.......as we know it.

Take a look at this headline!

AutoWeek Article!

Wayne

Lame. Never, NEVER gonna understand what goes on in the minds of our automakers LOL.

Good, it didnt sell and it is outdated and very expenssive piece of junk for people with mid life crisis' I never liked them and thought they were ugly might as well buy a Gremlin. No wonder why Chrysler is going down the drain.

Wes, the Corvette resembles the Viper a lot.

A lot people with mid life feelings would like to own a Corvette.

Wayne

The Viper is history, whether they ever make another one or not. It wasn't too long ago that nobody made a real American sports car (the boulevard 'Vettes of '72 through to the ZR-1 don't count). The Viper made new cars cool again at a time (1992) when that wasn't likely to happen again.

That said, the dropping of the Viper says more about trucks than anything else. The Viper was a showcase for the V10 engine, which is really only justified in being in the Mopar catalog (financially) due to truck sales.

What yutz would buy a V10 truck today?

Yea I must say I dont like the current one as much, but the original one.....dead sexy. Especially the GTS coupe. Wow. In fact at the local late-night Friday and Saturday hang out in a mcdonalds parking lot, a couple of weeks ago there was a 97 coupe and a current gen 'vert parked next to each other...the original design just doesnt look that dated. I like it better.

Somewhere I read they were trying to capture the essence of the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupes. I say they sure as hell did.

And a friend of mine has an '02 Ram SRT-10. Looks awesome and he can't keep the rear end planted haha. He needs to learn some self-control though he is bad really.

Nobody's buying them any more, and with Chrysler's woes, it's hard to justify an expensive, limited-production car that uses almost 100% unique parts. I don't think they sold even 500 of them last year. The Viper is a highly specialized "toy" car and (although there is surely some debate here) not as functional as a daily driver as, say, a Corvette (remember that a Corvette is also 2/3 the price). Anyone who wanted a Viper already has at least one--the pool of new customers is pretty shallow, and used ones can be had for a song. It's a lot of money for a toy that really needs a track to feel at home. Having driven a lot of Vipers, they're brutal, hot, uncomfortable and unbelievably fun. But you need to be a real die-hard to lust after one enough to own it. After the glue holding soles of my sneakers to the uppers melted from the heat in the footwells of a Viper, my Mustang felt like a Lincoln.

I'm sorry to see it die, just as I was with the Prowler and the Ford T-Bird. I was pleased that companies were building such cars, even if they weren't my cup of tea.

Although it never really shared many parts with the truck V10, the Viper was possible because of the truck motor. However, there are no more V-10s in the work trucks except for the limited-edition SRTs which use the actual aluminum Viper engine. The cast iron truck motor has been history for several years, replaced by the Hemi and if you need big power, the Cummins diesel.

Maybe a cd?

Auto Trader currently has 841 Vipers for sale, ranging from new ones at $94,000 to a 1994 with 28K miles for $25,900.

None have very many miles, and at 841 I'd guess that out of the total production run about 1 in 10 are listed for sale on just this web site.

A good friend of mine owns a '93 that he bought new when he worked for Chrysler. It has less than 3000 miles on the clock. Once in a great while he takes it out. This is the fastest car I ever rode in. Scary!!...............

Yeah, it does, and I have hated the Vette's forever! My dad has an '85 that has rare options, etc. and has a 10 grand paint job I hate driving it, I hate riding in it, cant see the front end and it gets horrible mileage, my dad tried to get me to sell the MKV because of the mileage, but, my MKV with it's 5000-6000 pound girth gets better mileage or the same and it does not use premium! And it is comfortable and it is on my classic car insurance for 70 bucks a year! I am 6'2'' and Bigger is better, my 1989 Buick has surprised me with it's space and comfort and luxury, for it's smaller size. The Corvette is a dangerous piece of junk along with every other little sports car out there, Vipers included. They need to take all the humongous suvs, rice burners and little dangerous sport cars off the road. Chrysler needs to do something very daring....Bring back the Cordoba! Unchanged and exactly the way it was in '75, Corinthian Leather and all!

And cause a shortage in women's clothing???

Wayne

I had a friend in high school who had a 'Doba.

Worst. Car. Ever.

However, it didn't have any rich, Corinthian leather, so perhaps that was the missing ingredient for greatness. The cloth seats felt like soggy panty hose.

Well, maybe not as bad as "Mike the [Ford] Maverick". However, Mike had the undeniable appeal of a convertible after we used a Sawz-all to cut off the roof. But that's a story for another time.

Perhaps the death of the Viper will make them more collectible in the future. Even though they were [relatively] mass-produced, the day may come when the really nice low-mileage ones stop being used cars and become in-demand. It took 30 years, but look at the '76 Eldorado convertibles today. Nice ones are almost worth their original purchase price (in adjusted dollars).

Matt, can you please describe for me what soggy panty hose feel like???

I don't often have an opportunity to wear any. But it is a wonderful description.

Jim Eccleston
1961 Coupe de Ville
BATILAC

Exactly. Womens clothes are not short enough.

The Corvette is a dangerous piece of junk along with every other little sports car out there, Vipers included. They need to take all the humongous suvs, rice burners and little dangerous sport cars off the road.

The Corvette and Viper hardly qualify as "little sports cars".

After all these "dangerous" cars are taken off the road, what remains? Maybe we should go after the killer pickup trucks, the dangerous tractor-trailer rigs and, of course, all motorcycles. Maybe we should all just buy a Prius....oh wait, that's a "rice burner".

Classics! But they are dangerous, but, at least you see them coming! LOL!

Someday I would like to buy a great American sports car that has depreciated considerably. If I showed up in a Viper at work, nobody would care (or know) if it was a 1994 or a 2009, you don't see Vipers every day.

The Porsche 928 was their flagship car from 1978 to 1995. OBD II ended them, and in 1994 a new one was $75,000. You can get a nice one from the late 1980's for $10,000.

10 year old Vettes are fairly inexpensive and we can slam them all we want, they are still sports car cool.

I cant believe youre slamming vettes wes! There must be something wrong with your dad's vette. Maybe its an auto? All I know is the ones that are stick, at least the 90ish or so and up 6-speeds....that last gear...wow you can drive forever on the highway because they sip gas when youre doing that.

Theyre purpose-built and very well constructed really. Definitely not a VERY ergonomic car. No youre not going to see the end of the hood...keep in mind you sit very low in those...theyre designed to go fast and handle well. Probably not a great putt-putting around vehicle, as a result. Hardly an unsafe, dangerous car by any means. Hell a lot of that is the driver! And in the case of the ricers...thats just about all of them unfortunately.

C'mon you guys.....Vettes are not all bad. Neither are Vipers. Being a Chrysler raised kid, I would take the Viper over most other sports cars not only because of their knockout looks, but because they have proven to stomp even the most expensive sports cars such as Corvettes, Ferraris, Porsches, etc. REMEMBER, it is not the car that is dangerous...it's people like Kelsey Grammar and other Viper owners who simply cannot drive with the skill needed to control such a beast. If it wasn't for one of those unskilled drivers, I would not have been able to build my Viper sofa out of the front end of a Viper. Yep...the old "nut behind the wheel syndrome".