New Inside Info

[Purvis]

Ok, this really pisses me off!!! :mj: First they change the hood, now the stripes are tape and the Shelby lettering is gone from the back of the car. Plus Ford f... up the allocations and has made it impossible to get one unless you know some one or are willing to pay the insane dealer mark ups. :cuss: I thought in the beginning that HT said they would make as many as there were people to buy them??!! What BS!!! What makes it worse is Ford is allowing the dealers to get away with screwing their customers!!! :bash:

My dealer had the nerve to call me a few weeks ago and tell me that they now want a $5000 deposit and that the car will have a $5000 mark up. They went on to say that with the projected allocations that they will most likely only get 3 cars. Well I'm supposedly number 5 on their list which means they wanted me to pay a deposit on a car I had no friggen chance of getting!!! :cuss: :bash: :mj: Personally I'm sick and tired of the dealers playing games and raping us customers. So at this point because I refuse to pay any mark up it looks like I won't be getting a Shelby. Thanks Ford!!!!

Terminator..
HEH you and I are in the same boat..
My dealer called to tell me last week that they would have 5,000 markup as well.. And this was after I had been told that I would be able to get one of the first ones at retail and that I was #1 in line.. Now the salesman (who I have known for 20 years) calls me back to tell me the OWNER thinks its insulting that the #1 spot was "only" offering retail, and that the cars would have a minimum 5,000 Markup.. :kaboom: Wow, that hurt. :shrug:
I told them that this only ends up hurting Ford in the end, since they will ultimately lose my business if they try to pull that crap with me..

So I lost my spot... :dw:

No fear though..
Ford will build these for a few years.. After the first year, These things will be had for close to invoice. (Just like the previous Mach1's and Cobra's.

 

[Purvis]

Keep in mind the original Shelbys from 66-68 had painted lemans stripes that spanned the entire length of the car.

Here we are in 2005/2006, and painted stripes cannot be done with current technology, cheaply??
Ridiculous. :shrug:

 

[03Terminator]

Terminator..
HEH you and I are in the same boat..
My dealer called to tell me last week that they would have 5,000 markup as well.. And this was after I had been told that I would be able to get one of the first ones at retail and that I was #1 in line.. Now the salesman (who I have known for 20 years) calls me back to tell me the OWNER thinks its insulting that the #1 spot was "only" offering retail, and that the cars would have a minimum 5,000 Markup.. :kaboom: Wow, that hurt. :shrug:
I told them that this only ends up hurting Ford in the end, since they will ultimately lose my business if they try to pull that crap with me..

So I lost my spot... :dw:

No fear though..
Ford will build these for a few years.. After the first year, These things will be had for close to invoice. (Just like the previous Mach1's and Cobra's.

That's what I'm hoping, that after the first year run all the bugs will be worked out and all the hype will die down and I can find one for under MSRP. I can guarantee it will be at a different dealer though than the one I'm dealing with now (or was)!!!! :thumbsup:

 

[Jpjr]

don't forget that non-painted stripes belong to the same species as bumper stickers.

i've only seen two GT 500's driving around detroit, but the one without stripes looked MUCH better.

you still can't go wrong with a nice mono-color paint job, with chrome accents

 

[mustangsnoopy]

"And I PITY the people that are going to pay markup on this car. You people are about as dumb as spit."

i totally agree with you on that. same could be said about ANY car.

 

[Force4.6]

damn thats a bummer, you should have kept it the way it was HTT.

