Got my 2005 Mustang GT price quote today...

[tjm73]

MSRP: $23,675.....Privileged Military Price: $22,945
uplift?: $1,175
Protection Plan: $1,595
Freight: $625
Delivery Point: $250
Shaker 500 audio: MSRP: $620.....Military: $561
Total: 26,903
Rebate: $1,000
Financed: $25,903

I would like to know where they got these numbers. Prices have not been relesed, yet guys in the Military are getting dollar figures.

Either Ford is keeping the reular guys in the dark or soemone is blowing smoke up serviceman's butts. Both of which are crap. Everyone should get pricing at the same time and no one should be given bogus numbers.

 

[CarrollShelby]

Ouf!!! 26,000 are you sure, about buying this GT 05"???

You can have a Cobra 04" today for 31,000 and 0% financing rate for 60 months... Also 390HP under the hood's!

Think about it... Soldier!

 

[sgtfirormsg]

I only thought about the 05 GT because I want the new style Roush Stage 2. I will only be buying this ride if I can have it dropshipped at Roush for them to install the S2 package. I stand to have a HUGE discount if I do it this way because no way any Roush dealer will sell a new S2 for under $40k...

 

[sgtfirormsg]

For answer on UPLIFT and why us military folks have pricing see my other thread....

 

[GT-03]

Ouf!!! 26,000 are you sure, about buying this GT 05"???

You can have a Cobra 04" today for 31,000 and 0% financing rate for 60 months... Also 390HP under the hood's!

Think about it... Soldier!

The way I would look at it, is that in this case the Cobra would cost almost 20% more than the GT. For anyone on a budget, paying an additional 20% might just be out of reach.

 

[37ford]

I don't understand how some people are getting prices while the rest of us aren't. After waiting a week for the guy at the Ford place to give me a quote, he finally called me back Monday and said that they don't have any prices and he didn't know when they would be available. I felt as though I was the first one to inquire about one.

 

[RICKS]

Ouf!!! 26,000 are you sure, about buying this GT 05"???

You can have a Cobra 04" today for 31,000 and 0% financing rate for 60 months... Also 390HP under the hood's!

Think about it... Soldier!

Very very short-sighted Mr. Shelby. 1st off, you can buy an '04 Cobra for just under $29,000 from some dealers, they're desperate to get those sold off so that they're not "stuck" with them once the '05 hits the lots. We've beaten this to death already, but there's simply no comparing the '04 to the '05, no matter how much juice is under the hood. The '05 is 100% new, superior in every aspect. That's not a flame to 04-earlier owners, just reality. The '04 is the last year of a 26 year old platform!!!! Stepping up and laying down that kind of money for a car that's singing it's swan song is not being financially frugal whatsoever, it's actually being financially irresponsible. You gotta really want one of the oldies to buy one at this point, which is why Ford has been discounting heavily to try and unload those last cars..

My second point is this. Your premise was "buy an '04 Cobra and have 390 h.p. for only 3-4 grand more!!" Well, 3-4 grand will probably buy a blower kit for an '05, AND, after the '05's are released, the re-sale values on the '04's will PLUMMET. So, you think it's smart to buy an '04 instead of an '05, when the value of the '04 will drop like a rock in a year whereas the value of the '05 will hold strong?? Buying the '05 and making it as fast as an '04 Cobra, BIG PICTURE, would be a far cheaper long-term than buying a new/old Cobra and watching your equity go "poof" months after you drive it off the lot.

 

[GT-03]

I don't understand how some people are getting prices while the rest of us aren't.

I believe some dealer are simply taking a guess at prices, and have enough padding in their profit for any actual differences which might arise.

 

[GT-03]

The '05 is 100% new, superior in every aspect. That's not a flame to 04-earlier owners, just reality. The '04 is the last year of a 26 year old platform!!!!

I am a bit more cautious, and am waiting for some of these to get into more people's (3rd party) personal hands, before picking which is/was the better platform.

The S197 platform held some great promise when we first read about it a year or two ago, but has gone through a massive amount of cost cutting since. Gone was, as just one example, the "native" IRS. And once the bean counters were done, the S197 platform then went through even more cost cutting. I am not too sure with what was left. Time and experience will tell.

 

[RICKS]

You're right that they had a challenge in bringing this platform in at budget, but...... I think it's highly unrealistic to imagine that they would wind up with something INFERIOR to what they're replacing, considering the platform they are replacing dates back to a 1978 Fairmont. Even when Coletti and his team did the SN95 for 1994, they were running on a shoestring, having make-do with most of the original Fox platform, and they did it on a ridiculously small budget, and it was still a quantum leap forward compared to the '93 it replaced. The '05 is all new, and should be an absolutely revolutionary step up. Even when I ride in my buddy's '03 Mach, I can feel that old fox floor and firewall, even though it's been reinforced and gusseted over the generations, twisting and torquing and creaking underneath me and in front of me. Chassis rigidity is a HUGE factor, and the new car will make the old one feel like it was built out of popsicle sticks. At least that's my prediction.

 

[351CJ]

I am a bit more cautious, and am waiting for some of these to get into more people's (3rd party) personal hands, before picking which is/was the better platform.

The S197 platform held some great promise when we first read about it a year or two ago, but has gone through a massive amount of cost cutting since. Gone was, as just one example, the "native" IRS. And once the bean counters were done, the S197 platform then went through even more cost cutting. I am not too sure with what was left. Time and experience will tell.

How could the 05 not be better than the SN95 Stangs?

