From the standpoint of exotic car rental fans, there may not be a lot to cheer about. The Viper does not appear to be part of the plans of the merged companies. Instead, as Detroit Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan writes today: “The freshly allied Chrysler and Fiat must rush a line of new vehicles into showrooms with an urgency no automaker has ever faced before.”

The fate of the merged companies rests, not on anything with a Hemi in it, but rather the ability of Fiat-engineered, Chrysler badged mini cars to appeal to an American public still accustomed to driving full-sized cars.

(Image of Fiat 500 by British classic car fan Dave7. See more of Dave’s photos in his Flickr photostream. Fiat 500 image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Only.)

“What da hell’s that,” said a die hard Dodge Viper SRT-10 fan when shown a picture of the Fiat 500.

As Phelan points out the key will be hanging on for a while and in maintaining customer confidence in the merged company. He writes “The first few cars from the alliance could hit American roads and Chrysler dealerships early in 2010, but the flood of small, fuel-efficient models Chrysler needs will not arrive before mid-2011.”

Although it looks like the product of intercourse between a Honda Civic and a Mini Cooper to me, the Fiat 500 is supposed to be a good car.

Absent much higher gas prices, I am not sure that it will appeal to most Americans. I hope that I am wrong. I just don’t see Chrysler’s Hemi fans falling in love with the Fiat 500.

I doubt they will be building anything fun to drive with the federal government offering them constructive advice of CEO, board members, and which cars consumers will want 3 or 4 years from now.

(Dodge Viper photograph by Josh Davis from Platinum Exotics.com. All rights reserved.)

Exotic car fans can always hope that Chrysler gets some draft picks from ferrari and Alpha Romeo, but I don’t see it happening.If you’re feeling a little nostalgic, why not take advantage of a Dallas Viper Rental from PlatinumExotics.com!

This post written by SE content writer Eric Anderson. Eric’s recent projects include pages for a Dallas exotic car storage company and a business peer group website.