Vipers That Cannot Be Charmed

"Mosqvich" (mosqvich)
08/22/2013 at 13:04 • Filed to: Viper, SRT, Motor Trend, Best Driver's Car

[Spoiler Alert] In the Book of Jeremiah we are warned:

“See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,”declares the Lord."

Motor Trend is wrapping up its !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and they've published results on their website. The bombshell? The 2013 Viper comes in dead last. Last place. To summarize why, the car was a basket case of problems and literally frightened Pro driver Randy Pro.

"I broke a sweat driving fast in the car today," he said. Some people think it's manly to wrestle a car around a corner, but to quote editor-at-large Angus MacKenzie, "I've never met a race car driver who wanted to fight a car around the track."

Take some time and go read the report. It seriously shocked me considering the importance of the Viper to the SRT brand. "This Viper had a number of mechanical issues that sank it in voting." These types of issues on a standard production Viper with the Track Package that was knowingly handed over to one of the largest automotive magazines on the planet for an incredibly important test is troubling. Think about this: the Ford Focus ST beat the Viper in overall voting. A front-wheel drive hot hatch beat a fire-breathing V-10 powered American powerhouse.

Photos and Video: Motor Trend

DISCUSSION (29)

GhostZ > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:06

Book of Vanishing Point, The Movie, 1:02:46:

FREE THE VIPERS!

I wish that clip was on youtube.

Casper > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:11

I can see it. It's best "driver's car" not coolest car or fastest car. This is what confuses a lot of people when other people praise cars like the BRZ/FR-S. There is only a minimal amount of speed needed to be a great drive. With cars like the Viper, you only use a tiny portion of the car most of the time, and when doing it, it's wearing you down and tiring you out. It's fun for a few minutes, but not a real drive. It then had additional problems piled on top of that.

The list looks reasonable for just a "driver's" list. It's all about impression and opinion.

SonorousSpeedJoe > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:12

I thought there might be problems when I saw that panel gap.

Also, if I recall correctly, Motor Trend noted in their Viper TA test (or was it the Wide Open Throttle segment?) that the Viper GTS used in the SRT Viper vs. Corvette ZR1 Head2Head had alignment issues at the rear right wheel.

Party-vi > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:13

"Best Driver's Car If You Manage A Hedge Fund"

Fixed that for you, MT. Not that it helps since this list makes no fucking sense. Really, who cross shops a Focus ST ($24k), Porsche 911 4S ($105k) and an SLS AMG Black Series (+$250k)?

doodon2whls > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:14

WOW... it sounds like some folks at SRT will be rethinking their PR Car preparation steps. What an unfortunate mis-step.

Mosqvich > Casper
08/22/2013 at 13:14

Well, it's not opinion when the car literally falls apart in significant areas impacting safe operation of the vehicle. This will happen out in the wild, only we'll never hear about it. This is a serious quality issue and casts doubt on Chrysler's manufacturing and engineering chops.

During figure-eight testing, one of the motors that moves the adjustable pedals broke off under braking and jammed the brake pedal to the floor. Thankfully, the figure-eight course is a controlled environment, but had this happened during road testing or lapping at Laguna Seca, the results could've been bad. Couple that with the fact that two of the four bolts holding the driver's seat to the car were not even finger-tight, and we had a serious safety issue.

Takuro Spirit > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:19

Pfft, they took a broken down press car with mismatched tires and other questionable problems and still drove it. What did they expect?

Mosqvich > Takuro Spirit
08/22/2013 at 13:21

That's not really my point. The question has to be "can we expect this in customer cars after a few months of use?" I get where you're coming from, press cars get beat up, but none of the other cars had safety issues to my knowledge.

Z_Stig > Party-vi
08/22/2013 at 13:27

This is why I don't read MT. Most of their articles are all over the place.

Takuro Spirit > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:29

Who knows? Maybe it was an early production car?

Are the SRT Vipers out in customers hands yet? I'm sure they'll tell the true story. Tell ya one thing though, the Viper was never a quality automobile. I mean, in the end it's always been a Dodge with parts-bin items to keep the costs down. Glad to see they're keeping the past alive.

Mosqvich > Takuro Spirit
08/22/2013 at 13:33

You're probably right. I'm not looking in that direction for our not to distant in the future sports car purchase. We're looking at Germany. Stuttgart most likely.

Casper > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:34

I don't know, a lot of people have project cars on here that fall a part and they may argue that it adds to the "driving experience".

I prefer cars that have the same number of pieces when I get back from driving as when I leave, so I happen to agree with you and the editors. It would certainly be an experience to have the brakes seize on the Cork Screw though.

SonorousSpeedJoe > Takuro Spirit
08/22/2013 at 13:35

I heard that Chrysler was selling SRT Vipers to current Viper owners in the beginning, but a quick AutoTrader search shows that dealerships have SRT Vipers in stock.

