Potential purchase of Viper Copperhead
Discussion
Hi, I’m hoping that I can some advice regarding potential purchase of a 2005 Copperhead SRT10. It is advertised on Car & Classic website @ £45000. It has had one owner from new and has only done 10k miles. Described as immaculate.
That’s the good part. It has never been serviced and is currently sorn. The seller has agreed to have it serviced and mot’d within the price. Is it worth considering or should I walk away and find a serviced car with probably higher mileage? The Copperhead spec is nice but would rather have a sorted and (hopefully) reliable car.
Look forward to your thoughts.
Thanks
That’s the good part. It has never been serviced and is currently sorn. The seller has agreed to have it serviced and mot’d within the price. Is it worth considering or should I walk away and find a serviced car with probably higher mileage? The Copperhead spec is nice but would rather have a sorted and (hopefully) reliable car.
Look forward to your thoughts.
Thanks
One of our ex club members is selling a copperhead colour car but its not one of the Genuine Copperhead cars that would have come with a limited edition dash plaque. But its a sound car. Colour is factory painted by Dodge, (it was a special order)
You need to do all the usual things when buying a car like this, Check the colour of the Oil Clutch and Brake fluid.
Servicing is an interesting one, there are now no Dodge dealers and the chances of a UK Chrysler Jeep mechanic ever seeing a Viper is highly unlikely.
If regular oil changes have been done it should be fine.
Our Club Vice Prez does servicing work on Vipers and is based in Luton, Beds, but the great thing about these cars is they are easy to work on if you have basic mechanical skills.
10K is nothing on these engines but there were some engines that had an oil starvation issue and spun main bearings.
This normally showed by excessive oil consumption and some engines were factory replaced, (it was to do with the oil pick up in the pan, if the oil was low the pan pick up sometimes ran dry, resulting in excess wear usually if a owner had tracked the car without realising how critical the level on the dipstick was.
So check all paperwork.
They made 300 Copperheads and there should be a dash plate to show this.
Drop me a pm if you want details on the car I mentioned above.
Cheers Mark.
VOA UK Prez
You need to do all the usual things when buying a car like this, Check the colour of the Oil Clutch and Brake fluid.
Servicing is an interesting one, there are now no Dodge dealers and the chances of a UK Chrysler Jeep mechanic ever seeing a Viper is highly unlikely.
If regular oil changes have been done it should be fine.
Our Club Vice Prez does servicing work on Vipers and is based in Luton, Beds, but the great thing about these cars is they are easy to work on if you have basic mechanical skills.
10K is nothing on these engines but there were some engines that had an oil starvation issue and spun main bearings.
This normally showed by excessive oil consumption and some engines were factory replaced, (it was to do with the oil pick up in the pan, if the oil was low the pan pick up sometimes ran dry, resulting in excess wear usually if a owner had tracked the car without realising how critical the level on the dipstick was.
So check all paperwork.
They made 300 Copperheads and there should be a dash plate to show this.
Drop me a pm if you want details on the car I mentioned above.
Cheers Mark.
VOA UK Prez
Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 26th May 17:26
Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 26th May 17:29
Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 26th May 17:31
rup999 said:
If you could ask around it would be much appreciated. Also if you know of any similar vehicles that may be for sale which may not be advertised I would be very interested in hearing about them.
Hope that's a quick and helpful response........Thank you Mr President.
Good luck in your search and if you purchase a Viper then you'll find we're a small friendly club in the UK which is part of a world-wide club - Viper Owners Association.
undoubtedly that is a nice car in a great colour, although price seems a tad high for a gen 3 convertible, but if it's a Copperhead you want there's probably a choice of only the 2 already mentioned
If it has the original runflat tyres, they WILL need changing even if the tread is good, so budget £1200 to replace them with quality rubber. My car was on tyres dated 2005 on the front and it drove horrendously. New rubber transformed it completely.
Check for leaks on the end of the oil cooler pipes, and make sure the A/C and heater fan works on all speeds, that both windows go up and down with no noises, and the condition of the convertible top - which is expensive to replace. Another known issue is sticking handbrake calipers which cause the inner (unseen) pad to wear out and damage the rear discs.
If you want a potentially 'cheap' Viper it maybe worth checking out this car which is for sale. I don't know the car or it's history other than the MOT expired 5 years ago!
https://www.autovillage.co.uk/used-car/dodge/viper...
As for servicing, my local garage has been able to do everything for me so far
If it has the original runflat tyres, they WILL need changing even if the tread is good, so budget £1200 to replace them with quality rubber. My car was on tyres dated 2005 on the front and it drove horrendously. New rubber transformed it completely.
Check for leaks on the end of the oil cooler pipes, and make sure the A/C and heater fan works on all speeds, that both windows go up and down with no noises, and the condition of the convertible top - which is expensive to replace. Another known issue is sticking handbrake calipers which cause the inner (unseen) pad to wear out and damage the rear discs.
If you want a potentially 'cheap' Viper it maybe worth checking out this car which is for sale. I don't know the car or it's history other than the MOT expired 5 years ago!
https://www.autovillage.co.uk/used-car/dodge/viper...
As for servicing, my local garage has been able to do everything for me so far
Edited by sonicbloo on Tuesday 28th May 19:21
The one advertised on autovillage has been on for a while. I did enquire about it, they said it was due in and would contact me when available. Heard nothing for a couple of weeks, emailed for an update but heard nothing back - if it looks too good to be true it probably isn’t.
I’m going to look at the one as recommended in above post over the weekend so fingers crossed.
Thanks for all input and I will post again when I’ve looked at the car.
I’m going to look at the one as recommended in above post over the weekend so fingers crossed.
Thanks for all input and I will post again when I’ve looked at the car.
Just looking for a Viper myself and found thread. Don't know if you bought it but 10,000 miles is nothing on these engines. I'd expect car to be in same condition as a demonstrator that's less than 12 months old if it's been kept in dry storage, cherished, with a dust cover on. Only caveat is that it hasn't been used for short journeys as a shopping car which is highly unlikely given the engine size and size of boot. It's a hell of a find if it's in the UK and it's a genuine Copperhead with that mileage. Shipping, IVA compliance, tax and VAT would cost in the region of 10-12k if you bought a low mileage copperhead in the states.
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