Viper production slowed by one third due to sluggish sales

[madninjaskillz]

Having cruised with Ferrari and Lambo owners, I have never received any snide comments or snooty behavior. Perhaps they have done it behind my back, but they aren't petty people so I highly doubt it.

I think we are much harder on the car and its development (or lack thereof) than most people outside of the Viper circle.

 

[hammerofgods]

Having cruised with Ferrari and Lambo owners, I have never received any snide comments or snooty behavior. Perhaps they have done it behind my back, but they aren't petty people so I highly doubt it.

I think we are much harder on the car and its development (or lack thereof) than most people outside of the Viper circle.

Apparently not hard enough.

 

[Westxsrt10]

<<If the GenV was introduced with a convertible / Coupe choice they would Most likely have sold out.>>

<<Or if they made more SRT's in colors other than Red, Black, or White! And add some stripes!>>

And if the Queen had balls, she'd be King...

Like I said...... I see you had yours added by Prefix.

 

[Fatboy 18]

No Taxes, sounds great
I agree you could train some people to look after these toys.

But.... The problem comes with new owners expecting to be able to have the factory warranty and a dealership network. I'm not talking about diehard previous Viper owners here, I'm talking about the new owner which SRT wants to connect with.

In the UK we do have companies that import cars from all manufactures and offer a warranty, but these companies are few and far between, so getting your brand spread across the country is not going to work. There would also have to be some sort of Tax deal between the USA and the UK to make the prospect viable.

No idea how it would work selling to the rest of Europe? The Sweed's seem to love American cars, not sure on what import duties would be imposed there?

Wellit looks like one UK company is either importing one or its arrived already?
http://www.americancarcentre.com/american/cardetail.asp?catId=512

 

[SADVIPER]

Respectfully, you might be describing yourself, but I don't think the masses. I don't believe buyers in the $110k-140k price range are too caught up with history/legacy, but instead go buy the item they believe best fits their needs. They might be caught up in the brand, but even that only goes so far. As an example, I am not buying a new corvette because I love its legacy of the mid-years from the 60's. I didn't buy a viper due to its legacy of the gen1/2's. My point is, I could care less what prior models were like because I am not buying them.

Yes you could have a point but I meant I'll buy a current Viper now because I know how well it did "as per my standards" in previous models and how good it looks to me with having everything I'm looking for. I also couldn't focus too much on the previous models otherwise I'd want an 2010 ACR now instead of Gen V.
As an example, I'll buy a Ferrari 458 because Ferrari has always produced some of the best exotic sports and the 458 is looking awesome. But if the 458 was a make of some unknown brand and some new model just about released I will not have any confidence in buying it until it proves its worth. I don't just jump on new models and to me Gen V maintains what Vipers are about.

 

[SADVIPER]

Wellit looks like one UK company is either importing one or its arrived already?
http://www.americancarcentre.com/american/cardetail.asp?catId=512

Well it looks official but that price is awful and rediculous! I bet it was some stock car somewhere in the states sitting for ages since it is shadow blue and they were released long ago. absolute beauty of color though

 

[Fatboy 18]

Well it looks official but that price is awful and rediculous! I bet it was some stock car somewhere in the states sitting for ages since it is shadow blue and they were released long ago. absolute beauty of color though

You can see why now I talked earlier about a Tax deal, by the time you pay for shipping, Customs duty and Taxes it makes the price rather high!

 

[ROCKET62]

Problem with that tranny is that it was crazy expensive - like $95k or something silly.

I owned an 09 ZR and it only came with a manual. I think even the later model ZR1's only come with a manual.

My wife's SL550, I know it's not really a sports car, has paddle shifters. That's great and I've tried it; but if I was interested in straight line speed with her car it would be faster just leaving it in full auto, paddle shifters would be great on a track.

As far as the niceties such as electric windows, auto headlights, full climate control, etc., yes I like all that; but I will enjoy just driving a manual.

