Looking for a 2002 GTS ACR Graphite Color

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IDM

IDM

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yeah basically I want a low mile 2002 ACR in Graphite ; )

I dont really care if the price goes up and down, I still want it and am going to drive it here and there on the weekends as I please. I will not be daily driving it and it will be a garage queen.
 

agentf1

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Hi there,

Thank you for the help and your opinion. I disagree that a car with 5k miles is worth the same as another with 38k miles to a collector. You may have a point that a 20 year old car with 38k miles would be a very low mile example but starting off at 38k miles today leaves no miles/enjoyment to put on it myself. I would say the lower the miles the better in my case. I am not sure what the cutoff is but 38 seems so close to 40 and I never want to approach 50 while I own it. 20-25k miles max seems reasonable.

You are on the right track. You really want something with less than 10,000 miles as to some Viper collectors anything over 10k is high mileage. I am not sure I agree but that seems to be the consensus on these cars for some odd reason. I bought mine with 985 miles and obviously paid top dollar for it and have not had a single problem with it (knock wood). I usually try to take the car out for a good ride and get it up to full operating temperature (at least 20 miles) at least once a month and maybe every other month in the winter due to bad road conditions. The way I see it is I can drive this car like I have been for quite a few years and it will still be a low mile Viper with under 10k on it and hopefully if I ever decide to sell it I will still get a descent buck for it although that is/was never my incentive. I just did an oil change last week and got it inspected yesterday and realized I only put approx 200 miles on it last year which really surprised me although but I guess between recently buying a Callaway and really enjoying driving it due to its 652hp/620tq and the lousy weather we had this year it did not come out for as many long trips. I also missed all of August and part of Sept due to health issues which is usually the most active car activity months for me.

Having recently looked for either a Graphite/Silver or Sapphire/Silver GTS in perfect condition with less than 10,000 miles I can tell you it NOT an easy thing to find. There is a lot of junk to daily driver quality type Vipers out there but there is not many pristine low mile collector quality Vipers out there on the market. I recommend trying to find one with as low as miles as you can find preferably under 5k so you can drive the car a lot and enjoy it and still have an under 10k Viper when you are done with it. Unfortunately I would also expect to pay high 50's to low 60's for the GTS you are looking for. I ended up buying mine from Bernie at BJ Motors. When a nice one hits the market you have to be there quick and ready to buy it especially if it is at a descent price because if you are not one of the Viper dealers will grab it since they are so far and few apart. JMHO.

I wish you the best of luck with your search. You may want to add another color to your search criteria to help make the search a little easier but if Graphite is the only color you want don't compromise. Luckily I like both the Graphite and Sapphire and they were both new enough to have the ABS which was another one of my requirements.
 

PDCjonny

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You are on the right track. You really want something with less than 10,000 miles as to some Viper collectors anything over 10k is high mileage. I am not sure I agree but that seems to be the consensus on these cars for some odd reason. I bought mine with 985 miles and obviously paid top dollar for it and have not had a single problem with it (knock wood). I usually try to take the car out for a good ride and get it up to full operating temperature (at least 20 miles) at least once a month and maybe every other month in the winter due to bad road conditions. The way I see it is I can drive this car like I have been for quite a few years and it will still be a low mile Viper with under 10k on it and hopefully if I ever decide to sell it I will still get a descent buck for it although that is/was never my incentive. I just did an oil change last week and got it inspected yesterday and realized I only put approx 200 miles on it last year which really surprised me although but I guess between recently buying a Callaway and really enjoying driving it due to its 652hp/620tq and the lousy weather we had this year it did not come out for as many long trips. I also missed all of August and part of Sept due to health issues which is usually the most active car activity months for me.

