Advice on buying a Viper
Discussion
Hi all
My wife is looking at the chance of expanding our fleet of cars with a Viper. She went and played with one a Thruxton last week and fell in love.
We currently have a TVR Chimaera that she drives, how practical would a Viper be compared to this, the TVR covers about 10,000 miles a year and we would like to split this on a second sports car.
There is a right hand drive for sale on Autotrader is this a genuine car or would you not touch this with a very long pole.
any advice
Peter.
My wife is looking at the chance of expanding our fleet of cars with a Viper. She went and played with one a Thruxton last week and fell in love.
We currently have a TVR Chimaera that she drives, how practical would a Viper be compared to this, the TVR covers about 10,000 miles a year and we would like to split this on a second sports car.
There is a right hand drive for sale on Autotrader is this a genuine car or would you not touch this with a very long pole.
any advice
Peter.
bigviper said:
as practicality go a gts would be a bit better as there is much more boot space,you can go for a long weekend in one but dont take the kitchen sink,any ideas on wot you looking for year,colour etc as there a couple for sale but not realy advertised
This is only the start of the search so She is getting me to do the homework, I don't think the purchase will be for at least 18 months once we have some more space. We did get it wrong with the TVR by getting the first one we looked at but that was my fault. So this time lots of ground work.As for colour and year it would depend on whats around at the time, we have 2 yellow and one black cars at the moment, but I know she dislike silver and not to keen on red but on a Viper it looks good.
ViperDave said:
RT/10Dave said:
This could be good! Another car potentially down here with me!!! 
He might be up north with me though.The Tvr is more than enough for me but she wants more and loves raw power over flappy paddles and prancing horses.
pblake said:
ViperDave said:
RT/10Dave said:
This could be good! Another car potentially down here with me!!!
He might be up north with me though.The Tvr is more than enough for me but she wants more and loves raw power over flappy paddles and prancing horses.
Hi PBlake, There is lots of info out there on Vipers, To get you started you could have a look in the VCA Website, there link is below
www.vca.org
They have a classifides secton and most of the cars would have been well looked after
There is also this site where you can check out the VIN number of the car
www.theviperregistry.org/vin.php
Here are some other links to internet sites
www.autotrader.com
www.vast.com
www.internetautoguide.com
Remember the prices are in dollars so international exchange rates apply as well as Shipping import duty etc, But it can be done
I found my car in the US last year and imported it in I had never done anything like that before and it was easier than expected.
There is a book out called the Viper buyers guide by maurice Lang, this book lists the various models and options.
Not sure if you have ever looked at ever buying an american car before, so dont be fooled by reg nos! You get the true age of the car from the VIN No Not the UK plate
The UK Viper club knows most of the Vipers around overhere and there are some to stay well away from
If your serious about the Viper it would be worth you joining the VCA, you will have access to all fourms and could ask lots more questions. There is also a car history website called CARFAX Its like the UKs HPI check, but its much more detailed. If the car has had any problems or been involved in an accident with insurance work done it will show up on this site. Dont buy a car without checking!!! It saved my bacon (but thats another story) HPI ONLY covers the car if its had any problems over here. It will not show you any history the car had in the states
If I can be of any help feel free to ask any questions
Good luck with your search
www.vca.org
They have a classifides secton and most of the cars would have been well looked after
There is also this site where you can check out the VIN number of the car
www.theviperregistry.org/vin.php
Here are some other links to internet sites
www.autotrader.com
www.vast.com
www.internetautoguide.com
Remember the prices are in dollars so international exchange rates apply as well as Shipping import duty etc, But it can be done
I found my car in the US last year and imported it in
I had never done anything like that before and it was easier than expected.There is a book out called the Viper buyers guide by maurice Lang, this book lists the various models and options.