 

[venams03]

HMM.. If this post is true, I'll be owning a Vette next year

 

[Lazerred98cobra]

I wouldnt want one with stripes or withthe stupid SHELBY bull on it. I think it should be a Carroll shelby endorsed "MUSTANG SVT COBRA". I want 450 hp and modern styling with no stripes or sh!tty decals. Making a car that we all agree on is not easy. No matter how it is done we will always not like something. Honestly any of us Cobra owners wish something was done differently on our car correct? So lets live with what we get. If you dont like them dont buy one, its that simple. But your gonna be awfully p!ssed when one blows you away in your new vettes. Bottom line this site is svt PERFORMANCE. We are here for the power if we wanted everything else to come with it as well buy a Bimmer or something. Mustang is the worlds straightline performance car who has its ups and downs and we all love or we wouldnt be here reading this. I dont know what i would do if we lost our Stangs like the slomaro guys? Do any of you? ;-)

 

[SGL]

I dont know what i would do if we lost our Stangs like the slomaro guys? Do any of you? ;-)

I'd buy a Kia....

 

[Purvis]

The very sad reality of it is...

The dealers marking these cars up will end up driveing MANY potential buyers away.. potentially to a Corvette.. (Like me)

Thats why I call them (and I owe this name to my friend Glenn) The "PIGGY PIGGY Dealerships..

PIGGY PIGGY 101:
They are so concerned with getting every penny of markup out of the cars for themselves, they end up hurting Ford in the end..
Ford sells the cars to the dealer for a low "invoice" price.. The Dealers make a HUGE profit off these high end cars, when they just sell them at MSRP, which is way above the "invoice" price the dealers paid for the car.. The "margin" (the money the dealership makes off of the car when sold at MSRP) is very high on a car like the SHelby to begin with, compared with something like a Focus.
Now a PIGGY-PIGGY dealer is not content with the few thousand $$$$ (along with alotment and sales bonuses and all sorts of other smaller bonuses) they get for selling the car at retaill. Piggy-Piggy dealers charge as much as they possibly can, to whomever they can find, thats dumb enough to pay the ridiculous price.. This drives the price off the charts for everyone, since other dealers now figure they can be Piggy Piggy dealers too...

This does a few things:
1) Drives the price up for eveyone
2) Makes lots of money for the dealers (at least for a short while)
3) Drives many customers away since they give up trying to buy the car
4) Costs Ford sales..

The final thing Piggy-Piggy dealers do, is they lower the price of all their lower profit, everyday cars Like Focuses and Ford 500's to extremely low prices.. How? Because the Piggy-Piggy delaers made such a HUGE amount on the Shelbys, now they can get even more agressive on all of the other cars, because they dont need to make anything off of them.. All they are concerned with on cars like a Focus, is to move it, so they can meet their sales quotas for the corporate bonuses and allotments.. (Which go off of units sold). The dealers that charged normal, fair prices on the Shelbys, get hit hard, because they cant compete with the PIGGY PIGGY dealers who are now offering all their other cars at impossibly low prices.

Do you think Ford likes it when dealers sell their cars for these ridiculous prices? No, because it costs them sales in the end.

Just last week, I had a dealer in the Philadelphia area tell me that (eventhough I was #1 on their list) offering them MSRP for one of their first Shelbys was insulting..

I wonder how Ford would feel if they found out their dealers are telling THEIR customers that the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) was an insulting offer.. :lol:

I swear, we should start a petition to Ford and let them know what is alredy going on over these cars.. :nono:

 

[Jpjr]

Purvis,

I feel your pain, but how pissed can you get at a dealer for wanting to make a buck? Especially a delaer that has his lots choked with miserable Ford 500's and Tauruses?

The dealers committment to Ford is to take the good with the bad. If they don't, they lose thier rights to the cars. Cars like the Shelby are Ford's reward to dealers who are stuck buying a bunch of cars nobody wants and trying to sell them at a dollar over invoice.

You don't need me to say it, but you don't need to pay to be first in line if you don't want to be. The dealers don't owe us anything, that mentality has the Big 3 getting killed by the Japanese.

 

[Purvis]

It ircs me that Ford is fighting tooth and nail to make this car affordable for us, and the Dealerships completely undermine all their engineering efforts by being GREEDY.

You see, I am a true blue oval guy.. I would really like Ford to succceed with this Shelby, and have the car make them some money, and also, and above all, give the enthusiasts something to be proud of....

