Dodge sold 4 Vipers in 2020, despite its discontinuation in 2017

• Fiat Chrysler published its annual US sales report on Tuesday.
• The automaker sold four Dodge Vipers in 2020, according to the report. The Dodge Viper was discontinued in 2017.
• The automaker also sold three Jeep Patriots, although the car was discontinued in late 2016.
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As automakers release their year-end sales reports, it’s always fun to keep an eye out for fun oddities. Here’s one from Fiat Chrysler, which managed to sell four (4) Dodge Vipers in 2020 – a car that had been discontinued three years earlier.

The FCA released its fourth quarter and full-year sales results on Tuesday. Only the Jeep Gladiator pickup and the Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV achieved positive sales in 2020 over 2019, but the most interesting information present, by far, was the fact that the automaker managed to sell four Vipers.

It is not entirely unheard of for dealers to continue selling cars after they have been discontinued. Sometimes, dealers buy cars from manufacturers, but do not sell them immediately, keeping them as centerpieces or demonstration vehicles. Exactly this happened with a handful of 2012 Lexus LFAs appearing as unsold at dealerships in 2017.

It is unclear which retailers sold the Vipers, but it is encouraging – although not surprising – to know that there are still new ones out there that people want to buy. This is because the Dodge Viper was one of the most iconic American muscle cars ever made.

He started life in the early 1990s with an 8.0-liter V10 engine, a six-speed manual transmission, a canvas roof, without external handles, without air conditioning, without airbags, without traction control and without ABS . In other words, a perfect vehicle.

Notoriously, most Viper models had side exhaust pipes located just below their doors. Like exhaust pipes, they tended to heat up after long periods of driving and owners could burn their ankles and calves when leaving the vehicle, if they were not careful. Again, this was a feature and not a bug.

At the time the fifth generation Viper arrived in 2013 – the final generation – the car was quite refined. It is true that the engine had been extended to 8.4 liters and reached 640 horsepower, but it had as much technology as other modern sports cars: electronic stability control, ABS and traction control.

In 2017, Viper officially ended production because it was unable to meet the new safety standards that came into effect in September of that year. The Viper’s low sales figures probably didn’t help either. Motor Trend reported in 2017 that only 630 Vipers were sold in the previous year.

Not long after production ended, the Viper plant was transformed into a historic FCA car depot. The last Dodge Viper built was auctioned along with the last Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and the pair raised $ 1 million.

At least the Viper was not the worst FCA salesman in 2020. This award goes to the Ram Cargo Van (one sold) and the Jeep Patriot (three sold). The latter was discontinued in late 2016 and considerably less legal than the Viper.