Chrysler News: SRT Limiting The Number Of Dealers Selling The Viper

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

July 23, 2012

If you have been dreaming about seeing the new Viper at your local Chrysler dealer, you'll probably be disappointed by this news.

Automotive News had a chance to speak with SRT CEO Ralph Gilles. Gilles said that one out of every five Chrysler dealers will be selling the Viper.

"We're going to open it up to any dealer who can put the money forward and the training, but it's going to be pretty difficult to hit all of those things. You've got to have the training, the facilities, and some history of selling Vipers and SRTs in general," said Gilles.

The reason for the limited number of dealers selling the Viper is to offer the best service and experience for current and new Viper owners.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[G. David Felt]

This makes total sense. I really doubt you will find a dealership in the Ozarcs that would be able to sell a Viper. Same with a chevy dealership in boondocks of Idaho trying to sell a Corvette ZR1. When your dealing with 6 figure auto's, they should be kept to those dealers that can truly offer the best experiance available to the buyer.

[Drew Dowdell]

Doesn't Chevy do this for the high end Vette's also?

[A Horse With No Name]

Not sure, but around here GM takes excellent care of their High Performance customers.

When we were looking for our last car, we also checked outthe Camaro. Special salesperson and special department at my local chevy dealer just for Camaro-Corvette Sales....dedicated sales staff...specially trained mechanics.

One of the guys in My mee-otter group that races a Mazda Speed Miata is a specially trained Corvette mechanic.

Around here, this is something GM is doing very, very well...!

[G. David Felt]

Doesn't Chevy do this for the high end Vette's also?

I hope so, not really sure myself, but I can say that both the Kirkland and Bellevue Chevy dealerships have multiple ZR1 Corvettes on hand. Course with an average income of $89,000 a year for those cities, I am sure there are more than one or two high tech workers who can afford one. Just like the BMW & MB dealerships there they both have special departments for the M and AMG series of auto's.

[Turbojett]

I think this is probably a smart move. I don't know about Z06's, but I know only certain dealerships can land a ZR1, and possibly a ZL1. This would prevent said car from landing out on a dealership out in the boondocks where it more than likely won't sell. and even if the boondock-dealership actually has a taker, there's nothing saying that they can't order the car from one of the dealers that does get it.

[daves87rs]

Strange, but I guess it works...