Not a knock or a disappointed, just ... lamenting about something that really doesn't matter I guess. Was talking about this with my son last night. I've had 7 BMWs, 2 Porsches, many various foreign makes, but have always proudly flown red, white & blue in the garage with 8 mustangs and 3 vipers to my credit. Even thru the past transactions with Chrysler, the Daimler merger & co-chairing, and then the New York based Cerberus, etc., the viper has remained american to me.
Now with the 58.5% Fiat ownership, and the minority interest VEBA going on the trading market in the not too distant future, it's hard to see it other than an Italian company with soon to be publicly traded minority stock. Which really makes the viper ... no longer the arguably best performance american car, or US exotic, but an Italian variation, and certainly still one of the best performance (especially for the $) cars there is.
Yes, I know they saved the car, and yes I'm graciously thankful, make no mistake there.
I know it doesn't matter to many or most I'm sure, probably flame my patriotic waxing-on emotionally about a car as being silly, that's OK, I understand that perspective too, it's just a car. But it is a bitter-sweet point for me, to see the next gen stronger than ever and poised to dominate, but for it to be more appropriate to put an Italian moniker on it than USA.
The car rocks, and I'm excited as h_ll about it, and I want one, yes, give me another glass of the viper kool aid, I'm a fanboy, and proud of the develpoment team, can't wait to see how it rules the market in performance, but .... oh well.
Anyway, back to the celebration and further expectation.
Now with the 58.5% Fiat ownership, and the minority interest VEBA going on the trading market in the not too distant future, it's hard to see it other than an Italian company with soon to be publicly traded minority stock. Which really makes the viper ... no longer the arguably best performance american car, or US exotic, but an Italian variation, and certainly still one of the best performance (especially for the $) cars there is.
Yes, I know they saved the car, and yes I'm graciously thankful, make no mistake there.
I know it doesn't matter to many or most I'm sure, probably flame my patriotic waxing-on emotionally about a car as being silly, that's OK, I understand that perspective too, it's just a car. But it is a bitter-sweet point for me, to see the next gen stronger than ever and poised to dominate, but for it to be more appropriate to put an Italian moniker on it than USA.
The car rocks, and I'm excited as h_ll about it, and I want one, yes, give me another glass of the viper kool aid, I'm a fanboy, and proud of the develpoment team, can't wait to see how it rules the market in performance, but .... oh well.
Anyway, back to the celebration and further expectation.
