Help me sort fact from fiction

Has Ford officially announced that it is only going to make 7000 units or is this just skeptisism? If so I'm going to "assume" that the price will be well over 40K. Also I've been told that Ford has not unvieled the official car yet and that it will be unvieled in either December or Janruary. If this is true then are all the pics on the web as well as here just prototypes? One more I've also been told by the local dealer that Ford plans to release a version of the GT called the California Special along with the GT500??

-The original factual number was 7000 units.
-SVT claimed the price would be under 40K
-No official car yet, just mules
-Never heard of the "California Special, though it is possible.

Fact is, 5.4L, Blown with Live Axle

The 7,200 number isn't "official"
500hp isn't "official"
$41K MSRP is not "official"
Public unveiling, again not "official"

FMC is still working on product, pricing, allocation and marketing strategy. By January company wide info should be available. Everything right now is speculation, period. Will it be a great car? Yes. Will it be marked up? Most likely. Will it be the most powerful production Mustang ever? Indeed! Will we be disappointed?

Originally it was around 7500 but recent calls and talks with SVT personnel have said 7000-10000 will be produced.

As far as the California Special...

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=27022&hl=california special

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=29613&hl=california special

Enjoy.

Ford will waste countless man hours working on product pricing, allocation and marketing strategy and then the dealers will do whatever the '-F-' they want to ...

these things wont be found ANYWHERE for less than $48K / and most will sell for over $55K.

Just my opinion ~

Shooterm1,
Do you want one? 6K over MSRP, shoot me a PM.

Not incuding the R's there were appox 7500 to 8500 SVT Cobras produced each year. There was no problem finding them and there was no excessive dealer mark-up. The exception in both production numbers and mark up was the 03.Approx 13,400 were produced (makes sense since they actually covered 2 model years) and when they first came the dealers tacked on ridiculas marks ups. But that only lasted a few months. The same thing happed when the 05 Mustangs came out, the dealers tried to bang people, then the prices dropped . I am betting the same thing will happen with the GT500s.

I drove a brand new Rouse tonight and burnt rubber on my neighbor's brick pavers. Does anyone know how to clean it off without damaging the pavers?
Thanks!!

yeah! try a pressure washer. This is the GT500 forum!

Just as everyone else has said... 7k seems to be the number, but not set in stone. Now that the Vert is in the mix it might be more. As far as the price, the range is $38-41k... but I hear SVT and Ford really want to bring it in under $40k MSRP. The concept car that was at the shows earlier in the year is not the production car. The cars in the pics here are the test mules. Lets hope the final production car is closer to the concept, but it looks unlikely. As far as dealers marking them up, some will some wont. I happen to be lucky and have a dealer that will take MSRP. If you want one, search around. You might find a dearlership that will do MSRP.

This month's Maxim has a small sidebar interview with Caroll Shelby. In it he says 500hp, and under 40k MSRP.

Everyone talks about the numbers in comparison to past cobra's but their are two things that is going to drive the demand like no mustang in a long , long time, #1 It's a Shelby, whoever thought that would happen again? #2 its a freakin 500hp Mustang, who woke up from that dream and ever thought they could toddle down to the local dealer and buy that kind of combo off the lot? I think ford is completely missing the boat unless they produce at least 20,000

missing the boat unless they produce at least 20,000

I could not agree more ..... FORD HAS TO MAKE AT LEA$T THAT MANY!!

(are you listening there bill?)

Remember though that a lot of hand assembly goes into every Cobra compared to other ford cars. It isn't a car like the regular mustang that they can pump out as many as they want a day. SVT can only work on so many at a time and still maintain quality. If I remember right they can make 30 a day on average, which amounts to 10,950 if they work 365 days a year (which I don't think they do) I would say betwen 7,000 and 10,000 is what we should expect.

In 2003 (the first year of the supercharger) SVT produced 8,394 coups, 5,082 convertibles, and 2,003 10th anniversary Cobras.

In 2004 there were only 3,768 coups and 1,896 convertibles made.

That’s a total of 21,143 supercharged cobras.

My point being, there were tons of 03/04 Cobras on the show room floors, even if SVT limits those numbers to 7,000 coups like they originally said, there are still going to be several at each SVT dealer.

Another point of consideration is that the 2007's Shelby's will have much more than a 12 month Model Year. With any luck at all they might be able to have a full 16 months before the 2008 remake starts.

But I think that 7,000 units are far short of the demand / and if they hold to that strategy then there is no way that these cars will be sold at Anywhere NEAR the MSRP.

:damnit:

The GT500s will come down the same assembly line as the regular Mustangs in Flatrock. They are not hand built the way the FORD GT is.

The engine is hand assembled, the transmission is put in by hand, the badges/insignias are applied by hand, the seats are put in by hand, and I believe the suspension is put in and adjusted by hand. It isn't a fully hand assembled car like the FORD GT, but it does have a lot more that goes into it then the base Mustang GT.

well when you have THE HOTTEST product to come out in a LONG time you need to find a way to up the production run, wasnt it jus a month ago when Ford was discussing how low their profit margin is on their cars and that was with the high demand for the mustang averaged in. You have a sure thing homerun with this car and it has profit stamped all over it. If they hold to 7,000 the only ones making a big profit will be the dealers because they can get away with the huge markups on so few available.

FoMoCo also had to incentivize those SC'd Cobras in 04. We spend over 1.2B a month in incentives. Ford is looking to have another "homerun" like the current Mustang and not have to throw any incentive on the new Cobra. Yes dealers will mark them up, but hey more power to them if that's what the market is demanding, if you want a Cobra badly, and your neighbor does too, obviously the average dealer will sell to the higher bidder, remember it is Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price. Even with high gas prices, Mustang GTs are still averaging over MSRP today. 20,000 would be way overkill and would degrade the overall value for everyone. As for profit margin, SVT is working hard to meet marketing goals for pricing yet still being able to produce a 500hp SUPERCHARGED muscle car, with the appointments, spoiler, badging, interior, tranmission, suspension, etc that is different from the regular Mustang and still have it be reliable to not have high warranty costs wash out any profit. Bill has family and workers that are listening, thanks for your input.