Viper worth $185,000

[SRTRICKY]

This gives me a few ideas

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[06 VIPER]

Very Interesting!

 

[plumcrazy]

hhmmmmm

 

[DodgeViper01]

How shocking. Now Dodge must be kicking themselves in the a** since they could have just given him a new car and lost whatever it cost to build ONE car but now they have to pay the $185,000 plus $150,000 in attorney fees. I wonder how they feel $335,000 later?????

 

[DSR207]

Quote:
"But the Corvette I have has five more horsepower."

I guess he'll sue GM next when he finds out Viper is the one with five more HP...

 

[Vic]

Does every SRT rear axle break when driven "hard"? Whats the general consenus?

If so, they have a point.
If not, they are abusing the car.

 

[Y2K5SRT]

Does every SRT rear axle break when driven "hard"? Whats the general consenus?

If so, they have a point.
If not, they are abusing the car.

Nope! If they did, I can guarantee that there would be a whole lotta posts here and on every forum about "defective" Vipers. While there are certainly isolated instances of rear ends crapping out (for every generation), I know that most of the Paxton SRT's are using the stock rear end with no problems.

Let's see, he liked to go up to 125 MPH on an on-ramp and brags about his trap speeds in the quarter mile - all while suing for a "defective" car. All things considered, I hope he enjoys his spiffy new Vette.

 

[VENOMAHOLIC]

You just naver know what a Jury will say. Anybody think I should have sued because the skipshift caused me to mishift into 2nd ending up sideways taking out a mailbox last year? I am not going to sue but would anybody else attempt it if it were them?

 

[big-n-italian]

i didnt know MAILBUEXEC lived in Waukesha!?

remember him?

 

[Andrew/USPWR]

Think about the abuse the Skip Barber SRT/10's must take.

 

[shortybighead]

I had on 03' and I came across that same problem. I took off one night from a light and I heard a loud bang and then a horrific sound after that all the way home. I called the dealership the next day and they fixed it, probably took about two weeks to get all of the parts in. I sold that one, when searching for my 05' I asked a couple of the dealerships that I talked to if they had fixed that particular problem with the diff. and they said that they had never heard of this happening before?? Go figure!

 

[VPRTKMIKE]

the thing is, the worst enemy of these rears is wheel hop. it causes parts to break. any gen3 owner will tell you with the run flats/ 19 inch wheel that is contributing to the problem. also inexperienced drivers, don't understand that the throttle does not have to stay on floor....

 

[Vic]

Does every SRT rear axle break when driven "hard"? Whats the general consenus?

If so, they have a point.
If not, they are abusing the car.

Nope! If they did, I can guarantee that there would be a whole lotta posts here and on every forum about "defective" Vipers. While there are certainly isolated instances of rear ends crapping out (for every generation), I know that most of the Paxton SRT's are using the stock rear end with no problems.

Let's see, he liked to go up to 125 MPH on an on-ramp and brags about his trap speeds in the quarter mile - all while suing for a "defective" car. All things considered, I hope he enjoys his spiffy new Vette.

If I were DC's liar, whoops, I mean, lawyer, I would play that angle as hard as I could-
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit for your review that the plaintiffs have not established that their Viper was defective in any way. There are thousands of Viper owners who do not have these problems, although they do drive theirs enthusiastically. By the plaintiff's own admission, they drive far over the posted speed limit on public streets, putting both themselves and others in harms way. How much faith can you place in the word of someone who willingly, and flagrantly violates the law? (Lawyer points towards the plaintiffs table accusingly, old ladies gasping in horror at this point) If anything, the fact that none of the many rear axles replaced on their vehicle could hold up to their constant punsishment only further underscores the fact that their troubles are directly attributed to their own abusive and reckless operation of the vehicle."

Hmmmm, they should pay me big bucks to write this stuff. Lyle Hutz, atty at law. -Simpsons

 

[Kai SRT10]

One more reason that Vipers should come with Quaifes from the factory.

 

[Volltage]

Had mine break at about 300 miles then fixxed, then after the fix changed to the 3.55s from Parts Rack and 6000 miles later no problems with spirited driving and I live within 50 miles of Waukesha. See my other post on it.

 

[luc]

"Let's see, he liked to go up to 125 MPH on an on-ramp and brags about his trap speeds in the quarter mile - all while suing for a "defective" car."

