Daily Driver Viper Owners?

[thebadbat]

How many of you drive your Vipers as your primary vehicle of transportation?
How many miles have you put on your cars because of this, and how are they holding up? Any problems/warranty work? Overheating problems? Drivability/Comfort problems on long trips? What kind of gas mileage do you get? Would you recommend this car as a daily driver? I feel very fortunate having the opportunity to own of these amazing cars, but, I am not in the position to have more than one vehicle. Thanks!


TJ

 

[slaughterj]

I drive mine as a daily driver, put ~20k/yr on avg on it. Highly recommend an extended warranty, which has paid for itself repeatedly, as have had several stupid things go out that have an exorbitant cost associated with them, though were fairly minor in the grand scheme of things (e.g., top latches, window mechanisms, etc.). Runs fine though, I've had several 10+ hour straight drives in it, doesn't bother me, but some people are weak Highest gas mileage was with a caravan of people, got 22.8MPG, but even on long highway drives with frequent triple digit excursions, I'll still get 20+MPG.

Given your sig, how are you not able to have more than one vehicle??

 

[ExecUtron Technologies]

Drove mine pretty much every "good weather" day for five years (1995 RT/10) to work and such. Lexus LS 400 is my primary auto, but I never had a problem with the Viper. It now has 50,000 miles on it. DLM tore the engine apart last year and even asked if it had been rebuilt before. It had not. No over-heating problems, no leaks, etc. Very happy with it. Of course, I could be real lucky as well...

Good luck!

 

[thebadbat]

Recent financial shortcomings.... If i do indeed buy a Viper, I will be forced to sell the Denali to stay afloat..... Hope this helps

 

[malcoll]

Every single day, rain or shine, hot or cold........ just like the postman.

So far reliable, probably put about 3,000 miles on my Viper in the six weeks I have owned.

I have an extended warranty.... but I am not sure yet how good the local Dodge dealer is going to be?

My opinion....... drive a Viper every day, mine is more raw being a Gen I..... but I love it.

Keep in mind though that before this Viper my every day driver was a 1969 Mustang Mach I.......... still have it...driving it today as the Viper is at the dealer.

Good Luck.

 

[lleone]

It would be my daily driver if the weather would permit it. I have had quite a few "performance" problems with it though. Mostly it seems to take me 45 to 60 minutes to get the office on nice mornings. And I only live 1.8 miles away. Seems that the harder I push the car on those days, the longer it takes me to get to work. Funny that.

Lou

2000 ACR, 17+ thousand miles, no issues, 15MPG or less around town. 22MPG or better on the super-cruiseways.

 

[Don]

It is my daily driver and I wouldn't have it any other way. The weather determines which one I drive. (If it snows, I just don't go to work) I don't have to drive far to get to work. I haven't had any major problems yet. (knock on wood) I picked up an S2000 as a daily driver some time ago and unfortunately, it spends it's days collecting dust in my garage. If you buy a Viper, drive it!

 

[pdmracing]

I had a buddy who asked if I would drive it every day, He said if I did for 6 months, he would buy one. Well he bought one too & put 30k on it in less than a year. I have driven mine across the country twice, and drive it all the time with no problems. I also have a 74 ferrari with over 157k miles that I used to drive every day. It still runs like awesome & puts many a garage queen back on the trailer. In fact the ferrari tech thinks that the reason it runs so good is that I drive it so hard.

 

[Dave's Big Brakes]

I've had mine since Aug 14th 02, have 6250 miles on it, 2 Willow Springs test days I use it every day but, I'm retired so it's not a commuter car. So far no problems, runs really strong and quiet except catbacks.

 

[KenH]

If you want to use it as a daily driver, no reason you can't, but I'll give you the other side of the coin since all the input has been slanted one way so far. I bought mine as a daily (and only) driver as well. I put about 10,000 miles on it in 14 months and it performed fine even in the rain. In the end though, I ended up getting another car as my daily driver. Here's the reasons:

1) Driving the Viper every day takes some of the 'specialness' out of it. It started to become just another car. I started to forget that I was even in a Viper. I think it is more fun in smaller doses when it is being used more as it was designed to be used, which isn't as the worlds best commuter car.

2) I started to feel guilty about driving it in bad weather. How many Ferrari's do you see out in the rain?

3) Since it sounds like you are on a budget, getting 10MPG in a daily commuter car gets to be expensive on gas at least for those of us who have to work for a living. On open freeway, 20MPG isn't bad, but even though my commute is 5 miles of city, 5 freeway each way, I never got more than 11MPG when I used it to commute. Add in an $80 oil change every 3,000 miles and costs add up. Tires at $1500 a set or so are also not cheap to replace very frequently. They are cheap right now, but that won't last.

