Another reason why Viper does not sell-Chrysler's idea of "special financing"

Special Financing

3.84% APR for 60 months.

LOL, this is what Chrysler offers as an incentive to sell the 2013 left over cars.  Do these people have any clue here?  This is a 100k plus car and majority of credit unions offer interest rates between 2 to 3 percent for loans as long as 84 months.

The level of disconnect the SRT and Chrysler continue to demonstrate is simply astounding.  Who on Earth would be drawn to an offer like this one?  Between the horrible dealer sales crews, luck of the draw discounting and this laughable special financing offer, it is actually a miracle any of the new Vipers sell at all.

Here is a thought for Chrysler and Ralph Gilles: check out what competition does.  Maybe a 72 or 84 month ZERO financing would be a better incentive to push the 2013 left overs off the lots?  Just a wild guess here...

Dodge SRT Viper or SRT Viper - a case of brand name identity crisis?

Trying to figure out what the designation of Viper is can be a pretty difficult task.

When SRT was announced as a brand, Viper was supposed to be designated as SRT Viper, with $25k admission fee paid by interested Chrysler dealers. 

Forward to 2014... What happened to SRT brand?  Well, it apparently does not exist.  When looking for SRT Viper, there is absolutely not a single Chrysler dealership that includes SRT as a brand in their list of Chrysler house brands.   So where is Viper?  For those who try to locate Viper on dealer website, the advice is to look under DODGE brand.  There, Viper is listed as SRT Viper.

Apparently, SRT brand does not exist, it is still DODGE Viper. 

An open letter to Ralph Gilles

Dear Mr. Giles,

I would like to thank you for personally making sure that I have eliminated the Generation 5 SRT Viper from my shopping list and that my 2009 Dodge SRT10 Viper was my first and last Viper purchase.  I would also like to thank you for motivating me to look at makes such as Porsche as my likely purchase, although I have not considered buying a Porsche in the past.

Although I have been critical of the newest Viper in the past, including its very narrow advantage in performance figures as compared to the previous generation, the latest turn of events, mainly a large number of 2013 cars remaining on the dealers lots and discounted pricing I observed at several dealers in California, motivated me to pursue a purchase of a base SRT Viper as a valid alternative for a car I would be driving daily, while retaining my current 2009 Viper. 

After observing very generous discounts offered on SRT Viper by several dealers, including Carl Burger dealership in San Diego, I decided to shop around for an equivalent deal, expecting other California dealers to follow the suit,  especially since there is a large inventory of 2013 SRT Vipers in California (Carl Burger offered hefty discounts on 2014 Vipers).

To my dismay, even though I was able to locate dealers offering similar savings on 2013 base SRT cars, these cars lacked the specific options I sought while including options I did not want (the available discounted cars either lacked the track pack or included SRT stripes).  When I approached the dealers who had the cars with the desired option, track pack specifically and 2013 model year, these dealers happened to refuse to offer any discounting at all and at the same time, happened to earn very negative ratings from their customers.

Due to my frustration, I have contacted you personally, through your Twitter account and to my surprise, I have received a response from you, followed by an email from your marketing manager, Carol Desantis,  with assurance of facilitating my purchase by connecting me with a local dealer, Normandin Chrysler and Dodge, in San Jose.

Unfortunately, that dealer did not have a car with my specific options and interestingly enough, was not even interested in discounting 2013 cars.

Upon notifying Ms. Desantis of the outcome of my contact, I decided to contact several other dealers, located in Southern California who happened to have the exact car I was looking for. 

To say that my contacts were both frustrating and aggravating would be a very kind thing to do.  After trying several times to obtain a reasonable price, while attempting to help Viper by purchasing a second one, I have given up completely.  Between the quality of the sales personnel I have dealt with and sales tactics on part of the dealerships, I have decided to abandon my purchase completely.

At the same time, I have contacted several dealerships specializing in sales of Porsche and Aston Martin vehicles and was literally blown away by the difference in level of customer service, the difference was absolutely astounding.  Needless to say, I have directed my attention to these particular brands as my next purchase, refusing to go through the same frustrating Chrysler dealership experience once again.

