Dodge Challenger Hellcat gives Mopar fans 707 reasons to forget about Viper

In a very ironic twist, it is not a Corvette that is very likely to finish off the Dodge Viper but instead, another Dodge is responsible for this part.  The new Challenger Hellcat packs helluva punch, 707 hp to be exact and puts Dodge Viper in true shame.  Never mind  the car is not particularly a looker, overweight and with horrible weight distribution and aerodynamics.  The sheer power rating makes it a new king of all Mopars and highest rated production car across the board in U.S.A.-all at very reasonable price.

So what is in Viper's future?  Apparently not more power and most likely a quiet funeral in 2016.

Overall, this is a very smart move on part of Fiat.  Unlike Viper, Challenger does not compete with any Fiat owned exotics, never did and never will.  Instead, the car sets a new horsepower record and out of the box impressive strip performance-a great compliment to Fiat owned Ferrari, Alfa and Maserati.

How American is 2014 Dodge Viper?

Apparently not very... To see that the Viper barely makes the list is both quite shocking and disappointing, especially since it is still touted as the ultimate AMERICAN exotic....

American Car Content

Dodge Viper production resumes next week for 2014 model year

Here it is, another dumb move by Chrysler, resuming production of the former SRT and current Dodge Viper, making 2014 cars past the middle of the year.

Apparently stupidity runs rampant among Chrysler and Fiat execs and it does not really matter if Ralph Gilles runs the Viper ship of fools or anyone else.

What possible reason would Chrysler have to resume 2014 car so late in the production year?  There are a few reasons why this can happen but none are benefitting Viper long term future.

1. Continuing production of the current model year will prevent further discounting of the current 2014 cars although this is doubtful considering how many 2013 are still sitting around.  A smart move would be to end 2014 now and end up with fewer cars being discounted  next year but apparently short term benefit is the more important one, no matter what the consequences will be next year.

2. Lack of improvements and upgrades available to create incentive for anyone to buy the Viper.  In other words, there has been absolutely no new development to motivate buyers to spend the money on a car that has not sold for the last two years.   Apparently nobody bothered to improve the horsepower, tenability and offer better performance options for the Viper?  Oh yes, there should be a few more color options and interior combinations that without any doubt will work like a charm to increase the sales, just like they did already.

There is a possibility that  the production of Viper is coming to  a complete end, thus, nobody wants to waste money on a losing proposition.  Financially, this makes most sense, no matter how sentiumentally unfortunate this may be.

The chances for 2015 Dodge Viper - ZERO!!!

The demise of Ralph Gilles came swiftly but only after ball finally got rolling.  Gilles' ego and lack of vision actually made it a miracle that Generation 5 ever came to fruition at all. 

The sales of former SRT and current Dodge Viper are at all time low and there is absolutely nothing that anyone at Chrysler or Fiat  will do to change it. 

The current discount of 7500 per 2013 SRT is a laughable one, considering that dealers offering 20k and more discounts still cannot sell the cars sitting on their lots for the last two years.

As it is, the only saving grace, a 0 percent Chrysler financing for a minimum of 72 months, when combined with the discounts could help ridding of the remaining 2013 and 2014 but amazingly enough, nothing at all is being done to make it happen.

As it is, the chances of reactivating Viper assembly line is non existent, the former CEO has disappeared from the public view in disgrace and the whole concept of Viper as a bad boy American supercar is fully dead.

Overall, this is a very sad situation since at the current pricing, Viper is certainly a considerably better alternative to the mass market plastic fantastic POS Corvette C7 Stingray but way too few people understand this part. 

Based on my personal dealings with Gilles and people from his office, his demise was long overdue, long before Generation 5 was even considered but... it is what it is. 

The best what can happen now is laying the Viper to permanent rest, there is no development money or good will coming from Fiat owners.  By all accounts, Generation 5 should never happen in the first place, at least not the way it was executed and led by Gilles.  Some bad voodoo came this guy's way (pun fully intended).

Will the Dodge Viper survive Dodge Challenger Hellcat?

Even though Chrysler does not reveal the final performance figures, chances of this new Challenger, with supercharged V8 Hemi NOT producing higher horsepower than the embattled former SRT and current Dodge, Viper are very slim.  What makes it even worse is the fact than unlike the Viper, Challenger ECU software can be reprogrammed, to allow for even more modifications and horsepower.

Granted, there is no visual comparison between Viper and Challenger, with the latter sharing aerodynamics, weight and visual gratification with the nearest garden shed but horsepower can appeal to more people than refinement and two seat performance.

