After a temporary stop at its Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit, American car maker Dodge will be resuming the production of its Viper from the coming 21st. The decision for the shutdown was taken to maintain the piling-up inventories due to lack of sales. Though the production had started briefly last month, but the full production of Viper will only commence on the 21st.
Its been 22 years, the first Viper was produced, and even after the launch of several generations since then, the muscle machine never got that response which it actually deserved. Chrysler's (parent company) decision to idle the Conner Avenue plant, also came as a result of that.
Just 591 Vipers were delivered to the customers in 2013, well short of the 2,000 cars Dodge touted during the car’s launch. And till March, a total of 756 Vipers were unsold, representing a hefty 412 day supply. The average sales of the muscle car during the first two months of 2014, averaged around 50-60 cars a month. But this must also be considered that Viper is a niche product and less than 29,000 units have been produced since its launch back in the early ‘90s.
“In order to help boost sales by better catering to the needs of the Viper’s discerning customers, dealerships selling the car have had to undergo a training program that paired staff with existing Viper owners and potential buyers so that they could form a better understanding of the market’s needs,” the report from a publication stated.
Recently Fiat Chrysler Automobile took a decision to make SRT an official tuner to Dodge instead of a standalone brand, and henceforth the Viper was rebadged as a Dodge (as opposed to SRT).
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Source : CarDekho