Um, Jeff, might wanna see how far back the crosshair grill goes on the trucks, it was before the Viper, lol.
1986 model year to be exact.
Well, if you want to go waaay back,
1970 Dodge Truck
Heck, even the 1991 minivan, and 1991 Stealth had them...
So, no, the Viper didnt spur the crosshair.
Back on topic, what started all of this? I mean, Chrysler makes a mean minivan, the LX platform was probably more successful than they originally thought, Ram is one of the top 10 vehicles sold in the US every year for the past few years, so what did it? I think things like Nitro, Caliber, and Compass messed things up. I see a Nitro on the road like once a week. Cheap interiors on lower models, and I mean cheap. Even Chrysler fessed up about their interiors in the "Dodge" magazine we got for a while. They said instead of asking what people wanted, they built the interior and asked what people thought of the one already made. Kinda backwards if you ask me. The Durango I dont think has sold well since they put the Hemi in it with its redesign. The Aspen is a joke. All in my opinion...