As you probably know, Chrysler (well the good parts anyway) have emerged out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the partnership deal with Fiat has been completed. Pre-bankruptcy and during bankruptcy, Chrysler publicly stated that it was attempting to sell the Dodge Viper line to another company.
It then emerged that the only official bidder was Devon Motor Works, with it’s lowball $5.5 million bid for the brand. Apparently, that has been rejected. There has been a number of theories though as to why the Viper brand didn’t get sold.
Some say that Chrysler has indeed gotten offers for the Viper as high as $30 million, but Fiat was afraid of the Viper competing with Maserati and Ferrari and therefore was discouraging any offers. I’m not sure what exactly went on with that, I could see either story being true for different reasons.
There has been some speculation that without a buyer, Viper could remain in bankruptcy along with the rest (bad) parts of Chrysler. To me that would be moronic. It clearly has value and is a profitable business.
Why kill a profitable business? Anyway, that isn’t the case. Viper is now a part of the “Good Chrysler” under Fiat ownership. We have no idea what will happen now. Does Fiat keep the brand going, try to sell it or just cut it altogether? No one knows for sure.
Leave a Reply