Having recently looked for either a Graphite/Silver or Sapphire/Silver GTS in perfect condition with less than 10,000 miles I can tell you it NOT an easy thing to find. There is a lot of junk to daily driver quality type Vipers out there but there is not many pristine low mile collector quality Vipers out there on the market. I recommend trying to find one with as low as miles as you can find preferably under 5k so you can drive the car a lot and enjoy it and still have an under 10k Viper when you are done with it. Unfortunately I would also expect to pay high 50's to low 60's for the GTS you are looking for. I ended up buying mine from Bernie at BJ Motors. When a nice one hits the market you have to be there quick and ready to buy it especially if it is at a descent price because if you are not one of the Viper dealers will grab it since they are so far and few apart. JMHO.

I wish you the best of luck with your search. You may want to add another color to your search criteria to help make the search a little easier but if Graphite is the only color you want don't compromise. Luckily I like both the Graphite and Sapphire and they were both new enough to have the ABS which was another one of my requirements.


Having bought and sold a few Vipers IMO you are going to be disappointed in your "investment" when you sell it.
House it, insure it and care for it then after all that time you might get a few thousand more than one with 20K on it.
And not even close to what you paid for it.
It's your car. I just don't get it.
 

agentf1

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Having bought and sold a few Vipers IMO you are going to be disappointed in your "investment" when you sell it.
House it, insure it and care for it then after all that time you might get a few thousand more than one with 20K on it.
And not even close to what you paid for it.
It's your car. I just don't get it.

It is NOT an investment. Maybe an investment in my sanity but there are MANY FAR BETTER investments out there. That said if I ever decide to sell it it would be nice not to take a bath on the car. It would need to be worth close to a million dollars to cover insurance and maintenance alone. Well, maybe not a million but way more than Vipers will ever sell for anytime soon.
 

terminator02

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Having bought and sold a few Vipers IMO you are going to be disappointed in your "investment" when you sell it.
House it, insure it and care for it then after all that time you might get a few thousand more than one with 20K on it.
And not even close to what you paid for it.
It's your car. I just don't get it.

QFT. I don't get it either. I find the one's not taking a financial bath in their purchase are the ones buying the cars that are (or were going for haven't kept up on prices) 35-40K. They drive for a few years and sell for about that price. The ones paying 60K and then selling after a few years lose about 10-15K. I can only go on averages and not the intentions of an owner. Not many people intend to buy a viper to sell 2 years later but that seems to be about the average lately. Insurance per year, gas per year, tire costs, unexpected maintenance cost can be expensive. I had to pay 2k for full transmission replacement, bought new tires (2K) and had problems with my crank pulley that was fixed in home (would have probably been expensive at a dealership). Thank God I have driven it (3k a year...limited only due to being in a seasonal state), or else I really would have buyers remorse over the car. I only hope I am fortunate to keep the car for a really long time. It is an American Icon that will likely be worth a LOT of money well past my time; and I am relatively young at 32.

And OP I was only replying to your thread going in depth due to remembering your other posts about debating on adding power-adders and what not; seemed pretty ambitious about some mods which really make me think that you were looking for a car that you would be enjoying. Power adders definitely impact values and even if you keep original parts, if you are an active member on the forums, then people would have known that you added mods. Anyway, good luck finding what you want to buy; seems like you need no input as you know what you want. To clarify, there is nothing wrong with getting a super low mileage car, just make sure you stay under 10K. GL.
 

scoobie

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Can you afford to Drive it?

Not really.
I offered it for sale not long ago and someone offered me 5k less than I wanted. I told them I would sell it for that as long as I could put 100 more miles on it the hard way. Never heard from them agian. lol
 

PDCjonny

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It is NOT an investment. Maybe an investment in my sanity but there are MANY FAR BETTER investments out there. That said if I ever decide to sell it it would be nice not to take a bath on the car. It would need to be worth close to a million dollars to cover insurance and maintenance alone. Well, maybe not a million but way more than Vipers will ever sell for anytime soon.

Just me I guess, but being obsessed with keeping the mileage down on a car in the hopes of some day selling it for a few bucks more (maybe)
seems like a very unenjoyable way to own a car.
Hard to drive a car with one eye always on the odometer.
To each his own.
 

