A 2 door sport coupe is the quintessential 'niche' car.

 

Ok, Ford Dec 2005 sales figures are in.

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?...9&make_id=trust


Wasn't a very good month for the Stang.
It sold 10,226 units, the lowest level of 2005.

So I guess Mustang mania has now officially died down.
Good news for all those who waited it out.
Rebates might just be around the corner.

 

I still don't think your going to see any rebates, especially on GT's anytime soon. Remember, were in the winter, and where I'm located (PA, Mid-Atlantic), Snow and Rear wheel drive cars don't go hand in hand. Come spring, and summer, the car will go back to being hard to get. Actually, 5-speed GT's in my region are a 10% commodity, so ordering sticks, expect a long wait.

 

Historically December is a good month for car sales and in particular Mustang sales.

Mustang sales in Dec 2005 were down 23% from December 2004, so that blows your winter theory.

The bottom line is that everyone who had to have a S197 Mustang right away and was willing to pay top dollar for it has already got theirs. Everyone else is waiting for a better deal, and better deals will be here very soon. Ford had a lot of dealer cash on Mustangs at the end of December to try to pump up sales.

Since July Ford has been building about 4,000 more Mustangs per month than have been sold. Come spring dealer lots will be loaded with Mustangs and they will be easy to find (including manual trannie GTs). The S197 Mustang shortage is officially over.

As a final note, although total Mustang sales for calander year 2005 were the best since 2001, more of the the old Mustangs (SN-95) were sold in the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 then were sold in 2005.

 

You ever consider that the demand was alot higher last year because it was a brand new hot car? The difference in units sold that month is only 2100~ units in 2005 vs 2004...not that big of a difference in per unit sales for the month. Its all in the numbers.

Overall mustang sales in 2005 where up 24%

I'm sure that the "shortage" is over and those extra units are there to make sure that 60 day supply of Mustangs is where its supposed to be at..

 

We've always been slow to catch up to trends on the "Mainland" (continental U.S.) Here in HI, you'd think there weren't enough cars to go around. I recently wasted two working days hoping to get a "break" on a GT. Fat chance. Even $1.00 below MSRP had one of the managers here complaining (Cutter Ford). No, that was not a misprint! (I overheard him and the salesman talking.) Another place made it seem like they were losing money if they did not sell it above MSRP. I find it very hard to be a Ford fan nowadays.

 

Other info from the new release:

In calender year 2005, 160,975 mustangs were sold. Up 24% from 2004 (129,858). I'm sure I will read this same info in a post I haven't got to yet

Monthly breakout of US mustang sales (assume this doesn't include sales in Canada and the rest of the world)

US sales
Month 2005 2004
Jan 10285 9906
Feb 14050 10634
Mar 17,926 15799
Apr 19,559 15,538
May 19,721 13,426
Jun 14,470 8,030
Jul 10921 6539
Aug 10577 8263
Sep 10,976 6,333
Oct 11,234 9,232
Nov 11,030 12,816
Dec 10,226 13,342
Total 160,975 129,858

 

Did you ever consider that in December 2003 Ford sold 12,249 of the old SN95 Mustangs ( 20% higher than December 2005).

And a 23% decrease from December 2004 when the 05 Stang was in short supply and carried big dealer markups to Dec 05 where there were plentiful supplies of Mustangs and up to $2,000 of dealer cash available for discounts is a big deal.

 

Ever consider that also the Cobra and Mach 1 where around in 2004, adding to the sales? The Mustang is only in 2 different trim levels now.

As for the dealer cash..that doesnt affect the resale value of the vechicle, and I'm sure that dealers aren't giving it out on GT models.

A single month isn't going to make or break the Mustang and you seem to have a really negtive tone about the car..and the difference in 2003 sales vs 2005 sales is a whopping rougly 2500 units extra sold in one month, roughly equal out to about a week and half worth of production at 50 units an hour.

 

So you're saying that the S197 Mustang has been out only 15 months and already Ford needs SEs to prop up it's sagging sales?

Quote:

Originally posted by GT98@January 5, 2006, 8:40 PM
As for the dealer cash..that doesnt affect the resale value of the vechicle, and I'm sure that dealers aren't giving it out on GT models.

Quoted post

The conditions Ford put on the dealer cash was that it had to be passed on to customers as a discount, so it absolutely affected the sale price.

<!--QuoteBegin-GT98@January 5, 2006, 8:40 PM
A single month isn't going to make or break the Mustang and you seem to have a really negtive tone about the car..and the difference in 2003 sales vs 2005 sales is a whopping rougly 2500 units extra sold in one month, roughly equal out to about a week and half worth of production at 50 units an hour.