4) If the Viper is a secondary 'fun' car, the insurance is cheaper than if it is your primary driver.

5) The Viper can be inconvenient at times. It is not always fun to be THE car in the parking lot, especially if you need to park somewhere you are unfamiliar with or are in an iffy part of town and don't even think about ***-holes. I found this aspect of the car to be more annoying as time went on.

6) Biggest reason I stopped commuting in it was that I realized that all those commuter miles were putting a lot of wear and tear on this car that I had wanted for a very long time and hope to keep for a long time, but with little to show for it in return. Commuting in traffic in a Viper doesn't give you much of a chance to have any fun anyway. On sunny days, I still commute in it once a week or so, but I'm MUCH happier now commuting in my cheap used '97 Nissan Maxima and driving the Viper only when I feel like it. I'll still probably rack up 7,000 miles a year or so, but they will all be 'fun' miles.

--- Ken

 

[BruceW]

I've had my Viper for 3 months (and 3500 miles) and use it as a daily driver (except when it rains, then I use the Camaro). Sometimes the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is knowning I can drive The V to work. I do avoid going to places where parking may be a problem but most of my driving is to and from work and at work I have a good parking spot. I think I would go nuts if I kept it garaged except for weekends and special outings. I really feel sorry for Viper owners up north who have to garage theirs for months at a time.

 

[Vipermed 97.01]

Life is short you never know what tommorow may bring,plan for the future, LIVE FOR TODAY.I have been driving mine everyday for years and every time i go out its like driving a new car,the excitement doesnt wear off,of course some of us dont have lives outside of our cars either

 

[jrkermode]

My experience is almost identical to KenH's. The car didn't mind, but I felt guilty using the Viper for such mundane chores. Now it makes the fun trips that much more fun.

 

[SEASNAKE]

I've put about 65K miles on Vipers in the last 4 years. I really don't have a place for another car, so it's either a Viper daily driver or no Viper. I now get about 14.5 mpg (after 8K break in) back and forth to work (my '94 got 15.5), but I pretty much cruise along. If I could I would buy a clunker to drive to work. I love the Viper, but its not really a good commuter car. You could definitely pay for another used car with what it costs to drive a Viper everyday. Not to mention that my first Viper was totalled because of a careless driver I met at rush hour. I figure its about $200/month in tires, oil, etc. at 15K miles per year.

 

[Roadkill]

So far, my coworkers have been pretty cool about the whole thing.. I kind of kept it under wraps at first because I feared the sort of backlash you just described. All in all, it has been a positive thing and my easy answer out of the rich ba$**** thing is that they could have one in their garage if they traded in a kid or two

 

[genXgts]

Roadkill,

That's my line!!! Having a rugrat or 2 equates to at least a Viper, if not a Modena or so.

It's all about priorities, if I wanted a Lamborghini I would be driving one, probably wouldn't be taking 4 or more trips a year as I am now, but if that's where my priorities would be I would forego the trips.

Man, not having a problem with alcohol or drugs is a Viper, and not smoking is half a Viper, for real, work the numbers out, it's all proportioning in my book.

Loaded, nope, just smart with my money I like to think, I would guess no one on here is toiling away at minimum wage. More like upper middle class for the most part.....

As for the relationship part, being single with a Viper is a blast, nothing mustered up on the roads has amounted to anything substantial, just the way I like it!!

If 5 or 10 grand on a daily driver will stop the Viper deal, then I would advise against the Viper purchase for the short term. I think I have dumped that much in knick knacks in the last year on the car, and don't feel that I went overboard or anything. 4 slicks, exhaust front to back, on the hunt for spare rims, $100 dollar oil changes in Canada, and 60 bucks to fill the thing all add up, don't extend yourself to get into one of the experience may be dampened!!! And I don't just mean from the leaky windshields........hahaha

 

[Bonkers]

Recent financial shortcomings....

<font color="red"> RED FLAG!!! </font> You may want to consider keeping the GMC as you commuter since a snake will drink more gas (depending on foot weight) and cost much more in maintence and insurance. As a vechicle its no different then most sports cars any will do very well as a daily...

 

[thebadbat]

In my personal situation as of right now, there are only 3 vehicles that I am even in any way in the market for, amd its gonna be one of them! A.) Viper B.) Z-06 C.) 2002 Escalade sitting on 24's..... I would buy another Denali, but gets too repititive! And then again of course, I am a sports car guy, so here we are. I WOULD buy a BACKUP vehicle, but we all know that the thing would ohnly get driven in the element! No way that I am going to buy the hottest car on the strets, and drive something else when I don't have to!

