The Dodge Viper Era Is Dead, Head of SRT Says

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Steve_at_Werk@reddit

A car that's been out of production for 9 years is dead?!?!

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That's why he is head of Stellantis US brands and RAM. That's all you need in the US to climb up the coroporate ladder and become an over-paid VP, head of-whatever, C-Level guy: An average intelligence, an average blue-collar sounding name like Ed, Jim, Bob, Jim, Tim, Jim-Bob, Jongowongo and a trophy wife called Sarah with big teeth and lots of gum showing when she is smiling and she drives a humongous SUV to the pilates class and to Starbucks. Where is my comfy corporate job at an US company and my awful wife? I also like to take home seven figures while spending my time in stupid Teams calls and signing stuff.

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Important-Spring3977@reddit

Can you just stick to selling shitty apartments in Germany?

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zeno0771@reddit

You know, as tough as things are these days for a lot of people, that description makes me even more happy that my wife & I just scrape the bottom of six figures in a house that's a couple square feet too small in every room, driving a pair of decade-plus-old cars.

I don't think I could even pretend to be that stupid. I mean I'd sure as hell try if it meant not worrying about the price of gas doubling every time rich people come up with a scheme to get even richer, but that wouldn't make me a C-suite exec; it would just make me an actor.

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DunderscoreMA@reddit

What's really bothering you?

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roman_maverik@reddit

Kyle is this guy's manager

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wclevel47nice@reddit

I’m sure soon we’ll have a Viper Cross SUV

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NGA100@reddit

That hurt my heart to read

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Brutally-Honest-@reddit

Only if it comes with the V10

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Four-In-Hand@reddit

😂 Or a Dodge Viper-E electric hatchback.

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Least_Confidence_225@reddit

Viper: My killer wasn't emissions. It was my gas bill.

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August_tho@reddit

People who own a viper don't care about gas prices lol.

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RT023@reddit

Can I post this article next

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Geofferz@reddit

This guy sounds like he's drunk

Kuniskis revealed the real reason the Viper died. “I mean, when they came out with the new rule for ejection mitigation, we had to discontinue the car because you would have to put airbags right over you—as a driver, right over your ear. And you sat in the car. It’d be impossible,” Kuniskis said.

During the discussion Kuniskis made a point to note, “The track capability of that car was absolutely astounding. If you think about what it was—I mean, it was an analog car with a manual transmission, and it could hold its own against anything in the world. Technology doesn’t matter. I mean, it was just that good.” But the Father of the Hellcats isn’t blinded by love as he quickly followed that statement with, “But it had its downsides. I mean, let’s be honest. I own one, so I’m allowed to bash it. If you don’t own one, you can’t because we’ll fight. But if you own one, you can bash it.”

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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Daneth@reddit

This isn't a controversial discussion. I didn't see the deleted post but I bet I know exactly what it said more-or-less. Stop doing this and reserve deletions for more flagrantly partisan statements.

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FeelsLikeV97-33XA@reddit

“I mean, when they came out with the new rule for ejection mitigation, we had to discontinue the car because you would have to put airbags right over you—as a driver, right over your ear. And you sat in the car. It’d be impossible,” Kuniskis said.

Don't they deal with this in other convertibles? In some Volvos the head airbag come out of the top of the door. In the Crown Victoria they made the side seat airbag so huge it would protect your head.

Seems like there's other ways.

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_galaga_@reddit

Not to sound overly cynical but it's corpo speak 101 to blame something external to the company for the loss of something beloved like the Viper. If you look back at old threads on this you find similar skepticism about the answer: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/wd5l17/til_the_dodge_viper_was_discontinued_in_2017_not/

That thread is 4 years old so this isn't news it's the party line on why the Viper died. Sales were also down so you could just as easily theorize that they didn't see ROI in meeting the side curtain airbag standard not that it was impossible to meet the standard like Kuniskis is saying.

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JEs4@reddit

I mean isn’t that kind of obvious? With enough resources any car manufacturer could make any car they want. Imagination is never the problem, convincing the bean counters is.

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_galaga_@reddit

Yes and no. "I mean, when they came out with the new rule for ejection mitigation, we had to discontinue the car because you would have to put airbags right over you—as a driver, right over your ear. And you sat in the car. It’d be impossible,” Kuniskis said.

He's implying it wasn't feasible regardless of money. We know that's not entirely true and that's what I'm poking at.

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Daneth@reddit

I mean .. other "viper shaped" things exist and have for decades. The AMG GT for example.

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Slideways@reddit

It would have required making every Viper a targa or convertible. That was why Corvette did it.

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lostboyz@reddit

that's not cheap either. Prefix made a bunch as studies and even got the rights to modify them aftermarket

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YellowFogLights@reddit

Which has historical precedent for the Viper anyways so it really wouldn’t have been a bad thing.

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kneedoorman@reddit

Better to die a rebellious rwd, manual v10 hero than live as a turbo, automatic, suv with smaller displacement

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V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit

Final Viper didn’t add AT option and price cut, both were real reasons why Viper death. Yes, old school was why fans loving Viper, but you couldn’t argue why its sales so bad.

Anyway, just let Viper resting in history, this is a respect for this classic model.

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lostboyz@reddit

They did a huge price cut which definitely helped sales a bit. The ACRs soldout easily, it was the 'normal' ones that were hard to sell. It just isn't livable enough, at least not compared to the c7 and other sport cars that were in that price bracket.

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_OUCHMYPENIS_@reddit

I was sad that the viper was canned right before the hellcat engine came around. People can say it needs a v10 to be a real viper but I don't think the viper had a big enough following for people to care. The last viper was so nice looking. I'm sad it doesn't exist anymore.

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NoctD@reddit (OP)

You’ve got excellent memory - that’s what he said.

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_Thorshammer_@reddit

That explains why they're calling it the Copperhead - if they called it a Viper all the fan boys would start crying about "no manual, automatic, roof......"