The Dodge Dart has been dead since 2016 and the Chrysler 200 since 2017.
But Stellantis dealerships managed to find first owners for four Darts and two 200s in 2022.
They’re among six examples found by Kelley Blue Book of what it called “zombie cars” — nameplates that had been killed by automakers but came back to life in last year’s new-vehicle sales results.
For whatever reason — inventory shortages, soaring vehicle prices or perhaps the same thinking that makes people still buy flip phones — those buyers took home vehicles that former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne had happily buried.
“The Chrysler 200 and the Dodge Dart, as great products as they were,” Marchionne said before his 2018 death, “were the least financially rewarding enterprises that we’ve carried out inside FCA in the last eight years.”