Having said all that do I believe they should offer two transmissions in the Viper? Yes, a six speed like they do + this one as an option:

 

[BLEBYU]

[FONT=&amp]I have not read this whole thread but from the pages I did read, I agree with most of you.
As most of you know I have been the third or fourth viper dealer for several years. From a dealer prospective, we paid 25k for the right to be a viper dealer. Now that inventories are built up they will give a viper to any dealer that will take one. This is clearly not fair. When ordering these new cars I have tried to keep a good mix of cars. I have some high dollar GTS's but I tried to keep them inline price wise. I went heavier on the srt because of the price point. I have nine of these sitting on my lot with four more scheduled to be built. Now as a business decision I am going from something I thought would be worth the 25K investment, to a fire sale. I am going to have to make super good deals just to get out from under them.[/FONT]


Mike Robbins, Pres. Ringgold C D J R, SRT 7154 Nashville Street Ringgold Ga. 30736

 

[ViperSmith]

[FONT=&]I have not read this whole thread but from the pages I did read, I agree with most of you.
As most of you know I have been the third or fourth viper dealer for several years. From a dealer prospective, we paid 25k for the right to be a viper dealer. Now that inventories are built up they will give a viper to any dealer that will take one. This is clearly not fair. When ordering these new cars I have tried to keep a good mix of cars. I have some high dollar GTS's but I tried to keep them inline price wise. I went heavier on the srt because of the price point. I have nine of these sitting on my lot with four more scheduled to be built. Now as a business decision I am going from something I thought would be worth the 25K investment, to a fire sale. I am going to have to make super good deals just to get out from under them.[/FONT]


Mike Robbins, Pres. Ringgold C D J R, SRT 7154 Nashville Street Ringgold Ga. 30736

Mike, how have the SRT been moving compared to the GTS?

 

[ohlarikd]

[FONT=&amp]I have not read this whole thread but from the pages I did read, I agree with most of you.
As most of you know I have been the third or fourth viper dealer for several years. From a dealer prospective, we paid 25k for the right to be a viper dealer. Now that inventories are built up they will give a viper to any dealer that will take one. This is clearly not fair. When ordering these new cars I have tried to keep a good mix of cars. I have some high dollar GTS's but I tried to keep them inline price wise. I went heavier on the srt because of the price point. I have nine of these sitting on my lot with four more scheduled to be built. Now as a business decision I am going from something I thought would be worth the 25K investment, to a fire sale. I am going to have to make super good deals just to get out from under them.[/FONT]


Mike Robbins, Pres. Ringgold C D J R, SRT 7154 Nashville Street Ringgold Ga. 30736

Mike - first, thanks for taking the chance and making the investment.

Since you are on the front line, what are you hearing from real potential customers who do not make a purchase - can you gather any insight into what the issues may be that ultimately result in them walking away? With a good mix of cars, there should be something for every budget, buy yet few sales?

 

[BLEBYU]

Thanks guys. At first the GTS sold better but now the interest has changed to the SRT’s. As far as push back it has been the price first, then the Corvette performance deal comes up. Another thing that hurts it is it still looks like the old car. I know most of us, myself included, liked the fact that it looked a lot like a gen 2. Most of the people who spend 125-150K on a car like this want it to stand out. You can get almost the same reaction from people in a 96 GTS as you can a gen V.

[FONT=&quot]Also as a follow up to this post some folks from SRT have reached out to me and told me that a regular Dodge dealer could not, and would not be able to order a gen V viper. They did say they had heard of rare cases where this happened but they were aware of these and were addressing them. I assume the example I heard of was one of these incidences.[/FONT]

 

[L84AD8]

Mike,

I purchased a brand new 2009 Aero Coupe from Ringgold a few years back and on a recent return from my winter home in Florida stopped by your dealership on the way back to Kentucky. On entering the showroom I noticed two new Gen V on the floor. One had a Sold sign on the window so there is no way I would ask to open the car up and sit in it but I did introduce myself to your staff as a previous customer and asked if they would open the second Viper and let me take a look and sit in it. You would have thought that I asked for their firstborn. They flat out refused my request. My wife said "Seriously" and we got a second NO. I proceeded to walk out the door and won't be back. Didn't seem to bother the sales people in the least. Good luck with your inventory.

 

[Westxsrt10]

Mike,

I purchased a brand new 2009 Aero Coupe from Ringgold a few years back and on a recent return from my winter home in Florida stopped by your dealership on the way back to Kentucky. On entering the showroom I noticed two new Gen V on the floor. One had a Sold sign on the window so there is no way I would ask to open the car up and sit in it but I did introduce myself to your staff as a previous customer and asked if they would open the second Viper and let me take a look and sit in it. You would have thought that I asked for their firstborn. They flat out refused my request. My wife said "Seriously" and we got a second NO. I proceeded to walk out the door and won't be back. Didn't seem to bother the sales people in the least. Good luck with your inventory.