Quoted post

[/quote]
Yes you are correct, one month does not make or break sales.
However, sales of the 05 / 06 Mustang have not been good for 6 consecutive months.

For the last 6 months, sales the 05/06 Mustang are running at an annual sales rate of LESS than 130,000 / year, lower than ALL sales years for the old SN-95 Mustang.

Look at the sales #s AF Blue posted, the 05 Mustang only had 3 excellent sales months, March, April & May and 2 good sales months, March & June. The other 7 months of 2005, sales were poor and below the old Mustang.

160,000 Mustangs sold in 2005 is nothing to write home about considering that SN-95 sold in these #s:
1999 - 166,915
2000 - 173,676
2001 - 169,198

 

In those 99,00, and 2001 MY...how deep where the discounts? Ford isn't pushing factory discounts and the dealer money is dealer money..they dont have to give it to you..it gives them more wiggle room to make a sale on a vechicle. Your not gonna walk into your local Ford dealership and tell the salesman, I want that 2K I know your getting in cash from Ford automatically deducted from a Mustang.

As for the past 6 months of Mustang Sales...ever consider all the poo that has been going on since August with the Hurricanes, Spike in Gas prices, colder weather all played a hand in affecting sales?

It seems your writing the car off as a failure just after a year of production. I dont think Ford in its wildest dreams thought that the Mustang would sell at 200K units a year...150K is what they where shooting for.

 

One thing to think about..Had Ford built as many GT's as they did V6's They would have sold a bunch more units..This is not a knock on the V6's..It just that the GT's where in very short supply in the begining and still are not as easy to come by..

 

i think part of the reason that as many GT weren't made as V6, was that Ford based its sales % on previous information from prior years, lack of 3v V8's and CAFE requirements. Even though the difference between the 6 and 8 isn't great, the overall number prob have an appreciable % that help with the total that its based on.

 

You're making a lot of excuses.
Let's get a couple things straight.

1. I never said the S197 Mustang was a failure, I'm merely pointing out that sales are not up to what the hype makes them out to be.

2. The big hurricane hit Aug 31, so it didn't affect July and August sales in the slightest bit. Sales for July & Aug were not very good, so come up with a new excuse. The area affected by the hurricanes represents less than 10% of the US population, so why are sales settling in over 20% lower than last year. There are reportedly around 200,000 vehicles that were destroyed by Katrina. If anything that should result in a boost in sales as most of those vehicles will have to be replaced.

3. Before the Mustang intro. Ford had plans in place to build and sell up to 192,000 of them, so sales may have met Ford's official "expectations" they did not meet the #s that Ford was hoping for.

4. When SN-95 was introduced in there were not any rebates on it. There were also not big dealer mark ups. There was also none of the hype that surrounded the introduction of S197. This is the main point that I've been trying to make all along. While in the short term dealer markups may put some quick cash in the pockets of the dealer owners and sales people, long term all they do is ruin the sales of a vehicle. The greedy Ford dealers killed the 2 seat T-Bird all to soon, but they didn't learn from from their mis-deeds and in less than a year they have succeeded in stunting sales of the new Mustang.

5. You didn't real my last post so I'll repeat it. The dealer cash that Ford put on the Mustang in December 05 had to be passed onto the customer as a discount, otherwise the dealer could not collect it. If you know that Ford has dealer cash on a product you would be a fool not to bring it up with the dealer when negotiating with the dealer.

6. As far as "cold" weather goes, except for short cold snap in early December, temperatures have been above normal through most of the US this fall and winter. My recollection is that fall & winter (so far ) were colder last year than this year.

 

Im wondering If I got a good deal. I paid $28,080.00 for my GT premium edition. That doesnt include the tax,tag, and title, Which will cost about another $2,000. Is that a good deal? to much?

 

That sounds very close to MSRP. Of course ISELLFORDS will able to tell you for sure

 

Here in the Northwest MSRP has been about the best deal you could get, but I noticed this weekend that a couple dealers were advertizing V6 models at $2,000 off MSRP. GTs are rare to find on the lots and I think most dealers are still trying to get ADM for them, although if you can wait it's MSRP to place an order.

 

What was the sticker price?

 

Hey V10 - I got X - Plan deal...... should I be asking for Dealer cash on top of that as well? Should be picking her up Friday

 

Sounds like MSRP (or close to it) to me.
The MSRP on my 05 Mustang GT Premium was $28450
I got mine for around $29000 inc tax/lic (X-Plan)