Real? Viper Dealerships

Janni

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Are you working with your local VCA chapter to discuss "Viper friendly" dealers in your area? While we all cannot be so lucky as to have a Woodhouse or a Tator in our backyard, there are certainly GOOD dealers around - you just have to look for them. We have a several local dealers here and one has a very good mechanic (although not up to date on his Vipers) and we do send folks there for regular stuff. The Viper isn't a particularly complicated car, so a good mechanic will be a good mechanic. What sets them apart is the attitude that your vehicle is important, whether it's a Caravan OR a Viper. We also have a dealer closeby who SAYS they sell a lot of Vipers. They probably do - although I cannot understand how. But their service is pretty horrible - they've left cars out in the rain with windows down, etc. You'd think they would be great, based on thier advertising and the number of Vipers they park on their lot.

For most of our work, we'll travel a couple of hours to D&E Dodge in Wilmington. Not because of the dealership, per se, but because Tom Sessions, Viper tech extrordinaire, is there. Tom has also started selling SRT products all over the US (watch out, Pemberton....) and supporting the rest of the Viper family around here with any other vehicle sales. You'd never know by looking at D&E that they are as Viper friendly as they are - and it's all because of Tom.

So, it takes some digging, but you can find GOOD dealers - although they may not be "high profile" ones.
 

ABADASP

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Hello Jim All you have to do to get your dealer listed as a Real Dealer is to add his name to your post.Sorry you have not gotten your 03 yet. We have had all 4 come in at John Winkler Motors in Pauls Valley OK. Good on sales fair on service poor on trade-ins. If you are trading the 01 I still need to borrow it. Mike
 

Y2K5SRT

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Guilty as charged. I guess the reason that I have mentioned the different "known" dealerships in one or two of my posts was because of the "low price" hype last year when people were placing their actual SRT orders. People were talking about dealerships that absolutely NOBODY had heard of (many times even the buyer) that were offering invoice pricing or even below. One of our local guys kept talking about his $500 below invoice deal from a dealer that is no where near here (800 miles away) that nobody heard of. Mind you, the two largest Viper dealers (Woodhouse & Roanoke) were charging around $2000 over invoice. Still a savings of a few thousand dollars ($5,000 if I remember correctly) over MSRP, and the added peace of mind knowing who you were dealing with. Look at all the people with horror stories about getting ripped off on their SRT when it actually arrived, or those that don't have any idea what is happening with the valve issue because their dealership is unresponsive.

I agree with you 100% that every dealership has to start somewhere. While I personally think the world of Woodhouse and have bought my Vipers from them exclusively, I secretly hoped that one of the local dealerships would step up to the plate and really make an effort to become a "true" Viper dealership: Fair sales price, excellent Viper service, and follow up after the sale. Well, the new dealership that offered the SRT at invoice (I passed) refuses to do any of the 998/999 warranty work on the Gen II's. A true Viper dealership? Nope. Ironically, do you know where almost every Kansas City Gen II has gone for the warranty work? Woodhouse Dodge - some 200+ miles away - in Woodhouse enclosed trailers. THAT is a tried and true Viper dealership if there ever was one.

There is no "I told you so" in this post. My point is and always will be that if you are making such a serious investment in a vehicle that is unlikely to be a daily driver, why not do it with someone that deserves it? ORGNDNR, it sounds like you have a dealer that qualifies: Fair pricing, excellent service, and good follow up. Post their name so that we can indeed add them to the list of true Viper dealerships.

Chris
 

Dead President

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A REAL DEALER is one that can deliver your car 4-8 months before the small guy who has limited allocation. The REAL DEALER sells a large quantity of Vipers because they cater to Viper owners, both in sales and service. I ordered my SRT-10 from Woodhouse even through it was 1500 miles away. That resulted in my receipt of the first ordered and delivered car in California (as opposed to a car that was brought in from out of state). No offense to my local guy who services my cars, but they had no hope of delivering as quickly --- and I received weekly tracking of the build process to boot!
 
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Viper friendly dealerships:
1. Service as in Good
1.1 Repairs made in the first visit.
1.2 Repairs made without damaging the car during the process.
1.3 Repairs(warranty) made when items were observed to be defective by the mechanic.
1.4 Communication maintained during the repair process.
1.5 Warranty repairs made without trying to wiggle out of an warranty obligation.

2.0 Sales
2.1 Offer competitive pricing.
2.2 Know how to track a Viper during assembly
2.3 Communicate(assembly, delivery status) with the customer.
2.4 No after the deal closer trying to sell a LoJack, perma-somthing, etc.

A Viper Friendly dealership provides good service, Not Volume Related! Except some dealerships are high volume because of their total service.
 

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