Just got my deposit back from my dealer.

[GTS Bruce]

My loyal SMALL great local dealer TOWNE that has unscrewed many cars that were bought elsewhere is out and so am I. They and no other dealer in WNY (Buffalo area) are in due to the cost and since they are low volume cannot promise a car within 2 years. They were the only one in the area with 2 trained tech's.
I could order a car elsewhere and have it dropped off at my door but there will be no place to get it serviced under waranty. Might as well be a Bugatti. There is no plan to have a service center within several hundred miles of me for possible waranty work and of course Canada would be out of the question for Dodge crossing an international border.
A Viper will always be a Dodge the same as a Corvette will always be a Chevrolet. Both have been world dominating, kick *** finger in your face to the euro trash but at least you can get it purchased and serviced locally.
For that matter it will be easier to buy a P car (which I have never cared for),Benz,BMW,Audi etc. and get service in my area.
I just got back from VOI: Both car versions are fine indeed. I drove both. It will be a great car W/O all the jazzed up options and very fine with. I simply will not purchase any product that I cannot have serviced no matter how good it is.
The people in the service dept. at Towne were down when I told them what I knew. They were apparently not informed and it was a sad thing for me to break it to them. Yes sales and everyone else was sad too but to come up with the cash for a small dealer in a small market with no prospect of getting a car even though they sell and service a lot of SRT made no business sense. BTW they turned away 3 other offers that came in after I placed mine knowing that they might be able to get only one for me.
As far as they are concerned their contracts allow them to sell all so called SRT products other than Viper as they have been even though they have not bought into the SRT Viper franchise. There is a lot of lawyering up going on as I type about no SRT products at all in what is they call it class action law suits?
I have offered my car to the people in the service dept. that drooled over it, fawned over it, have been to my house and I to theirs at less than the silly low price a major dealer offered me. I am out finished,will move onto something else.
If a ZR1 flashes at you or a driver in something else does don't give them the finger please. Its not cool and it could be me. GTS Bruce

 

[emericr]

Sorry to hear that. Since you seem to be highly connected, I assume you have discussed the lack of dealerships with Ralph Gilles. It seems absurd to me that there will not be a dealership within 100 miles of WNY ???
I seem to be in better luck that my local dealer states it will be a Viper dealer but I am still concerned on the overall service experience. I have been used to exemplary service from the MB, Audi and P dealers and not sure the local Chrysler dealer will step up.
Please post a pic of your next car. We are all sports can fanatics after all.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Bruce... what are you smoking over there?

Northtown Dodge is and will be an SRT dealer for anything warranty related, and I believe TransitTowne will be as well. And then for anything non-warranty related... I am pretty sure we have it covered, LOL.

 

[shooter_t1]

Wow. That *****. You have been a member here for a long time looks like. A no B.S type of poster too from what I have seen. Hope it works out for you.

 

[PDCjonny]

Bruce... what are you smoking over there?

Northtown Dodge is and will be an SRT dealer for anything warranty related, and I believe TransitTowne will be as well. And then for anything non-warranty related... I am pretty sure we have it covered, LOL.

Dan there is a difference between the specialized SRT dealers trained to deal with the new car and mom and pop dodge dealer.
I wouldn't let my local dodge dealer put air in my tires. Couldn't imagine plopping a Gen 5 in for repair...

 

[JoelW]

Just a thought and no offense to the splendid SRT guys but this marketing thing reminds me of the time when Datsun became Nissan. It took them years to get over the mistake and I think the SRT plan is of the same poor thought. It is and will be Dodge Ram for me and Dodge Charger, Challenger, and Viper as well as Chrysler 300. They can have an SRT skunkworks but changing the name and cutting out more dealers is just plain silly and will only hurt the brand. I can see why you want folks to be well trained to service Vipers but it is plenty hard enough to service the rest of the Chrysler fleet and there are lots of good dealers and service folks out there who can and will do the job without having to become the chosen few. Just my opinion...

 

[Jance GTS]

I've read bits and pieces of the SRT brand being separate and wanting to have a higher end product serviced by special techs and what not. But I can't see anyone that has an R/T Charger vs an SRT Charger going to go the place that specializes in only SRT? It could just be me and maybe I've misunderstood the concept here but why would someone shell out more money to fix a SRT Neon? It's still a Neon reguardless of performance mods. I know a Viper is a totally different thing but still... I know what they are trying to accomplish I just don't see it working out well.

 

[Camfab]

I get it, and it makes sense. I also get the concept of not buying a car that you can't get serviced. As far as I'm concerned that's been the case in So Cal since '92. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure more Vipers are OWNED here than any where else in the world. There isn't a competent non grease monkey dealership out here. So as far as I'm concerned it's a great move by Ralph.

