Fiat Chrysler's un-staffing plans due to proposed labor deal could eliminate Dodge Viper in 2017

As part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles new labor contract with United Auto Workers, the company will lay off most of its staff in the 80-person assembly plant that manufactures the Dodge Viper sports car.

Auto News reported that this could only mean that the hand-built 650-horsepower Viper will cease to exist in 2017.

The proposed $5.3 billion business plan agreed upon by the FCA and the UAW will be voted on this week. It will not include any replacement plan for the V10-powered Dodge, but there will be upgrades in the 8-speed automatic transmission. It may be a great transmission, but it will not replace the Viper, according to Mashable.

FCA's sales for the Viper have been doing badly since the vehicle's re-launch. In the United States, only 503 Vipers were sold from January to September of this year. In 2014, there were only 760 Vipers sold. The original Viper was first manufactured in 1992, and then it was updated in 1996, 2003, and 2008. It ended its run in 2010 when it went bankrupt. By 2013, it launched a redesigned version. However, sales haven't been going well since then due to increased prices and better quality competitors.

Insider Car News reported that the UAW-FCA agreement included plans to end by 2017 the production of Viper in Connor Avenue Assembly plant, which is where the supercar is currently being manufactured. The agreement didn't include any replacement vehicle that will be manufactured in the plant.

This is bad news for American performance cars. There are industry experts who fear that supercars are coming to an end. The extinction of Viper only bolsters the theory. Automakers make cars to earn money, and Viper hasn't been doing that for Dodge for a while. To put into perspective and not simply to compare, there are 325,000 Honda Civics being sold each year in the Untied States. This makes it very logical for FCA to stop the production of its Dodge Viper.