I was amazed to find that a decent, low mileage, Viper can be bought for.

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My question is... Are they expensive to maintain? Is insurance outrageous? Does anyone on the boards have one? I'm not seriously considering a purchase, I just had no idea you could get one this cheap.

 

That is a very different car than the current Viper.

 

Strange... those year Vipers were never called the "SRT-10", were they? I thought that didn't pop up until this generation.

 

I was looking into them about 3 months ago, insurance was actually the same price as my S2000 for me. Maintenance isnt any more than a vette, but the body panels are extremely expensive.


The biggest turn off for me, was, I enjoy driving at the limits, and because of the rear wheel/tire size, you are going 80mph+ when the car lets go, and from what I hear, it isnt really recoverable(Snap oversteer)

The brakes are reasonably cheap, but the massive 335 tires are god awful expensive....

So, if u want a bad ass looking, fast and rare car just for the looks, grunt and occasional drag race...vipers are awesome, but if u are a track guy, you better have DEEP pockets.

 

And also consider that you will most likely only be driving this car on nice days with no chance of rain. It does not have windows in the doors. Think of it more like a soft top jeep with half doors. The windows are curtains that need to be put up and are not entirely weather tight.

 

I heard that other than the large amount of oil needed on oil changes and the high cost of tires, they are not expensive to maintain.

 

Nope, that year viper is the R/T 10

 

It's not an expensive car to maintain overall.

Certain parts can be very expensive and it seems arbitrary which ones cost a mint and which are cheap.

When I was looking at buying one insurance was roughly the same as my S2000.

I would look at a later model GTS (1997-2002) or an SRT-10 (2003 - now).

 

dude you can get a 3rd gen viper for around mid 30s. they look WAY better and are WAY better cars

 

Price of the hood is ridiculous. It was somewhere around 15K 3-4 years ago.... could only get worse...