More rigid unibody
Better F/R weight distribution
Longer wheelbase
Driver's seat is in the proper position.
40 more HP
Broader Torque curve with VVT
screwed up 4 link rear suspension replaced with 3 link / Panhard bar
Front suspension is now proper coil over true MacPhearson struts (instead of the coil under abortion on the old stangs).
Front and rear suspension roll centers are finally in a reasonable place.
Wider track
bigger brakes


I don't understand how you could even question it. Hey I, sorta love my 2001 GT, but I know it is a complete POS compared to the 05 GT.

 

[GT-03]

I don't believe it is fair to state the the platform on the 2004 Mustangs is exactly identical the same platform used on the 1978 Fairmont.

It has been updated, tweaked, evolved, and refined over the years many times.

 

[GT-03]

How could the 05 not be better than the SN95 Stangs?

In terms of the platform itself, that is the exact question that executive management at Ford called Hau Thai-Tang on the carpet to answer. Hau Thai-Tang had spent a lot of development money and, more importantly, delayed time-to-market, with that new platform he wanted.

What is actually being used on the 2005 Mustang is a far distant cry from Hau Thai-Tang's "dream platform" the S197 development started with many years ago.

 

[spectravp]

In terms of the platform itself, that is the exact question that executive management at Ford called Hau Thai-Tang on the carpet to answer. Hau Thai-Tang had spent a lot of development money and, more importantly, delayed time-to-market, with that new platform he wanted.

What is actually being used on the 2005 Mustang is a far distant cry from Hau Thai-Tang's "dream platform" the S197 development started with many years ago.

Ford is a well oiled corporate machine. They don't spend millions and ask questions later, often. Maybe you can be more specific and outline the differences between Hau Thai-Tang's "dream platform" and the platform we are getting.

Also, I would presume that such details aren't well known. I mean, everyone has heard of the Pentium, but not many know of all details surrounding the hundreds of varients they have had created, tested and blown-up prior to release. So maybe you can shed some light as to how you have these details. No challenges; I'm actually very interested in learning about this.

 

[GT-03]

Maybe you can be more specific and outline the differences between Hau Thai-Tang's "dream platform" and the platform we are getting.

The original platform was suppose to be basically a shared Lincoln LS platform shorted up, and tuned up for the Mustang. I believe the platform is called "dewy" (right spelling?). That had several goodies including a "native" IRS (not the tack-on IRS used on Cobras).

That turned out to be way too expensive to hit their price targets for the entry level V6 Mustang.

This just brings me to my pet peeve in that the performance/luxury level of a $30K Mustang GT is dictated by the $15K V6 model.

 

[RICKS]

Yes, but regardless of that I think 351CJ summed it up fairly point-blank that the new platform is vastly superior to the outgoing, by virtue of geometry and rigidity ALONE. Just because they abandoned the LS, doesn't mean they didn't achieve new heights of excellence in the S197. We'll have to see, but I'm betting it's a winner. Ford approached this project with a "can't afford to lose" attitude. Also, the LS platform has packaging limitations that I believe would have severely compromised Ford's latitude in running larger engines. From the articles I've read, there were laundry-lists of reasons not to proceed with the LS platform. Cost was a big part, but part of it was also the "cost" of tweaking that platform so that it could meet all of their other goals. Sometimes it's cheaper to build exactly what you need, rather than try to morph something that already exists into what you need. I realize that the old Fox platform got alot of tweaking and refinements along the way. But I look at it from the opposite standpoint you do. It's a friggin miracle, and a testamony to Ford's engineers, that they were able to keep that pig dancing was well as it danced for 25+ years. It was magical that they were able to keep the car competetive with what they had to work with. The Fox was a great chassis in that it made Ford alot of money. But it was NEVER a "great chassis" from a performance or stability or rigidity standpoint. The fact that the outgoing Mach 1 and Cobra handle so well is a testimony to the men that calibrated the suspensions, not to the steel holding everything together. If I can build a model T Ford that'll hang 1.0 g's on the skidpad, with a decent ride, are you going to rave about how great that chassis is and be skeptical about the new Ford GT??? Nope, it would just mean that I was a hero in making a hulk of ancient steel pull a decent corner. The outgoing Mustangs are incredible cars for what they are. But let's not forget what they are under there.. evolved or not.

 

[351CJ]

The original platform was suppose to be basically a shared Lincoln LS platform shorted up, and tuned up for the Mustang. I believe the platform is called "dewy" (right spelling?). That had several goodies including a "native" IRS (not the tack-on IRS used on Cobras).

That turned out to be way too expensive to hit their price targets for the entry level V6 Mustang.

This just brings me to my pet peeve in that the performance/luxury level of a $30K Mustang GT is dictated by the $15K V6 model.

How come I've never heard anyone complain that the performance / luxury level of the $65K BMW M3 is dictated by the same platform BMW uses on the $28K 325?

 

[YellowLightning]

because this is a mustang forum, lol.

 

[RICKS]

But it's a brilliant point nonetheless. I think that any Chicken-Little-ing about the new platform is skepticism of the highest degree. Ford started basically with a blank sheet, with opportunity to improve upon a platform that was developed essentially in the 70's. Regardless of how many cc's of steroids Ford pumped into the a$$ of the Fox platform, this brand new platform ought to expose the Fox for the old and archaic and "drugged up" chassis that it is. I guarantee that they designed it to handle the V6, on up to a Corvette-fighter. We don't know the whole story yet, but I've got confidence.

 

[skinnypGT]

What are the military rebates for a 05 Mustang?

I really can not make up my mind between getting a 03/04 cobra or waiting till the 05's come out