Hi,
My name is Ross, I'm not a Viper owner yet, but I hope to be by the beginning or middle of summer. I hope this is the right place to ask questions like this, this is my first post.
My first car was a Fiero GT, and I moved from that to my 1998 C5 Corvette, which I bought during graduate school and have had for a few years. I love my C5, but having gotten my financials in order, settled down and married, but with kids still at least six years away, I wanted to go for the dream car before I got too busy driving the kids to sports practice to enjoy it. I tried the C6 Z06, but was actually turned off by how staid the experience was. Sure, it was fast and sounded great, but the gentle suspension travel over bumps, the tightness of the finish, and the heated seats made it feel like a Bentley compared to the cars I've gotten used to. I wanted it to take my breath away when I floored it, and the Z06 didn't really deliver.
The issue I'm having is that I've always liked Vipers (what guy growing up in the 90's didn't?), but now that I'm in a position to buy one, I'm finding it hard to find ways to explore the car. I live in Hatfield, a suburb of Philadelphia, PA, and the nearest publicly listed Dodge Viper coupe (I'm dead-set on the hard top) for sale from 2008-2010 by a dealer (I feel bad going for an exploratory test drive in a private seller's car; I've heard that the Viper can be very polarizing) is over three hours away one way. That's a long way to travel to be disappointed. So I have a cople of questions before I make the trip:
1. I'm 6'3" and 200lbs, 36" waist, and unlikely to get any thinner. Am I going to fit inside? Most people say it's cramped. I can deal with less breathing room, but I need space for my head.
2. I'm going to be driving the car very frequently. I have a spectacular 30 mile commute through rolling hills and twisting mountain roads which are almost entirely empty both ways. The drive begs for a driver's car, so anytime there's not inclement weather, I'm probably going to be going to work. Can the Viper handle this sort of thing? I don't care about a rough ride, and I don't care about depreciation, and I do have a Civic Hybrid for bad weather or bad commute days (gotta save the petroleum for the cars that need it!) My questions are, will the Viper boil me alive with cabin heat? (Some reviewers say it's way better in the 08-10 than in prior models, some have said it's still bad even in the 2013). Will it break frequently if driven every day in the summer? Do any of you drive yours almost every day? What are your repair bills like?
3. I'm very, very handy mechanically; my grandpa was a GM employee, and my dad was a mechanic, and I learned at their sides growing up. My Vette basically goes to the shop for PITA jobs (removing exhaust, etc), or huge jobs where my time isn't worth the hassle of trying it myself (diff rebuild or something). Otherwise, I do everything myself. Is the Viper easy to work on? How is the community here? The Corvette forum guys have been absolutely amazing with providing help in diagnosing and correcting problems. Something that's turned me off of Porsche and Aston Martin is that this is part of the gearhead hobby for me, and those guys seem too concerned about getting grease on their D&G polos to do any of their maintenance themselves.
4. Finally, if there are any Viper club groups or meetups in the Eastern half of Pennsylvania, and any owners of 08-10 Vipers would be kind enough to talk a lowly Vette owner for a ride along and allow me to sit in the driver's seat (I wouldn't ask you to drive it), I would be very grateful. I would even be happy to give you some money or a gift card for a dinner for you and your significant other to a place of your choosing or something. This could save me a lot of time driving back and forth to the nearest dealer, who doesn't have the car in a color or price range that I would like, only to be further disappointed by the feel of the thing.
Thank you, and thank you for reading this massive wall of text.
-Ross
My name is Ross, I'm not a Viper owner yet, but I hope to be by the beginning or middle of summer. I hope this is the right place to ask questions like this, this is my first post.
My first car was a Fiero GT, and I moved from that to my 1998 C5 Corvette, which I bought during graduate school and have had for a few years. I love my C5, but having gotten my financials in order, settled down and married, but with kids still at least six years away, I wanted to go for the dream car before I got too busy driving the kids to sports practice to enjoy it. I tried the C6 Z06, but was actually turned off by how staid the experience was. Sure, it was fast and sounded great, but the gentle suspension travel over bumps, the tightness of the finish, and the heated seats made it feel like a Bentley compared to the cars I've gotten used to. I wanted it to take my breath away when I floored it, and the Z06 didn't really deliver.
The issue I'm having is that I've always liked Vipers (what guy growing up in the 90's didn't?), but now that I'm in a position to buy one, I'm finding it hard to find ways to explore the car. I live in Hatfield, a suburb of Philadelphia, PA, and the nearest publicly listed Dodge Viper coupe (I'm dead-set on the hard top) for sale from 2008-2010 by a dealer (I feel bad going for an exploratory test drive in a private seller's car; I've heard that the Viper can be very polarizing) is over three hours away one way. That's a long way to travel to be disappointed. So I have a cople of questions before I make the trip:
1. I'm 6'3" and 200lbs, 36" waist, and unlikely to get any thinner. Am I going to fit inside? Most people say it's cramped. I can deal with less breathing room, but I need space for my head.
2. I'm going to be driving the car very frequently. I have a spectacular 30 mile commute through rolling hills and twisting mountain roads which are almost entirely empty both ways. The drive begs for a driver's car, so anytime there's not inclement weather, I'm probably going to be going to work. Can the Viper handle this sort of thing? I don't care about a rough ride, and I don't care about depreciation, and I do have a Civic Hybrid for bad weather or bad commute days (gotta save the petroleum for the cars that need it!) My questions are, will the Viper boil me alive with cabin heat? (Some reviewers say it's way better in the 08-10 than in prior models, some have said it's still bad even in the 2013). Will it break frequently if driven every day in the summer? Do any of you drive yours almost every day? What are your repair bills like?
3. I'm very, very handy mechanically; my grandpa was a GM employee, and my dad was a mechanic, and I learned at their sides growing up. My Vette basically goes to the shop for PITA jobs (removing exhaust, etc), or huge jobs where my time isn't worth the hassle of trying it myself (diff rebuild or something). Otherwise, I do everything myself. Is the Viper easy to work on? How is the community here? The Corvette forum guys have been absolutely amazing with providing help in diagnosing and correcting problems. Something that's turned me off of Porsche and Aston Martin is that this is part of the gearhead hobby for me, and those guys seem too concerned about getting grease on their D&G polos to do any of their maintenance themselves.
4. Finally, if there are any Viper club groups or meetups in the Eastern half of Pennsylvania, and any owners of 08-10 Vipers would be kind enough to talk a lowly Vette owner for a ride along and allow me to sit in the driver's seat (I wouldn't ask you to drive it), I would be very grateful. I would even be happy to give you some money or a gift card for a dinner for you and your significant other to a place of your choosing or something. This could save me a lot of time driving back and forth to the nearest dealer, who doesn't have the car in a color or price range that I would like, only to be further disappointed by the feel of the thing.
Thank you, and thank you for reading this massive wall of text.
-Ross
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