I had a similar experience recently from another dealer. I bought my 08 new from T**ball and was inquiring about a new Viper. (they can sit on the near 40 inventory)


__________________________________
2008 Coupe

 

[hammerofgods]

[FONT=&amp]I have not read this whole thread but from the pages I did read, I agree with most of you.
As most of you know I have been the third or fourth viper dealer for several years. From a dealer prospective, we paid 25k for the right to be a viper dealer. Now that inventories are built up they will give a viper to any dealer that will take one. This is clearly not fair. When ordering these new cars I have tried to keep a good mix of cars. I have some high dollar GTS's but I tried to keep them inline price wise. I went heavier on the srt because of the price point. I have nine of these sitting on my lot with four more scheduled to be built. Now as a business decision I am going from something I thought would be worth the 25K investment, to a fire sale. I am going to have to make super good deals just to get out from under them.[/FONT]


Mike Robbins, Pres. Ringgold C D J R, SRT 7154 Nashville Street Ringgold Ga. 30736

Were the Dodge dealers allowed to sell other SRT cars minus Viper? Sounds like Chrysler should be refunding that 25k to those who paid it, this way, there could be an extra discount on the Vipers to push them off the showroom floors. This is one big failure by Chrysler.

 

[FinalEd357]

I bought my 08 coupe from ring gold back in May and was very impressed with the service.
John

 

[ferraritoviper]

Like I said...... I see you had yours added by Prefix.

Close, but no cigar. They grew to man size '65-'67 RVN/USMC...there were no heart breakers like the movie said, just life takers.

 

[Mamba52]

Same thing happened to me at Palmer Dodge (No Test Drive) and I purchased my car from them and drove it in on that day!!!!!!

***!!!! Hope you are listening SRT!!!!!!

 

[Jack B]

Did you join this forum just to *****. If you cannot add something to the viper community why don't you go back to the civic forum. Try to balance your posts, you now have 34 negative posts and you probably don't own a viper or intend to own one. Do you think anyone cares what you say for the sake of saying it.

Were the Dodge dealers allowed to sell other SRT cars minus Viper? Sounds like Chrysler should be refunding that 25k to those who paid it, this way, there could be an extra discount on the Vipers to push them off the showroom floors. This is one big failure by Chrysler.

 

[ViperSmith]

Did you join this forum just to *****. If you cannot add something to the viper community why don't you go back to the civic forum. Try to balance your posts, you now have 34 negative posts and you probably don't own a viper or intend to own one. Do you think anyone cares what you say for the sake of saying it.

Exactly. His only posts are on the Gen V forum and all are garbage.

 

[Jack B]

It is amazing what low self-esteem brings out.

Exactly. His only posts are on the Gen V forum and all are garbage.

 

[Boxer12]

I am guessing the percentage of owners who walked into a dealership and bought a new Viper off the floor is miniscule...maybe I am wrong, but I don't blame dealers for being reluctant to open the cars let alone test drive them for walk ins..I imagine every Tom, Dick and Harry who walks in makes the same request to sit in the car and take photos for FB. Ferrari dealers have the same problem..they have to use a lot of discretion. Show up unknown and unannounced and ask to open a Viper and I would guess the answer will be 'hahahhahahahahah'. Maybe you are wealthy or willing to sign paper, but how is a sales person supposed to know? Walk ins are probably a known waste of time and liability. Just sayin.

 

[FinalEd357]

I agree with Boxer that I wouldn't expect a 'walk-in' to drive, either. I guess if I wanted to go drive one, I would obviously call first, bring my car or a pic of me with the car, or the title or a paystub/tax return, etc. and allow them to run my credit in exchange for the test drive, but would prep it all in advance and ask to talk the the sales manager or GM on the phone. That way they could research what they needed or give them the name of our local Viper Tech that I take my car to so they would know I was a legitimate/qualified buyer. I guess I'm stating the obvious here. If I just pulled up in my Explorer and told them I was a Viper owner I would not be offended if refused a test drive. If I were to buy the car, I would hope it didn't have 20-30 miles from 4-5-6 test drives before me.

 

[Voodoo Rob]

I am guessing the percentage of owners who walked into a dealership and bought a new Viper off the floor is miniscule...maybe I am wrong, but I don't blame dealers for being reluctant to open the cars let alone test drive them for walk ins..I imagine every Tom, Dick and Harry who walks in makes the same request to sit in the car and take photos for FB. Ferrari dealers have the same problem..they have to use a lot of discretion. Show up unknown and unannounced and ask to open a Viper and I would guess the answer will be 'hahahhahahahahah'. Maybe you are wealthy or willing to sign paper, but how is a sales person supposed to know? Walk ins are probably a known waste of time and liability. Just sayin.

