Everyone who has a car also has a dream car. And for me, it’s literally any vehicle on the planet without crushed Wheat Thins being ground into the floor mats on a daily basis. I mean ... a girl can dream.
Well, one lucky — and rich — car lover recently took the title of the very first production model Dodge Viper at an auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. That’s right: VIN #00001.
Owned by the former head of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca, the car went up for auction in Scottsdale and hit a final purchase price of $285,500 — a multiple of 10 on the average price of a first-generation Viper. The first model came with an enviable 400 horsepower, 8-liter V10.
Iacocca, who passed away last year at the age of 94, also had a memorable stint at Ford where he helped launch the Mustang. Among other Iacocca automotive gems to be sold at this particular auction were, reportedly, a 2009 45th anniversary Mustang and a 1986 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country convertible, though neither got close to the quarter-million-plus price tag of the Viper. And, according to The Drive, the Bonhams auction house that sold it didn’t expect the Viper’s sale price to go much higher than $100,000.
But apparently the going rate for what was advertised as “the world’s most desirable Dodge Viper” was higher due to the car’s super-low odometer of 6,500 miles, and how shiny and perfectly preserved it was based on its lack of road time.
Personally, if I had that kind of cash to blow on a car, you can bet it wouldn’t be that one. But to each his own.