But when I see the PIGGY PIGGY dealers undermining everything because of their incessant greed, it drives me crazy. :shrug:

 

[Bower]

Don't sweat the dealer markups, people. Even with the limited SVT dealers, I was able to find one that sold me a Cobra for $500 under MSRP, and that was back when the '99s weren't even built yet. It took a lot of phone calls and I had to listen to some pretty amazing bullsh*t, but it was worth it. I now have two dealerships I can work with: one that has a great, no pressure sales force about 65miles away, and a local dealer who sucks for sales but has a great service department (any dealer will honor warranty work).

With Ford appearing to open the door for more dealers to sell the Shelby, it'll be even easier. I, for one, WILL NOT PAY OVER MSRP. Period. If I have to drive a hundred miles, so what? There are dealers out there that will treat you right - search for them and support them. Those other guys will eventually fade away if everyone did this - they can't hide as easily anymore with the internet spreading the news of good dealers.

I'll bet as soon as the Shelby can be sold officially, people will post the names of the dealers that are good to work with.

-Dave
'01 Cobra coupe

 

[01LightningGal]

The way you handle greedy dealerships, is to not buy from them. It is that simple. Due to independent dealership franchise agreements, Ford cannot tell their dealerships to sell any vehicle at any given price. This is why MSRP is "Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price." Even that is only a suggestion.

 

[03SoCalCobra]

The way you handle greedy dealerships, is to not buy from them. It is that simple.

Well put. I paid MSRP as the first week the 03's hit the street. Just hook up with one of those online car buying sites, KBB i think, and sent an offer out- "Will pay MSRP for 2003 cobra, excellent credit, good down, easy sale.". Within 30 minutes I had a dealer 5 minutes away with a no-contingency offer for a showroom car at MSRP. The only thing I asked for was the poster hanging by the car

 

[jimwood]

Its called capitalism, and its what makes america great. People with money get what they want. If you don't like capitalism move to China. As far as people saying they are going to buy a corvette rather then buying the Shelby. Go for it. Ford doesn't give a shit. Neither do the 9 people ready to take your spot. With gas prices going north of 3 dollars I doubt Ford will put out a high HP gas gussler like this for awhile. If I wasn't completely happy with my 03 I might consider getting one and paying over invoice. Who gives a shit, this car is under priced. 500 hp car for 40k with great handling potential is easily worth 50k. This car is going to dominate everything on the street. Save the Z06. If you ever get to see this 70k car. But as for other vettes they will be as beaten into submission as current vette owners are. Who ever thought the Cobra would be worth more than a vette one year older? And with limited suspension mods this shelby will do very well at the track too.

 

[Tony 96 Cobra]

I am planning on buying a new vehicle next year.. Whether it be a used 03/04 Cobra or the Brand new Cobra or be a used Vette. I don't really want the new Cobra w/ stripes or the Shelby name and I live 45 minutes from Shelby himself. I want a "SVT COBRA" Not a Shelby GT500. If dealers get rediculous with mark up then I will just buy the Vette or 03/04 Cobra that I will be just as happy with. I don't NEED a brand new car. The new Vette is HOT! Ford and the dealerships need to realize that. Like stated, they will lose customers to the bowtie if they don't do something about that big head.

Like also stated; the car isn't here and we need to hold off on the flames until it gets here. UNLESS, it is going to get brought to Fords attention.

 

[Purvis]

Its called capitalism, and its what makes america great. People with money get what they want. If you don't like capitalism move to China. As far as people saying they are going to buy a corvette rather then buying the Shelby. Go for it. Ford doesn't give a shit. Neither do the 9 people ready to take your spot. With gas prices going north of 3 dollars I doubt Ford will put out a high HP gas gussler like this for awhile. If I wasn't completely happy with my 03 I might consider getting one and paying over invoice. Who gives a shit, this car is under priced. 500 hp car for 40k with great handling potential is easily worth 50k. This car is going to dominate everything on the street. Save the Z06. If you ever get to see this 70k car. But as for other vettes they will be as beaten into submission as current vette owners are. Who ever thought the Cobra would be worth more than a vette one year older? And with limited suspension mods this shelby will do very well at the track too.

