lag, and to there being no way to totally eliminate it.
VW gets squeezed on emissions. Do they drop the diesel? No. They “temporarily” discontinue the Phaeton, then will bring it back as an electric. Will it be as electrifying as a Tesla S? Perhaps, but perhaps not also. And if not, another specialized high performance vehicle will become a more efficient, but less exciting, touring vehicle.
Yeah. There IS the Hellcat. But for how much longer?
A Miata? A bit more HP in recent years, but come on. Where is the real power?
Although I never personally aspired to own a Viper, I liked them and will be sad to see them gone, except as used and eventually auctioned, vehicles.
Damn, Agroal! Your avatar looks like some kind of animal. People have died beneath that, I’d wager…
If they had made it a little bigger, say -big enough for those of us over 5’5″- I might have bought one.
I still think it’s a pity cars like these are disappearing from mainstream manufacturers. Love the looks of the Viper.
“There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”
Ah Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In the movie they drove a red 71 Impala Convertible. In the book IIRC there was no make or model mentioned, just a whale.
A pity but not unexpected. Their main competitor GM has has much greater economies of scale (and thus more cars to spread the R&D cost over) with the Corvette by having accessible $60K entry level models. Just ask any super car make how difficult the economics are of dedicated platforms for low selling models.
Re: difficulties of the economics of dedicated platforms that are low selling models…I heard that the Bugatti Veyron effectively sold at around a million dollars below total cost. Don’t know where the numbers came from, but my first thought was that vanity can get expensive really fast.
Let|s not forget that Viper supposed to be .. modern Shelby-Cobra (B.Lutz idea) ..
Cobra used to have some engine options, right? > 289 or 427 cu.in ..
so they could easlly “water down” this .. “american exotic” >) wtih some V8 option .. (similarly to Vette variants (i.e > base | Zo6 | ZR1{go crazy and “blow” that 8.4L}) ) and no harm (except better sales) would be done ..
…
On the other hand Ford would have a chance as well ..
They could use “higher-end” Mustangs engines and equipment to build a modern version of Shelby Cobra .. (introducing that shmancy-fancy „exotic race-ready eco-boost V6” GT for “ignorant nouvoriche rentiers” is not enough..>)
Cobra would not need to chase Vette, but could rather be more pure american muscle in character(sort of of european muscle Jaguar F-Type-V8 .. >)