The demise of Ralph Gilles came swiftly but only after ball finally got rolling. Gilles' ego and lack of vision actually made it a miracle that Generation 5 ever came to fruition at all.
The sales of former SRT and current Dodge Viper are at all time low and there is absolutely nothing that anyone at Chrysler or Fiat will do to change it.
The current discount of 7500 per 2013 SRT is a laughable one, considering that dealers offering 20k and more discounts still cannot sell the cars sitting on their lots for the last two years.
As it is, the only saving grace, a 0 percent Chrysler financing for a minimum of 72 months, when combined with the discounts could help ridding of the remaining 2013 and 2014 but amazingly enough, nothing at all is being done to make it happen.
As it is, the chances of reactivating Viper assembly line is non existent, the former CEO has disappeared from the public view in disgrace and the whole concept of Viper as a bad boy American supercar is fully dead.
Overall, this is a very sad situation since at the current pricing, Viper is certainly a considerably better alternative to the mass market plastic fantastic POS Corvette C7 Stingray but way too few people understand this part.
Based on my personal dealings with Gilles and people from his office, his demise was long overdue, long before Generation 5 was even considered but... it is what it is.
The best what can happen now is laying the Viper to permanent rest, there is no development money or good will coming from Fiat owners. By all accounts, Generation 5 should never happen in the first place, at least not the way it was executed and led by Gilles. Some bad voodoo came this guy's way (pun fully intended).
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Will the Dodge Viper survive Dodge Challenger Hellcat?
Even though Chrysler does not reveal the final performance figures, chances of this new Challenger, with supercharged V8 Hemi NOT producing higher horsepower than the embattled former SRT and current Dodge, Viper are very slim. What makes it even worse is the fact than unlike the Viper, Challenger ECU software can be reprogrammed, to allow for even more modifications and horsepower.
Granted, there is no visual comparison between Viper and Challenger, with the latter sharing aerodynamics, weight and visual gratification with the nearest garden shed but horsepower can appeal to more people than refinement and two seat performance.
As it is right now, unless someone at Chrysler grows some balls and allows for horsepower increase for the Viper (a meaningful increase) to distinguish the Viper from the lowly Challenger in the horsepower bragging rights department, this may be the final nail in Viper's coffin and the current vacation may very likely become the permanent one.
Things are awfully quiet with Ralph Gilles lately. Apparently he is too busy licking his wounds from SRT demise and repairing his demotion bruised ego but if this guy really cares about Viper as he has claimed, there better be some solid action coming soon and announcement regarding horsepower increase instead of new colors or choices of interior materials.
Otherwise, it will be considerably more humane to lay the Viper to rest instead of stretching its agony, with unsold carcasses scattered through all former SRT dealers.
Anyone even remotely concerned with Viper's future would be demanding a supercharging option made available on Viper, to set it one step ahead of the quintessential redneck mobile, the Challenger.
Will Ralph Gilles finally step up to the plate? There is absolutely no reason why Viper cannot be supercharged. The cost of such upgrade would be lower than the non selling interior bling and could save the Viper, especially in light of upcoming Z06. Supercharging is cheap and it could remediate the problems potential buyers have with locked ECU software.
Come on Ralph, grow some balls for once or step down and away from Viper!!!
Granted, there is no visual comparison between Viper and Challenger, with the latter sharing aerodynamics, weight and visual gratification with the nearest garden shed but horsepower can appeal to more people than refinement and two seat performance.
As it is right now, unless someone at Chrysler grows some balls and allows for horsepower increase for the Viper (a meaningful increase) to distinguish the Viper from the lowly Challenger in the horsepower bragging rights department, this may be the final nail in Viper's coffin and the current vacation may very likely become the permanent one.
Things are awfully quiet with Ralph Gilles lately. Apparently he is too busy licking his wounds from SRT demise and repairing his demotion bruised ego but if this guy really cares about Viper as he has claimed, there better be some solid action coming soon and announcement regarding horsepower increase instead of new colors or choices of interior materials.
Otherwise, it will be considerably more humane to lay the Viper to rest instead of stretching its agony, with unsold carcasses scattered through all former SRT dealers.
Anyone even remotely concerned with Viper's future would be demanding a supercharging option made available on Viper, to set it one step ahead of the quintessential redneck mobile, the Challenger.
Will Ralph Gilles finally step up to the plate? There is absolutely no reason why Viper cannot be supercharged. The cost of such upgrade would be lower than the non selling interior bling and could save the Viper, especially in light of upcoming Z06. Supercharging is cheap and it could remediate the problems potential buyers have with locked ECU software.
Come on Ralph, grow some balls for once or step down and away from Viper!!!
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Will the former SRT dealers get their 25k back from Chrysler?
This is a tough question. On one hand, they should get their money back since the SRT brand is officially shut down and Viper once again, has been declared a Dodge.
On the other hand, these dealers are directly responsible for the failure of Viper to launch and sell.
Seeing how these dealers still do not see the light and try very little to sell their cars, maybe they should not get their money back. There is no doubt that neither Ralph Gilles or these dealers have learned anything at all from this Viper humiliation. The best way to teach anyone is by affecting their wallets.
On the other hand, these dealers are directly responsible for the failure of Viper to launch and sell.
Seeing how these dealers still do not see the light and try very little to sell their cars, maybe they should not get their money back. There is no doubt that neither Ralph Gilles or these dealers have learned anything at all from this Viper humiliation. The best way to teach anyone is by affecting their wallets.
