Each January we get a chance to look back at the previous year in auto sales to see how each brand performed. This year, we’re surprised to see that a number of cars no longer in production still sold brand-new examples in 2022. Here’s a quick peek at a few cars that just won’t go silently into that good night.
For example, last year, we were shocked to find out that the Chrysler 200, which left production in 2017, saw 15 ‘new car’ sales in 2021. Well, prepare to be shocked again because, in 2022, two more were sold to buyers as brand new.
Amazingly, the Dodge Dart, which left production a year earlier in 2016, is still finding its way into garages as a ‘new car’ too. Two years ago, Stellantis reported 10 sales of the Dart, and in 2022, four more left dealerships as new cars.
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The Dart wasn’t the only surprising sale of a long-dead Dodge product though. Somehow, 194 Journey SUVs were sold along with 27 Caravans. The wildest of the bunch though has to be the single Dodge Viper that sold sometime during the second quarter of 2022. It’s not the only two-door under the Stellantis brand sold after leaving production though.
Fiat didn’t even sell a total of 1,000 cars last year but 40 of them were models no longer in production. That includes 24 Spiders, 8 500Ls, and 8 more 500s.
Alfa Romeo managed to shift a single 4C to someone. Here’s the caveat about all of these vehicles. While not necessarily the case for any of these cars, it’s not unheard of for dealers to stow desirable cars away for themselves to potentially sell at a later date.
At the same time, it’s plausible that these vehicles just happened to all get sold to everyday buyers. If one of you picked up that 4C or the Viper we want to know what that transaction was like.
Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously said that Fiat is leaving North America, which is not the case, as the brand is planning to sell the new electric 500. We apologize for the mistake.
