Dodge Announces No-Cost Viper Customization Program
Bet you didn’t know just how much of the latest-generation Dodge Viper is actually hand-built. Most people don’t — they think it’s just another muscle car, albeit an expensive one, not a hand-built and customizable machine on par with the best European supercars. Dodge has decided to use its slow-build technique to its advantage with a new personalization program.
Related: Research the Dodge Viper
In a first for the industry, Dodge has announced the new Viper 1 of 1 program in which customers can now customize their Viper in one of 25 million possible variants — at no extra cost. Ordering a new 2015 Viper GT Custom (known as the GTC) will begin a very special process for the buyer, who will get to choose from a palette of 8,000 colors, 24,000 hand-painted custom stripes, 10 wheel options, 16 interior trims, six aero packages and a host of stand-alone options.
When a customer selects a color and stripe package, a small paint chip will be sent to the buyer for confirmation. After that, a 1-18 scale “speed form” model of the Viper painted in the chosen colors will be sent. When the owner gives the final go-ahead, the car’s colors and specs will be locked in — and no other Viper will be built with that configuration for that model year, guaranteeing an exclusivity not found in cars costing less than $100,000.
But the experience doesn’t end there. Customers are assigned a Viper concierge at the dealership. The concierge helps guide the customer through the build process, updating the buyer on the car’s construction progress via email and social media. A new Viper Ambassador Owner’s Portal website will even allow those updates to be posted directly to Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets as the Viper is built.
When the car is finished, a customized dash plaque is affixed to it with the owner’s name (a blank one is also sent along in case the owner wants to sell the car someday). Shipping and delivery can happen one of three ways. For $2,000 it can be sent to the dealer via an enclosed car hauler or it can be sent via express shipping as soon as the car rolls off the line. The price for that varies, depending on how far the car has to be shipped. Lastly, for no fee at all, a buyer can go to the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit and pick the car up.
Dealers can still order Vipers to have on showroom floors, but Dodge says that they will be considerably limited in the options and models they can choose from: only the base SRT and uplevel GT can be ordered by dealers, with all other models like the TA now limited to owner custom orders only.
But the most astonishing aspect of the program is its no additional cost feature — for just $94,995, you can make a Viper nearly any way you want it, something that still costs money at just about any other specialty automaker. To see more of the Viper 1 of 1 program, visit the Viper’s consumer website here.
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