ba$$fan
Enthusiast
Hey all
Newbie to the viper world here...just signed up the other day. Vipers have always been my favorite car and I finally decided that I need one in the garage in the semi-near future. I am not in any hurry and currently have a bassboat I need to get rid of once spring rolls around anyways. I've owned "lesser" bolt on modded sports cars (mustang and trans am) in the past and want to get back into the world of go fast cars. I have read all i can on the forum and have Maurice's viper buyers guide on its way. I am one that researches things to death before buying and always like to know everything about a car.
I want to get a viper to drive, not sit in the garage. I'll keep my 07 Tacoma for rainy/cold days. I'm fairly mechanically inclined and can handle basic maintenance. I will be plenty satisfied with an rt/10 but am open to GTS if its the right one. Although I can probably swing a little more, I want to stay below $30k for sure just for my sanity and would really like around $25k if I can do it. That leaves me with a gen 1 vert most likely, which I'm cool with other than the windows being kind of a pain. My eyes get dried out in cold wind so I would probably want a hard top/plex windows on it unless its hot out.
With nothing else interesting to do, I drove a couple hours and looked a 94 rt for sale over the weekend (he's asking $20k). It was the first one I've ever "looked" at to buy. Figure the more I look at, the more I'll get to know what to look for and what I need in the car. There's a link to a few pictures below. My camera is one of those tiny ones and doesn't take great pics...plus it was ridiculously sunny out. Got a few questions about the car. Its only got 13xxx miles on the odometer but isn't in great condition cosmetically. The interior is pretty rough. Dash would need repainted. Door handle trim was falling off drivers side. Molding pieces were pretty white and dried out. There are a few scratches in the paint and one oddly oxidized blemish probably 2" diameter. The guy had a crushed limestone driveway so the car is really dusty. I found it funny he didn't clean the car up at all for me. Probably my first clue. He said he bought it two years ago on ebay for $24500 from some "oil tycoon" in Houston. He has two young kids and said it just sits in his shed now. Haven't gone as far as checking carfax but he said its all clean on it and has never been wrecked. The passenger door didn't seem to close all that well and interior panel lines on pass side didn't match up great so I don't know if I believe that yet though. He said he just had it in for service and the mechanic "dropped something" on the windshield and cracked it so a new windshield was just put on with internal antenna. Car is all stock mechanically. It needs new rubber but has newer chrome wheels. He didn't realize they weren't stock and it took him five minutes to open the hood because he forgot how. Not that I knew because I haven't done it either but shows that he's not too smart about the cars. He drove me around in it, didn't offer to let me drive and I didn't bother asking just because I wasn't all that serious about the car and didn't feel like being one of those guys just trying to get a free turn at the wheel of a hot car. His wife ran over the soft top with her hummer so its bent a little (canvas fine and metal rods fixable) and no hard top with it. Anyways, to my few questions. I got a fairly offish feeling about this car/owner in general so realize I'm not too seriously entertaining the idea of buying it but for the mileage on it if it all checks out with a viper tech its priced right I guess. Tires add to that though. I will probably wait regardless...it will get its due diligence and more should I pursue it further.
Snapfish Album...hopefully you can see pics
1. In picture DSCN0299, the body lines from the door/mirror don't match up at all with the front. I can't find a good picture on the net to see if thats designed that way though. Thoughts?
2. In picture DSCN0293 you can see the big paint blemish. Is there any way to make that look decent?
3. In picture DSCN0307 you can see a pretty deep scratch from side windows. Can that be fixed at all?
4. In picture DSCN0289 you can see the pass door to dash lines don't match up very well and the gap appears larger than in photos I've seen online. Could that be normal with age? (Also has ugly speakers in the door)
5. As a whole, am I going to find these types of cosmetic problems of most cars of this gen and age? This being my first car looked at it, I don't really know to expect. Being a 16 year old car and not priced above norm...is this what I am going to see a lot?
thanks for the thoughts!
