centerpunch

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Funny story: I've posted info about my Ford GT ebay auction on FerrariChat.com, ViperAlley.com, and EliseTalk.com with no problems. I figure the car, and the auction, is of interest to lots of enthusiasts, right? Then I posted it on DigitalCorvettes.com and was immediately BANNED FOR LIFE! Man, are those Corvette guys insecure or what? Geez!

My car, on ebay now http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...em=150050567126

Seems clear to me: Clarkson: "The mistake I made before is thinking the big Ford could be an everyday car, and it can’t. It’s for when the sun is shining and the roads are quiet. It’s a car for high days and holy days. For Tuesdays and wet November days and negotiating-mini-roundabout days I needed some back-up. I needed something else."

So it's too much trouble for you to actually read about him buying it back, and instead you want me to read it to you? OK, here goes, from the last article I gave you a link to. (If this is still too much for you to read, just try the sentence in bold.) Ready? The first three weeks of Ford GT ownership were not happy. Its alarm went off constantly, the anti-theft tracker cried wolf every five minutes and the satellite navigation system caused the engine to think it might be a dishwasher of some kind. So I sent it away and demanded my money back. This didn’t go down well with the readership of The Sunday Times. Every day my in-box was choked with more and more missives from angry people saying I’d been too rash, that I’d waited 40 years for this car and shouldn’t have given up because of some small electronic glitches. You were right, of course, so I’m delighted to say that it’s back, sitting in my drive looking all blue and huge. They’ve fixed the alarm by winding down the sensitivity of the sensors. Now you could host a showjumping competition in there and the siren would remain mute. They’ve fixed the tracker by turning it off. And I don’t know how they fixed the sat nav, but whatever they did it only lasted a mile before the engine warning light came on again. Who cares? This sort of thing is bound to happen on a car that’s right out there at the technical limits of what’s possible. The mistake I made before is thinking the big Ford could be an everyday car, and it can’t. It’s for when the sun is shining and the roads are quiet. It’s a car for high days and holy days. For Tuesdays and wet November days and negotiating-mini-roundabout days I needed some back-up. I needed something else.

I finally did. And even better, I toured the Saleen plant last week and saw MY GT being built!

Well, that's the beginning of the story. But he changed his mind and actually bought the same Ford GT a second time. Here's the story in sequence: July 3 http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0...77058_1,00.html July 6 http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0...82915_1,00.html August 21 http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0...1742033,00.html October 2 http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0...1805419,00.html

Well, predicting the drop to MSRP was easy. But from here, I don't know. I suspect you may be right, continued downward pressure, especially since the sales rate has not increased as the prices have fallen. It's interesting to see that no GTs have been sold on eBay since December 10th, except a single Heritage Paint car that sold for about $9K over sticker on the 27th. That means the dealers just can't believe how low the market price is. (And if the selling price was higher in non-eBay markets, you can be sure that some Ford dealers would be buying cars on eBay to resell for a quick profit). I have a no-option, no stripe, blue GT on order at MSRP, but maybe I could have done better. Certainly for a common color (red, white or blue with stripes) I think many, if not most, deals will soon be under sticker, maybe even a lot under sticker. And I think even the tungsten and Heritage colors will be quickly at sticker price. It's hard to convince buyers the cars are limited when there are 5 or 10 on eBay on any given day. What's more, as time passes, I'm less interested in the car altogether. I mean, it's been 4 years since the show car was at Detroit! It's hard to stay excited for four years. And the ridiculous doors and zero luggage space don't help either. I emailed the guy that's doing the GTX1 to see if he could just modify the doors to conventional (non-roofed) design, or do a simpler version of the GTX1 without reconstructing the rear deck lid, but the reply was that it would be even more expensive than the $38,000 GTX1 mod, because it would be a "one-off."

I didn't start FordGTprices.com until May 2005. Here's my Blue Oval Forum post from December 27, 2004: I think Ford GT prices will fall to sticker within a year. There are certainly some number of buyers for who money is no object in their "gotta-have-it-now" desire, and thus the early sales have been for $200,000 and up. But there are not that many buyers like that, and with Ford's plan to make several thousand GT's, the prices will have to come down to attract buyers. It's interesting to see the info in the recent recall that although approximately 300 cars have been shipped, only about 100 have been sold. Certainly some dealers are using the cars as promotional traffic-builders, but I bet some are waiting for the next $250,000 buyer, and there probably aren't many left. Then next summer, the dealers sitting on their "collector's item" 2005 Ford GT will suddenly realize that it will soon be just a year-old car when the 2006's come out. Especially if the 2006's have any improvements or new options or color choices(which they likely will have). When the Viper was introduced, it was also an unbelievable car, and it also was sold for extreme prices for a brief time. I went back to old Autoweeks and looked at the ads for dealers selling Vipers. Here's what the dealer premiums were: Viper price premium over MSRP in Autoweek classified ads from dealers July 1992 $95,000 - $150,000 October 1992 $30,000 - $80,000 January 1993 $15,000 - $30,000 April 1993 $10,000 - $20,000 August 1993 $10,000 - $15,000 November 1993 $3,000 - $8,000 So hold on a bit, and get your GT for sticker. (end of history lesson) Not sure if these links to the entire thread will work.... (I also saved as pdfs if anybody cares!) http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:3T5NdD...will+drop&hl=en http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:kZ1Zn3...will+drop&hl=en http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:N8j-MP...will+drop&hl=en http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:9k3XhT...will+drop&hl=en

Up-to-date info always at http://www.FordGTprices.com