general problems of the 2013 Dodge Viper

I was driving my car and something like a rubber/electrical smell was noticed. I looked in my rearview mirror and seen I had smoke filling the rear of the car. I immediately pulled over. Got out and opened the rear lift gate and as I looked to see what was going on my rear lift gate glass exploded into a million pieces. It was as loud as a shotgun going off. I was very lucky I had stopped my car as it could possibly have cause me or someone driving behind me to have an accident if I had been traveling down the road. There wasn't a piece of glass no bigger than a dime left of the rear glass. I was very fortunate that I didn't get cut or glass in my eyes. Shortly after it happened I remembered that if the rear defroster was turned on that the rear glass could explode out. I then remembered that I was in the process of changing the radio channel and must have touched the button for the rear defroster. My dash screen was dimmed since I was running my parking lights and could not see my radio buttons and instead pressed the button turning on the rear defroster instead of trying to change the radio channel. Something about if the carbon fiber paneling was touching the glass it could cause a mishap. I contacted my dealership and they said there wasn't a recall on it and that there wasn't anything they could do about it and that there was only a technical service bulletin about it. This is totally unacceptable and they should be required to do something about it. Now I have to pay to replace my glass and also I'll never be able to use my defroster in the future. Something should be done about this before this happens to someone else or worse cause someone to have a terrible accident. I don't understand why the dealership never ensured my car was updated to prevent this from ever happening. Fca should take responsibility and correct this serious problem ASAP.

I own a 2013 Dodge Viper srt, turned on my rear hatch window defroster while driving to clear my rear window for the first time and smoke starting coming from rear hatch area. I quickly rushed to turn if off, the smoke started to clear. Seconds after my rear hatch window shatter. A loud pop noise was hear at the time of shattering, almost like an explosion. I quickly turned back home and parked the vehicle. It is now at the dealer and Dodge is not owning up to the issue.

While driving to work on September 11, 2013 at approximately 5:45 a. M. , in my brand new Dodge Viper gts that I purchased for around $150,000 in late August 2013, from auto nation Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/ram in spring, TX, with less than 1000 miles on it, I made a newspaper stop at a convenience store in dayton, TX, then I continued on highway 90 west headed to work. After coming out of the store fog had developed on my windshield and my rear glass so I turned on the front defogger to defog the windshield. After the windshield was cleared I turned off the front defogger. Next, I turned on the rear glass defogger to defog the rear glass. During the defogging of the rear glass I noticed smoke/sparks that I mistaken for fog evaporating. After about two minutes of defogging and two miles of driving down highway 90 west the rear glass exploded like a bomb, slinging hot glass to the back of my head and everywhere else it could go. I quickly turned off the rear glass defogger and slowed down to gain control of the car thinking someone had shot out the glass or threw a bowl or rock etc. Through it. This was very scary and dangerous because I could have easily panicked and lost control of the car. Also, the seats and the entire inside of the cockpit heated up tremendously, causing me to pull over and let the inside cool off before I drove the car back home (6 miles east on highway 90 to liberty, TX. . . . I was very lucky to be close to my home). "I received small cuts in the back of my head from the glass that I later cleaned with paper towels". I called Dodge and the dealership to arrange for the car to be examined. Dodge sent a truck to transport the car back to auto nation. Dodge and auto nation claims the car was repaired but there are sounds that the back glass makes with or without the rear glass defogger on. "this electrical problem will become deadly if not taken seriously". . . . Updated 04-10-14.