At $39,500, Is This 1995 Dodge Viper Worth the Bite?

The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Viper describes the car as “before its time” even though most consider Dodge’s monster a throwback. Let’s see if its condition and price make it worth throwing down some cash.

While the future of the automobile may be electric, the limited-range models of the past decade or so certainly did seem to have an extremely short half-life. At an EPA-rated 124 miles, the 2018 Hyundai Ioniq EV we looked at yesterday had more range than most of its competitors, but not enough to quell the creeping dread of range anxiety. That, combined with an uncertain future for its battery and a $20,500 price tag, earned the electric Hyundai a 78 percent No Dice loss.

We’ve all been told that opposites attract, and you probably won’t find two cars more antipodal than yesterday’s Ioniq and the 1995 Dodge Viper RT/10 that’s coming under our scrutiny today.

The Viper is, after all, god’s gift to OPEC and a brutal ode to snarling sports cars of the past rather than our cat-paw-quiet plug-in future. And there’s a lot to like about the experience the badass Dodge brings. There’s also potentially a lot of death as the Viper is one car you don’t mess around with if you are feeling anything less than confident in your driving talent.

This clean-title Viper comes with 25,000 miles on the ticker and wears a coat of Emerald Green metallic paint. That’s a fairly rare color for the first-generation Viper as out of 6,709 cars produced only 440 of those left the factory in this leprechan-loved hue.

The seller rightfully calls the car a “beast” and says it’s “an absolute rocket ship.” That makes sense considering it’s powered by an 8.0-liter all-alloy V10 making 400 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of twist, all wrapped in sexy plastic bodywork that helps keep the car’s weight under 3,500 pounds.

According to the ad, this one-owner car is coming out of a collection where it was well maintained since new. Along with the unique color, the roadster wears its factory alloys and side pipes, all in silver. The seller says it comes with the targa top but doesn’t mention if it has the side curtains as well.

The interior exhibits modest wear with most of the car’s age showing in the surface corrosion on the many exposed fasteners in the cabin. An aftermarket stereo in the dash offers another eyesore, but that’s a fairly simple fix. Also, having driven one of these, I can attest that the stereo is fairly useless.

Under the enormous clamshell hood, the engine bay presents as clean and unsullied by any aftermarket gimmickry. That hood, by the by, seems to fit fairly well. That’s often a pain point on these cars.

Another pain point is the fuel economy as the big V10 does like to drink. That shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone drawn to the car so we’ll just leave it at that.

What we won’t ignore, however, is this Viper’s $39,500 price. That’s a lot of lettuce and there are any number of competent and less compromised sports cars that could be had for this much. None of those, however, will offer the same experience as the Dodge. Plus, what a cool color!

What do you say? Is this emerald Viper worth that $39,500 asking as it sits? Or, is that just too much green?

You decide!

Orange County, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Don R. for the hookup!

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