About 6 weeks ago I bought my stang (V6 vert, IUP, black/black/crimson red, exterior appearance package, auto). I REALLY love it. But of course being a long time hot rodder/ car nut, I couldn't help but wonder if I should have gotten a GT vert instead. Well wouldn't you know it, a local dealer called and got in a GT equipped exactly like my 6 right down to the crimson red interior (which for me is a must-have on my '05 stang). I went to look at it this evening. It is a stick versus the auto in my 6. I can live with that, but I prefer an auto for the daily grind. I was quite surprised that the GT sounds almost exactly like my 6 (my 6 has a GT muffler on it). Of course it does have a bit deeper sound when you romp on it, but the difference wasn't as substantial as I expected. Anyway, what I really wanted to tell you about was the trade-in value. I fully expected to lose money on the deal, but I was shocked at just how bad it was. I paid list price for my 6, it was 28,350. Once TT&L was piled on, it was close to 30k. It is 5 weeks old now and has 1800 miles on it. I was hoping for 26k trade-in value and figured 25k was a definite possibility for trade-in. At 25k I would have to think long and hard about the deal. Well as it turns out I didn't have to worry about it. They looked it over, did a laundry list of the options, griped about how hard it is to value a new '05 for trade-in and eventually came back with "somewhere between 20,500 and 21,000". OWWWWWWWWWW that hurts! No way I am taking a 9k hit on a car I drove for 5 weeks, so this was a no-brainer. Really it wasn't a big deal, driving the GT vert helped me to realize the V6 vert I have now is darned near the same car. Sure the GT is faster, but I've got motorcycles to fill the go-fast need And looking at my 6 next to the GT in the parking lot I reaffirmed what I thought before, I actually like the overall look of my 6 better. Don't get me wrong, the GT is stunning. But being an old muscle car guy, I like the more vintage appearance of the 6 (the side stripes, the Shelby type wheels, the lack of ground-effects style lips like on the GT). The GT has a more modern appearance in my opinion, and there is nothing wrong with that, I just personally prefer the super-retro look of the 6.

Just thought you 6 owners might want to read this in case you were thinking of jumping to a GT. Sometimes it's better to love the one you're with

 

Your dealer is full of . He did the same thing that my dealer tried when I went to trade my 03 Cobra in. He low balled you on the value to see if you would bite. Luckily you didn't and walked out. Your car should be worth at least 25k no problem. If your really serious about getting a GT, try another dealer or go back and demand more money for your car. My dealer tried to give me 23k for my Cobra which was all stock with 855 orig miles. I eventually got 29k for it but it was only after walking out of the dealership 3 times.

 

WOAH!! Well an extra 6k would definitely be worth leaving 3 times Interestingly the salesman just sent me an email that they may have found a buyer for 23k. I'm sure what that means is they found a buyer for 27k and would love to pay me 23k for mine now I didn't go for that deal either, we'll see if it gets any better.

 

Let the games begin!!! Good Luck!!!!

 

Greedy %#@%* dealer. It's one thing to want to make money on the new car, but its another to #%$& you on the trade in !

 

All new cars loose around $5k once you drive them off the lot. Why? Because buyers would rather pay that to get a new one. How is that the dealers fault?

Why should they let someone drive around a car for over a month for free?

Granted, I think they went a little overboard in this situation, but they have the power. They seem to be having no trouble selling cars right now, so they are in no hurry to get a used one.

 

You paid close to 30k for a V6??? I was out the door with a well loaded (IUP/ICAP) GT for $25k... Ouch in deed.

 

Keep your V6, man. It's not that big a difference, especially for an automatic.

 

do you have any pics of your car?

 

RRRoamer ~ Yeah but yours is a coupe. His was a vert. The verts start at almost 5k more than the coupe. Besides, you could have used a plan & he may not have one.

There are lots of things to take into consideration here. Although I agree, 20k for a 30k car after driving 5 weeks is total BS.

 

You paid 25K for a loaded Vert GT???? Wow you got the deal of the century. He did get ripped if he paid 30K for a vert 6er...

 

The ride is a little softer in the V-6 than the GT.

 

==but its another to #%$& you on the trade in ! ==

Amen! When I bought the 6, I traded in a PT Cruiser. Trade-in value blue book was 8800. They started at 6000 and eventually came up to 7300. All the while they were griping about the low resale value of the PTC and overall making it sound like I was screwing them to complain about the 6000 offer. Then the next day it hits their used car lot with a 10,850 price tag on it. That's a higher markup than selling the stang for sticker!!!


==Why should they let someone drive around a car for over a month for free?==

I don't think anyone suggested that they should buy it back at full sticker price. But jacking a car that listed for 28.5 down to 20.5 is pretty extreme, especially considering the high resale value of verts right now.

==You paid close to 30k for a V6???==

I paid sticker price for a loaded V6 vert. Sticker price was 28,350. The rest of the 30k was TT&L as mentioned in my first post.

==I was out the door with a well loaded (IUP/ICAP) GT for $25k...==

Yeah, but coupes are boring You cannot touch a GT around here for under sticker, I'm sure you took advantage of X plan or similar and so your example is not comparable. Plus the V6 vert is a higher price than a GT coupe. Two things I was not willing to compromise on- it had to be a vert and it had to have the red interior.

==Keep your V6, man. It's not that big a difference, especially for an automatic. ==

Yup, I agree. After driving my 6 and the GT back-to-back, I was quite surprised that the difference in sound & acceleration wasn't that noticable. Perhaps I'm jaded from riding 10 second motorcycles

==He did get ripped if he paid 30K for a vert 6er... ==

No, I did my homework and shopped around extensively. I don't know what dreamworld you guys live in where you can buy loaded verts for 100 bucks over dealer cost, but in the DFW area it aint' gonna happen. Most loaded verts here (V6 and GT) start at 3k over sticker.

 

You could probably get more than you paid for it by listing it on ebay.

 

BTW, the vert I bought was actually the 3rd like-equipped V6 I dealt on (same options, same colors). The first two cars sold while I was trying to dicker the dealers down below sticker. Both those were on the lots for two days. The one I bought was in its 3rd day on the lot. It's a sellers' market, for now at least.

 

"You cannot touch a GT around here for under sticker"

I did. In fact I bought it for 500 under sticker.

 

That amount of loss should be expected. The dealer is not going to give you more than that, period, and why should they. If you expect to get close to what you paid for you have to sell it privately. As soon as you drive off the lot, any chance of getting back close to what you paid for is just a dream. Dealers are in the business to make money. They can't give you close to what you paid for it and then try to sell it for the same price as a new one. They would have to sell yours for thousands less than a new one to move it off thier lot. Reading everyones comments it just seems that nobody is taking into account that the dealer has to "resell" the car at a substancially lower price. I know if I went into a dealership and they had a used vert for $2,000.00 less than a new one, not only would I question why someone already traded it in but I would rather spend the extra $2,000 and get me a brand new car. The dealers know that and that is why you are not going to get what you want for the car.

 

 

I bought mine at invoice, no plans involved.

 

i took a 2k loss when i traded in the v6 for the gt. it had 2600 miles on it. i got the gt slightly below sticker. the dealer is always going to make their money on any deal. i was expecting to come out worse than that but who knows, the dealership was dead and maybe they just wanted to move a car.