When you advertise like this, a 150 thousand dollar car, something is up.
Here's what I know. The MSRP on a 2015 GTS Viper is about 150 thou. They didn't sell, as this happened right about September when the new Corvettes came out at 80 thousand dollars. Now they have been slashed 15 thou on the MSRP last Sept. http://blog.caranddriver.com/dodge-viper-srt-msrp-cut-by-15000-a-dealer-says-its-already-generating-heat/ They still aren't moving.
So, potential buyers are trying to test dealerships to see how bad they want them out of the show rooms ( they are taking up space, not moving, and a Hellcat sits beside them? Or instead of them? ) Dealerships have limited show room floorspace, and nothing as precious as a Viper or Hellcat is going to sit outdoors.
Invoice is about 130 thou, (what the dealership paid for the Viper) and they can't take more than about 10 thousand dollar loss on one. A used Viper with little to no miles are about 40-70 thou. So why buy a new one? For twice the price? So that's why they aren't selling. And the used car market is flooded with barely used Vipers that people never used, and never will.
The racing stripe alone is 5 thousand dollars. No idea why... it's paint, or vinyl, but not 5 thousand dollars of gold leaf.
The leather seats are only 3 thou... try to make sense of the 5 thousand dollar stripes now!
Destination and delivery adds $1995, and the gas-guzzler tax another $2600 (the penalty for achieving EPA ratings of 12 mpg city and 19 highway).
Sales have been undeniably terrible since the car re-entered the marketplace as a 2013 model. Chrysler Group moved just 591 examples of the Viper in 2013. Less than 100 units sold in January and February 2014. In Oct 2014, Dodge sold just 38 Vipers while Chevrolet sold 2679 Corvettes.
Which brings us to the above... marketing ploy... if you want to buy a 2015 Viper (they are looking desperate to sell them) you can get the factory to paint it in any of 8,000 hand-painted exterior colors, 24,000 hand-painted custom stripes, 10 wheel options, 16 interior trims, 6 aero packages, and a host of standalone options.
When a customer selects a color and stripe package, a small paint chip will be sent to the buyer for confirmation. After that, a 1-18 scale "speed form" model of the Viper painted in the chosen colors will be sent. When the owner gives the final go-ahead, the car's colors and specs will be locked in — and no other Viper will be built with that configuration for that model year.
Vipers are hand built, not assembly line. If no one is buying Vipers what will the employees do instead of building Vipers? They can't work the assembly line, it's automated. And union. April to June 2014 they shut down the Viper making facility. Then from July to October. Expect that the 2015 will be the last of the new Vipers.
Well, in the aspect of what you're getting for your money, it is a hand made race car, with a 12 speaker Harmon Kardon sound system. A very damn nice race car. Winner of the 2014 Petit Le Mans, and the team championship, plus SRT Motorsports won two of three championships contested in the class and finished second in the GTLM manufacturers’ championship in only the program’s second full year.
And Porsche, Ferrari, etc won't offer you the same personnal care.
All the detail info of how to get one: http://www.drivesrt.com/2015/viper/1of1/
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/dodge-viper/
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a7395/slow-srt-viper-sales/
http://autoweek.com/article/united-sportscar/dodge-pulls-plug-factory-backed-viper-racing-program-tudor-championship
http://www.autonews.com/article/20140524/RETAIL03/305269998/viper-keeps-srt-badge----for-now
http://www.autofieldguide.com/blog/post/dodge-viper-rise-demise-rebirth
No comments:
Post a Comment