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Zombie cars: A dozen discontinued vehicles people still buy new

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.

Values snowball for legendary Tucker Sno-Cats, latest toys of the super rich

Here's a fun-sounding vehicle perfect for the cold and snow that's currently gripping much of North America. Tucker — no, not that Tucker — just marked its 75th anniversary making the Sno-Cat, its orange-painted, four-tread snow vehicles that have inspired backcountry skiers, collectors — and increasingly, the super rich. Bloomberg in a recent story writes that demand for the Medford, Ore.-based company's products is soaring on demand from the wealthy, who need a way to get to their backcountry mountain retreats. They're also in demand from collectors and gearheads who also love snow, like two anonymous collectors who are believed to have amassed more than 200 vintage Sno-Cats. The value of vintage models has reportedly tripled in the past five years to well over $100,000 for a fully restored rig. Tucker Sno-Cat Corp. claims to be the world's oldest surviving snow vehicle manufacturer, launched by E.M. Tucker in 1942 out of a desire to design a vehicle for traveling over the kind of deep, soft snow found in the Rogue River Valley of his childhood. It was four Tucker Sno-Cat machines that helped English explorer Vivian Fuchs and his 12-man party make the first 2,158-mile overland crossing of Antarctica in 1957-58. While many of the company's competitors either shuttered or adapted to serving ski resorts with wider, heavier treads, Tucker has stuck to its formula of making lightweight vehicles to travel over deep snow. Many Tuckers use Chrysler's flat six-cylinder engine, or its Dodge Hemi V8 for larger Sno-Cats, mounted rear or centrally, with basic, no-frills aluminum cabins. Sno-Cats all have four articulating tracks that are independently sprung, powered and pivoted at the drive axle. Track options come in three different types: conventional steel grouser belt track, rubber-coated aluminum grouser belt track, and one-piece all-rubber track. Steering is hydraulically controlled by pivoting the front and rear axles for smooth movement over undulating terrain with minimal disturbance of the ground cover. The company today makes 75 to 100 Sno-Cats a year for customers including the U.S. military, oil-drilling crews in cold places like Alaska and North Dakota, and utilities. But demand is so high that it's launched a profitable service reselling and refurbishing old machines. E.M. Tucker's grandson, Jeff McNeil, now head of this division, scours Google Earth for abandoned Sno-Cats rusting in backyards that he might be able to acquire and fix up.

2016 Dodge Viper ACR racks up lap records

With 645 horsepower and an adjustable spoiler nearly six feet wide, the 2016 Dodge Viper ACR would look at home on the runways of most any airport, air base, or aircraft carrier in the world. But it's not built for the runway. It's built for the race track. And it has positively mastered them one after another. In fact, the new Viper ACR has not only beat the lap times of its own predecessor as it set out to, but took the production-car lap record at 13 tracks across the country. The endeavor started out at the Inde Motorsport Ranch in Arizona, where development engineer Chris "The Wolf" Winkler set a lap time of 1:33.75 on the Configuration 4 track to beat every other street-legal vehicle to ever lap the circuit. Then it was off to Buttonwillow, the MotorSport Ranch (in Cresson, TX), Big Willow, VIR, Grattan, Pittsburg, GingerMan, the Motown Mile, Nelson Ledges, Waterford Hills, and Road Atlanta. And with the new American Club Racer, Dodge took the lap record at each and every one. The journey culminated just days ago at Laguna Seca, where track expert Randy Pobst climbed into the Viper ACR and set a lap time of 1:28.65. That's 5.27 seconds faster than the previous ACR's time, and 1.24 seconds faster than the Porsche 918 Spyder that held the record until now. The sum total is a bragging-rights sheet of lap records set at 13 tracks across these United States. And you don't have to take Dodge's word on that. The records have been certified by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), cementing the ACR's place in the record books. Nice work if you can get it, and you can scope it out in the video above and press release below. Related Video: 2016 Dodge Viper ACR Is Undisputed Track Record King - Ultimate street-legal race car sets new high-performance benchmark with more track records than any production car in the world - Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) has certified lap records at 13 road courses, including world-famous Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta and Virginia International Raceway - With 645 horsepower and more torque than any naturally aspirated engine in a production car, the ACR is purpose built for weekend club racers who want the most extreme, but street-legal, track car available - Significant aerodynamic and suspension upgrades, new Carbon Ceramic brakes with six-piston calipers from Brembo and high-performance Kumho tires, specifically designed for the new 2016 ACR, set this Viper apart on any road course November 3, 2015, Auburn Hills, Mich.