As it is right now, unless someone at Chrysler grows some balls and allows for horsepower increase for the Viper (a meaningful increase) to distinguish the Viper from the lowly Challenger in the horsepower bragging rights department, this may be the final nail in Viper's coffin and the current vacation may very likely become the permanent one.

Things are awfully quiet with Ralph Gilles lately.  Apparently he is too busy licking his wounds from SRT demise and repairing his demotion bruised ego but if this guy really cares about Viper as he has claimed, there better be some solid action coming soon and announcement regarding horsepower increase instead of new colors or choices of interior materials.

Otherwise, it will be considerably more humane to lay the Viper to rest instead of stretching its agony, with unsold carcasses scattered through all former SRT dealers.

Anyone even remotely concerned with Viper's future would be demanding a supercharging option made available on Viper, to set it one step ahead of the quintessential redneck mobile, the Challenger.

Will Ralph Gilles finally step up to the plate?  There is absolutely no reason why Viper cannot be supercharged.   The cost of such upgrade would be lower than the non selling interior bling and could save the Viper, especially in light of upcoming Z06.  Supercharging is cheap and it could remediate the problems potential buyers have with locked ECU software. 

Come on Ralph, grow some balls for once or step down and away from Viper!!!

Will the former SRT dealers get their 25k back from Chrysler?

This is a tough question.  On one hand, they should get their money back since the SRT brand is officially shut down and Viper once again, has been declared a Dodge. 

On the other hand, these dealers are directly responsible for the failure of Viper to launch and sell.

Seeing how these dealers still do not see the light and try very little to sell their cars, maybe they should not get their money back.  There is no doubt that neither Ralph Gilles or these dealers have learned anything at all from this Viper humiliation.  The best way to teach anyone is by affecting their wallets.

SRT and Edsel-SRT is no more and Viper is Dodge Viper once again

Apparently it had to take Viper sales to remain at stand still for two years straight before Fiat executives finally figured out it is time to pull the plug on SRT "brand" and its CEO, Ralph Gilles.

This short but quite memorable existence of SRT brand will go down in the history of automotive world as one of the most resounding failures, right alongside of Edsel.

The idea was beyond silly from the get go: lumping together several souped up mainstream Chrysler vehicles, along with Viper and pretend they are distinct enough to turn them into separate car models and then sell them through the same run of the mill Chrysler dealers who happened to make their profits off mini vans and pick up trucks-absolutely ridiculous notion altogether.

They irony of the whole situation is the fact that the only original vehicle in SRT line up, Viper became the biggest victim of the ill thought out scheme.  First, the best SRT could do with Viper was to give it a super rudimentary make over, recycling the same chassis and engine, dressing it up in a Generation 2 look alike skin while failing to deliver a roadster version or ability to custom tune and modify the car by removing the engine management software encryption (or even better, use another software altogether).

Then, the same SRT  managed to turn off the buyers support by royally screwing over the first buyers who special ordered their vehicle and give the mini van dealers priority in obtaining the vehicles (and neither SRT or the dealers bothered to do any market research at all, before  ordering options that nobody wanted) while the actual buyers had to wait for several months, kept in the dark.

The next step of SRT disaster consisted of super sloppy and careless attitude toward the automotive press, including delivery of press cars with parts literally falling off the cars and bald and mismatched tires.  What even made the publicity worse was the attitude coming from Ralph Gilles, busy pointing fingers and blaming others for the screw ups and bad reviews, while lacking the balls to face the music and admitting his own faults.

The final step of this SRT demise came courtesy of the greedy dealers who idiotically assumed that ordering the more expensive version of the Viper, GTS, loading the cars to the max and on top of it, demand MARK UP would make their cars fly off their showroom floors.

Add to it super rude sales staff, no test rides and lack of financial incentives and realistic and attractive financing options and it is actually a surprise that there was a 2014 model year at all.

The fact that not only the 2014 Vipers continue to sit unsold but there are literally hundreds of unsold 2013 Vipers can be easily seen as the final nail in the Viper's coffin. 

By now, it will take a miracle to see a 2015 version of Viper, even as a Dodge.  The reality is that there is no budget to support any meaningful upgrades and on top of it, there are hundreds of unsold Vipers still branded as SRT Viper. 

It is doubtful that Ralph or anyone else on SRT team can figure out that until all of the unsold cars are gone, there is option to continue with the Viper. 

One thing is clear:  Ralph Gilles is completely unfit to lead the Viper program and finding someone competent and with at least an ounce of common sense should be the first step in any further Viper development.

If this does not happen, the Viper is better off dead, just another memory from the past.