STS Corvette Forum

Sometimes we pretend that we buy a particular car for practical reasons. We say that we think of a car as an appliance or a line item in a household budget. But deep down, we all know that sometimes a car chooses us for reasons we don't understand. You see one pulling away from a stoplight, or staring back at you from a computer screen, and your mind is made up. Someday, you tell yourself.

Often, you can wait for that day.

Unless, of course, the car is gone by then.

Cash-starved automakers are trimming their lineups. They're canceling models, and in some cases, preparing to send entire brands to the automotive graveyard. And as automakers look to trim excess from their operations, they're not going to cut practical cars. They're going to cut the ones that are harder to justify: the convertibles, the supercars, the cute icons that don't fit into neat categories. The cars that speak to your romantic side that are most endangered. If one of these has your heartstrings, it's time to make a move.

From 1-6 (Honda S2000, Chrysler PT Cruiser,Saturn Sky,Hummer H3, Lexus SC, and the Dodge Viper)

Dodge Viper

The legendary Viper is basically a street-legal race car, with nearly no amenities or creature comforts to speak of, but all the speed one could ever imagine. On the world's most demanding test track -- the Nürburgring, a 12.9-mile circuit in the mountains outside Nürburg, Germany -- the lap record is held by a 2009 Viper ACR, which bests even cars that cost five times as much.

But the Viper is in danger. Newer designs like the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and Nissan GT-R nearly equal its performance and offer far more livability.

The product planners at Dodge are car enthusiasts and don't seem to want to live in a world without Vipers, so they have held back on officially announcing the vehicle's cancellation. But Dodge has halted production of the Viper, and publicly tried to sell the design rights to other automakers and even parts suppliers that don't build whole cars. Essentially, they're trying very hard to get rid of this car without taking the blame for killing it outright. The writing is on the wall for the legendary Viper.