We recently heard that the current Dodge Viper will be killed as it cannot comply with side airbag requirements in the United States, but that doesn’t mean the end to the Viper’s story.
Earlier in the month, suggestions indicated that a future Viper could utilize a platform from within the FCA Group, rather than its own distinct architecture. Now Sergio Marchionne has suggested once again to Auto News that the Viper may live on in a different form.
“Given the architectural developments that we have going on inside the group … there is a possibility that a new version of a Viper will eventually — may eventually – surface. Whether it surfaces within a reasonable period of time or not is unclear to me,” said the FCA CEO.
“But certainly there is access to architectures that will deliver a car of equal weight as the Viper and with significantly improved performance and handling of the kind that Viper provides. But I don’t think we’ve made the decision,” Marchionne said.
While the outgoing Viper is being killed off over an airbag issue, it long suffered from poor sales and in 2015, only 676 units were sold making it uneconomical to produce in its current state with a bespoke platform.
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