They need the Viper. Period. They are a car company.

The fact that Chrysler grab two of Ford’s engineers, tell that they are about to do major new designs. That bad new for Chrysler though, because most of their new models (from SUVs to cars) are not even two years old. That’s gonna be expensive for a company struggling financially.

So drop the Viper which is the only car i like from these dickheads and its a car that gets people talking and direct funds towards the sebring which would be one of the ugliest cars ever to come out of the states??????? Makes complete sense to me!!! Go for it.

i personally think all of Chrysler’s cars are ugly and disgusting. how about doing away with the entire brand.

The Viper is my favorite car, period. I don’t think I could ever forgive Chrysler if they killed it off. Of course it doesn’t sell like hotcakes, it’s not meant to. It in reality, is one of the few muscle cars we Americans have left. The Corvette is an exotic now, and that leaves only the Viper and higher end Mustangs. I’ve been worried about something like this ever since Chrysler starting having major problems, but yet the Viper seemed to always pull through. Without this car, I would no longer care AT ALL for Chrysler, Dodge, whatever. It’s been my number one dream car since I was a kid, so American, so beautiful in its own way. To see it gone would crush me.

This is the smart move. The Sebring and Avenger are their bread and butter cars and they need to be competitive. I honestly didn’t see much point in them redoing the interiors when you couldn’t get past the ugly sheetmetal to begin with. In the case of the Sebring though, they don’t say if the redo applies to the convertible as well.

As for the Viper, I hate to say it, but whatever. The Vette carries the halo for best sports car and looks the part. The Viper always was a little too prepubescent for my tastes.

Johnycannuck you nailed it.

You wouldn’t have to kill off the Viper but just keep producing the current model. There is a waiting list each year for them so it isn’t like the car isn’t selling. They need a whole new platform for the Sebring/Avenger to compete. Ugly, cheap engines, cheap interior, cheap, cheap, cheap! I can’t believe they thought they could build these cars and compete. Even the Caliber is fading fast.

Halo cars a worthless, especially if most of your sales a to fleets, I doubt 99% of the Focus buyers out there saw a Ford GT and said ” I need to get a ford now”

Yeah I agree with you too Johnnycanuk. While I love the Viper and it would suck balls if they gave it the Axe then I’d say for sure that Chrysler doesn’t offer anything good or exciting. (Except the Challenger)

The issue with the Viper is its price. While it’s a crude car and made to make a statement which it does quite well it’s the fact that it sells at an extremely low volume and probably isn’t a major profit mover for Dodge (although that was never its purpose)

And seeing that Cerberus is a private equity firm they are coming in and making decisions mostly based on $ figures, so to them killing off the viper isn’t going to be a big deal to them.

What Dodge needs is what Chevy has with the Corvette, a higher volume lower priced sports car. If I was calling the shots over at Chrysler I would keep the Viper name but re-design it, maybe drop the V10 (oh my) and put in Dodge’s 6.1L V8 do a complete overhaul of the vehicle, keep the exterior looks as aggressive as possible and vastly improve the interior, get rid of the side exhaust and move them back to the rear, and come out with a a base Viper with a V8 that would be similiarly priced to a base Corvette. Then offer the V10 on the higher end Viper to compete with the ZO6 or now the ZR1 and give that the ACR badge or create something like the Viper Venom or something. At least Dodge may be able to save the Viper in this case

Actaully srike that. Dodge should offer three versions of the Viper. A Viper SRT-8, SRT-10, and then name the top model the GTS-R and bring that name back. I loved the old Viper GTS-R’s.

That’s not a bad idea SS, if Dodge could undercut the base Vette price with a V8 Viper then I’ll bet it could make quite a ding in Chevy’s profit for that segment; provided they still build it by hand that is.

Good news.

I think the Viper is cool as hell for what it is but the Viper costs double what the Vette does and offers nothing over the base Vette except presence and a (slight) performance edge. The Vette is literally decades ahead in every aspect. I don’t know how Chevy sells the Vette for what they do and I certainly can’t imagine Dodge selling anything close for that price either. What was the only sports car they made that was close to the Vette pricewise? The Crossfire..

Well F3INT))AP3X, should they still make the Viper by hand? While making cars by hand improves the overall quality of the vehicle and also in my opinion makes the car more valuable, and makes them more rare and exclusive because of the time it takes to build something by hand as apposed to the assembly line, how much $$ could Chrysler save by switching to the line?

Its about time they axe the Viper. Its painfully long production run is reminicent of the Checker Marathon.

The Sebring/Avenger platform was a big mistake. They still needed (as in really could have still used) a Sebring convertibe though, which they could have derived from a badge-engineered 2006-Present Mitsubishi Eclipse.
The Viper’s awesome, but price, emissions raising their CAFE, cost of production per unit, low sales figures. It has had a good run, but Chrysler do not really need it if it has the Charger & the Challenger. Not really.

I’d be willing to bet if they pulled the viper, it would come back eventually. Give them a chance to get back on their feet, be somewhat profitable and eventually the viper will be back. Probably better than it ever was. This could be somewhat of a good thing.. as far as the fate of the company’s concerned.

IF they kill the viper, then they slit their own throats. It is the only car they make that inspires the imagination

A third generation VIPER should just cost less. More in line with the CORVETTE. And DON”T be ashamed to offer an “entry level” VIPER, the SRT-8 or the 6.0L V10 developed for the Chrysler Chronos Concept (1998) http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z259/Chrysler_Chronos/default.aspx .

One thing that has typically gotten cars killed these days is a lack of pricing flexibility. The Pontiac GTO didn’t do well because of it (In part, then again it was an old poorly adapted car). The Viper could certainly benefit by it.

