Ok, here are the beans:
First - the car
The car has 8,700 miles, is Yellow with Black, no CD changer just a regular CD player. Otherwise I think it has the typical options.
It appears to have spent much of it's life outdoors. It is very dirty in places I wouldn't have expected. Both right side wheels have curb
damage to the point that both right-side tire sidewalls were cut. The side sills are starting to discolor from exhaust heat.
The interior is basically nice, but I'm a bit if a type-A personality and I thought the interior should have been perfect for only 8,700 miles.
There are a few scuffs on the door-speaker covers, the center console appears to be broken under the vinyl covering and that's visible in
the e-bay pictures as a fore-to-aft crease in the console behind the parking brake handle. There's a scratch here and there on the painted
surfaces like the A-pillar paint. I found the seats difficult to be comfortable in, perhaps there's an adjustment I never found for getting the
seat to not recline so much. The outside of the car has various scratches on it that can only be seen under flourescent lights in the
garage, they are on the edges of the front fenders as if someone leaned on the car in order to reach over to the center of the hood. Those
likely would polish out - I couldn't feel them with my fingernail. There is a deep scratch in the middle of the hood near the windshield next
to a scuff that appears to be from hitting something on the freeway - as if a piece of rubber flew off a car in front of it and glanced off the
hood. The right front corner of the bumper has nice paint on top of "something", I wasn't sure if it was crunched and repaired, or if it was
just repainted on top of lots of rock chips or what. The front valance has nicks on both corners, which wasn't really surprising. We put
the car on a lift and I looked all under it. It does not appear to have been damaged in any sort of accident, but I'm not a trained
professional. The brakes looked fine so I didn't feel like those 8,700 miles were spent largely at the track. The muffler is bent back on the leading edge, reminded me of the type of damage you get on a header collector if you hit something on the
road. Mechanically, the car is very fast and drives well, as far as I know having never been in a Viper before. There is a clunk from just
behind the seats with each gear change, sounded like a U-joint. The transmission whined just like the M-22 4 speed in my Dad's 71 Corvette,
which has straight-cut gears so I guessed that was normal.
Second - how I test drove it for a day...
My Jag was at the dealer being re-repaired from a previous visit, and when I saw they had 2 Vipers on the used-car lot, a 2000 Red, and
2001 Yellow GTS. I had originally wanted to buy a Viper several years ago but after much thought I decided to buy the Jag instead for a
daily driver, grocery getter, date car, etc. Anyway I talked with the dealer off and on for a week while the car was in the shop, and
agreed to look at the Vipers when I picked up my car. As much as I love my Jaguar, I am tiring of the problems I have with the dealer's
service department and saw an opportunity to trade in the Jag on the Viper, thus getting me out of the Jaguar Service Department hell I've
been in (the car is great, but when there is a problem, it's a nightmare to get the car fixed without also being damaged). Monday I test
drove the Yellow GTS, (the Red one had been sold the previous weekend), and got close to making a purchase, but my gut told me I
shouldn't trade in my Jag so easily, that I needed more thought. After several hours of trying to sell me the GTS, they finally told me to
take the car home for the day, drive it, bring it back the next day and make an informed decision. The Dealer was actually a joy to work
with on the whole ordeal, applying no pressure whatsoever. Ultimately I decided to keep the Jag, and when it's paid off, buy a GTS so I
can have the best of both worlds.
