Visit to the Ford Dealer

I was having some work done on my car so I walked around the Ford dealership looking at cars.

A salesman greeted me. I asked if they had and new GT500's yet. He said no, but they were getting four. He said it looked like they would sell for MSRP + 25K, around $70K.

I wonder what they will be going for in a year?

I told him I'd certainly be looking at a Corvette for that kind of money and he agreed.

They had quite a few nice GT coupes. A real nice black 06 GT Premium

5-speed on sale for $26,700.

Mort

98 Cobra (Still!)
Reply to
Mort Guffman
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Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

in re: what they'll be going for in a year....SWEET REVENGE

tried ordering an '05 GT convert from my local dealer starting 1 1/2 years ago.......at first, he wanted $5800 over sticker.....lowest he ever got was $3000 over.

so, I finally went to an out-of-town dealer and ordered an '06 for $3000 under sticker (which was a good price at the time). car came in Feb.

and NOW my local dealer calls and wants to deal........that was a fun coversation.

doubt if 500s will ever be bargains, but as gas goes up and Ford goes down, dealers are gonna feel the pinch. let them each cake (or something)

Reply to
Itsfrom Click

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Reply to
karinhall

right, let them eat cake (or something).

Reply to
Itsfrom Click

"Michael Johnson, PE" wrote in news:cIednTxtwoaiXSTZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

That is, if Ford's still making them at that point... ;)

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Reply to
Joe

Ouch!

Yep, I'm certain some dealerships will be trying to squeeze every penny out of their first GT500s. It's unfortunate, but in a case like this, the suckers are the ones who will determine the market. :(

I saw my first one at a car show at a dealership in Ipswich, MA on friday. NICE! Black hardtop with the stripe delete. It looked absolutely evil. :)

Spoke with the owner, he special ordered it in NH before pricing was even announced, negotiating the price to 5k over invoice. That's pretty encouraging, IMO.

Reply to
John C.

BRAVO!!! Well done!

I'm shopping for a leftover 06 myself and I noticed that the lots are loaded with them in all kinds of colors and trim!

I get the Ford X-Plan price (as a Ford Partner) but I suspect they are going to want to deal even more (lower) than that because either they took in too many cars, or the car buying market is slowing down a bit.

And this is at 4 different dealerships in my area!

I looked last year as well, at 05 leftovers and at this time of year there wasn't one to be found anywhere so something has changed at least where I live.

I've read mixed stories about dealers not wanting to give the Xplan price on the GT, but I might make them an offer they can't refuse...

And they can keep the canolies! (From the movie The Godfather)

(Officially the GT is excluded I believe)

Reply to
lymee

I think they will because even at MSRP they are making a killing off the car. EVERYTHING on it is either low tech or already developed under existing models. That includes the heads, blower, intercooler and even the rear end is a low cost easy to install solid axle. I bet the GT500 doesn't cost hardly any more than the last Cobra to build since they dropped the IRS. I think Ford sees the GT500 as just another Cobra offering with Carrol Shelby's name slapped on it. In fact, that is probably where the extra cost is from over the last Cobra. :)

Plus, with the GT going out of production they need a high performance model of some sort and the GT500 is all they have for the foreseeable future. Anyway, I WILL NOT pay more than $45k-$50k for a loaded convertible GT500. It just won't happen. There are too many better convertibles in the $50k-$65k price range that weigh far less. In fact, Ford advertises "Bold Moves" so why don't they do a "bold move" themselves and sell the damn car for the advertised price.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

Lymee:

yes, I was eligible for X-Plan, too. Dealer #1 (Donley Ford of Ashland, OH) literally laughed in my face.

Then went to Mullinax Ford - Amherst OH. No arguments at all - they would honor X-Plan on anything in stock or ordered. Mullinax is part of AutoNation. I understand that AutoNation's dealership sells something like 20% or more of all new cars sold in the US......now I know why. Would recommend them to anyone as it was a painless deal......car was beautifully preped (zero defects so far), full tank, follow-up courtesy calls, etc. (again, this was a Mustang GT convert when they were still rare. I suppose now I would be tempted to consider the V6, but the mpg on the GT is great).

Imagine better deals are available now.....except 500s and THE GT.

Reply to
Itsfrom Click

If they would sell them at MSRP I would buy one yesterday. If they insist on allowing their stealership network to continue gouging their customers, this life long Ford guy (I bleed Ford Blue) will be driving a Z06 Coverlet Corvette instead of a Ford Mustang GT500.

Reply to
My Names Nobody

The dealers are just out to fleece those first buyers that are too dumb to wait for the price to drop. I too am a loyal Ford customer but I won't be gouged of a GT500. There are too many cars that are better this it for $50k+. The price will drop if they build as many of them as they have said. My real gripe with Ford will be if they don't build the stated quantity. If they do and there are enough buyers to keep the price up then I guess it is just a popular car. I think they have made the three year production run high enough to drop the price - so far so good. If they go back on their word to us loyal Mustang buyers then I may be done with Ford for good.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

"Michael Johnson, PE" wrote in news:yr-dnaZhhPIpJCfZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Based on what I've been reading, I hope Ford will still be selling vehicles next year.

A bit of hyperbole perhaps, but I think you get the point...

Reply to
Joe

I hear ya' and I am one of those people that will just walk away from the price gougers and laugh all the way to the bank.

