The SRT Viper Moves a Disappointing 591 Units in 2013 but a Bright Future is Coming

The 2013 SRT Viper officially went on sale in early 2013 with the very first units being delivered in March before the full delivery process began in April. Viper sales peaked in June with 97 units sold but the numbers would dip back down and fluctuate in the 40-60 range for much of the 2013 calendar year with sales bottoming out in November when just 41 Vipers were delivered. Granted, the company got off to a slow start before really getting going at full speed in April but even if the company had posted average sales numbers in January, February and March – the company would have only delivered only around 788 new Mopar supercars. Chrysler really hasn’t said how many SRT Vipers they plan to sell but they plan to cap production at 3,000 units for 2014 and 2,000 units for 2015 so for dealerships to need that many Vipers in 2014, there is going to need to be a big boom in Viper deliveries.

While some critics (who have obviously not driven the new SRT Viper) believe that Chrysler Group may have missed the mark with the new supercar but SRT boss Ralph Gilles believes that the problem isnt due to lack of demand. Instead, the slow delivery comes due to dealerships ordering Vipers that have not been ordered by a customer simply to fill their showroom. These cars are ordered and built just to spend some time sitting on a dealership showroom floor and while they will eventually sell – these models clog up and slow down the production process thus preventing the company from completing production of those specially ordered Vipers that have customers waiting with cash in hand.

The odds are good that the vast majority of SRT-approved dealerships have gotten their fill of showroom décor and Gilles points out that production is indeed backlogged with 2014 SRT Viper orders but the combination of the slow start, the high number of dealer orders, the careful production process and the scrutinizing quality control process has slowed the early delivery process…thus making the numbers look worse than they actually are. Helping the SRT Viper in 2014 will be the introduction of the quickest of the new Vipers – the Viper Time Attack. This model was originally expected to be limited to just 33 units but newer reports indicate that 93 copies of the Viper TA will be built. While that wont make a huge difference in sales, those are 93 more units that will certainly have a buyer waiting when they roll off of the assembly line.

If nothing else, SRT Viper sales in 2014 will get better simply because the car is sold at full speed for a full 12 months but we should see numbers more than double through the 2014 year for the new Mopar supercar. In the end, it really doesn’t matter if Chrysler sells 591 or 2,591 in a year as the Viper isnt a volume vehicle but there is no doubt that the company hopes to see numbers grow substantially in the new year.