05's at a discount, already!

Saw an ad Suday for an 05 Premium GT at $2,399 off sticker. Think the dealer was in Westborough, Ma.

Martin

Anyone in here pay above sticker?

I never even SEE GTs on the local dealer's lot. At least, not for long.

dwight

Yes, you could fit a 460 in there, but it would be wrong.

As for Mustang sales, here are some cherry picks from Ford.com's investor hype pages:

News Release - 11/3/2004 :

Ford's overall sales totaled 268,474 in October, down 5 percent compared with year ago.

Ford's F-Series truck, bolstered by the arrival of the new Super Duty model, posted its fourteenth consecutive monthly sales increase. October sales totaled 79,704, up 16 percent. Year-to-date, F-Series sales totaled 777,642, up 12 percent.

Ford dealers are delivering new Mustangs as fast as they arrive. Although total Mustang sales were down 5 percent from a year ago, retail sales were up 20 percent. The overall decline reflected sharply lower fleet deliveries.

(A chart of sales that accompanies this same press release states Oct

04 Stang sales as 9,232, down from 9,755 in Oct 03. )

News Release -12/1/2004:

Mustang stampede is on; total sales up 12 percent, retail sales up 50 percent.

The Mustang stampede is on. In November, sales of Ford's legendary pony car totaled 12,816, up 11 percent compared with a year ago. That is only part of the story. Retail sales to individual customers were 50 percent higher than a year ago.

"This is a fantastic result," said Jim O'Connor, Ford's group vice president, North American Marketing, Sales and Service. "Normally, we have to wait until spring to see Mustang sales at this level."

(The chart for Nov 04 shows 12,816 Stangs sold, vs. 11,456 for Nov

03, a 11.9% increase.)

News Release - 1/4/2005

Total Mustang sales were up 9 percent compared with a year ago. Retail sales for Ford's legendary pony car were 60 percent higher than a year ago.

(The chart shows Dec 04 sales of 13,342, vs. 12,249 for '03.)

News Release - 2/1/2005

Ford Mustang continued to set a torrid sales pace in January as sales to individual retail customers were 33 percent higher than a year ago. Lower fleet deliveries partially offset the increase in retail demand resulting in an overall Mustang sales increase of 4 percent.

"The Mustang is the hottest car in the industry," said Hesterberg. "It is very unusual for a sports coupe to sell this well in the middle of winter. Our dealers and customers are looking forward to the arrival of the convertible, which started production this week."

(The chart shows 10,285 for Jan '05 vs 9,906 for '04, up 3.8%.)

All-in-all not a disaster, but for those of us who remember the

600,000 sold in each of Mustang's first two years -- 50,000 per month, and U.S. population was about 60% of what it is today -- it's not quite the same.

Worse news is the trend line. Year-to-year sales up 12% the first full month in release, then 9%, then 3.8%. If February follows the trend Ford could be looking at a goose egg or worse, and that would not look good for a hot new product. So yeah, it would seem to be time to roll out the 0% APR and all the rest.

180 Out

I think the bigger engines and better handling will keep the sales at least even, but the style is already seeming too familiar (retro) to me.

Not to mention the $5,000 mark up that really turned me off at the local Ford dealer...do you really want to have a 3-5 year car relationship with their service department?

-John

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 04:59:48 GMT, Wound Up wrote something wonderfully witty:

I had a dealer offer to sell me a "used" one for about 5k above original sticker @ $33,000. I told him to screw-off & die. Does that count?

That could be true. I think the "Year of the Car" as Ford touted may become the "Year of A Car". The new 500, Freestyle, Montego, which are more important financially are not moving well at all. The reviews the cars are getting are pretty bad considering they are brand new. Generally the styling is getting the barbs. But the dealers are supposedly achieving good results turning test drives into sales. You just have to get potential buyers in the cars. Maybe they will catch on. The 83 Thunderbird was a poor seller initially but proceeded to improve and blaze a trail for Ford's coming Taurus. The Mustang is no doubt the shining star. Retail sales are up big year over year. Ford said last year they were targeting lower fleet sales. Also there is no way current day sales could approach those numbers from the early years. Its true there was less population, but the number of choices buyers have now is much greater. I think the end of the world is near. Autoweek has a story on the new HONDA pickup.

Frustration effect, maybe.

I know two people at work who were looking for Mustang GTs, and are close to giving up because of [1] low supply jacking up prices (on the GT at least) and [2] low supply making it hard to find the desired option combination. One of them has started looking at (gasp) Lexii.

On 17 Feb 2005 00:57:47 -0800, "HerkyJerky" wrote something wonderfully witty:

Not to mention that the paradigm that a lot of younger car buyers have is that Japanese mini-iron is the way to go. If I see one more fart pipe on a lowered Honda covered in racing stickers I'm going to fart.

I have high hopes that the V-6 version of the Mustang will draw some of these youth from the dark side. Once the after market gets going for the V-6 it I bet there will be some decent performance to be extracted from that engine.

Huh. Seems to me that anybody who wants performance from a new Mustang will start with the V8 version instead of the V6. Most of the V6 Mustangs and Camaros were purchased by folks who preferred simply looking hot to actually having hot wheels (e.g., miniskirted secretarial types).

Why do you think many of these youngsters buy and mod the econo cars? It's because they can't afford the insurance on a factory high performance car. The V-6 is much more within the reach of the youth market. If they see they can get decent performance and keep ownership of the car affordable then many may opt for the V-6 Mustang over an econobox.

My neighbor got one for his wife at $2000 under MSRP. But, it's a V6.

John H

On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD, on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it." Rene Descartes

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:05:32 -0500, "Michael Johnson, PE" wrote something wonderfully witty:

I've pretty much always held this as a self-evident truth along with the false paradigm that if it is Japanese it's got to be better or so sayeth Consumers Reports.

I think the new V-6 in the Stang is going to be a real sleeper. One thing it has going for it is displacement. It also isn't too far from the old 5.0L engine in terms of horsepower. Strap a blower on one and I bet they can make 300 rwhp with the proper supporting mods.

Perhaps you missed your calling. Methinks you shoulst have been an actuary, Mr. Tornado II...

=)

Emoticon used for superfluous indication of sarcasm

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 01:48:28 -0500, "Michael Johnson, PE" wrote something wonderfully witty:

Well for laughs & giggles I test drove a new V6 with a manual when I was shopping for my new F-150, which some ignorant she-bitch just slammed into yesterday @ about 70mph while I was hard braking because I just had been cut-off, but that is another story.

Anyhow, that V6 5-speed in the new Stang did a pretty damn nice boot-scoot-boogie right quick. The sales monkey was all that happy that I wound it all the way out and banged every gear as I head up the freeway entrance ramp and merged on, but it put a grin on my ugly ass face. If I remember correctly were doing about 80 when I went from

3rd to 4th as we merged onto the highway. Seemed to have plenty of umphuf left.

That is the same V-6 they use in trucks and SUV's. In a lighter more aerodynamic Mustang it should be fairly peppy. Just wait until the after market gets going for it. It will be whoopin' FWD a$$ handily. Especially with the RWD setup. Try putting 300+ hp to the ground in a FWD car reliably, without spending a bunch of money to beef up the drivetrain.