GT inventories in this area are now 0 (zero). Woodhouse Nebraska inventories are 0 (zero). No response from any dealer thus far as to release codes for GT500.
Ford's sales are in dumper since GM's "Employee Discount" effort (their sales are up 47%, but who knows how much of that is profitable, if any). Sadly, few cars on GM's lots appeal to me, at any price.
Watched a few car shows - new GTO is spanking new Mustang GT with ease (several shows featured head-to-head or small group comparo's). 3 different channels at once showed the GTO *****-slapping the stang. Depressing. SVT, wherefore art thou?
New Mustang seems able to hold its own or a bit better with lower-tier Charger Hemi, but the Charger ST8 cleans the Mustang's clock. Depressing to pick up a car magazine, nowadays.
Hardly see any new Ford cars on the road except Mustangs (usually V6's of course). Drove a Ford 500 sedan - dreadful performer, but roomy. Drove a new Impala rental. Good news for Ford - the chevy is even worse than your car! Drove a new Nissan Maxima. Far superior to the American manufacturers. Understand why I don't see any new Fords and Chevys on the road - can't understand why anyone would buy their sedans - differences are so extreme it almost comprises an IQ test...
I saw a white 07 Convertible with black top and silver strips (on company property (test vehicle)).....It looked damn good. That's all I know so far, but if you don't like convertibles this one will change your mind. :thumbsup
Ford Motor Company has fallen on hard times. The fresh new designs aren’t selling - the dependable old SUV’s and F150’s are sitting on the lots, endangered species threatened by looming $4 per gallon gasoline prices - and the competition is offering better looking, better running, more dependable vehicles at lower prices. Insular, “hide your head in the sand and maybe they’ll go away” management has failed to fill the pipeline with the cars and trucks needed to match the new market realities. The massive problems with quality that plagued them in the 70’s and 80’s are thankfully gone, but that just means that buyers are now shopping for style, performance and utility rather than simply how many tiny flaws can be spotted on a new car by J.D. Powers and Associates geeks.
Speaking of the paramount importance of styling, Ford VP Mays, self-anointed “chief creative officer“, has fled the s-storm in Detroit and set up shop in his preferred digs in London, his fresh, newly recognized “center of the creative universe”. While the white collar faithful back in the USA have their morale hammered by yet another decimation of their ranks (Ford has just announced plans to axe 20,000 workers, mostly white collared), he and his cronies lounge in the salons of Soho dreaming up ugly new Ford 500’s, Freestyles and diesel-powered Escapes so as to plague their long-suffering dealers. Bill Ford, a Mays admirer, doubtless has given them their marching orders: Design gorgeous bodies for the hybrid vehicles to make them more saleable (which would mean they were selling at all, of course) - design the successor to the Think electric cars (have they shipped all those ill-fated partial-birth abortions back to Euroland yet?) - oh, and be sure to pen some quickie layouts for the glue-on decals for the exciting new SVT Ford 500, SVT Escape (er, Adrenaline), and the SVT Freestyle (no, that‘s been canceled, but a new image for the Edsel-clone and utterly failed vehicle when its reintroduced in 2008 or whenever will doubtless be a high priority).
If Ford wants to save Ford (and how many entendre’s can one find in that simple phrase ?), he might give some thought to the following:
1. Quit blaming the lack of sales and profits on health costs, the unions and retirees. His competition has all the same problems, so a level playing field has already been achieved. Sure, some of the guys build components in countries where the labor is cheap and the UAW doesn’t exist - so does Ford. Just because folks have believed the old bromide that “they can’t make any profits because of the evil unions” in the past doesn’t mean that the same lame excuse will play today. He might even discover that the unions would talk sanely if management ceases to blame them for all the ills of the world… I'll buy this argument the day we see the union designing and engineering cars nobody wants to buy - a function wholy owned by Ford management, not union members.
2. Fix some recent mistakes. Axing middle management engineers creating things like the GT just before you bring it to market was unwise (yes, I’m talking about Colleti here). What should have been a shining corporate icon in a dark product universe has been dulled by bonehead problems with castings that break and $275,000, 200mph sports cars gathering dust in dealer’s maintenance bays waiting on parts. (Of course, why the $140,000 GT’s are being gouged at twice the price by desperate dealers is just another indication of systemic failure). If you can rehire some of the talent you ran off, it might save your ass.
Depriving the Ford SVT fans of their cherished Lightnings, SVT Foci and Cobras just so you could win some low level corporate coup was misplaced schoolyard ego at best.
3. Regain control over the design process. The picture of an American corporate icon like Ford lacking a design center and being totally dependent on the whims of a flake squatting in a flat in London is not a pretty one. Disconnecting from the American buying public and plugging into the non-car-driving, artsy set in urban England is no way to fix the problem. Many of the new designs don’t appeal and don’t sell. You’ve got a serious mismatch between your designers and your market. You need the American shopper - and they don’t live in Soho. This is a key problem. Fix it or die.
4. Finances. If you want to stop whimpering about money, and really want to make a change that can help everybody, pick up Neal Boortz’s new book about a national retail sales tax to replace the income tax. Want to streamline white collar labor costs and free up capital to invest in your company? Imagine the savings when you don’t need tax lawyers, accountants and the IT and clerical support staff that goes with them! Between the direct costs of complying with federal corporate income tax rules, and accounting for all your employee’s income tax withholding needs, the savings would be huge. Add the sudden lack of that overhead to price competition with foreign auto manufacturers, and suddenly it will be THEM squealing about unfair price advantage!
5. Dust off all those market segment studies and plan cars that match the segments. Wake up - forget the fantasy that you create markets, and realize that you need to respond to the real markets with real solutions.
5.1. Toyota’s Scion line is an excellent example. Do that, and do 2 versions - one for Mercury, too.
5.2. Give poor old Mercury some help - you simply can’t afford (unlike GM, who seems to think nothing of killing off entire car marques) to let Mercury die. Bring back the Cougar - use the power of the new Mustang (your sole success story this year, lack of Mustang GT supply and the disollution of SVT notwithstanding) to build up Mercury dealers. Get a young, meat-eating American designer to pen the simple changes (keep her close to the Mustang, keep the design changes simple but potent). Maybe make the lines just a touch more European… Make the BMW boys sweat.
5.3. Add back the Mustang niche models you axed - the new Shelby is great, but add a Mach 1 (the new body lines were meant for this) and an IRS option for the Shelby, if not a complete new Cobra (use the 4.6 with a blower and IRS - finely tuned suspension - leave the Shelby for the cruizers and drag racers, make the Cobra the road racer).
5.4. Revive the Lightning. Put the same 5.4 in as the new Shelby.
5.5. Bring out the Adrenaline, too, but don’t plan on selling as many of these as you do of the Lightning. Its still a butt-ugly overall design.
5.6. Revive the SVT Focus. Get some AWD action in this lineup to compete with the Subarus. Add a turbo.
5.7. Kill the Freestyle ASAP. Money pit, and that’s it. No need to resurrect the corpse - let it die.
5.8. Put some effort into a new Ranger pickup - grab your scattered design staff and get them moving right away on this. Use some imagination.
5.9. Revamp the brand new, but not working, design for the Ford 500. Rethink the CVT - it can work, but not the way it does now. DO NOT wait the “normal” grace period for new designs to take hold. That’s 90’s think - and defunct. Otherwise, by the time the next 5 year plan cycle rolls around, Toyota will own GM and Nissan will own you.
5.10. Lincoln needs to be competing with Cadillac, Lexus, and Infiniti - not Saab and, er, Ford. Rethink dropping the Aviator SUV - gas prices may change that market a lot. Instead of building a troublesome all-new Jag SUV, shift the Aviator over for them. Moving a small Jag car design in for the LS was a good idea at the time, but it has rotted on the vine. More promising would be a BIG Jag design as a new Continental - leave the large-format Town Car as is - totally refresh the small Jag Lincoln - and add a new sports car Mark IX based on the Jag XK. Once set up, the same production line (moved to Atlanta?) might even be expanded to include some Jags, with little effort… Add a supertruck to the new LT - drop that blown 5.4 motor in there - don't be shy. Think of the profit margins...
5.11. Mercury would benefit from the ideas I’ve espoused above, with the following new moves: Dump the euro-cougar and add the new Mustang-clone cougar… Advertise the Marauder more, make some strong gears optional, and put some giant tires on her… Give Mercury a pickup truck, with front end styling similar to the Mountaineer - don’t worry that it will compete with the Lincoln LT, the price differential should be substantial, particularly with the blown 5.4 in the LT…
5.12. Jaguar needs the Mays touch. How about this idea: Keep him in London, let him fix the Jag designs, and hire a North Americano who lives in Detroit to design cars for us? Jaguar’s dealer network sucks - work on bringing them up to BMW specs, and steal all the best engineering from Jag for Lincoln’s dealers to capitalize on. Redesign the new XK (looks like an Aston Martin) to be the true child of the XKE that it deserves to be. If closing the one plant in England doesn’t stem the red ink, maybe making some Jags in the USA will…
5.13. Volvo needs to start assembling cars in the US, too. Transform one of the troubled Ford plants (maybe the big Canadian item currently on the kill list) to making Volvos. Stay focused on the station wagon market for Volvo - its coming back…
5.14. Aston Martin - just keep making them.
5.15. Used Fords. Start a highly publicized effort to offer warranties to old Fords. Sure, you already do this in a half-hearted fashion - not good enough. Use this as a tool to insert the “We really care about our customers, now and always” line into the national psyche. Add on a new program to plug parts for Fords of all ages, yes, including ancient items from the 30’s, into the parts pipline going to the Dealers. Make it clear that you want people to continue driving their Fords for a hundred years, and you’re committed to help that happen. This is great PR, reminds everyone of the good times in the past, and helps funnel money to you and your strapped dealers - helping them compete with the aftermarket, which is growing in power every day. Everyone wins.
