Low milage Vipers

[Dads Toy]

I have seen so many Vipers with under 20K miles on them which makes me happy as a future Viper owner. What I am curious as to the effects on having a performance car like the Viper and not driving it very often.

Take a 1998 Viper with 10K miles for example, that is only 1k a year or less than 100 miles a month, but more than likely all of the miles are put on during the summer if you live in an area with 4 seasons. Other than original tires going bad over time, won't the gaskets and other items go bad from lack of driving?

What ever I buy will be garage kept and driven on nice weekends also, just wondering how the sitting affects these wonderful cars.

 

[VIPER 2006]

Had to bring my 06 in to have an oil change. Their was an 04 sitting their that needed about $2,500 dollars in work. Teck told me due to not being driven enough.

 

[alpine7822]

How many miles on the 04?

 

[VIPER 2006]

Less than 3000 miles. HE TOLD ME TAHT IT IS A MUST TO DRIVE THEM LIKE ANY OTHER MACHINE.

 

[alpine7822]

uh oh...I have an 04 that just clicked over 3100...guess I better get out and enjoy the nice weather!!!

 

[Dads Toy]

Totally understand not driving them in bad weather, Can even understand having too many cars to not have time to drive one (wish I had that problem) but can't understand not enjoying them during nice weather at least once a week.

 

[alpine7822]

I try to get out as much as I can, but don't want to put TOO many miles on it.

 

[Dads Toy]

My 1/4 mile track toy is on jacks to keep the tires from having a rough spot on them but I do go and start in weekly and let it run for about 3-5 minutes.

 

[blue01gts]

I have a friend that has a sl65 that sat around too much and needed
around 10 grand in work.(Im sure its the same for the viper)
I know it is really really bad for the tires to have tire shine on them and not be driven. I would feel bad driving the viper alot
but it does need to be driven.

 

[VIPER 2006]

Bought my 06 over ayear ago and after reading all the info on this site I thought to my self WOW I better not drive my car that much due to MILES MILES AND MILES. The way I look at it you might as well drive the car It's not like the car will go up in VALUE MUCH or ANY AT ALL MOST LIKELY it will depreciate. LOL

 

[alpine7822]

True...I paid for it, might as well enjoy it as much as I can!

 

[Dads Toy]

I know there are cars out there that are 'collector cars' but I would rather drive a car and enjoy them like they are meant to be driven.

 

[alpine7822]

Oh, I drive it like it's meant to be driven when I take it out...I just try not to be gone too long or too far, but forget that...I'm going to enjoy it. Life's too short.

 

[TAXIMAN1]

3000 miles on a 2004 is not super low. And I seriously doubt you would have any mechanical issues with type of milee.. I know a guy with a 1990 ZR1 Corvettes, that has 58 miles on it.. Yes, 58... Now, THAT car. Might have some issues, if it were driven..

 

[VIPER 2006]

The problem that I see is that we want to enjoy these fine machines more but the problem is that to many owners have garage queens with millage so LOW that we are affraid to ENJOY THEM being that our VIPERS will not even be in the ball park when we want to sell them just BASED ON MILLAGE.

 

[mad0953]

I'd drive mine more if I didn't have to work and if we didn't have 5 months of snow and ice. The parking lot where I work is open to the public and you should see some of the redneck junk piles that masquarade as vehicles around here. More dents on them than Pam Anderson's diaphram. I have 13,000 miles and would like to make 20 this Summer.

 

[alpine7822]

I try to park mine safely, but there's always some a-hole who has the need to pull right next to it and then joke about how he put a dent in it...I'm just glad I don't carry my Glock with me in the car all the time. If they ever do put even a small ding in the car, I'll kick in the whole side of theirs (and get away with it since I play golf with all the judges around here).

 

[slysnake]

Who cares about resale, I bought mine to drive it not sell it again.

 

[agentf1]

My 01 has an 03 in service date and I bought it last year with 985 miles and it has NO issues at all. So basically it sat at the dealership for 2 years and then was only driven 985 miles over the next 4 years.

Unfortunately I have only put about 600 miles on it but that is not by choice but rather I have been too busy to get it out. That and I lost like 8 weeks of prime time driving weather last year when my lung collapsed and I spent close to 3 weeks in the hospital and another month and a half with a chest tube. Hopefully this year will be much better but I have to say that it not off to that great a start between weather, chores and graduation party's.

 

[RTTTTed]

Your example of a 98 with 10,000mi may be OK if it's driven 1K per year. However many are driven for a couple long trips and then parked the rest of the time. That's when the seal gaskets, Ujoints, leather and vinyls dry out. They're probably OK for a few years, but sitting for long periods will cause maintenance issues.

Best way to buy a car is to buy one that was used as you intend to use it. Garage Queens are OK if purchased to be a garage queen. Hopefully they get U-joints greased before storage and leather treatments, over oiled engine, car cover, etc. before being parked and get that each and every time they're driven.

Being designed for driving, these cars do fine when they're driven. You'll notice that oil changes for engine, trans and diff. are mileage and time limited. Just because it's parked doesn't mean that it doesn't get regular maintenance ... or does it?