Weren't there cars built specifically for dealer demo, test rides, taking FB pictures while sitting in, etc?

 

[ViperSmith]

I am guessing the percentage of owners who walked into a dealership and bought a new Viper off the floor is miniscule...maybe I am wrong, but I don't blame dealers for being reluctant to open the cars let alone test drive them for walk ins..I imagine every Tom, Dick and Harry who walks in makes the same request to sit in the car and take photos for FB. Ferrari dealers have the same problem..they have to use a lot of discretion. Show up unknown and unannounced and ask to open a Viper and I would guess the answer will be 'hahahhahahahahah'. Maybe you are wealthy or willing to sign paper, but how is a sales person supposed to know? Walk ins are probably a known waste of time and liability. Just sayin.

Yet I've walked into a Porsche dealer and driven cars more expensive without even giving them my drivers license.

Sorry, the excuses for not allowing test drives are old and don't work in 2013 - especially when cars have been sitting on lots for 5 months.

 

[past ohio]

It has been discussed in various sites here, when the cars started coming through the network, "many" dealers got out the supplemental stickers, and put on paint sealant and rustproofing for additional $2500, then put on a markup sticker of $15000 to $25000 as one dealer told me, he had to recoup his $25000 dealer fee somehow....well we know that there is some give between the sticker and what the dealer pays, I think some people got turned off with the "extra" sticker stuff....now Ebay has about every new Viper for sale, and I get the feeling the dealers are waking up that not only are they sitting on 2013's, now the 2014 are here ! my $.02

 

[Mamba52]

SRT should have sent out invitations to current Viper owners to test drive the new Viper. Guess they were to busy going after Porsche and the BMW owners. Hey wait that's me!!!!!!

 

[hammerofgods]

Did you join this forum just to *****. If you cannot add something to the viper community why don't you go back to the civic forum. Try to balance your posts, you now have 34 negative posts and you probably don't own a viper or intend to own one. Do you think anyone cares what you say for the sake of saying it.

Angry much pops? Did you join to count other's posts and ***** about them? I asked questions but thanks for the psychological profile anyway

 

[L84AD8]

Re: Viper production slowed by one third due to sluggish sales
I am guessing the percentage of owners who walked into a dealership and bought a new Viper off the floor is miniscule...maybe I am wrong, but I don't blame dealers for being reluctant to open the cars let alone test drive them for walk ins..I imagine every Tom, Dick and Harry who walks in makes the same request to sit in the car and take photos for FB. Ferrari dealers have the same problem..they have to use a lot of discretion. Show up unknown and unannounced and ask to open a Viper and I would guess the answer will be 'hahahhahahahahah'. Maybe you are wealthy or willing to sign paper, but how is a sales person supposed to know? Walk ins are probably a known waste of time and liability. Just sayin.

I must be the exception. I walked into Ringgold unannounced and bought mine back in 2009 w/o a test drive. Not even around the parking lot. When I stopped a month or so back I would have been more than happy to show the sales person any one of twenty delivery photos I took when Ringgold delivered my 09 Aero to my door but with the head up their ass attitude, I didn't see the need. All I was wanting to do was sit in the car to see if the headroom had been increased from the Gen IVs. By the way, I did ask if my salesperson was still around. I wasn't asking for much and if they would have shown a better attitude I would have been more than happy to prove I was a past customer. Not going back. Keeping my 09 for a while.

 

[BlueLIGHTNING]

I agree with Boxer that I wouldn't expect a 'walk-in' to drive, either. I guess if I wanted to go drive one, I would obviously call first, bring my car or a pic of me with the car, or the title or a paystub/tax return, etc. and allow them to run my credit in exchange for the test drive, but would prep it all in advance and ask to talk the the sales manager or GM on the phone. That way they could research what they needed or give them the name of our local Viper Tech that I take my car to so they would know I was a legitimate/qualified buyer. I guess I'm stating the obvious here. If I just pulled up in my Explorer and told them I was a Viper owner I would not be offended if refused a test drive. If I were to buy the car, I would hope it didn't have 20-30 miles from 4-5-6 test drives before me.

Not all dealerships are created equal, walked in with my construction clothes driving my 1 ton truck to look at a brand new 05 Race yellow viper. Salesman came around told him was interested in the car but only after a test drive. They tried to get it started but it was dead and in the middle of the showroom. They asked me to come back the next day they would have it ready. I did and they salesman who had never driven a viper as more excited than I think I was, came back after test drive, signed the paper work and picked her up a few days later. Maybe they just think the new interior is to nice to sit in??