Jury awards car buyer $185,000 for lemon 2003 Viper

[dubvipers]

ORIGINAL: BadStratRT first of all...drag racing is abusing...they admitted to taking the car to a drag strip, and that, alone, voids the warranty. they are lucky that dodge fixed it at all... this, again, goes to show that while middle aged morons with a fist full of dollars can buy a fast car, they cant buy intelligence. cars simply arent made for the abuse that a drag strip hands out, and if youre buying a car to beat on it, you need to buy supporting mods. this douchebag "likes fast cars", yet hes so high and mighty that he had to have someone go in with him on a viper? id like to know what "fast cars" he had before...im guessing it rhymes with rustang PT... you'd know i can drive it, illegally... but i'd treat a viper like if it was a baby

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[Rome sky]

The rear end should never break; unless he was pushing some serious torque. If not then dodge should get the engineering right, or pay the price! in this case 180k

[ViperGTS]

Yeah, pay twice as much of the car's value. Quite intelligent That's just like the woman who assumed an RV can drive itself... so she goes back into the next room, crashes, and sues for 3 times the RV's worth. True story....very pathetic.

brake

Break. Brake is the object used to slow down a vehicle...

-Matt-

[Rome sky]

Well the brake thing was a joke. From the guy driving with the hand brake up. I'll change it in case people don't understand.
If a car company makes a car that BREAKS 6 times, then yes they need to be punished in some way.

[Midnight]

Obviously, you aren't comprehending what happened...

[Rome sky]

Ok.... Dodge sold someone a viper. The rear end broke under normal torque loads 6 times. Well thats not ok.... let me give you a example of what should have happen. Oh and taking it to a drag strip does not void anything.
A Ford driver was testing the GT under extreme G loading. While conducting a N.D.I. ( a type of inspection which x rays are employed). They found cracks in a sub frame on the I.R.S. but they were on the inside. So Ford figured out how to fix it and did a recall. Non of the owners reported a problem, Ford fixed it before it got to that level.
Dodge did nothing, they should have redesigned and made a recall. If not they could have taken the Mercedes sl65 amg rear end. That car makes about 700 pound feet of torque. In engineering we have to do the right thing in all cases. Oh and this has happened to more than just this guy. They cannot survive by making 85k dollar lemons. Thats crazy to think about, so if Dodge will not fix the problem then the courts have too. If they took a 100k hit from every lemon viper; they would stop making vipers or stop making lemons. I'm an engineer and I think this is beyond understanding, Dodge must recall!

[Midnight]

First off, this Viper is 3 years old... It took them 3 years to declare it a lemon. This guy was just abusing it. There is no need for a recall... This is one incident... This did not happen to many other Vipers... Show me evidence of that...

Also, there is no reason to get over twice the price...

[ViperGTS]

The rear end broke under normal torque loads 6 times.

Under normal torque loads, that cannot happen. The guy was either misusing it or abusing it.

Ford fixed it before it got to that level.

Unlike the suspension problem which took several complaints.

they would stop making vipers

One moron being a screw up, what an excellent reason to stop making a car. That's an 85 grand mistake on his part, 85k doesn't add up to 185k...


-Matt-

[Rome sky]

Ok.... If the guy was pushing larger torque loads than normal. Then he should not have a settlement. Nonetheless no matter how bad you treat a rear end. If it has stock power it should NEVER fail. Now if the guy was pushing 1000 hp then ok I see your point. If the car was stock then something needs to be done about it.
Now concerning the 185k. Well you have to do something if the company push crazy stuff on the market. Like Ford, Dodge and GM in the 80's. They all should have to pay for what they did. In this case I'm sure their is more to it than a guy driving his car to church and the golf course. At the same time I don't think he was dumping 1500 foot pounds of torque on the rear end while trying to tow his mobile home. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between. So the best we can hope is that the jury did the right thing.

[ViperGTS]

If it has stock power it should NEVER fail.

I'm not disagreeing with you on that. A 185k settlement doesn't get anything "done" though on the Viper getting a new rear end...


-Matt-