Chrysler's Ralph Gilles on Slow Viper Sales
11-26-2013, 12:00 PM
#1
TECH Veteran
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ Hometown: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 4,231
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Chrysler's Ralph Gilles on Slow Viper Sales Viper Staying in Chrysler’s Lineup
Nov. 25, 2013
Tom Murphy | WardsAuto
LOS ANGELES – Ralph Gilles wants to set the record straight: The Viper isn’t going away.
Chrysler did scale back production earlier this year due to slow sales. But Gilles, president and CEO of Chrysler’s SRT Brand and Motorsports, says the car has a bright future.
“The plant is booked solid. We actually have several hundred units outstanding we still have to build,” Gilles tells WardsAuto during an interview at the auto show here.
Gilles admits the launch of the fifth-generation Viper was not ideally timed. “We had a very late launch. We were six months offset from where we wanted to be,” he says.
Chrysler initially planned to deliver cars beginning last January, but significant volume was not achieved until June. “It went on sale in April, but we didn’t deliver the cars” until later, he says. “So we missed the spring selling season.”
Interest in the Viper is strong, and dealers have been clamoring for the car, he says. But the new model is more expensive (base price $97,395) and offers a lot more optional equipment than in the past.
Gilles says the dealers were not prepared to deal with such bespoke customer requests and instead were ordering cars that might not find a buyer.
“I don’t think our network understands the segment very well,” he says. “I think the mistake we’re making is understanding the customer who spends $130,000 to $140,000 for a car. They want what they want – their color, their stripe, their package, their interior. And dealers were trying to anticipate the market ended up creating a car that may not be the right car.”
To fix the problem, Chrysler has launched a fourth-quarter training program across the U.S. Gilles calls it the “All Access Tour,” and it pairs dealers with existing Viper owners and prospective customers. “We basically have them test drive the vehicles,” he says of potential buyers.
Of Chrysler’s 2,300 U.S. dealers, 443 are Viper stores also selling Jeep, Dodge and Ram products. Gilles says there are 165 stores without any Vipers and a handful that have as many as four, waiting for buyers.
“Most of these vehicles are enjoying an incredibly wonderful life sitting in showrooms looking very sexy, and they’ve been sitting there since August,” he says. “So it’s not really all that bad. I’m not worried about the sales.”
With the new Viper, output at the Conner Avenue plant peaked at nine units a day and since has been scaled back to six.
“We purposely slowed down production. As spring comes in, we can easily go into overtime and up that number very easily,” Gilles says, adding that any fears the plant will close are unwarranted.
“When we trimmed production, we took about a third of the staff and reallocated them to other plants.” Workers with low seniority were reassigned to Chrysler’s Warren Truck or Jefferson Avenue plants.
Chrysler has built about 800 ’13 Vipers and now has begun assembling ’14 cars, which include “TA” Time Attack editions.
At the auto show here, Chrysler announces a limited production run beginning January of 50 Viper GTS models with matte-finish Anodized Carbon paint.
Gilles says the Anodized Carbon models “have been allocated to dealers and they’re already spoken for. And the TAs are gone. Orders opened up and in three days they were gone.”
These latest offerings reinforce Chrysler’s ability to meet specific demand, he says. “We have a thousand-plus ways you can order a Viper right now. We’d rather direct our dealers to allow people to do it that way, to order their own special car.”
Chrysler has sold 28,994 Vipers since it first arrived in 1992. Of those, 24,833 have been to U.S. customers, according to WardsAuto data. Gilles says there are about 500 cars in stock, waiting for buyers.
Through October, Chrysler sold 495 Vipers. Its best year was 2003 (2,103 units).
http://wardsauto.com/vehicles-amp-te...ysler-s-lineup
Nov. 25, 2013
Tom Murphy | WardsAuto
LOS ANGELES – Ralph Gilles wants to set the record straight: The Viper isn’t going away.
Chrysler did scale back production earlier this year due to slow sales. But Gilles, president and CEO of Chrysler’s SRT Brand and Motorsports, says the car has a bright future.
“The plant is booked solid. We actually have several hundred units outstanding we still have to build,” Gilles tells WardsAuto during an interview at the auto show here.
Gilles admits the launch of the fifth-generation Viper was not ideally timed. “We had a very late launch. We were six months offset from where we wanted to be,” he says.
Chrysler initially planned to deliver cars beginning last January, but significant volume was not achieved until June. “It went on sale in April, but we didn’t deliver the cars” until later, he says. “So we missed the spring selling season.”