I've got 195,000mi. on my pickup and it's finally wearing out. My Viper is built way better than my old pick-up and I expect it should last that long. My pick-up was driven mostly on the highway and those are exceptionally easy miles on a car. Short drives are much harder on a car than highway miles.

I bought my '01 with 20,000mi. and put another 9,000mi. on it in 6 weeks last summer. Next week I'll be adding another 2,000mi. and a track day at PIR for Driver's Ed. I'll probably put another 15,000mi. on the odo this summer. Another 8,000mi. if I make it to Florida this fall.

Best driving car I've ever owned and I'm driving it.

Ted

 

[Art 138]

I have 2,300 miles on mine but I drive 2 miles to the gym and back at least once a month... other than Doug Levin who installed my Paxton Kit, I do all the maintainance. It has never seen a dealer other than the day I bought it. Believe if you change the fluids periodically there shoud be no issues. In the Winter months I do a 10 mile run with 3 or 4 pulls of good boost.....

 

[CPPRHD265]

My 1/4 mile track toy is on jacks to keep the tires from having a rough spot on them but I do go and start in weekly and let it run for about 3-5 minutes.

I'm going to post my story as above quote really just jumped out and bit me.



I bought a 2005 SRT with 5k miles on it last October. I drove it a lot, clocking about 3k miles on it in 6 months. Over that time it drove very well, but towards Febuary I noticed it wasn't sounding right.

I never abused the car, yes I'd do a bit of spirited driving... but I only touched the rev limiter once. The car never saw an engine temp over 200, and mostly stayed rock solid at 190.

When I begain to hear small puffing ( like an exahust leak perhaps ) and wierd performance issues near 4,000 RPM I posted about it asking advice. I called the Wizard to ask his advice. Nobody could seem to do a long-distance diagnostic so I scheduled an appointment at Sunshine Dodge in Melboure FL to take a look at it.

I dropped the car off, and wandered the lot for about 6 hours waiting for any news. The ViperTech came back, and found really crappy compression on the drivers side bank. He checked it 3 times because the passanger side was right on the money, but the drivers side was all over the place. A follow-up leak down indicated the rings.

He called it in to the mothership, and they told him to pull the heads and find out what was going on... To make this short, my engine with right at 9k miles was sent to arrow for a rebuild.

I talked with the ViperTech quite a bit. He'd never seen anything like it really, only one side going out like that with frozen rings. The only thing he could think of that might have happened... was the previous owner left it parked most of the time, starting it up once a week for 5 or so minutes. This probably lead up to the massive carbon build up on the pistons, and clogging that banks cat pretty good.

So... I'm now in the break-in period on my rebuild and can already tell it's going to be great. I thank my lucky stars I was covered under warranty. Big shout out to Sunshine Dodge, and their service department, world class crew over there!

 

[blue01gts]

The problem w/ driving it alot (4 me anyway)is if you drive it every day it takes the fun away, from looking forward to driving it on the weekends, to events, or to work once a year to show it off.

 

[Rick530]

Letting these cars sit and collect dust is a joke. Drive em already.. Your gonna die someday and ya cant take em with ya.

 

[Dads Toy]

glad to see that several of you agree that you should drive your Vipers. When I get one, I will drive it on weekends, try to never park it in a public parking lot and feel depressed when I have to store it over the long winters here in KC. this last winter seamed to last almost 6 months. strted getting cold in October and was still cold in April.

Thanks for the jack stand advice.

 

[xjrguy]

I put over 2100 miles on my 05 in just TWO MONTHS!!

The Viper also isn't the only "fun" car in our stable.

I drive mine whenever I can.

I'm not keeping the miles off it for someone else to enjoy it.

Life's too short!

 

[93VIPERBOY]

I have a 93 with 7900 miles. I have had NO repairs caused by low mileage. I service by car with Tators Dodge. Chuck the Wizard Tator would do any repairs it needed if they are needed. The only thing other than fluid chaged every year that I had to do was get rid of the 15 year old tires. I did have the head gaskets changed just because of all the talk on the board.

 

[HI-NOS-Viper]

When I first purchased my 2004 Last July, while I was home on vacation for 2 months. I ended up putting 2000 miles on the car during the 2 months. That is including the time I was gone total for about 3 weeks of vacation during that time with my wife while we went to Mexico, cruise, Vegas, etc. So in a total of about 5 weeks of highway and city driving, 2000 miles were put on the bad boy. I was driving the thing everyday except the one or two days when the roads were bad due to excessive rain, and one day it was hailing. When I get home in September, weather permitting, I will be driving the car everyday. However due to the bad weather in CO, storage time will be right around the corner

 

[alpine7822]

When I get one, I will drive it on weekends, try to never park it in a public parking lot

Uh yeah, good luck with that one...you just have to learn how to park it away from everyone without trying to make it look TOO obvious. Public Parking just means a little more of a walk to the building. I said the same thing and have been lucky so far.

 

[Dads Toy]

I went to a store a few years back with my brand new TA. I always park all the way to the back of any parking lot like most of you do. Was only in long enough to get flowers for a dinner. came out, no cars near my TA but someone walked all the way to my car just to put a 2 foot key mark on my driver door. that was just a Trans Am and someone was mean enough to hate it. I do not mess with anyone and the car was new, so no one knew it was mine yet if someone did not like me for some reason.