"from talking to the dealers, they are planning on raping anyone who wants one, so a Corvette might look a bit better once you visit the dealership. The Z06 comes in at around $65000, is almost a thousand pounds lighter, has 505 bhp @ 6300 rpm with 470 lb-ft of torque @ 4800."
The Z06 Corvette lists at about $68,500, can be optioned up to a shade over $70,000, and is a thoroughly engineered high performance sport car in all respects, basically a road racer on the street. Before I bought my GT, I was planning on buying a Z06; however, the local dealers want $20,000 to $35,000 over list for them, escalating the prices to the $90,000 - $100,000 range - I won't even talk to dealers who try to pull that kind of stuff, it is, at best, highly insulting. On the advice of the service manager of a fairly large Chevrolet dealership, who has known me for many years, and knows my history with Corvettes and racing them, suggested to the sales manager that he call me and see if I was interested in a new 'Vette. He wanted $5,000 - $10,000 over list for a "normal" 2006 Corvette, depending on whether it was a coupe or convertible and which transmission (a convertible with 6-speed commanded the highest premium), and quoted me "about $15-20K over list" for a Z-06). This was just before the Z-06 had been released for sale. I told him that if he knocked off the B.S. "market adjustment," we might have a starting point for negotiating the price down from list, but he'd have a hard time selling me with that first impression.
I have wanted one of the new Shelbys since they were first announced; however, all the Ford dealers in the area that expect to receive one (or, at a max, 5 or 6) have been quoting "about" 10K over list price, but won't stick to it. Based on adding on to a $40,000 (coupe) or $44,000 (convertible) estimated list price, although it galls me to consider paying even list price, that would put the price in a reachable range. However, with regard to that, combined with the delay in availability until June, 2006, I decided to buy a Mustang GT, and see what shakes out later.
Yes, the currently quoted add-ons to the sticker price for the Shelby put it up in the list price range of a "standard" Corvette Coupe, but they are still below the convertible 'Vette sticker prices, and well below what a Z-06 can (at least currently) be purchased for. In the case of the Shelby, the relatively limited number of cars to be produced, along with the association with the historic name, will probably help retain value better than paying way too much for a Z-06. The Z-06 is, undoubtedly, superior in all aspects of performance, but I've seen the results of paying a large premium for a car based on a lot of media "hype" in the past - a year or two later, you can deal on the same car starting at list price and obtaining a discount, leaving all the first year buyers who paid a premium holding a now rather empty bag, monetarily speaking. The hit on the guys buying Z-06s at hugely inflated prices is not going to be pretty.
