End of the Road for the Viper???
Discussion
END OF THE ROAD FOR VIPER?
Viper’s fate now in the hands of Fiat as no buyer has been found
Having failed to find an independent buyer for the Viper brand before it went into bankruptcy, Chrysler has been forced to hand over all its Viper assets to Fiat.
Fiat, whose takeover of the post-bankruptcy Chrysler business was confirmed by the US courts last week, now has the power to decide whether the Viper range should live or die. According to reports from the US, a decision to phase out the brand could be imminent, as there are fears within the Fiat group that the Viper brand can only grow as a potential rival to the Ferrari and Maserati brands.
While a sale to a third party is still possible, Chrysler itself was notably unsuccessful in its attempts to find a buyer before it went bust. Apparently, nobody was interested in stumping up even $10 million for the Viper business, with the best offer being a paltry $5.5 million from Devon Motorworks – and they only really wanted the current Viper platform as a basis on which to build the Devon GTX supercar, as reported on PH recently.
If Viper does fall to Fiat’s axe, it will be the end of a 17-year success story that has seen 25,000 roadsters and coupes hit the road since 1992.
Taken from PH Article:
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI...
Viper’s fate now in the hands of Fiat as no buyer has been found
Having failed to find an independent buyer for the Viper brand before it went into bankruptcy, Chrysler has been forced to hand over all its Viper assets to Fiat.
Fiat, whose takeover of the post-bankruptcy Chrysler business was confirmed by the US courts last week, now has the power to decide whether the Viper range should live or die. According to reports from the US, a decision to phase out the brand could be imminent, as there are fears within the Fiat group that the Viper brand can only grow as a potential rival to the Ferrari and Maserati brands.
While a sale to a third party is still possible, Chrysler itself was notably unsuccessful in its attempts to find a buyer before it went bust. Apparently, nobody was interested in stumping up even $10 million for the Viper business, with the best offer being a paltry $5.5 million from Devon Motorworks – and they only really wanted the current Viper platform as a basis on which to build the Devon GTX supercar, as reported on PH recently.
If Viper does fall to Fiat’s axe, it will be the end of a 17-year success story that has seen 25,000 roadsters and coupes hit the road since 1992.
Taken from PH Article:
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI...
Its a PH news article, usually a bit thin on the ground for fact and heaped in rumor (probably get binned for that). I'm sticking with my thoughts that it wont die just yet.
At the moment its a cash cow, the Gen4 has more life in it yet, we may not see much change in a 2010 or they may just continue 09's late into 2010, once we start getting into rectification though it could go either way.
It was also pretty clear at VOI9 that dodge recognised that a lot of viper owners and in particular those that buy new (the ones they care about) are company directors and can in some cases control large corporate fleets of other dodge products. Kill of viper and all of a sudden all those Rams may turn up as Toyota's.
I also like to think FIAT are in this to build cars and make money. Big change is likely to come to the mass market vehicles which will take time and effort, on the other hand while they are doing that they can just fire up the viper plant and bash out $$ to order
At the moment its a cash cow, the Gen4 has more life in it yet, we may not see much change in a 2010 or they may just continue 09's late into 2010, once we start getting into rectification though it could go either way.
It was also pretty clear at VOI9 that dodge recognised that a lot of viper owners and in particular those that buy new (the ones they care about) are company directors and can in some cases control large corporate fleets of other dodge products. Kill of viper and all of a sudden all those Rams may turn up as Toyota's.
I also like to think FIAT are in this to build cars and make money. Big change is likely to come to the mass market vehicles which will take time and effort, on the other hand while they are doing that they can just fire up the viper plant and bash out $$ to order
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