Not sure if you have ever looked at ever buying an american car before, so dont be fooled by reg nos! You get the true age of the car from the VIN No Not the UK plate
The UK Viper club knows most of the Vipers around overhere and there are some to stay well away from If your serious about the Viper it would be worth you joining the VCA, you will have access to all fourms and could ask lots more questions. There is also a car history website called CARFAX Its like the UKs HPI check, but its much more detailed. If the car has had any problems or been involved in an accident with insurance work done it will show up on this site. Dont buy a car without checking!!! It saved my bacon (but thats another story)
HPI ONLY covers the car if its had any problems over here. It will not show you any history the car had in the states If I can be of any help feel free to ask any questions
Good luck with your search
Edited by fatboy18 on Wednesday 8th April 09:14
Peter, are you based in North or South Hampshire? You are more than welcome to take a look at my car if you'd like, as you are reasonably local? It might help you and your wife get a feel for things, and I will happily help with any questions you may have.. You have definitely come to the right place if you are looking for advice and assistance as most of the club hangs around on this forum at some point or another, and between us there is a fountain of knowledge available.
If you are looking for a particular colour then the likelihood is that you will have to shop abroad, as Mark has said above, as there aren't a huge number of Vipers in the UK, but the club is aware of a couple of absolutely immaculate cars which are currently for sale in the UK but not being advertised anywhere. Specifically there are two very low mileage Blue and White 97 GTS' available which are spotless, one of which hasn't so much as seen rain before.
We are aware of a few cars in the UK which should be steered well clear of, mainly due to severe accident damage/repair and extremely sketchy history. So please stay in touch about any potential purchases.
I was going to send you an email through your profile, but I notice that you currently don't have this option available, Send me a PM through my profile if I can be of any further help.
Good luck with your search.
If you are looking for a particular colour then the likelihood is that you will have to shop abroad, as Mark has said above, as there aren't a huge number of Vipers in the UK, but the club is aware of a couple of absolutely immaculate cars which are currently for sale in the UK but not being advertised anywhere. Specifically there are two very low mileage Blue and White 97 GTS' available which are spotless, one of which hasn't so much as seen rain before.
We are aware of a few cars in the UK which should be steered well clear of, mainly due to severe accident damage/repair and extremely sketchy history. So please stay in touch about any potential purchases.
I was going to send you an email through your profile, but I notice that you currently don't have this option available, Send me a PM through my profile if I can be of any further help.
Good luck with your search.
RT/10Dave said:
Peter, are you based in North or South Hampshire?
Good luck with your search.
We are in East Hampshire right on the Surrey Berks boarder.Good luck with your search.
Thanks for the offer I am sure my other half will take you up on it as we get closer to making a serious commitemnt.
Thanks agian for your help.
A tip that may well help, re importing, if you buy a car ( or boat, etc ) from the USA, you might consider having it put in your name and insured over there for 6 months - if you can leave it with a friend or former owner, that way it will come into the UK tax free - save you 27% of the price unless you can fiddle it some other way....... just a thought.
um, when i imported mine, you had to prove you'd been resident in the usa for atleast a year (whilest owning the car there for however long - maybe it was 6mths - don't remember). so if you have a friend to look after it, you could get them to put 1 of their property's utility bills in your name, but it gets a bit far fetched and a year's a long while to wait and might be a waste of time if customs some how find out about this arrangement!
buy from a state that has the higher/est sales tax (texas etc) as you don't pay that on exporting the car, but it means the car's likely to be a little cheaper (USA prices advertised are ex sales tax). plus a car used in somewhere south like texas is likely to have less rust...
buy from a state that has the higher/est sales tax (texas etc) as you don't pay that on exporting the car, but it means the car's likely to be a little cheaper (USA prices advertised are ex sales tax). plus a car used in somewhere south like texas is likely to have less rust...
viper paul said:
And if you get caught doing this the Customs and excise sieze the car and fine you a percentage of its value + the 27% or forsuch a high amount you may even get a nice set of shiney handcuffs to try on.
Viewed by HM Customs as fraud, you may win or you may not.
Viewed by HM Customs as fraud, you may win or you may not.
the best rout is to get an invice for half the value and noted on the invoice sold as seen with engine problems, a note on the inport documintation do not start, but as mentiond it is fraud
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