Daren
Newbie to the viper world here...just signed up the other day. Vipers have always been my favorite car and I finally decided that I need one in the garage in the semi-near future. I am not in any hurry and currently have a bassboat I need to get rid of once spring rolls around anyways. I've owned "lesser" bolt on modded sports cars (mustang and trans am) in the past and want to get back into the world of go fast cars. I have read all i can on the forum and have Maurice's viper buyers guide on its way. I am one that researches things to death before buying and always like to know everything about a car.
I want to get a viper to drive, not sit in the garage. I'll keep my 07 Tacoma for rainy/cold days. I'm fairly mechanically inclined and can handle basic maintenance. I will be plenty satisfied with an rt/10 but am open to GTS if its the right one. Although I can probably swing a little more, I want to stay below $30k for sure just for my sanity and would really like around $25k if I can do it. That leaves me with a gen 1 vert most likely, which I'm cool with other than the windows being kind of a pain. My eyes get dried out in cold wind so I would probably want a hard top/plex windows on it unless its hot out.
With nothing else interesting to do, I drove a couple hours and looked a 94 rt for sale over the weekend (he's asking $20k). It was the first one I've ever "looked" at to buy. Figure the more I look at, the more I'll get to know what to look for and what I need in the car. There's a link to a few pictures below. My camera is one of those tiny ones and doesn't take great pics...plus it was ridiculously sunny out. Got a few questions about the car. Its only got 13xxx miles on the odometer but isn't in great condition cosmetically. The interior is pretty rough. Dash would need repainted. Door handle trim was falling off drivers side. Molding pieces were pretty white and dried out. There are a few scratches in the paint and one oddly oxidized blemish probably 2" diameter. The guy had a crushed limestone driveway so the car is really dusty. I found it funny he didn't clean the car up at all for me. Probably my first clue. He said he bought it two years ago on ebay for $24500 from some "oil tycoon" in Houston. He has two young kids and said it just sits in his shed now. Haven't gone as far as checking carfax but he said its all clean on it and has never been wrecked. The passenger door didn't seem to close all that well and interior panel lines on pass side didn't match up great so I don't know if I believe that yet though. He said he just had it in for service and the mechanic "dropped something" on the windshield and cracked it so a new windshield was just put on with internal antenna. Car is all stock mechanically. It needs new rubber but has newer chrome wheels. He didn't realize they weren't stock and it took him five minutes to open the hood because he forgot how. Not that I knew because I haven't done it either but shows that he's not too smart about the cars. He drove me around in it, didn't offer to let me drive and I didn't bother asking just because I wasn't all that serious about the car and didn't feel like being one of those guys just trying to get a free turn at the wheel of a hot car. His wife ran over the soft top with her hummer so its bent a little (canvas fine and metal rods fixable) and no hard top with it. Anyways, to my few questions. I got a fairly offish feeling about this car/owner in general so realize I'm not too seriously entertaining the idea of buying it but for the mileage on it if it all checks out with a viper tech its priced right I guess. Tires add to that though. I will probably wait regardless...it will get its due diligence and more should I pursue it further.
Snapfish Album...hopefully you can see pics
1. In picture DSCN0299, the body lines from the door/mirror don't match up at all with the front. I can't find a good picture on the net to see if thats designed that way though. Thoughts?
2. In picture DSCN0293 you can see the big paint blemish. Is there any way to make that look decent?
3. In picture DSCN0307 you can see a pretty deep scratch from side windows. Can that be fixed at all?
4. In picture DSCN0289 you can see the pass door to dash lines don't match up very well and the gap appears larger than in photos I've seen online. Could that be normal with age? (Also has ugly speakers in the door)
5. As a whole, am I going to find these types of cosmetic problems of most cars of this gen and age? This being my first car looked at it, I don't really know to expect. Being a 16 year old car and not priced above norm...is this what I am going to see a lot?
thanks for the thoughts!
Daren
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as far as time, spent close to 5 years looking always waiting to see what new color was coming out, then wanted to see the 06 copperhead colored coupe, then heard about 08 colors and upgrades then it was stripes or no stripes, convertible or coupe etc etc etc, thought my wife was going to have me committed before it was all over.
