1996 Dodge Viper Article at Automotive.com

»Locate a Dealer»Find a Used Car»Get Financing

Most Popular: Hybrid Cars|Lexus IS350|Dodge Charger

HOME

1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 - Beauties & The Beast - Exotic Cars - Viper Hard Top

Below is an enthusiast article written by the automotive experts at Motor Trend. Driving The '96 Dodge Viper RT/10 In The California Mille Miglia Vintage-Car Spectacular

QUICK PRICE QUOTE

DEALER LOCATOR

User Rating

N/A

Rating:

Value Rating

N/A

LEARN WHY

IntelliChoice Value Rating

The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.

One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.

What is a good car value?

A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.

But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?

For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.

This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)

Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.

Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.

So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.

Change Submodel

CHANGE VEHICLE

Article From Motor Trend Magazine

1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 - Beauties & The Beast

Article provided by: Motor Trend Magazine

From behind the wheel, the '96 performance differences are subtle at best, unless you're doing top-speed testing. The ride feels a little more compliant, with the initial impact on bumps better managed. Steering is less darty, with improved turn-in characteristics. Plus, it feels a tad lighter and more nimble around corners.

Swapping cars is common at the Cal Mille, and Maggie Specker, who had spent the first two days in her husband's '53 Jaguar XK120 FHC, was now behind the wheel of our Viper-her first time in the monster Dodge. She spent the initial few miles following conservatively behind a row of participant cars while she got a feel for the roadster. Now, though, we were reaching a long straight section, ideal for passing. Almost timidly, she pulled out across the centerline and slowly depressed the throttle. The Viper lunged forward as if fitted with solid-fuel booster rockets. Cars blurred past us on the right side and a broad grin spread across her wide-eyed face.

In only seconds, she'd left the string behind, begrudgingly returned to the right lane, and eased off the throttle. Apparently now intoxicated with Viper power, she looked over and with a gleam in her eyes simply said, "I want this car."

The familiar 8.0-liter OHV aluminum V-10 engine still resides under the new Viper's forward-lifting hood. Through careful fine-tuning to the exhaust and air-intake systems, the Viper team has squeezed out another 20 horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque, upping its totals to 420 horses and 480 pound- feet. Along with this comes an upgraded cooling system and an OBD II-compatible emissions-control system.

At real-world speeds, the '96's extra power is nearly invisible. With 400 horses at your beck and call, another 20 tend to get lost in the mix. Either way, getting into the throttle is like unleashing the power of the Biblical Beast. And with a wide, flat power curve that seems to go on forever, it sometimes seems like the Viper's six-speed transmission has about four more gears than it really needs.

We were heading into one of the most spectacular stretches of the route-up through the Sierra Nevada's Feather River canyon on the way to Lake Tahoe. But the dark, threatening clouds weren't bluffing, and soon large raindrops began pelting the open-top Viper. Within minutes we were in a torrential downpour.

We pulled off the road to put up the softtop, but without the protective air pocket created while driving, the rain came full force into the cabin and small pools began to collect in the seats. Since the top installation is akin to a 10-minute Chinese-puzzle exercise in the dry, we figured we'd get wetter trying to get it on than if we just kept driving. We took off again. The wind whipped in around the side of the windshield, testing the water resistance of our jackets, but overall the air pocket provided decent shelter as long as we kept moving. Most annoying were the droplets along the top of the windshield that, like a cruel water torture, slowly but repeatedly dripped onto our jean-clad laps. With about an hour and half to go to the shelter of our lunch stop, we put up with our wet jeans and cold hands, glad that unlike in some of the vintage cars, we at least had a windshield and heater, and didn't need goggles to see where we were going.

Also available for the '96 Viper are a new hard top and sliding plastic windscreens. The hard top takes about 15 minutes to put on or take off (and requires tools),but is a good compromise in bad weather, and it fits older Vipers as well. The preproduction model we eventually had a chance to try kept the elements at bay, but was fraught with miscellaneous squeaks, a condition that Chrysler Vice President of Product Design Tom Gale says will be addressed with the production units.

...>>next page