How do you kill a snake? General consensus would tell you to cut off its head. But not if you're Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).
Instead of decapitating the Dodge Viper sports car, the automaker is instead un-staffing the Viper's small, roughly 80-person assembly plant as a part of the company's new labor contract with United Auto Workers. And without a staff to hand-build the 650-horsepower sports car, or plans for its replacement, it will simply cease to be in 2017.
According to an Automotive News report, the proposed $5.3 billion FCA business plan that will be voted on by the UAW later this week does not include any plans to replace the V10-powered Dodge. Instead, attention will be turned to upgrading the carmaker's 8-speed automatic transmission. It's a great transmission, to be sure. However, it's no replacement for the Viper.
So while the Viper might have been hard to drive, uncomfortable to sit in, deafening at full throttle, nearly impossible to see out of and crafted with questionable-at-best build quality, it was the closest thing America has to a supercar -- before the debut of the current Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
Regardless of its flaws and foibles, the Viper will be missed. Knowing FCA, though, it'll likely create something equally as wacky instead.