Good Thread!
I was in the same boat recently. Here's the story:
I was an outside sales guy for our company for the last five years. So I had an Acura Legend. Great, comfortable car I could put mileage on. Well last year I got promoted, and now I'm in the office all the time about 15 miles from my house. So I figured I would run the Acura as long as I could and get an '05. Well I started getting the itch early and figured I'd buy an '01 GT or Cobra to last me until then. Well I was looking at one I liked at the local Ford dealer who also happened to be a Saleen dealer. So as we are talking about this 01 Cobra I liked and he says "What if I could get you a good deal on a new '03 Saleen?" I said "Let's see the deal". He pulled both the Ford invoice, and the Saleen invoice. Ford was also running a $4k rebate or 0% financing. I took the $4K, and financed it through my credit union at 4.5%. So ended up with a new '03 Saleen for $4k back of invoice. The way I figure, if I want the new model after they come out, I can now wait until at least the '06 model so they can work out the bugs, and when I sell the Saleen, since I bought it right, I shouldn't get hurt to bad, and I am one happy camper right now!
Mike