Rideagain

I was running errands the other day and was driving by a local Ford dealer and as I have yet to order a Mustang for myself I always look and drool. While cruising by something unusal caught my eye. A 2005 body style with GT500 markings?!?!?!??! No, it can't be?! I spun around and came back and sure enough it was! i pulled into the dealership and walked over to it. It was a modified V6 with the stripes and door markings all the way down to the cobra badge on the side. NO Shelby name on the trunk but it did have dual exhaust. The saleswoman I talked to said that the shop had modified the car themselves and that it and another with GT350 markings were for sale. This was the first time I had seen a Mustang so heavily dealer modified. Forgive the cude images, camera phone.

1 COBRA

Dig-It

One of the dealers out here is doing the same thing. He had two Mustang GT's on the lot with "GT350" stripes/stickers. Weren't any body mods though.

Rideagain

Exactly the way I reacted. I was ready to pull out the check book as the only reason why I have not ordered a new GT is because now I want a Cobra (if I can even get one). I guess it was a way for the dealer to bring in traffic (which it did do that 6 cars stopped while I was there) but it seemed like dirty pool to me.

future9er24

i hate it when that happens

what was the markup. aroung 8K no doubt!

Rideagain

$2500 +/- a few coins.
It was a sick trick to a man that wants a Cobra so back he can taste it. Okay, maybe taste it is a little extreem but I want one really bad!

dfhurleydude182

Yeah that's a pretty lame recreation. Not near the same hood, fog lights, rims, etc...

dke

I thought the original GT350/GT500 was an allusion to the CC's? (3.5 liter or 5 liter?)... if so, badging a GT with Gt350 is taking away about 1.1 liters worth of credit that it deserves. (It's a GT460 -- or at least 450, isn't it?).....

I can't stand badge engineering (that is pure fraud), but the side stripes or scoops as cosmetics aren't a big deal (not my thing, but if they like it, that's their thing). So if someone retuned the suspension, modded the exhaust/intake a bit (saw wheel well cool air intake), changed the wheels, and put on a GT450 sticker (inferring that it isn't pure stock, and is unique so isn't trying to take someone else's badging), that doesn't bug me at all. But putting false logos, etc., and doing no other mods, is just rice/cheese.

totalbs

Shelby claims the GT350 name came from a measure of distance a building was away when he was asked for a name for it back in the 60's. Don't recall specifics but it is in the opening movie they played at the NY autoshow.

http://www.blueovalnews.com/2005/multimedi...as05.4gt500.wmv

Back on topic, I think it's pretty crappy to have a dealer mod a V-6 to look like a shelby gt500. I guess if you buy it thinking it's the real thing you deserve to get taken.

Putawaywet

I immediately find myself questioning the integrity of any dealer that would do something like that. I mean, if they'd do that how far can I trust them if I were singing papers on a new car purchase?

mr-mstng

If someone manages to get the dealer to put the word 'shelby' or 'GT350' on any of the papers you sign, it will be fraud, since they are trademarked.

holderca1

The first GT 350 in 1965 had a 289 cid (4.7L) engine with 306 hp.
The first GT 500 in 1967 had a 428 cid (7.0L) engine with 335 hp.

Also, the auto industry still used cubic inches in the 60's, not cubic centimeters or liters.

dke

Thanks holderca. If I hadn't have been lazy, I would have looked it up. People today are using it to represent horsepower. Saw someone put a GT300 on their GT. That doesn't bug me at all (it isn't trying to misrepresent). So if I get the new cobra, and do a pully swap, can I call it a GT600? ;-) I like that BMW/Mercedes put rough displacement as their designation numbers -- it makes it easy.

ekessler507

Grr! :bang:

It is one thing to produce a reproduction and sell it as such. It is another thing entirely to hype what is not there. :nono:

Caveat emptor to the max!


EK

Seven

I could see something like this happening in the aftermarket, but for an actual dealer to do it?

It is totally inappropriate, and considering they are essentially stripping the name from another (yet to be released) Ford product and slapping it on another, I would hope Ford would come down on them for it.

I mean, this is just as if they took the SVT badges off of a lightning and put them onto a base F150. No sir.....that is one dealer I would avoid at all costs.

Lalo

I do like the white letters on the tires though!

crispy23c

:nono: :ranting:

Just my .0002

John H

I was just thinking the same thing. That Windviel Blue car looks really sharp even though we all know what's up with it. Although, I don't really care for the hood scoop.

jwenger

Ain't NO Cobra :notnice: Never was and never will be

MustangFanatic

It's bound to happen, anytime the factory creates a high performance model, there are always posers, even from the dealer, sad but true. And to charge $2,500 + for a tape package is just plain dumb