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Dealer Experiences If you want to brag or complain about the deal or the service you got, this is the place.
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Old 04-04-2002, 09:48 PM   #1
Innotech
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Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

I read about this on Autoweek after reading posts from actual pissed off Viper owners who got screwed out of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.


Hennessey's Vipers are fast, but lawsuits say he serves them up too slowly. (Photo by Mark Vaughn)
Ninety-eight percent of his customers love him, John Hennessey says. But a few hate him and some have sued. Hennessey Motorsports in Houston specializes in tuning Vipers, adding more power to what is already one of the most powerful cars in the world. Hennessey’s Vipers have been featured in this and many other magazines and the cars he has sent to us and to other media were impressive performers. Hennessey presents himself well, projecting an image of the consummate Texas good ol’ boy whose reassuring conversational style and howyewdoin’ demeanor put customers at ease. People believe they will get what he says he’ll give them. But not all people do.

According to a lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City, Utah resident Taig Stewart sent his Viper GTS to Hennessey last May for an engine upgrade to 1100 hp along with several other modifications. For that he wire-transferred $142,500 to Hennessey. The lawsuit states the parties agreed the car would be done by mid-July 2001. As of press time the car was still sitting under a tarp in Hennessey’s shop in Houston. Or most of the car, anyway. Stewart’s suit claims Hennessey sold the car’s engine, transmission, wheels, tires and hood. The suit seeks return of the money, the Viper and “no less than $1 million” in punitive damages.

Hennessey claims he’s just slow in getting the work done.

“My side of the story is we’re planning on finishing his car and planning on giving him everything that he paid for,” said Hennessey. As for the parts being sold, “That’s totally false. We’ve got all his parts in the shop except the hood and he wanted to do a lightweight hood.”

Stewart is not the first unsatisfied customer. The longer we dug the more dissatisfaction we found. Here’s a sampling:

On Nov. 14 a New Jersey court entered a final judgement of $133,674 against Hennessey on behalf of Viper owner Gary Dan for a botched conversion.

William Walters said he is out over $22,000 after shipping his Corvette to Hennessey for a head and cam package that was never done; he did have five rods bent and a head gasket damaged on the dyno in Hennessey’s shop during an experiment Hennessey tried with nitrous oxide.

Jerry Johnson said he had to file suit in Placer County Court in California to straighten out registration and engine computer problems on a Viper he bought from Hennessey. n Jon Belinkie said he loves the changes made to his Viper but had to sue in his home state of Maryland, then register the judgement in Texas, to recover overcharges Hennessey made on his American Express card.

Rick Ryan said he had to hound Hennessey for eight months by long distance from Marietta, Georgia, to put the proper wing and stripes on his Viper.

Mark Lublin said he sent his Viper cylinder heads to Hennessey for new valves but when the heads came back he found the “new” valves were actually used; a cam that was delivered to Lublin in a Hennessey box turned out to be a stock Chrysler cam. Lublin was finally refunded $5,715 from American Express but only after nine months of disputing the charge; and he got no money from Hennessey.

Bruce Iannatuono said he ordered $8,500 worth of Hennessey parts for his mechanic in Baltimore to install but was only able to use two-thirds of what was shipped, and then only after haranguing Hennessey for six months on an order that was originally promised in five weeks.

Most of the complaints come from outside Texas. Hennessey, some said, tends to take better care of local customers.

“If you were out of state, man you were fair game,” said Kyle Kent, a former employee at Hennessey Motorsports. When an out-of-state car came in it was sometimes parted out, with the wheels, tires and whatever else looked good going to other cars waiting to be finished or sold outright, according to Kent and others inside Hennessey Motorsports. Then Hennessey would call the car’s owner and try to sell him an upgraded kit. If the customer balked, Hennessey would take parts from other cars in the shop, or just let the job sit.

Kent described one typical disassembly on an out-of-state Viper. “The motor and transmission went into a Durango John was putting together, the brakes went to someone else, the hood went to a guy in Ohio, the rear bumper to South Carolina, man you name it. We had multiple cars like that.”

Another common practice was putting stock parts on what was supposed to be an upgraded car.

