Correct ViperSmith. This is a very big reason for poor sales. 100's of dealers scared away customers, increasing the msrp trying to re-coup their $25k investment to be a certified Viper dealer, and there are many complaints to SRT, by customers about service at many of these dealers, whether they bought there or not....and bad news travels fast. The big 3 or so Viper dealers are doing wel....but the other 100's of dealers have made a mess of things for themselves and for SRT, who reaped a windfall in the 25k charges, and wound up snake bitten. Should have raised the ante to a $100k, then only the serious dealers would have stepped forward...but wait a minute, wasn't this forum screaming out loud, about where they were going to get their Vipers serviced? Guess SRT was listening...and look what we all got.
You're correct, but as with everything else with the new Viper, they had no follow through. As cool as Ralph appears, I have to blame him as he is the leader. Want examples of the poor follow through?
- Magazine reviews
- Developing a wonderful car only to price it out of the market
- Putting Beth Peretta in charge of marketing. We all saw she had no passion at all.
- SRT not putting effort into the web site
- Not prioritizing build order with actual orders
- No unlockable ECU after constantly addressing Viper owner's like to modify their car in all the media interviews
There are others, but for me, those are the big ones. Hell, the half assed effort still continues. Look at the most recent video added to SRT's youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aLytU8jAU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Really? First they don't even bother to shoot new footage, then they put together go-pro clips instead of a professional shoot? And "rad?" Are you serious. This looks like it was thought up in 5 minutes. That youtube channel is the next best thing when you can't afford TV spots and they are half assing it to. I personally think the car is not the problem, it is SRT. They need to stop half assing their job. You only get out what you put in.