Takuro Spirit > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:37

The kid in my would love a Viper someday, but if I ever had to make the purchase with my own money, I'd look elsewhere as well.

Not to knock Dodge/SRT, but I've worked for them, and owned their products and.... there's something lacking in the experience.

Jayhawk Jake > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 13:45

I'm skimming the article and noticed that they had MMI instead of Sync in the Focus pictures. Oh god I was super excited for a second, then extremely depressed. Sync is so terrible, and MMI is so amazeballs.

Kinja'd!!!

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Jayhawk Jake
08/22/2013 at 14:34

I like sync in my Taurus, bbut maybe I'll sing a different tune once I get to try MMI

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Party-vi
08/22/2013 at 14:46

So you're saying that they shouldn't have picked the actual best possible driving cars because most people can't afford them? So basically make it a pony car + FRS/BRZ test then? Cause that was last year's battle actually. Camaro ZL1, Mustang GT500, and subaru BRZ. Guess what? 911 won, followed by GTR and then the AMG black.

THey dinged the BRZ for having shitty brakes that got ruined after a few laps. They bring up a good point - for all the advertisements about the car being a fun loving, driftable car, the brakes are not up for abuse.

Party-vi > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
08/22/2013 at 14:54

This review is a service to no one. Again, who cross shops $250k cars with $30k cars? If this were a true driver's car test where is the miata, or 458 Italia, or Gallardo, etc. It makes zero sense to compare the Focus ST in the same test as the F-Type, or Cayman with the Viper.

Jayhawk Jake > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs
08/22/2013 at 15:00

MMI takes some getting used to, but once you've figured it out boy is it good. Of course I may have a different opinion of MMI where the controls are mounted under the screen. In the A5 the controls are at the edge of the armrest and it's a dream to use.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Party-vi
08/22/2013 at 15:14

Oh I see your problem now. You think this is a "review" when they never once say it's a proper review. It's not even a comparison. All they are looking for is how the car feels to drive and they selected a bunch of cars that are new or significantly changed in the past year. Any way you look at it, between better material choices, better fit/finish, more development, better engineering etc.....A more expensive car is going to win this type of competition. It wasn't just about raw numbers either, as they drove them on the road and had Pobst give overall driving impressions.

tl;dr - not a review, just a "best of" list of driver's cars for 2013

Somethingwittyer likes noisy > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 15:18

Honestly, between the bad PR, the fact I don't trust a single word from MT, and the all the press they milk from talking crap about the Viper, I'm not going to trust MT here. Let's see the owners speak for themselves about reliability.

Party-vi > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
08/22/2013 at 15:28

They're ranked from 12th place to 1st; it's surely a comparison. If it were a "best of" there'd be no rankings.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Party-vi
08/22/2013 at 15:34

It's such a loose comparison they might as well not even bother. The viper got dinged HARD for its prep work and the focus ST's brake issues also hit it pretty badly despite getting heaps of praise from all. Meanwhile they placed the cayman in 5th I believe because "it felt like it should've been better"......so how in the hell do you rate that?

Mosqvich > Somethingwittyer likes noisy
08/22/2013 at 15:35

Fair enough. That's where the rubber literally meets the road, right?

Somethingwittyer likes noisy > Mosqvich
08/22/2013 at 15:35

Exactly.

Party-vi > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
08/22/2013 at 15:41

True. And again it's Motor Trend so I don't know why I even care haha.

/R&T reader

Josh Welton > Takuro Spirit
08/22/2013 at 19:32

A friend of mine has one with the track pack. I've ridden in it, fit and finish was perfect. He drove it from Detroit to Houston, then on the Hot Rod Power Tour, and he's had zero issue. Drives the piss out of it too...his plate is "Trak It"

Takuro Spirit > Josh Welton
08/22/2013 at 20:04

Good to hear. I've been in a few original Vipers, a GTS (that was 4 years old and only had 200 miles on it, what a waste), and was working for Dodge when the SRT-10 came out. They were basically kit car quality, but who cares. Damn things are fast.

marshknute > Mosqvich
08/23/2013 at 00:53

This Driver's Car Competition was the real awakening point for me with the Viper. When it was first revealed, I was amazed by the beautiful styling, and the upscale interior. I was convinced that it was a much-needed modernization of the brutal beast.

Since then, I have been consistently disappointed. For one, it has the worst exhaust note of any sports car on the market. The odd-firing V10 just sounds rough and asthmatic, and is inexcusable given the fantastic sounding V10 engines from the Carrera GT, R8, and LF-A.

Then, reviews started to come in reporting how uncivilized the driving experience still was. It is noisy, hot, cramped, and difficult to see out of.

Then MotorTrend did this competition, and found the car to display genuinely horrible build quality. The brake motor snapped, causing the brake pedal to jam to the floor. The air vent blew off at speed. The driver's seat wasn't bolted in place, and the exhaust melted the paintwork.