Interest in the Viper is strong, and dealers have been clamoring for the car, he says. But the new model is more expensive (base price $97,395) and offers a lot more optional equipment than in the past.
Gilles says the dealers were not prepared to deal with such bespoke customer requests and instead were ordering cars that might not find a buyer.
“I don’t think our network understands the segment very well,” he says. “I think the mistake we’re making is understanding the customer who spends $130,000 to $140,000 for a car. They want what they want – their color, their stripe, their package, their interior. And dealers were trying to anticipate the market ended up creating a car that may not be the right car.”
To fix the problem, Chrysler has launched a fourth-quarter training program across the U.S. Gilles calls it the “All Access Tour,” and it pairs dealers with existing Viper owners and prospective customers. “We basically have them test drive the vehicles,” he says of potential buyers.
Of Chrysler’s 2,300 U.S. dealers, 443 are Viper stores also selling Jeep, Dodge and Ram products. Gilles says there are 165 stores without any Vipers and a handful that have as many as four, waiting for buyers.
“Most of these vehicles are enjoying an incredibly wonderful life sitting in showrooms looking very sexy, and they’ve been sitting there since August,” he says. “So it’s not really all that bad. I’m not worried about the sales.”
With the new Viper, output at the Conner Avenue plant peaked at nine units a day and since has been scaled back to six.
“We purposely slowed down production. As spring comes in, we can easily go into overtime and up that number very easily,” Gilles says, adding that any fears the plant will close are unwarranted.
“When we trimmed production, we took about a third of the staff and reallocated them to other plants.” Workers with low seniority were reassigned to Chrysler’s Warren Truck or Jefferson Avenue plants.
Chrysler has built about 800 ’13 Vipers and now has begun assembling ’14 cars, which include “TA” Time Attack editions.
At the auto show here, Chrysler announces a limited production run beginning January of 50 Viper GTS models with matte-finish Anodized Carbon paint.
Gilles says the Anodized Carbon models “have been allocated to dealers and they’re already spoken for. And the TAs are gone. Orders opened up and in three days they were gone.”
These latest offerings reinforce Chrysler’s ability to meet specific demand, he says. “We have a thousand-plus ways you can order a Viper right now. We’d rather direct our dealers to allow people to do it that way, to order their own special car.”
Chrysler has sold 28,994 Vipers since it first arrived in 1992. Of those, 24,833 have been to U.S. customers, according to WardsAuto data. Gilles says there are about 500 cars in stock, waiting for buyers.
Through October, Chrysler sold 495 Vipers. Its best year was 2003 (2,103 units).
http://wardsauto.com/vehicles-amp-te...ysler-s-lineup
11-26-2013, 01:14 PM
#2
I think it was a smart move to retrain the dealerships in regards to potential Viper customers. Those buyers spending $100-$140K want it specifically to their criteria - I would want the same thing. Dealers ordering "blindly" and hoping for a buyer to come along isn't going to work in this current economy and diverse marketplace. Just like with the Corvette, there are lots of options out there to find to right car and price.
By the way, I still love the styling of that car!! Very badass!
By the way, I still love the styling of that car!! Very badass!
11-27-2013, 12:04 PM
#3
Staging Lane
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Portugal
Posts: 98
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm pretty sure that exporting it to European markets officially, with warranties and all, would increase sales potential. Dumb move from Fiat and Chrysler.
Also, pricing. And prejudices held by people over previous generations.
Also, pricing. And prejudices held by people over previous generations.
11-27-2013, 05:15 PM
#5
Just understanding the commitment to a 100K+ brand new car for a consumer is a huge step for the sales and service people.
When I tried to buy a Centennial ZR1, you can't imagine the things that were said to me by GM sales personnel. Some of the most obvious sales techniques that are used to sell Cruze's and Dart's do not work in this segment...who knew?
When I tried to buy a Centennial ZR1, you can't imagine the things that were said to me by GM sales personnel. Some of the most obvious sales techniques that are used to sell Cruze's and Dart's do not work in this segment...who knew?
11-27-2013, 05:48 PM
#6
The dealers are at least partly to blame IMO...seems like a lot of them checked a lot of the options boxes when they placed their orders, pushing the prices up to the $140k-$150k mark. Some of those dealers then tacked on additional $$$ on top of that for the privilege of being one of the first to get one.
You can get into a base SRT for around $105k...adding $35k-$40k in options is like buying a fairly nice, brand new car on top of a Viper. And you don't get any performance benefits to show for it.
You can get into a base SRT for around $105k...adding $35k-$40k in options is like buying a fairly nice, brand new car on top of a Viper. And you don't get any performance benefits to show for it.