AZTVR

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2002-...item3f0ee1677c Title: Rebuilt, Rebuildable & Reconstructed VIN 1B3ER69E62V102228

What's your point ? I repeatedly see posts saying that Carfax is a joke whenever someone says to get a report. (Looks to me like it is the number 1 thing to check first as a disqualifier before considering a vehicle.)

Looks like it was damaged in 2002, sat around a couple of years before it was repaired and not driven much since. But, low miles ! Picture looks like airbag cover was replaced. That asking price sure is ambitious considering the branded title !
 

PDCjonny

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What's your point ? I repeatedly see posts saying that Carfax is a joke whenever someone says to get a report. (Looks to me like it is the number 1 thing to check first as a disqualifier before considering a vehicle.)

Uhh....the point being the OP is looking for a pristine low mileage car. And willing to pay the premium for it.
So this example with sketchy title/background/accident is certainly not what he is looking for.
 

evomind

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check out the car at steve landers dodge. its a solid gray with like 2300 miles.
i can tell you they want their asking price but i didnt negotiate with them so you might be able to work it.
 

agentf1

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Just me I guess, but being obsessed with keeping the mileage down on a car in the hopes of some day selling it for a few bucks more (maybe)
seems like a very unenjoyable way to own a car.
Hard to drive a car with one eye always on the odometer.
To each his own.

I am not obsessed with the mileage and drive it as much as I can. Unfortunately it just works out that I don't drive it as much as I like to. The fact that I have another car also comes into play and the fact that I have been a Corvette guy for years and many of my friends have Vette's so I end up doing more Vette tyoe events and driving the Vette a lot more. That said I have only put 4000 (3000 first year and 1000 this year) miles on the Vette in the past two years and I certainly do not try to keep the Vette mileage low. It is just the nature of the beast. The driving season is short around here and we also have to try to get everything else in such as family gatherings and parties, weekends by the pool, vacations etc all within the same short period of time when I drive my cars. I was actually thinking is it worth owning both the Callaway and the Viper when I do not find time to drive them but I love them both so for now I will keep them both. If somebody made me the right offer I may get rid of one of them but I am guessing I would regret that decision especially if it was the Viper to go since I know how hard it would be to replace it.
 

Next Phase

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Bought my 2001 GTS from the original owner w/ 7k miles out of AZ back in October 2009. All documentation, maintenance, window sticker, etc... I'm at 11k miles now and try to drive it weekly... I would drive it a lot more if my wife and son could ride with me. My wife has only been in the Viper twice since we had our son 14 months ago.

This was a dream car for me and my thoughts were if I didn't like it, then I could always go back to Corvettes and not take a hit with depreciation. Now after owning the car for 2 years I can't see selling my GTS even if I made $10k-$15k over what I paid. I'm more likely to buy another Viper before I sell this one.

I'm with AgentFI, I don't want a car with 38k miles...not when I can find cars with less than 10k miles out there from the original owners with full documentation. If I was going to daily drive a Viper I wouldn't care, but then again... I'd have a Corvette for a daily before I abuse a Viper that way. Just my 2 cents...
 

Cobraken

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For me it's that I want a car as close to the one I totalled back when. There's nothing like your first. I have had other interesting Vipers to play with since including an '02 Daytona24 FE, but none have interested me as much.
 

mattdillon

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IDM, have you seen the 02' Graphite at VA. Its very clean & only has 22,700 miles on it (but its not an ACR) for $44,500 (seems a lil' high to me). Might be worth looking at.
 

jrod_okc

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I have had both the Steel great the in 02 grey. Current car is the 02 great with 14k miles, and built twin turbo car. The color is really growing on me!

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mattdillon

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jrod, you've got yours looking Right! I really like those rims with that color & it looks a whole lot better with the clear lenses than the old orange peels! jmo
 
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