And when I mentioned financial shortcomings, I meant that I recently got engaged! So it is nothing too serious. (We just got her an NBM SS Camaro M6 in June, and have started modding it) This is why I sold the sports cars, and got the AWD vehicle.... But I am way too young for this sh*t, and it is agrivating driving an automatic every day... So that is where we stand!

In her opinion, she wants me too either keep the Denali, get a new one, or get the escalade, but that is where her two cents becomes market value!

She wants to keep the Denali, but just because of the fact of go anywhere do anything mentality it brings. Between a Viper, a Z06, and any other sports car, she chooses the VIPER.

I hope this helps a little bit more
Thanks for all the replies guys, this is a great board with awesome people, willing to bend over backwards and help out!

 

[Snakester]

I have another car, and I was planning on splitting the mileage of commuting to work between the two cars.
But as it turned out, I ended up driving the Viper almost every single day and put 6K miles over the last year.
As opposed to about 600 miles on my other car.

I did have a short commute of stop-and-go traffic, and I averaged about 16MPG in the city.
I have taken a few 100mile+ trips and I actually got 24 and 26MPG respectively, which I thought was amazing.
But if you do get on it heavily, it will consume the gas.

If you have a long, tiring commute, the Z06 would probably be a better choice.

I kept the Viper covered at work. It got dirtier sitting all day than it ever did driving the car. Plus I didn't want the higher-ups thinking that they were paying me too much.

The combination of the Viper's power, and head turning styling was too hard to pass up for me to NOT drive it every day, but I can certainly understand why most people don't use their Vipers except on weekends and special occasions.

-Dean.

 

[Nasty 10]

I drive mine everyday, yes even in the rain I don't get the mpg that others are getting. I get 160 to 180 miles per tank. Maybe I drive it harder than others? Don't care, I love the looks, performance and of coarse the attention it brings

 

[Mark F]

I use my GTS or Avalanche as daily drivers (70 miles/day), depending on the weather. The car is now at 42K mi and has never had any major problems, and the D-C extended warranty (good to '05 or 80K mi) has fixed the minor ailments with minimal costs. Overheating, clutch slipping, etc has never been a problem. It really can be used as a daily driver, but I don't take it out in snow &amp; road salt, and rarely in rain.

 

[Brad Manhattan Beach]

I have driven my GTS everyday for more than 5 years that I have owned it. It's not very fun in heavy stop and go traffic, but has been very reliable (considering that it is a very high performance car). These cars are so rare that people get a real kick out of seeing them on the road during business hours. Everyone in my neighborhood knows that my Snake is a grocery getter.

 

[genXgts]

Brad, ever go grocery shopping in your GTS?, I do all the time, that's always interesting........

I always pick the hottest checkout girl and show off my fine dining including: pudding cups, fruit cups, power bars, and 10 pounds of chicken, as well as TV dinners when they are on sale, gets em every time!

 

[TZL]

Why don't you buy the viper and get a cheap daily driver like a used honda accord/civic or toyota camry

or you can always buy a cheaper used SUV if you want to keep AWD and carrying capacity.

Ting

02 Audi A4 Avant
01 Audi A6
01 Audi S4
MKIV Supra Turbo....Sold
Viper GTS ACR ....Soon

In my personal situation as of right now, there are only 3 vehicles that I am even in any way in the market for, amd its gonna be one of them! A.) Viper B.) Z-06 C.) 2002 Escalade sitting on 24's..... I would buy another Denali, but gets too repititive! And then again of course, I am a sports car guy, so here we are. I WOULD buy a BACKUP vehicle, but we all know that the thing would ohnly get driven in the element! No way that I am going to buy the hottest car on the strets, and drive something else when I don't have to!

And when I mentioned financial shortcomings, I meant that I recently got engaged! So it is nothing too serious. (We just got her an NBM SS Camaro M6 in June, and have started modding it) This is why I sold the sports cars, and got the AWD vehicle.... But I am way too young for this sh*t, and it is agrivating driving an automatic every day... So that is where we stand!

In her opinion, she wants me too either keep the Denali, get a new one, or get the escalade, but that is where her two cents becomes market value!

She wants to keep the Denali, but just because of the fact of go anywhere do anything mentality it brings. Between a Viper, a Z06, and any other sports car, she chooses the VIPER.

I hope this helps a little bit more
Thanks for all the replies guys, this is a great board with awesome people, willing to bend over backwards and help out!