It's kind of like fixing the economy, you gotta make some painfull moves to fix the problem. Anyone at VOI like the way Penske looked on the tour? That's what an SRT service bay should look like. Don't laugh either that's what most of our local Benz and Lexus service bays look like. Your selling a $130,000 car not a $17,000 Dart. I took a look at the customer base at VOI, It's mostly older very well established upscale folks.

 

[46hemi]

I get that they want viper dealers to be committed to the program I really do. What I dont understand is if I am a dealer, who has been selling these cars for possibly generations, and it is due to the tax dollars of myself, my family and friends who bailed the company out ( the only reason for this car to exist) how is it possible that you make a product that I am not entitled to sell and profit from? If I have bad rankings or a lot of complaints or something they should be able to pull it, but it just seems unfair.

No shame in driving a corvette its a great American car

 

[Camfab]

No one says you can't sell the car. All they are doing is ensuring that the dealers pony up to train their personell with the proper equipment investment as well as training. I'd be pissed if I couldn't afford it as well, but if you are a dealer who is good to your customer base (like Tator) then you are the true unfortunate minority. Trust me on this one, like our nations debt, many other dealers have screwed the pooch so many times that the good guys get the shaft. The single biggest problem Chrysler has, are BAD dealers.

What's up with the Corvette comment, did you forget your tax dollars also paid for GM. Someone's forgetting about all the GM dealerships who got the AXE. Screwing you, your family, myself and everyone else who doesn't have billons locked up in their special interests is a common vein in our society. If the Viper is the biggest complaint you have about our country being unfair.............well.......... your lucky.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Dan there is a difference between the specialized SRT dealers trained to deal with the new car and mom and pop dodge dealer.
I wouldn't let my local dodge dealer put air in my tires. Couldn't imagine plopping a Gen 5 in for repair...

Jon, I am more than aware of the difference- this market is my livelihood. As I stated above, these Dodge Dealers will have the SRT Viper certifications, and are actually pretty good dealerships, I deal with them near daily. Hell, one of my part time techs is a Viper tech at one of those two dealers for his day job- I can guaran-damn-tee he deals with more Vipers than 99.9% of Viper techs out there just from his experience here, and has seen far more racing technology and general Viper craziness than the same.

 

[PDCjonny]

Jon, I am more than aware of the difference- this market is my livelihood. As I stated above, these Dodge Dealers will have the SRT Viper certifications, and are actually pretty good dealerships, I deal with them near daily. Hell, one of my part time techs is a Viper tech at one of those two dealers for his day job- I can guaran-damn-tee he deals with more Vipers than 99.9% of Viper techs out there just from his experience here, and has seen far more racing technology and general Viper craziness than the same.

I know about your skills Dan, I'm friends with Tom Nader..
Bruce seems to be misinformed. Your area seems to be taken care of a lot more than I can say for Long Island.

 

[emericr]

I am sorry but I do not understand the attitude of the small dealers. $25K is a drop in the bucket. I am sure they would drop this in marketing over a year. So if you have a few customers that are willing to buy a Viper from you, think of the free advertising and good this will bring. If they can't see the big picture, I am not sure they need to be a Viper dealer...

 

[JoelW]

I doubt that $25K is a drop in the bucket for any dealer. You've got to send a tech off for training, keep all the special tools to fix the cars you'll probably rarely see, and so on. I get the idea that folks don't trust some dealers but all cars are getting harder and harder to fix and Vipers will be a drop in the bucket for most dealers bottom line. It may be a halo car, but unless you are Tomball or Woodhouse or Viper Exchange or some of the other big dealers, you might sell 1 or 2 cars a year if you are lucky enough to get them. Several dealers had Vipers they couldn't sell period. And the rest of the SRT fleet is almost the same as the other cars so dealers should be able to service them anyway. But this is the pattern in the industry with manufacturers demanding that showrooms and dealerships look just so before folks can keep a franchise they have had for years. Just stupid and very hard to justify.

I am sorry but I do not understand the attitude of the small dealers. $25K is a drop in the bucket. I am sure they would drop this in marketing over a year. So if you have a few customers that are willing to buy a Viper from you, think of the free advertising and good this will bring. If they can't see the big picture, I am not sure they need to be a Viper dealer...

 

[emericr]

I am not talking about any dealers. The dealers the OP is referring to is in the WNY area and he had a few ********* customers willing to buy the Viper so that means he is in an area that has affluent clients that can buy the snake and other SRT products. For those dealers, I think it is a poor decision to not step up and invest the money. This is how Ralph will **** out the unworthy dealers and I believe it is a good strategy.

 

[SADVIPER]

chicken****.