The “G3 VIPER” would also need to be something other than a muscle car, but a real serious racing street car. Not that it isn’t but the car could also stand to be used in more high profile sports car races. GM fielded their own CORVETTE racing team. Why isn’t Chyrsler doing the same for their VIPER?

Sebring / Avenger: fix it fast or kill it. The current model is making Chryco a laughingstock. Having a “bread-and-butter” car that is two or three generations behind the Accord / Camry / Malibu pack does more to hurt Chrysler than the Viper does to help it.

LLN, get rid of these annoying Workopolis ads. They’re bull****.

Yeah i agree with Johnny. Even though the Viper is a great car, if Chrysler cant afford to sell the Dodge Magnum, then i think that there is just no more room for it right now. i say shelve it and fix the problems you are having now then bring it back later. this gives them time to make the Viper even a cooler car.

How do you even think about dropping your halo car?

“The reason for this drastic move is the particularly poor reception of the public and the press to the interiors of the Sebring and Avenger, which have been described as ugly and cheap.”
They waited until the damn cars were on the market before they realized the interiors were ugly and cheap. Way to go!

“Dying on the vine” is one thing. These cars were stillborn.

cwwilson: the only thing more quintessentially American than a Viper is a Hummer.

Comment by johnnycanuck: the problem is, the ’Vette (kind of) sells Malibus and Cobalts. ChryCo gets no benefit from that.

cookie4me: “I can’t believe they thought they could build these cars and compete.” Ditto.

TomF: ‘fix it fast or kill it.” I say kill it, and come up with an entirely new midsizer.

cwwilson: so f*cking true. If they axe the Viper, I assure you they will LOSE so many sales they’ll be quickly filing for bankruptcy for good. No one in their right mind would dare think of such a thing, that’s like saying NVIDIA needs to stop producing high-end GPU’s and focus on integrated sh!t alone. That’s so wrong…it’ll never happen.

Yeah, Avenger and Sebring got worth interior then TATA NANO! LOL

Get Real: Get real! If they have to lose money and continue selling it just for the sake of image, they have better things to worry about right now such as preventing bankruptcy.

I’d disagree with this if the Viper didn’t look (both exterior but mostly interior) like it was from the 1990’s, and was a piece of crap. Don’t get me wrong, I used to love it over the Corvette.

But then the Z06 came out. The Viper had it’s day a looong time ago. It needs a lot of work. Brute power is nice, but there’s a lot more to a car than how many HP it can put out.

But excessive HP without regard to anything else is the true American way…

Chrysler – get into the car business or get out. Today, you have to have a beautifully executed family car to be in the game at all. The general public does not consider a Chrysler or Dodge when thinking family car. Your cars are uptight, staid and have a second tier, rental car look. Chevy finally got it and did the Malibu – suddenly they are way in the game. Scrap the whole vibe of the Sebring and Avenger look and design a car people would actually want over the competition. Inside and out. And if you do – let the new DNA influence the rest of your line up. That is, if you want to be in the car business.
Oh, and don’t pick on the Viper for your other mistakes.

Veda: Hence my earlier comment

If the new Ram is any indication, they just might be able to pull it off.

good move dodge but i still hate you for making the demon fwd you dumb basterds but hey you designed cars that will be examples of how to f-up designs hey make somthing cool for a change and never put grooves in you hood or a fake c piller window again and if you big marketing plow is a heat and cooling cup holder you have a problem

Just start working on the next generation VIPER already! The Japanese are fielding some crazy contenders and the CORVETTE is already waving bye-bye to the snake. I mean c’mon This is the company that slapped together a hot number like the ME412 in about a Year and could have made a killing with it and they can’t build a VIPER that will stomp everything it gets near?

If FORD gets back into the game (big if at this point) you know they will stomp some. Though I would seriously consider a totally new engine and not some rebuild truck block like the FORD GT has.

Lackluster,

I would think not so much a competitor but an alternative. Something like this car. A custom job but definitely what I would want for the SRT version.
http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/2007/top-2007-Dodge-Avenger-Tuner-Stormtrooper.htm

441Zuke: slow down and think out your posts before you post. The best part about this site, and I know I’m still wearing the yellow rookie stripe, is that the more diverse the opinions the more unpredictable (and often hilarious) the threads. That said, it’s easier when we understand you, so some semblance of grammar makes it better for everyone.

…and don’t take this the wrong way. My gawd, all of us on LLN have to deal with LP640. Although I firmly believe there are two people posting under the same identity in his/her case.

LLN jumping the gun when publishing rumors? Never happens.

If Cerberus can really move this fast, THANK GOODNESS for private ownership!

those interiors were the worse I’ve ever seen aside to Chinese and Indian companies. about time.

Hurry. Time is ticking though. They have like 2 years before time is up, Jeep is bought by GM, the rest by the Chinese, etc.

I sincerely hope that they plan to fix more than just the interiors on these cars. There are other issues that need to be addressed also, but all they mention is improving the interiors.

The exterior of the Sebring needs a major restyling (front, rear, and C-pillar). The Avenger’s exterior just needs minor tweaks. I think altering some of the exterior styling will also help draw attention to the improvements made to the interiors of these cars.

The cars need a five or six speed automatic transmission with the base four cylinder engine (a six speed manual option probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Avenger).

I would also make sure the ride is tweaked to provide a good balance between sportiness and comfort (biased towards sportiness for the Avenger and comfort for the Sebring).

If Chrysler seriously wants to attempt to jump back into the midsize sedan game with these products, then they need to address all the shortcomings of these products. If they don’t, then I’m afraid that they still won’t make much of an impact on the market.