To me, they are just another middleman in the car-buying process that provides little value to consumers. The idea that dealerships have a legal monopoly on car sales is a problem. They also spend large sums of money buying political outcomes that favor them.  

Well that was true but apparently mach-e helped them make the decision to kill edge rather than kill something else.

It does have some upgrades over the old gt500 like brakes but not sure it's enough to justify the price bump on parts alone.  Seems to clearly be a market adjustment.  Why let dealers get all the ADMs.

The 2022 GT500 started at $80796 and went up to 127895   With inflation that works out to be $93,469.40 to 147,842.34 today   But that is also without knowing exactly what is different when it comes to options per trim level. 

I’ve bought my last five cars from the same dealer, serviced my last six there. It’s 20 minutes away, there are a half dozen Ford stores that are closer, including a megalowmart store. I make the drive because their service is outstanding (and sales staff good too).  There are literally 20 Ford stores within the same distance as two Tesla service centers. In the Tesla model the store I’ve done business with for over a decade would be no different than the megalowmart store I go out of my way to avoid. 

Looks like ford has now confirmed these prices.

That money seems wild, as it's largely a GT500 switch-over. The banner ads around the story showed Dark Horse Mustangs commonly available for half of where the SC starts...with an entire aftermarket supplying all the blower kits, suspension mods, etc that anyone could want...while keeping their manual transmissions. Unless they found big weight savings and amazing suspension updates, that price range is completely whacked.  

The party line we were being fed was that the Edge factory in Oakville ON was needed for the Explorer EV... that died on the vine. While that may be partially true, I have no doubt that as a direct gas competitor to the Mach-E, it behooved Ford to kill off the Edge to try to squeeze more unit sales out of the Mach-E.   Speaking of early versions of SYNC, my wife was part of the very early call center team that was set up to help with turn by turn directions and other navigational help. The idea was to grow it to full concierge services, especially with Lincoln, and try to one-up GM's OnStar. It didn't last long, as Ford found people tended to horde the X-number of help calls they were allotted for free, and didn't subscribe to gain more. Still remember her coming home talking about this new SYNC system they were getting training on right from Ford staff, who brought prototype vehicles to little Stevens Point Wisconsin so they could play with the system and learn it.

https://www.motor1.com/news/789394/ford-mustang-dark-horse-sc-price/   From 103k to 170k

Some dealerships are not the best. Mine treats me very fair and the service department takes great care of me.   My experience with my dealership is it’s a two way street. Treat them with respect and they take good care of the customer. Come in angry and with an attitude and it’s going to be a poor experience.