However, it seems like it is happening all over the place.

The Japs simply won't deal on price at all, not that I care because I would never own a Jap car.

Pontiac is playing the same game with the Solstice (sp?). They laughed at me when I walked into a dealer and asked to test drive one. Same deal with Saturn Sky.

And BTW when the Saturn Sky Turbo/supercharged wtf it is comes out later this year, the fools who paid way over list on the current models will be kicking themselves.

I simply won't buy a car that is "in demand" so to speak. That's for suckers and people with lot's of money to burn, collectors.

I stopped by a Dodge lot today and they seem to be offering up "employee pricing" on all cars and there are some serious discounts. I personally don't like the Charger, but a hemi equipped model listing for

28k going for 20k and change looked like a very nice deal to me.

My wife likes Minivans (Caravans to be exact), I hate them........ However the price is reasonable compared to Honda etc. A fairly well loaded Grand Caravan was going for around 21k or so.

Reply to
lymee

Ford, GM and DC are really in a bind right now. They are paying the price for shoving SUVs down our throats and ignoring the car market. I don't see the price of gas going lower and, if anything, it will go higher for the next several years. Now where will most of the ex SUV owners go for their new fuel efficient cars? I'll give you one guess... Honda, Toyota, Nissan etc. Look for the domestic makers market share to erode further in the coming years.

Plus, I'm not sure if it really matters much what brand we buy. Hell, Toyotas' probably have more domestic content than cars from Ford or GM. I see Ford/GM management and the unions just whistling past the graveyard. When it comes to their vehicle lineup, Ford is like the NBA and NFL is with players. They change model names so fast that no one knows what the hell they sell anymore. If someone asked me to name the models of Ford/Lincoln/Mercury vehicles I really couldn't tell you half of them. Do you think Toyota has plans to rename the Camry or Honda to rename the Civic or Accord any time soon? They would consider it marketing suicide.

IMO, there was nothing wrong with the Taurus (or Thunderbird) name. It was a great car at one time and the top selling model in the USA for several years. What killed the Taurus was Ford's lack of innovation and engineering toward the car. It had nothing to do with the name. Look at Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc. They continually fixed their cars with every new generation and now reap the benefits of decades of model name recognition. The Corolla was seen as a cheap econobox 20-30 years ago but not anymore. It is a great little car. Aside from the F truck series and the Mustang I can't think of any FMC cars that have any continuous, long term, name recognition. Now aren't the Mustang and F truck series two of their most popular offerings? Hmmmm.... maybe there is a correlation to this after all.

IMO, what is wrong with Ford, GM and the "C" in DC is they need to regain the confidence and trust of the US auto buying public. Personally, I think they offer cars that are very close to what the foreign makers build but they can't market for shit and the dealers practices are further hurting them. Most people don't separate the Ford Dealer from Ford Corporate. If dealers, and Ford, went out of their way to make their buyers happy then they would regain market share. Unfortunately, short term (and short sighted) greed is killing them.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

I wonder how many people walk away from Ford dealers and buy something different entirely because of such nonsense. And does ford lose more people to this nonsense than they gain from it?

Reply to
Brent P

Well in 1999, that is exactly what I did for my wife's new non-Ford ride.

Reply to
My Names Nobody

i have always had fords. back in 99 i had to go to 4 dealers to get what i could afford and make a deal. the first 3 acted like they could care less if they sold me a f-150 or not, because i think cause i had a trade in??. the 4th dealer had my deal done in less that 40 minutes. now i only deal with those guys and been pleased eversince. + my dad bought a

02 saleen from them. they treated us good. mp 99-f150 99-gt
Reply to
Michael price

"Michael Johnson, PE" wrote in news:nqSdnYe- nbeBhibZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

intercooler

advertised

Michael, I think you're pretty much right on the money (as usual). The only thing I might comment on is that DC arguably has the strongest lineup right now. As with the other "American" makers, however, they still need to come up with _real_ competition for cars like the Fit, Yaris, etc. not to mention the long-time best sellers like the Camry, Corolla, etc.

BTW, it'll be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from the GM/Renault talks...

Reply to
Joe

I am in that group.

I have a 1992 5.0 and I was looking to trade in my 1994 Caravan for a new ride. I really liked the 2006 Pony Edition (so did my wife :-) so I went to Campbell Ford in Ottawa, which is the largest Ford dealer in eastern Ontario. They had the Pony advertised in the local paper and on their website for the intro price of $23,500cdn. Browsing the lot, all of the stickers were between $27k and $30k. I found a salesman and asked him what the deal was with the Pony and his response was, "What would you like the deal to be?". Bullshit!

I asked about the special price and he said that the sticker on the window was the price and he could not come up a calculation about how the price jumps from $23.5k to $28k. Turns out that there is no way you can get a Pony off the lot for less than $27.5k.

I turned my attention to the Fusion and 500s. Same crap. No clear indication of price and vague references to deals that were not forthcoming. Also, they were not interested in taking my 1994 as trade.

Anyway, I bought a fully loaded 2006 Impala LT for a great price and I am very happy with the car and the purchase experience could not have been easier. The Chevy dealership also gave me a very good price for my trade.

Two weeks after I bought the Impala, the Ford salesman calls and wants to talk. Sill doesn't want my trade and the prices are still vague. See ya later!

Reply to
Colin McFadyen

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