Obviously, I am only one lost Viper sale.  However, I suspect that my experience is not unique and several lost customers like myself may further compound the sales problems SRT Viper faces currently.

I would strongly recommend that your team considers using a system of vouchers, rewarding current Viper owners considering another purchase, while retaining their current cars to spare them from the perils of dealing with dealerships apparently not qualified to sell a vehicle such as SRT Viper.  Since the sales of the remaining unsold cars should be a top priority in attempt to save SRT Viper, I would recommend that you take my recommendation in your consideration.

Sincerely,

PeterMJ

Chrysler dealers-the real reason why SRT Vipers sit unsold

As much as horrible press reviews are blamed for the non existent SRT Viper sales (with SRT and its chief, Ralph Gilles being guilty of this disaster, without any doubt), there is a more direct reason why the latest Viper proudly occupies dealers lots, unsold since 2013- CHRYSLER DEALERS themselves.

First of all, Viper is not being sold as SRT Viper, it is being sold as a DODGE, with SRT Viper model designation.  So much for the 25k select dealers paid to become SRT dealers, there are no SRT dealerships and anyone who looks for SRT dealer will have a hard time finding one, unless he or she figure out Dodge/Chrysler dealers are the ones to contact.

The problem with these dealers is that they make living selling mini vans, Chargers and pick up trucks.  What does this mean?  They are truly horrible to deal with, this is a very unfortunate fact.

Here is my personal experience dealing with these numbnuts.  Many of them have not just 2014 Vipers in stock, they have many 2013 Vipers sitting unsold as well.  For some mysterious there is a schism among the dealers, with one group understanding that Vipers do  not sell and quickly become financial liability to them, thus motivating them to discount these cars heavily, between 20 thousand for 2014 and up to 40 thousand for GTS option of 2013 model year.  Then there dealers, stuck with cars from the PREVIOUS MODEL YEAR who refuse to understand what depreciation means and who insist that previous model year is discounted because they decided to remove the mark up from their cars and sell them at MSRP.    Talking to both groups of dealers is very aggravating since there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the discounts any of these dealers offer. 

In other words, the selling price for exact same car can vary by ten or more thousand dollars.  At the same time, the price of a fully loaded GTS version with MSRP of 140k that was about 30k higher than the same year base SRT version, ends up being only 10k due to absolute lack of consistency between dealers and their discounting practices.

In my situation, when shopping for a base SRT and getting a best price of 90k while fully loaded GTS sells at another dealer for 99k, completely removes a motivation to purchase that base car period.  Why?  Because the future depreciation will be based on the selling price of the higher priced version of Viper and the base car, while discounted less now, will depreciate considerably more in a very near future.

Thus, the base car does not sell.  There are exceptions, with dealers realizing this part and discounting the base car more but the rule is that the other dealers refuse to acknowledge the reality.

What is the result of this discounting mess?  The dealers who discount reasonably, sell their cars while others get to pay their floor fees for the cars that continue to sit.

As much as SRT and bad publicity can be faulted, the real problem lies with the dealers and apparently Ralph Gilles or anyone else in Chrysler have absolutely no intention to make this better. 

At this rate, the current Viper sabbatical may very well become a permanent vacation.  There is no doubt that absolutely nothing has been learned from the similar situation back in 2010.

Production of Dodge SRT Viper halted permanently

In spite of previous announcements regarding a temporary shut down of Dodge SRT Viper production until the end of June 2014, the latest announcement states that production of the new Viper has been stopped permanently.

Nobody from the office of Ralph Gilles was available to provide an explanation to the abrupt end of the fine American sports car icon.

Chrysler announces 30% rebate on remaining 2013 and 2014 SRT Viper

Effective today, all remaining SRT Viper 2013 and 2014 cars include a 30% rebate.  For remaining 2013 cars, the rebate can be combined with 0% financing.

According to Ralph Gilles, any issues related to interactions with SRT dealers can be routed directly to his office for personal intervention.