Dodge Viper, Volkswagen CC, Jeep Patriot: The Strangest Cars Sold New in 2022
VW sold a CC in 2022. It was sitting for at least seven years before someone decided to buy it.
Just because a car company stops building something doesn't mean it stops selling them. Vehicles that have been discontinued for more than a year often keep selling to new first owners for various reasons. Many of them are relatively niche products with a limited appeal or high prices that keep them collecting dust in dealer inventory. Once automakers post yearly sales figures, we get to see what outdated machinery was still offered as new.
In 2022, there were a few familiar faces but also some interesting additions. One new Dodge Viper got sold last year, for instance. That's happened pretty much every year since the car was discontinued in 2017. Other discontinued FCA products sold include two Jeep Patriots and two Chrysler 200s, both of which were discontinued in 2017. Just for some context, with a typical six-year production cycle for a car, that means there could have been an entirely new generation of the Patriot and 200 in the time that it's taken for these cars to sell. An Alfa Romeo 4C was also sold, although that car only ended production a few years ago.
German cars were popular, too. Particularly BMWs. Five i8s and nine i3s were sold in 2022. Yes, the company still hasn't sold its entire stock of i8s and i3s. The vehicles' final model years were 2020 and 2021, respectively. I doubt that's all of them, either. It's no secret that BMW struggled to sell i8s even when they were the hot new future-styled sports car in 2014.
Wildcards came from Cadillac, Infiniti, Kia, and Volkswagen. The American luxury brand sold one new XTS in 2022, even though production ended in 2019. Likewise, Infiniti managed to sell a Q70—I can't remember the last time I saw one of those—even though production ended the same year as the Cadillac.
Kia and VWs were slightly more interesting. Kia sold a single Cadenza, its large sedan, even though it was canned in 2021. Are you sensing a pattern here? Strange sedans are just not selling like hotcakes. That theme carries through to VW's oddball sale, a CC. Production of the CC sedan ended in 2016. That's right. This car sat on a lot for at least seven years before someone chose to buy it. Cripes. I suspect its successor, the Arteon, will suffer a similar fate.
We're still skimming through the data, but those are the big ones. As usual, Acura sold a paltry amount of big RLX sedans, Dodge sold four Darts, and Fiat sold just eight 500Ls. All of these vehicles have been discontinued. What do you think, though? Are there any cars for sale today that might just keep selling into perpetuity? Mazda's strange MX-30 rings a bell for me. I'm sure there are many more.
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