SRT and Edsel-SRT is no more and Viper is Dodge Viper once again
Apparently it had to take Viper sales to remain at stand still for two years straight before Fiat executives finally figured out it is time to pull the plug on SRT "brand" and its CEO, Ralph Gilles.
This short but quite memorable existence of SRT brand will go down in the history of automotive world as one of the most resounding failures, right alongside of Edsel.
The idea was beyond silly from the get go: lumping together several souped up mainstream Chrysler vehicles, along with Viper and pretend they are distinct enough to turn them into separate car models and then sell them through the same run of the mill Chrysler dealers who happened to make their profits off mini vans and pick up trucks-absolutely ridiculous notion altogether.
They irony of the whole situation is the fact that the only original vehicle in SRT line up, Viper became the biggest victim of the ill thought out scheme. First, the best SRT could do with Viper was to give it a super rudimentary make over, recycling the same chassis and engine, dressing it up in a Generation 2 look alike skin while failing to deliver a roadster version or ability to custom tune and modify the car by removing the engine management software encryption (or even better, use another software altogether).
Then, the same SRT managed to turn off the buyers support by royally screwing over the first buyers who special ordered their vehicle and give the mini van dealers priority in obtaining the vehicles (and neither SRT or the dealers bothered to do any market research at all, before ordering options that nobody wanted) while the actual buyers had to wait for several months, kept in the dark.
The next step of SRT disaster consisted of super sloppy and careless attitude toward the automotive press, including delivery of press cars with parts literally falling off the cars and bald and mismatched tires. What even made the publicity worse was the attitude coming from Ralph Gilles, busy pointing fingers and blaming others for the screw ups and bad reviews, while lacking the balls to face the music and admitting his own faults.
The final step of this SRT demise came courtesy of the greedy dealers who idiotically assumed that ordering the more expensive version of the Viper, GTS, loading the cars to the max and on top of it, demand MARK UP would make their cars fly off their showroom floors.
Add to it super rude sales staff, no test rides and lack of financial incentives and realistic and attractive financing options and it is actually a surprise that there was a 2014 model year at all.
The fact that not only the 2014 Vipers continue to sit unsold but there are literally hundreds of unsold 2013 Vipers can be easily seen as the final nail in the Viper's coffin.
By now, it will take a miracle to see a 2015 version of Viper, even as a Dodge. The reality is that there is no budget to support any meaningful upgrades and on top of it, there are hundreds of unsold Vipers still branded as SRT Viper.
It is doubtful that Ralph or anyone else on SRT team can figure out that until all of the unsold cars are gone, there is option to continue with the Viper.
One thing is clear: Ralph Gilles is completely unfit to lead the Viper program and finding someone competent and with at least an ounce of common sense should be the first step in any further Viper development.
If this does not happen, the Viper is better off dead, just another memory from the past.
This short but quite memorable existence of SRT brand will go down in the history of automotive world as one of the most resounding failures, right alongside of Edsel.
The idea was beyond silly from the get go: lumping together several souped up mainstream Chrysler vehicles, along with Viper and pretend they are distinct enough to turn them into separate car models and then sell them through the same run of the mill Chrysler dealers who happened to make their profits off mini vans and pick up trucks-absolutely ridiculous notion altogether.
They irony of the whole situation is the fact that the only original vehicle in SRT line up, Viper became the biggest victim of the ill thought out scheme. First, the best SRT could do with Viper was to give it a super rudimentary make over, recycling the same chassis and engine, dressing it up in a Generation 2 look alike skin while failing to deliver a roadster version or ability to custom tune and modify the car by removing the engine management software encryption (or even better, use another software altogether).
Then, the same SRT managed to turn off the buyers support by royally screwing over the first buyers who special ordered their vehicle and give the mini van dealers priority in obtaining the vehicles (and neither SRT or the dealers bothered to do any market research at all, before ordering options that nobody wanted) while the actual buyers had to wait for several months, kept in the dark.
The next step of SRT disaster consisted of super sloppy and careless attitude toward the automotive press, including delivery of press cars with parts literally falling off the cars and bald and mismatched tires. What even made the publicity worse was the attitude coming from Ralph Gilles, busy pointing fingers and blaming others for the screw ups and bad reviews, while lacking the balls to face the music and admitting his own faults.
The final step of this SRT demise came courtesy of the greedy dealers who idiotically assumed that ordering the more expensive version of the Viper, GTS, loading the cars to the max and on top of it, demand MARK UP would make their cars fly off their showroom floors.
Add to it super rude sales staff, no test rides and lack of financial incentives and realistic and attractive financing options and it is actually a surprise that there was a 2014 model year at all.
The fact that not only the 2014 Vipers continue to sit unsold but there are literally hundreds of unsold 2013 Vipers can be easily seen as the final nail in the Viper's coffin.
By now, it will take a miracle to see a 2015 version of Viper, even as a Dodge. The reality is that there is no budget to support any meaningful upgrades and on top of it, there are hundreds of unsold Vipers still branded as SRT Viper.
It is doubtful that Ralph or anyone else on SRT team can figure out that until all of the unsold cars are gone, there is option to continue with the Viper.
One thing is clear: Ralph Gilles is completely unfit to lead the Viper program and finding someone competent and with at least an ounce of common sense should be the first step in any further Viper development.
If this does not happen, the Viper is better off dead, just another memory from the past.
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