Is the 2014 Corvette Stingray Killing Sales of the SRT Viper?

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Is the 2014 Corvette Stingray Killing Sales of the SRT Viper?
Photo Credit: Edmunds.com

Could it be that the new Corvette Stingray is already putting a major hurt on one of its competitors on the salesroom floor?

While customers may have to wait up to six months for the honor of putting the 2014 Corvette in their garage, they could head to their favorite SRT dealer right now and pick up a brand new Viper. In fact, some 565 of them are currently available across the nation.

SRT originally had planned to sell 2,000 of the new generation Viper, but sales have been so slow that production has just been cut by a third, and still there remains a 289-day supply (565 unsold cars) at dealers in the United States.

Meanwhile, Chevrolet’s assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky., has already built 2,700 Stingrays, and the public is clamoring for more, many more.

A combination of factors could be causing the problem for the Viper. For instance, we found an ad on the Internet for a 2014 Viper GTS that lists for $136,080. To find out the actual sales price, which we hope is much lower, we would have had to give our name and phone number, and we didn’t really care enough to do that.

Not when the much more favorably reviewed Stingray starts out listing for just $51,995 and even loaded out just goes into the low to mid 70k range.

As Edmunds.com reported in a test between the 2014 Stingray and a 2013 Viper just a few weeks ago: “Because of its much lower price, manners that are easy to live with in daily use and still astonishing performance, the Corvette takes a narrow win here. It is the one car you can drive comfortably every day and still use to dominate a track day. Built around an impregnable structure, overstuffed with technology that actually improves the driving experience, and so easygoing you can commute in it with one finger on the wheel, it’s this year’s great leap forward for the entire breed of sports cars.”

In the last eight months, only 426 Vipers have been sold in the U.S. Automotive News reports that SRT CEO Ralph Gilles is still bullish on the Viper and believes that sales will pick up next spring. That remains to be seen with the Stingray showing such vibrant sales right now, with no end in sight.


Source:
Automotive News via InAutoNews.com

Related:
Edmunds Track Tests the 2014 Corvette Stingray vs the 2013 SRT Viper
[VIDEO] MotorTend Head 2 Head: SRT Viper GTS vs Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
2013 Corvette ZR1 Beats Out 2013 SRT Viper for Lap Record at Laguna Seca

 



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