Chris:

I don't understand your logic, the owners were doing nothing more than driving their car the way the car was designed for ( if a car has 500hp, are you supposed not to use all of them ?) and even more importantly, the way the car is marketed/advertised.

If a manufacturer use,for marketing purposes, the performances of a car,being 0 to 60, 1/4 mile or G's forces,etc, they should be the last one to complain that their buyers,customers are using those performances.

That the guy was doing 125 on the street and consequently breaking the law, has absolutly no bearing on the real issue:
Did DC sold them a lemon?
Obviously after so many differential problems, the jury did believe so.

Luc.
00GTS

 

[JGK95]

These two frauds purchased the car with their sole target in mind: THE LEMON LAW.

This is a Perfect example of taking advantage of the Lemon Law by pulling a stunt like this. On one hand all Involved owners want to be safe in knowing that help will be there for them if needed and yet the same group just got kicked in the proverbial junk by these two non loyal... (just itchin' to use the F-word here!!!) Jerks!

The Good people at both DC and Viper Owning community get rolled by these two scumbags who CLEARLY should've had to bear the brunt of their fraud and been kicked in the knutz, rather than cheat our community.

/Rant Over

Jay K.

 

[Y2K5SRT]

I don't understand your logic, the owners were doing nothing more than driving their car the way the car was designed for ( if a car has 500hp, are you supposed not to use all of them ?) and even more importantly, the way the car is marketed/advertised.

I think the question focuses on abuse more than anything else. Certainly many of us have "exercised" our Vipers to a similar degree, although 125 MPH on an entry ramp seems possible only in the flatlands of the prairies (and fairly stupid regardless). Is the differential a weak spot in the SRT drivetrain? My guess is that it is weaker than some other components such as the engine. But to have gone through SIX of them in less than a year is nuts. While the number of people that post here vs. the number of actual owners is very small, generally when somebody grenades a rear end they will post about it. I haven't seen six such posts in the three years the car has been made, much less from one single owner.

Bottom line: When the guy admits to drag racing (relatively normal) and then to going 125 MPH on a freeway on-ramp (abnormal), then you would generally figure that this guy just didn't care. He abused the law and common sense, so to say that he abused the car is pretty obvious. And six rear ends serve as a testament to that. I think Lee's post said it best, and I am hiring him if I ever need such services.

 

[Kai SRT10]

I doubt that the guys involved bought the car in order to make a lemon law case.
Is it "car abuse" to accelerate to 125mph on an on-ramp? Dumb maybe, but hardly car abuse. A Viper should be able to be driven like that on a regular basis.
The fact is that there is a problem with the stock rear end on some of the Vipers out there.

Just do a search on "spider gears" and see how many hits come up. Lots of SRTs have broken rear ends. There has been at least one person on the boards who has broken two. I've not seen or heard of anyone breaking more than two, but the reason for that may be that most folks who drive their car hard put in an upgraded rear end.

Is going through six rear ends in a year crazy? Yes, but you can only blame the driver if you pre-suppose that there is nothing wrong with the car.

The car owner may be a scumball fraud, and he may not be a scumball fraud. It's possible that the car he bought simply wasn't capable of being driven in a spirited manner without breaking.

 

[George Farris]

This case has a distinct odor to it!!

 

[Viper X]

Hate to bring this one home, but yes, I have had the OE diff blow up twice and lost 4 more sets of ring and pinion gears before I put a Quaife in. The first one blew up when cruising on the freeway at 70 mph in 6th gear (with headers and K & N's only) and the other one cratered at the drag strip while accelerating in 2nd gear at about 70 mph (with the Paxton).

I got to where I could feel and hear the problem before it blew up and had the ring and pinon gears changed several more times before the diffs blew up again. The hydroloc is a lousy diff and should never have been used in the Viper. It just won't take the torque. Search the archives. Many diff problems with SRT's have been posted

No problems with the Quaife.

 

[VOI9 ASP]

I would guess DC will appeal this one.

 

[FikseGTS]

I would bet that none of those quotes were used in court.... it does seem like they bought the car, found a weak spot that's easy to exploit, so they could enjoy the car for a while end up not paying for it.... although most would be pretty nervous racking up 150,000 in lawyer fees betting on the jury...

6 differentials? that's crazy.... they were probably wheel hopping the car around town.... with no fancy electronics for DC to look at and see if the car was abused, there wansn't much to contest....