If You Haven't Bought One Already, Your 2017 Dodge Viper Dreams Are Almost Toast
It’s a great day for an automaker when it can say it sold an entire year’s worth of vehicles in less than a week. Things get less impressive when it’s the final model year of a niche vehicle.
Still, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is putting on its bragging pants and grabbing the megaphone after it sold every special-edition version of the 2017 Dodge Viper in a matter of days. So great was the response, FCA plans to offer one last version of the 25-year-old nameplate.
Orders for the final Vipers opened on June 24, and snake aficionados must have had their fingers poised over the keyboard.
According to the automaker, all 100 units of the GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACR and all 25 units of the Snakeskin Edition GTC sold out within two ordering days. The 31 units of the VoooDoo II Edition ACR were gone within two hours, and all 28 units of the 1:28 Edition ACR were snapped up in 40 minutes.
Enthusiasts with cash on hand clearly weren’t ready to let an opportunity pass by. With the model headed to the FCA gallows, collector value of the 2017 Vipers will be high.
Knowing they could sell out another special-edition version in a heartbeat, FCA executives immediately set about doing just that. The company now plans to offer 31 units of the Dodge Viper Snakeskin ACR, with orders starting in mid-July.
Inspired by the 2010 Snakeskin ACR (which also amounted to 31 units), the 2017 version comes in Dodge’s Snakeskin Green and features a snakeskin-pattern SRT stripe, Extreme Aero Package, carbon ceramic brakes, ACR interior, Snakeskin instrument panel badge and custom car cover. Because you want everyone — EVERYONE! — to know who you are, that car cover will have your name showcased over the driver’s door.
Owning a Dodge Viper is not an act of subtlety, restraint, or modesty, and Dodge knows it.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
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The Viper was the 4 wheeled version of a Harley Davidson. Both the Viper and the Harley appeal to middle aged white men with more money than emotional maturity.
The Viper has always been primarily a halo car, and if it isn't doing its job of getting people to come into dealers and leave with lesser models, this is probably the right decision. The Viper has also always been an exciting car, but it has never been a particularly good car. FCA thought that upgrading the interior would make the car more appealing and maybe even take some sales from Corvette. Obviously that didn't work.