Not just about the SVT, but its in there. Actually, without a Ford Motor Company, no more Mustangs, period.
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
florida has the cars, come down here and order....
this goes out to all you gt 500 gearheads out there , just like me, that are foaming at the mouth for a gt 500......there are currently 3, count em, 3 dealers down here in south florida taking 500 dollar deposits for the gt500 which should be out as a 2007 model some time in 2006, for arguments sake let say in june, hoepfully sooner.........figure on them being price over msrp and if u can find somebody who will sell u this car for msrp or 100 over, call me cause i will be shocked... we are talking shelby here, and a ford msutang at that, can u say history, racing history???? pedigree, how about LEGEND!!!! how many more hselby's do you think carrol will be involved in in the future, c'mon guys, this is THE car.....myself i plunked down my deposit and i'm crossing my fingers i get a call sometime n jan or feb, the dealer told me that when my car comes down the line i have to give him anothe 3000 to 5000 and i still don't know how much its going to be.... unfair, yes, low, absolutely.....greedy, you bet.....But i WANT one, and i'm guessing there's a lot of you out there who want one too... good luck to all of you and i hope you get the car you want.....
This car will likely be Shelbys last and it is a legend.
With petrol prices the way they are and are headed do you think that R&D money will be spent on 500hp engines that are as thirsty as this?
This could well be a milestone just like the last real muscle cars of the 70's were.
I have paid my $10 grand deposit and am lining up for one of the first.
For any doubters - how much is that S H E L B Y across the rear hood worth and how much would you want it on your car? Snake eyes !!!
I am travelling from across the world (NZ) to get in line. This is just Christmas to an old car demon.
Thank god that the constipation problem at Ford looks to have finally been cured. Mustangs are flowing through the pipelines at something approaching full force for the first time since 2004! Dealers in Atlanta are offering all Mustangs, including GT convertibles, for $1000 UNDER MSRP, and that is just the first wave.
With something like normal pricing and supply restored to our car marque, we can only hope that this will enable us to acquire the GT (or, as in Kiwi and my case, the Shelby) of our dreams at something approaching an affordable rate.
I will post an update after some research, but it looks like the AAI and Romeo plants may finally have their acts together.
Ford dealers competing for our business, discounting V8 Mustangs and adding incentives - woohooo! 'Bout time!
tripleblack
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
Well, incase you are like some of us who can't afford a GT500, PMPFactory.com will be introducing the 2007 Shelby GT500 Replica kit in full urethane. Comes with Hood, Front Facia, 3 Piece Ducktail wing, True HID Headlamps, grills. This will be out in about 1 month - 1.5 months.
You will also have the option for Side scoops & Rear Quarter Glass Louvers as an add-on.
This will only be for the 2005 Mustangs now, but coming out for the 1999-2004 shortly after. Just thought you'd like to know. They will be debuting the car at SEMA in Nov.
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03 White SVT Cobra
Mods: Whipped
620rwhp/590rwtq @ 18psi on 93 octane
#3285 out of 8394
Yep, I've seen the kit. I like what it does for the 05, but the version for the 99-04's doesn't quite work for me. The nose of the car simply wasn't meant for round headlights, and their answer is to float round headlights in big black settings - no, not successful imo.
Xenon has just released a cool update for the 05 - it takes the 05 design back to the original show car. They developed the kit with the original Ford designers, and if properly installed, the car looks a dead ringer for the show car - which was the design the 05's should have been before the committee-designing-a-camel got hold of it at Ford Product Development.
tripleblakc
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrHookUp
Well, incase you are like some of us who can't afford a GT500, PMPFactory.com will be introducing the 2007 Shelby GT500 Replica kit in full urethane. Comes with Hood, Front Facia, 3 Piece Ducktail wing, True HID Headlamps, grills. This will be out in about 1 month - 1.5 months.
You will also have the option for Side scoops & Rear Quarter Glass Louvers as an add-on.
This will only be for the 2005 Mustangs now, but coming out for the 1999-2004 shortly after. Just thought you'd like to know. They will be debuting the car at SEMA in Nov.
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
Welllllll, looks like they're offering a convertible right from the get-to, so I'm screwed. Have to have it - though no news yet as to cost. Mustangs are usually marked up $5-6000 for the convertible option...
No problem, if they bring that coupe in for under 40k. I'm hooked.
Damn.
tripleblack
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