“One customer spent $130,000 to $140,000 and that guy thought he had purchased a Venom 650R package which he thought came with the stroker motor,” Kent said. “John told him he was getting a stroker. He was just getting heads and cams.”

Hennessey denies any wrongdoing.

“I’ve got probably 3000 customers,” he said. “I’ve built over 300 cars and out of that I’ve had a handful of people that I’ve had some sort of a delivery problem with and I’ve had some of them who have sued me. So is that some sort of a trend or is that par for the course?”

So now tell me, would you still buy from Hennessey? His company is legendary, but stealing hundeds of thousands from your customersd and parting off their very own cars is NOT good business practice! This guy should be in Jail! Spread the word about this if you feel the same.
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Old 05-12-2002, 01:07 AM   #2
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i just saw a hennesey 800 the other day ... looked pretty clean to me... but then again i don't know a whole lot about vipers.. and that is a bad story... but unless someone watched him work on it, no one would know.. in fact if he is really doing it that's a great scam for him ... making millions by pretneding to be slow....but i can't say i'll ever need his help but thanx for the info , good read....
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Old 03-27-2003, 07:15 AM   #3
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Hennessey, well he did screw alot of people over. But I still like his cars.
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Old 01-15-2004, 06:22 PM   #4
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Re: Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

heh.. i figured this pic was apporiote..
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Old 03-07-2004, 05:10 AM   #5
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Re: Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

I don't know why you'd want a 1100 hp viper to begin with...

ok, it's better than my 6.4 hp ford laser (haha), but if you're willing to spend 100's of 1000's of bucks upgrading a car, you might as well buy a brand new lamborghini, or ferrari, or porsche or something..
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Old 05-25-2004, 11:54 PM   #6
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Hennessey Venom 800TT - Bad story

It appears that most of the Hennessey stuff on the site is a bit dated but just in case anyone is interested nothing has changed, in fact it might have gotten worse. My best friend sent his Viper to Hennessey for the 800 TT upgrade 9 months ago and the saga still isn't over. I can not begin to tell you the nightmare he has gone through with Hennessey. Lies, Lies, Lies followed by BS, BS, BS. If I were to tell you the whole story I'd be here writing for a day.

Bottom line. I wouldn't let Hennessey work on my dog house let alone my car.
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Old 05-26-2004, 04:03 AM   #7
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bad story cant be too good in publicity terms for the company
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Old 07-16-2004, 05:30 AM   #8
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Re: Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

It is bad business to do anything bad when there is that kind of money involved. There are plenty of people more than capable of doing the work that idiot did. He should be shut down, and his shop should be sold.
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Old 09-03-2004, 02:27 PM   #9
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ive talked to John a Few times about possibly doing my ACR with the 1000TT package! the only reason i havent is because of the few complaints, as you dont want to send a car there and get F* over.
As for the guy that sayed if you want to spend 1000's on upgrades ... why not buy new lambo , ferrari etc. big reason why , the Viper can go Faster then the reg. production porsches and ferrari's and the lambo can go but a split sec. faster ,,, not enought to pay an extra few hundred thousand for. Viper brand new plus $70K upgrade to 800 or 1000TT is only gonna bring the car to a total price of $150 - $160K which means your car can now beat the $1M Mclaren F1 , the Amazing Ferrari F50 , the Ugly Enzo , Basically any Ferrari , Lambo , porsche etc. ever made. All For less then what these cars cost Stock.
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Old 11-02-2004, 08:05 AM   #10
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Re: Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

Man, I;m sick of hearing ppl talk about how buck for buck vipers are more powerful. There'es a reason for that! It's something called quality! And yes, I concede that the name has something to do with ferraris and other exotics being so expensive, but it's a small percentage, and vipers are not cheaper by a small percentage. So what does that tell you? They cut corners!

So yeah, it's faster, prove to me it'll last longer! You can go through 2 vipers in the time to go through a ferrari..now tell me if it's still cheaper!
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Old 09-19-2007, 10:18 AM   #11
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Re: Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

Bump for a great guy ~ X Viscious X
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Old 01-17-2008, 01:18 PM   #12
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Re: Im no Viper owner, but....well read this

It may be a small % of people who get screwed, but someone has to make up that % & I wouldn't risk being included... If you're slow, get more help. That's just bad business.
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