Auto blog

Zombie cars roundup: Dodge has sold 3 new Vipers this year

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.

Lackluster Dodge Dart sales trigger layoffs

Hidden amidst the overall very positive sales figures that Chrysler released earlier this week were a few disappointments, the biggest of which may be the Dodge Dart. While Dodge sales in general were down 11 percent from a year ago, the Dart's poor figures stood out from the rest - with 4,888 units sold, the Dart was down 37 percent in February.
It comes as little surprise, then, that the automaker has announced layoffs at its assembly plant in Belvidere, IL. According to The Daily Herald, Dodge will temporarily lay off 325 workers "to balance vehicle supply with current sales demand." Put more simply, there are more Darts than buyers at the moment...
We don't think the Dodge Dart is a bad car, but it's playing in a market that offers a few standout sellers, like the Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. According to AutoPacific analyst Dave Sullivan, as quoted by The Daily Herald, "great incentives on the Dodge Avenger" are also partly to blame for the Dart's poor showing.

2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition celebrates an icon

Fifty years ago, Dodge commissioned Creative Industries to build the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona as a homologation special to satisfy NASCAR rules. The extraterrestrial-looking coupe conquered at the race track, broke records, and frightened any onlooker possessed of a weak constitution; it's claimed that even the carmaker's general manager at the time, Bob McCurry, considered the Charger Daytona the ugliest car he'd ever laid eyes on. Time having worked its magic, Dodge is celebrating the now-iconic Winged Warrior with the 2020 Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition. The new model goes without a nose cone and vertical stabilizers, but it does loose 717 horsepower from its 6.2-liter supercharged V8, which is 10 more than the standard car. The grunty sedan will be available in four colors: Pitch Black, Triple Nickel, White Knuckle, and B5 Blue exclusive to this model. B5 was the original paint code for a Blue Fire Poly hue available on Dodge and Plymouth products built between 1969 and 1972. Evoking the original as well as highlighting the decklid spoiler on the new Charger, the black, nickel, and blue sedans get white "Daytona" decals on the rear quarter panels and a white spoiler, matching white Hellcat badges on the front fenders. White cars get blue "Daytona" decals and spoiler, and Hellcat badges in a bright finish. Twenty-inch Warp Speed wheels finished in Satin Carbon on all-season Pirellis and black Brembo brakes complete the exterior overhaul. Inside, heated and cooled 12-way adjustable performance seats are trimmed in Nappa leather and Alcantara, with blue cross-stitching joining seatbacks embroidered with the word "Daytona." The flat-bottomed, suede-wrapped steering wheel with silver stitching and "velour-bound" floor mats will only come in this model, the festival of special appointments also including the dynamica suede headliner, carbon fiber instrument panel and bezels, light black chrome trim pieces, and blue stitching on the dash, shifter, center console armrest, and door panels. Dodge will only produce 501 units, said to match the number of cars necessary for NASCAR homologation at the time, and each wears a plaque identifying it as "X out of 501." NASCAR rules in 1969 demanded 500 units, actually — the car Dodge built in 1968 to race was called the Charger 500, in fact. Also, Creative Industries built 503 1969 Charger Daytonas for the U.S. and another 40 for Canada, but who's counting?