In the January 10, 2008 autoblog, it was rumored that cash-strapped Cerberus may kill off the Viper because of lagging sales and higher CAFE standards. This is good and bad news for the Challenger. If the Viper is killed off the Challenger will be Dodge's top performance car and will have no restrictions on horsepower. On the other hand, Challenger will be faced with the same CAFE standards, and if sales lag, it may be in for a short run. That's why I am buying my SRT in 2009!

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Unfortunately, some of the cash necessary to fix the Sebring may come at the expense of the Dodge Viper. Inside Line reports that Cerberus is prepared to make an instantaneous decision regarding the future of the Viper, both because of a cash crunch and because the $85,000 snake may be losing its bite anyway with the passing of a new national energy bill and higher CAFE standards around the corner. It's hard for us to imagine Dodge and parent company Chrysler LLC losing its halo car like this. We're no auto execs, but the Viper does nothing but make money and fans for Chrysler, and since it's new for 2008, another redo isn't required for at least a four-year life-cycle or so. In other words, we don't like the idea, and likely very few of you do either."

Read the full article at:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/10/d...r-new-sebring/