Ford To Auction off 1st Production Shelby for Charity

[crispy23c]

Saw this on Stangs Unleashed GT500 Forum:

http://www.stangsunleashed.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=203&st=0&p=1247&

Would be interesting to see what this goes for....but at the same time, they will have to clean up alot of dealer drool!!!

 

[Purvis]

Purely a marketing Stunt by Ford..
And they do it under the banner of "Charity"

First Shelby made, gets auctioned off on a very high profile "charity auction" that everyone sees... Everyone fights over the car..
This inturn sets the price abnormally high for all the other thousands of Shelbys they will produce in the next year or 2.. Making them Hundreds of Thousands more (maybe millions?) in the long run.

I am already having visions of Dealerships saying..
"Well the first one sold for $98,000! So our 20,000 markup isnt that bad!" :whine:

Ford is cracking me up lately.. They should be ashamed of themselves..
And anyone who says they play no part in the markup game had better wake up..

This is proof that they are playing the game too.

 

[crispy23c]

FoMoCo won't see any of the admu the dealer makes. Yeah, of course they are getting cheap exposure on the car, while donating to Shelby's charity (the Shelby Heart Fund--a good cause).
The problem with that is exactly as you say. Someone rich (say..Jay Leno *cough*cough) will bid the car up to astronomical prices, then the dealers will justify their ludicrous pricing by pointing at the Barrett-Jackson auction and saying "they got $150k, so we should get at least +$20k over sticker" or something like that. Can you say Ford GT all over again? What they don't realize is this (and other things like it to come very shortly):

http://www.dodgeforum.com/m_335954/tm.htm

If the dealers are short-sighted and spank the customers, with stuff like this coming out, they could lose alot of loyalty, especially in the long run. This is no Ford GT (one of a kind supercar), this is a muscle car. Shelby label or not. There is no sound long-range business plan that includes screwing the customer for a ridiculous amount of mark up.
You know what would be a great idea? If Ford raffled off the car. On line. Think, the "sports car for the average guy" would actually go to the average guy, plus the Shelby Heart Fund would get alot more $$$ overall, I would think. And, what a novel idea--I think they could get alot of mileage out of the "common man" approach. Oh, well. Who the hell am I. Flame suit on...

 

[Purvis]

You make some very good, valid points,
But I cant help but think that Ford is 100% fine with the idea of their dealers profitting ridiculous amounts of $$$ from these cars.. Otherwise they would do something about it.

ITs all a big circle.. When the dealers make money, so does Ford.
Remember,
Dealers that make more in profit, can buy and sell more cars.. ;-)

Also , The dealers can offer the slower moving cars, at lower dealer discounted prices, since there is no dire need to make a profit anymore off the "normal" cars.. This Helps Ford move the cars that are not so popular...And still allows the dealers to make a profit..

This basically means that all you Cobra buyers would be paying for your neighbor's FORD 500's $5000 discount.

Sad but true, and Ive seen it happen in the past.

 

[blue88mustang]

I just hope that this car lives up to all the Hype that has been building up for the last ~2yrs.

As for the raffle, I agree that it would be nice to see this go to an "Average" car guy. They could sell 5,000 tickets at $25.00 each, which would gross $125,000 with the net proceeds being somewhere around $90,000 going to charity. Even though 1 in 5,000 is somewhat of a longshot, you would probably find even a tightwad like me buying 1 or 2 tickets for this car.

However, that is merely a pipe dream because I agree that the auction will serve a couple purposes (Cheap advertising and exposure, increased demand, increased dealer mark-up) other than merely raising money for a charity. Seems a shame that this car will probably end up parked for many years only to be driven on rare occasion (ie - Jay Leno).

 

[Purvis]

I agree,
A raffle would have been a much better idea.. And they probably would have done it that way, had their intentions been sincere.

 

[Agent M79]

Read a little closer, guys. This is not a raffle for a car...

"Nov. 30 - Ford Motor Co. will auction the right to purchase the first 2007 Ford Shelby GT500 coupe available to the public..."

...at least I am not reading it as such. Just to lend a little more ambiguity...

"I'm proud that Ford Motor Co. and Carroll Shelby chose to offer the rights to the first 2007 Shelby GT500 coupe at our auction..."

What do ya make of that?

 

[Evil_Merlin]

All this bitching and not one seems to have caught this:

Projected to churn out over 475 HP with 475 ft. lbs of torque, the car will have a higher factory rating than the 1969 Mach 1 428 Super Cobra Jet or legendary 1969 Boss 429

 

[LT1KILLER]

uh 20k markups? you would find me at the chevy dealer looking at a z06 for that kind of money.

 

[crispy23c]

Read a little closer, guys. This is not a raffle for a car...

Yeah, we know that...I just thought it would have been alot more proper if they raffled it....

All this bitching and not one seems to have caught this:

Projected to churn out over 475 HP with 475 ft. lbs of torque, the car will have a higher factory rating than the 1969 Mach 1 428 Super Cobra Jet or legendary 1969 Boss 429

Yeah, along with "projected" twin-screw :bs: projected Leather interior :fart: projected hood :lol1: projected beautiful duck-tail projected sub-$40k price tag :nonono: :cuss: :fart:

Weeeee!!!!!....I'm in a good mood today!

 

[1993cobramustan]

Ford Continues To Piss-off Its 2004 Powerlease Customers

Pisses off all of us Powerlease Customers, who have not received their "right to puchase" Powerlease option, after it was supposed to be mailed to us in August 2004......The auction is indeed just for the "right" or option to get the first production car to be released to the public, not the selling price of the vehicle, based on the news release.......

 

[Agent M79]

Yeah, we know that...I just thought it would have been alot more proper if they raffled it....

Ah! Yes. You are right. I'd buy one if it was for the car itself. Raffle right of first refusal, not me.

 

[JETSOLVER]

Pisses off all of us Powerlease Customers, who have not received their "right to puchase" Powerlease option, after it was supposed to be mailed to us in August 2004......

Do I not recall reading somewhere re. the powerlease that the holder can shop the offer if they don't want it? Maybe somebody ought to wander down to AZ. and offer theirs for 4k less than FORD. Wouldn't that get some noses out of joint! :lol: