The VIPER TAX

[MH60M]

In the parts business, I see both sides of this argument. I agree that without the "Vendors" lots of Viper knowledge and information would be lost. I understand innovation and R&D costs money and I'll pay for it if/when I need it. I do appreciate them keeping parts available in one spot for us to purchase, although its mildly irritating that we can often buy the exact same part directly from the supplier for much cheaper. But hard to find parts, are just that, and I willingly paid $60 for a $22 plastic door sill that was discontinued 3 months ago. I understand everyones' financial situation is different, we all need to eat, and make a buck. Mostly, its up to the buyer to do his/hers due-diligence to not get hosed. Or, if you feel that the service you received from a Vendor warrants the up-charge on parts or the "handling fee"; you'll gladly pay it and be happy. I've sold many of my NIB NOS spare parts for a profit to fund other parts I need. I just bought a full set of OEM GenIII spark plugs online for $10.90...I know the Viper Vendors are 4x that,....maybe the vendor gets them at AutoZone for $4.50ea an is just helping us out by keeping them in stock? I'm not judging, i'll just buy elsewhere.

As to the club side, my local club has some cool AutoX events, but some other prior members have said that the current club doesn't take new club members seriously, and any input is ignored....so the new members drop off and there is no diversity of ideas, or fresh energy to move the club forward. The old VCA-now-VOA crowd can be a bit snooty. At my first meet back in 2010, a Viper Vendor based in Oregon took one look at my car and said it was scrap.....he'd buy it off me for $5k with a chuckle and went back to chatting with his buds. I understand that in the big scheme of things I'm nothing, but I'll never forget that "Viper Club" conversation and I'll never spend a dime at his shop. This behavior can be found at almost any car club though; I think everyone has something to contribute to the greater good. There is no one right answer and what's good for one; is not good for all.....pay the tax or do better research to avoid it where you can.

And yes!.....-Raccoons are nature's little bastards.

[Double0fox]

In the parts business, I see both sides of this argument. I agree that without the "Vendors" lots of Viper knowledge and information would be lost. I understand innovation and R&D costs money and I'll pay for it if/when I need it. I do appreciate them keeping parts available in one spot for us to purchase, although its mildly irritating that we can often buy the exact same part directly from the supplier for much cheaper. But hard to find parts, are just that, and I willingly paid $60 for a $22 plastic door sill that was discontinued 3 months ago. I understand everyones' financial situation is different, we all need to eat, and make a buck. Mostly, its up to the buyer to do his/hers due-diligence to not get hosed. Or, if you feel that the service you received from a Vendor warrants the up-charge on parts or the "handling fee"; you'll gladly pay it and be happy. I've sold many of my NIB NOS spare parts for a profit to fund other parts I need. I just bought a full set of OEM GenIII spark plugs online for $10.90...I know the Viper Vendors are 4x that, and I feel that's a little dirty.

As to the club side, my local club has some cool AutoX events, but some other prior members have said that the current club doesn't take new club members seriously, and any input is ignored....so the new members drop off and there is no diversity of ideas, or fresh energy to move the club forward. The old VCA-now-VOA crowd can be a bit snooty. At my first meet back in 2010, a Viper Vendor took one look at my car and said it was scrap.....he'd buy it off me for $5k with a chuckle and went back to chatting with his buds. I understand that in the big scheme of things I'm nothing, but I'll never forget that "Viper Club" conversation and I'll never spend a dime at his shop. This behavior can be found at almost any car club though; I think everyone has something to contribute to the greater good. There is no one right answer and what's good for one; is not good for all.....pay the tax or do better research to avoid it where you can.

And yes!.....-Raccoons are nature's little bastards.

[99RT10]

I just bought a full set of OEM GenIII spark plugs online for $10.90...I know the Viper Vendors are 4x that, and I feel that's a little dirty.


And yes!.....-Raccoons are nature's little bastards.

You have a Gen 3 too?!!!

[ViperSRT]

Sure, ignore advice and call the advice giver names. Roll the dice as you wish. Some of us lived through failure episodes in the past and learned the solutions were worth the problem avoidance for the future. Do yourself a favor and research engine failures 10-15 years ago and find out how the stock oil filter was determined to be part of the causation. Most owners that did switched to avoid the expensive 15k failure for a $10 part.

As for prices most here do not intentionally overpay for anything (no matter what your feeble mind may think). There is a huge difference between seeking the better deal and spending your money where you find it versus complaining on the web about what you perceive as bad deals. For example I just bought oil at Costco at a very low price. I did not feel the need to find the places where oil may be overpriced (like at filling stations for example) And call them out on the web.

[VENMPWR]

You better hurry there's only 2 left. The rest of us regular folk will stick to the cheap Monoprice ones.

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[ViperSRT]

Keep going like you are the pink bunny from Energizer. You prove my point perfectly. Almost all of my cables are from Monoprice. But I do not post how overpriced the Monster cables at Best Buy are.

[Bill Pemberton]

I am hoping in Vegas we can get more of the SRT Engineers to show up and do a couple of Tech Sessions. Some of the items folks are discussing here, are to a degree, due to the fact that interactions many of us had with Dodge/SRT have not been experienced by some of our new members. Little items like an oil filter may seem like they are no big deal, but to sit down with the Engineers that worked with Wix to design a filter for the Viper due to some unique characteristics ( plus seeing concerns with hard usage) , would give folks a different perspective on why a few extra bucks might be important for their Snake engine. The other day one of the folks on this Forum sent me a part number that was supposed to be for a Gen 1 from Rock Auto. Funny thing was I went back and showed our Tech the pictures of the part that were sent and he simply said , wrong part. We run into this all the time , where FCA supercedes a part that appears similar and then it does not fit the newer/older vehicle. Viper Tech ( Joe ) did say there was a good possibility it could be modified to work, but it was definitely not the correct part. This is the paradox we will have with the Viper as it goes out of production. Sharing ideas , and finding parts that might work will likely be beneficial for all of us to keep things running in years to come, but to just buy parts on price alone may cause some surprises in quality especially if they are different than what was expected. So I am for amiable research and sharing amongst owners, but along that line, we , as owners, will have to realize for companies to take care of our small numbers there may be some items that appear on the surface to be priced higher, and we will have to ask ourselves are we willing to pay to have businesses focus on our machine, or are we going to walk away and try to do it all by ourselves?