You think overcharging over MSRP, is "capitalism?" I call it a cheap and absolutely dispicable way of cashing in on people's enthusiasm for a brand/car.. Its also a great way for the dealers to completely undermine Ford's markeing and engineering efforts on this vehicle.
Capitalism is about free and fair trade, making a fair profit off goods and services..Its Not supposed to be about taking advantage of consumers whenever you can..(eventhough in this case, I admit circumstances are being abused.)

If you think that capitalism, is about shafting consumers....If you think dealerships charging 10-20 thousand over sticker for a car that was designed by Ford to be affordable for the working class is in your words "capitalism" , maybe YOU are the one that should reallly be moving to China, because thats what is really going on over there right now, in their out of control economy.

 

[E. Green Cobra]

You think overcharging over MSRP, is "capitalism?" I call it a cheap and absolutely dispicable way of cashing in on people's enthusiasm for a brand/car.. Its also a great way for the dealers to completely undermine Ford's markeing and engineering efforts on this vehicle.
Capitalism is about free and fair trade, making a fair profit off goods and services..Its Not supposed to be about taking advantage of consumers whenever you can..(eventhough in this case, I admit circumstances are being abused.)

If you think that capitalism, is about shafting consumers....If you think dealerships charging 10-20 thousand over sticker for a car that was designed by Ford to be affordable for the working class is in your words "capitalism" , maybe YOU are the one that should reallly be moving to China, because thats what is really going on over there right now, in their out of control economy.

capitalism, fair and free trade don't belong in the same sentence together, capitalism really benefits one class the others just get that little trickle....just look at the wealth distribution of say the U.S., capitalism is fine if your "above average" capitalism sucks if your making min wage..... I think the dealers are in their right to charge whatever they want for the car, 2 things will happen, someone with more money than brains will blow an extra few grande, or the car will sit on the lot, while the smart people like yourself and others go to the dealerships that are willing to deal.... :rockon:

 

[Purvis]

I disagree..
I wish Ford would do away with dealerships all together. Why do we need them? I would gladly drive out to Dearborn to pick out a car and drive home with it.. What do the dealers actually do besides pass a car on to the public? Why do I truly need a "dealer"? They are going to make all this money because of What? Why do we put up with this crap?

I am so sick of all the politics whenever I go to buy a Ford product.
Buying the Shelby is already shaping up to be one of the worst dealer experiences of my life..

I would happily drive out to where-ever to buy a car directly from Ford, and not some greedy dealership who cares nothing for the company, and the consumers.

When all you care about is $$$, you truly have a problem. Ford bases their products on pleaseing their customers because they have to, or they lose business.. There is a "give and take" between the company and its consumer base..
The dealers that are "gouging" care nothing of their customers, and all they want to do is cash in. And for what? They dont design the car.. They dont build the car.. They dont even market the car.. All they are going to do is take delivery on the car, probably have it in thier parking lot for a few days, and then pass the car on to me, and yet Im supposed to give them THOUSANDS of Dollars in pure profit"? (some dealers im my area Like Chapman's Ford :mj: in Philadelphia, on Rosevelt Blvd) are already asking $20,000 above sticker for the Shelby!!) :whine:

One thing I have noticed over the years, is I have never seen any brand of dealerships, "Gouge" as much as Ford dealers try to.. Dodge is probably #2.. But GM, and import companys have come out with tons of poular and hot cars in the past, and there is never as much political Bullcrap and dealer markups to contend with as Ford Dealers dump on the public..

Its all a bunch of BS and it has to stop..

I will be writing a letter to Ford soon, stating everything that has happened to me, and all the dealers and sales managers I have dealt with so far..How I have already been lied to and doublecrossed... For what its worth, I will fight this to the end.. :rockon: