GenV Cost of Ownership

[v10enomous]

Just wondering what the expected cost of ownership and maintenance schedule looks like ? Cost of brake replacement ? Frequency of maintenance to keep the warranty intact ? Cost of extended warranty if so desired ? Differences from Gen4's ? Stuff like that.

Anybody figure this out yet ?

 

[mnc2886]

I bet maintenance will be identical to a Gen IV.

 

[Policy Limits]

I believe owners manual says service interval is every six months so I'm guessing less than a grand a year for oil filter, brake flush, fluids etc.

I'll bet those tires cost a pretty penny though. Any idea on the tread rating? how about clutch life/replacement cost?

 

[ViperSmith]

How fast do you intend to burn through $1000 a piece tires is the real question.

 

[VENOM V]

Street tires:
The standard PZeros are $1950 a set, free shipping, from Viper Parts of America.

Track tires:
It's those pesky PZero Corsas for the track rats that I think are in the neighborhood of $2900. Yikes! Or you can buy the Michelin Pilot Sport Cups for $1480/set. That's what I'll do when my Corsas wear out, unless Pirelli releases an ass-kicking-good Trofeo R.

 

[PDCjonny]

Every six months for what?
Regular street use six month oil change would be a total waste of money.
Brake pads? No. Brake fluid? No.
What fluids need a six month interval change under street use.

 

[ViperSmith]

Yeah, I understand tracking you want to change oil often. But if you aren't, what vehicle now a day requires that type of oil changing?

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Everyone has their own Idea about oil change intervals so that discussion is dead IMO. The service times is when you check out other things like clutch fluids (small amount there is gets dirty/burnt quickly), brake fluid (depending on how often you are hauling her down from a buckfity) and the differential fluid, (gets very hot dealing with 600 ft# if you are using any of it).

This is a powerful, fast car and you really do need to double check things more often then when you decide the oil needs changing longer then a 6 month interval, we suggest at least once a year in the spring if you drive very little, way more often if you are a weekend track guy of course. Wheel bearings and ball joints also take a beating if you are loading up the suspension during your drives, not to mention if you have *** holes where you live. Would it not give you some peace of mind (even though these parts are designed with all this in mind and tested for hundreds of thousands of miles) when you are out "enjoying" this incredible performance car knowing that you are checking things just because?

 

[v10enomous]

Let's assume no tracking and just 4,000-5,000 miles a year of Club Cruises with occasional spirited high speed runs and hard acceleration sprints with nothing too crazy. 80% of owners probably use the car like that. Most Vipers will never see snow or even heavy rain or prolonged outdoor overnight parking. Why would the Viper be any different than any other new car most of which are 100,000 mile tune-ups with 6 month oil changes now ?

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Like I said, everyone has their own idea of what is needed to care for their Viper, I error on the excessive care side with my own cars, but people will do what they are comfortable with. I have seen used cars that were 4-6 years old that had the original filters because "it was hardly ever used", I don't see that as ok IMO. If you think the Viper deserves the same or less attention as any other car then that's fine, but as a very expensive toy I WANT to take the very best care of my cars because I don't have the money to not care I guess. This is not me at the dealership either, this is all about ME and what I think that's all.

Let's assume no tracking and just 4,000-5,000 miles a year of Club Cruises with occasional spirited high speed runs and hard acceleration sprints with nothing too crazy. 80% of owners probably use the car like that. Most Vipers will never see snow or even heavy rain or prolonged outdoor overnight parking. Why would the Viper be any different than any other new car most of which are 100,000 mile tune-ups with 6 month oil changes now ?

 

[v10enomous]

That's fine... I always grapple with the odds that the more you have the car worked on the greater the chances that someone will break it or even crash it. I think the low maintenance aspect is a huge advantage for Vipers over other super cars. I think most would agree that dropping the car off for service feels like a nightmare waiting to happen.

Like I said, everyone has their own idea of what is needed to care for their Viper, I error on the excessive care side with my own cars, but people will do what they are comfortable with. I have seen used cars that were 4-6 years old that had the original filters because "it was hardly ever used", I don't see that as ok IMO. If you think the Viper deserves the same or less attention as any other car then that's fine, but as a very expensive toy I WANT to take the very best care of my cars because I don't have the money to not care I guess. This is not me at the dealership either, this is all about ME and what I think that's all.

 

[PDCjonny]

Erring on the safe side is a lot easier when you work at/for a car dealership, get parts for cost and do the labor for next to nothing.
For regular saps, changing modern oil at a dealership evey six months or 1500+ miles is a complete waste of money and its been proven time and again by analysis of used oil.
It does however make money for oil companies and dealerships.
As far as the other fluids like brake and tranny etc the manual will tell you when it's considered appropriate and it sure as heck isn't every six months.

 

[Policy Limits]

personally I'm going to follow the owner's manual as it sounds prudent for getting proper use and vehicle performance. I'll bet there'd be less chance of having an issue with warranty useage that way as well.

If you're not buying the car, why u would care about this discussion is beyond me.

 

[01sapphirebob]

Chuck Tator once told me about every three years you should replace ALL the fluids unless you track the car and then its adter wach race day. Brake, tranny, clutch, diff, power steering. I do the oil evey end of driving season. Whether i put 300 miles on it or 5k in a driving season. Just my personal preference (as Mark mentioned). Im sure the GEN V will be right around the same. Expect that service to be anywhere from $600-$1000. If you are handy and have time you can save $$ and do it yourself.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Erring on the safe side is a lot easier when you work at/for a car dealership, get parts for cost and do the labor for next to nothing.
For regular saps, changing modern oil at a dealership Evey six months or 1500+ miles is a complete waste of money and its been proven time and again by analysis of used oil.
It does however make money for oil companies and dealerships.
As far as the other fluids like brake and tranny etc the manual will tell you when it's considered appropriate and it sure as heck isn't every six months.

"Erring on the safe side is a lot easier when you work at/for a car dealership, get parts for cost and do the labor for next to nothing"

This is true but, (I pay the same for fluids and filters as you would though (value pricing)) and I do the labor myself. I have not worked for the dealership though for the 28 years I have been doing track events and autocrosses though and my mentality has always been the same. Like I said, people should do whatever they are comfortable with, this is just my take on it that is all.

 

[Paul Hawker]

At Mercedes the factory recommends oil change and maintenance every year, no matter the mileage.

Just sitting, can sometimes require more maintenance than if the car is driven more.

After every high performance event fluids should also be changed.

Kinda sometimes depend on how you want to treat your car. I am probably guilty of over servicing. (My G/F complains of the same thing : >)

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

At Mercedes the factory recommends oil change and maintenance every year, no matter the mileage.

Just sitting, can sometimes require more maintenance than if the car is driven more.

After every high performance event fluids should also be changed.

Kinda sometimes depend on how you want to treat your car. I am probably guilty of over servicing. (My G/F complains of the same thing : >)[/QUOTE]

 

[SADVIPER]

If you're not buying the car, why u would care about this discussion is beyond me.

That is rude.

Because for me I like to see different points of view from genuine Viper-guys and share there experience.

 

[MoparMap]

Some of it probably has to do with people wanting to keep a performance car at its top performance all the time. You could make the argument that every X amount of miles will degrade the performance of Y fluid by some percentage. Say your oil gets old and cruddy and you lose 10 hp a year because of it (probably wildly untrue, but you see where I'm going). Some people will put up with less than full performance out of a car or it will have to hit a certain threshold before they'll do something about it. If you want every tenth of a second out of your lap times then you want your fluids at their maximum ability, so it makes sense to change them out frequently. If you only ever plan to cruise around with the car you probably won't notice any significant change in performance, but if your mindset is that you have to know the car can always perform at its peak when called for you'll change them out just as often.

When I bought my car I got used to the way it drove with whatever fluids it happened to have in it, however old they may have been. I thought the clutch and brake fluid seemed awfully dark, so I decided to change them out because I can and I wanted something to do. Did the car stop fine with the old stuff? You bet it did, but does it stop better with new stuff? Eh, I don't know that I've seen a discernable change. If anything my clutch may have gotten a little stiffer, but it's not like I couldn't drive the car before.

 

[v10enomous]

Technology has evolved so much now that most of the old principles just don't apply anymore. For instance one could argue that over the last 15 years or so that 200,000 miles has become the new 100,000 miles for most cars

 

[v10enomous]

Technology has evolved so much now that most of the old principles just don't apply anymore. For instance one could argue that over the last 15 years or so that 200,000 miles has become the new 100,000 miles for most cars

600hp cars that can get 20+ mpg

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Although "dark" fluids will work still, the issue is the dirt and moisture these hydroscopic fluids retain in the respective parts which can be bad over time.

 

[v10enomous]

When is the first "engine out" service recommended

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2011/07/ferrari-offers-seven-years-free-maintenance.html

Ferrari Offers Seven Years Free Maintenance

There is one itsy-bitsy downside to Ferrari ownership: the cost of maintenance. When the price of an oil change hits four digits even the most well-heeled car owner can blanch.

To assuage these fears, Ferrari has announced a new seven-year free maintenance program for new North American owners of the 2012 Ferrari California, 458 Italia or FF. Those cars come with starting prices around $200,000 and higher. The FF is already sold out for its first year and doesn’t even have an official price tag yet.

What does the free maintenance include?

All scheduled maintenance visits, which for Ferrari is every 12,500 miles or once per year. We’d doubt most Ferrari owners put 12,500 miles on their cars in a year. However, this is not capped at seven services. If the owner does drive the car more than 87,500 miles before the seven years is up — again, we doubt this will happen — they will get free service for every 12,500 miles until the timetable is up.

Ferrari doesn’t specify the types of service, but we imagine they include the same kinds of routine maintenance you get at your local Toyota, Scion, Lincoln, VW, BMW, Jaguar and Mini dealerships. All have free maintenance programs, but they don’t run as long as Ferrari’s program.

Ferrari’s free maintenance program is transferable to a new owner, which will help with the healthy collector market for the pranci

 

[ROCKET62]

Interesting question - but why ask why?

I always laugh when people debate/discuss gas mileage with the Viper. For me without question, the Viper provides more SMILES per gallon and POSITIVITY of ownership than anything else out there!

 

[Policy Limits]

That is rude.
Because for me I like to see different points of view from genuine Viper-guys and share there experience.

"Their" experience. Is that rude too?

 

[MoparMap]

Although "dark" fluids will work still, the issue is the dirt and moisture these hydroscopic fluids retain in the respective parts which can be bad over time.

Agreed, I'm certainly a little more paranoid with my Viper than my other cars. Corrosion is always the issue in the back of my mind the more I read about this stuff. I don't think I've ever done a full brake fluid swap in any car I've ever owned till now, but parts for them are usually easier to come by as well if something goes south. Most fluids aren't too bad to swap out anyway, but stuff like coolant and power steering are ones I dread. No nice drain plug for power steering and coolant just seems to make a mess no matter how you do it.

Modern fluids have definitely come a long way though. We rebuit the engine on my dad's 93 Stealth at 255,000 miles when it slipped the timing belt and took out all the valves. The oil change history on this car would probably make most people cry. We bought it with around 100k already on the clock and probably changed the oil maybe 5 times in 150,000 miles. One time he even put the old synthetic oil he took out of my mom's 99 Vette in it because he didn't want to bother getting more and the thing was clean as a whistle when we took it apart, zero sludge. The miles were mostly highway though, so a little less wear and tear. What really surprised us was that even at 250k miles, there was no taper on the bores, even as neglected as they were. Scuffed the walls to break the glaze and put it all back together. Put another 30k on it so far.

 

[Steve M]

From my brief time of owning a Gen IV, it seems like the clutch and rear end fluids get the nastiest the fastest...transmission oil came out pretty clean, the power steering fluid seemed okay, and the brake fluid wasn't nearly as nasty as I thought it would be (I don't think anything other than engine oil had ever been touched prior to me purchasing it). If it wasn't for the massive quantity of engine oil, the Viper wouldn't really cost all that much to maintain. Everything is pretty easy to work on, and I'd assume the Gen V would be the same way since the drivetrain is so similar.

 

[johniew398]

My wife had a BMW 540i that she drove less than 5,000 miles per year. We had it service once per year including an annual oil change.

She now has a Mercedes SL550 and we are taking it in for the first time next week for an oil change. It has 2,800 miles on it.

I have had my ACR for 4 1/2 years. It was 12,900 miles on it. I take it in for an oil change every year.

My GMC Sierra 4/4? You guessed, do about 5,000 miles per year and change the oil every year.