We finally decided to buy our first Shelby; a 2013 Shelby GT500.

About 15 years ago when I was single, I had an opportunity to buy my ultimate Shelby; 1969 GT500. I was looking for a house at the time and put off this purchase. Unfortunately, I never did get that car. Too bad because I would have paid $30K for it back then & it would be worth >$100K today.

2 years ago, when our CLK550 was totalled, I had an opportunity to buy my next favorite Shelby, 2007 blue stripe delete convertible. The money I got for the Merc was about $2K less than what the seller wanted for the Shelby. The wife didn't want to dip into the savings so we passed on this one too.

This year is different. We have the opportunity to get the most powerful Shelby yet and we are jumping on the chance.

I went to my local Ford dealership and the salesman confirmed that they had an allocation for a 2013 Shelby. We agreed on a price (MSRP) & options and I made an appointment to come back in 2 weeks with the down payment & submit the order. At this point, we did not fill out a sales contract because I did not have the down payment with me.

Two weeks later, I went back with my down payment & met breifly with the salesman. I say breifly because within minutes of sitting down with him, the Sales Manager asked me to step over to his desk & HE would submit the order. As we were building the order, some of the options I was told would be available were not possible. This made me uneasy because I watched the salesman ask the GM the questions I had about the options 2 weeks before. Now, all that information was incorrect. And the SM kept asking, "who told you that?"

So I was not surprised when it came down to price and the SM told me that the price I had agreed upon with the salesman was not correct; the price would include $5k ADM. He said that he wouldn't want to pay the extra $ either but the price has to include the ADM or there is no deal. I voiced my displeasure with the fact that this whole deal is completely different than the deal I negotiated with the salesman 2 weeks ago. He said that this is the bottom line, this is the deal. I didn't even shake his hand. I picked up my pile of cash and told him that I'd go buy the vehicle from a dealer that will stick to their word.

 

I called dealerships within 500 miles to find one that still had an allocation left. I was fortunate to find that a dealership that I had previosly bought a vehicle from had an allocation. I was treated really fairly during the previous purchase so I called & explained the situation to the owner of the dealership who personally handles all of their Shelby orders.

He was pleased that we were repeat customers (would be our 3rd purchase from them) and gauranteed that we would get the car built this year. We agreed on a price over the phone & made an appointment to go in that weekend & place the order.

We got there and he couldn't have been nicer to my family. Just before we placed the order, I asked when the car would be delivered. He said that based on how orders are going, it should be the end of September or the beginning of October. We signed the sales contract, finalized the order & started the long wait.

 

Awesome man. I read the first part and thought to myself "where's the rest of the story" haha. What color/options did you go with?

 

Just a few weeks after our order, I followed up with SVT to find out about scheduling for our car. SVT said that they were so far behind that it was very likely that our car wouldn't be built until the end of December or maybe not until next year. I followed up with our dealer we ordered from and he confirmed that our allocation was for the third quarter of this year.

BUT... then he did something unexpected. He sent me an email stating that we never talked about when the car would be built & that he gauranteed NO time for build of the vehicle. Odd because when we initially talked he gauranteed the car would be built this year and we very clearly talked about the expected delivery timeframe for the vehicle. He had also previously confirmed that the allocation was for the 3rd quarter of this year which fit into our original time frame.

After that email he refused to take my phone calls, answer my voicemail or other phone messages and did not return any emails that I sent him. Until a couple weeks later. He sent an email stating that the reason he didn't take or return my calls or emails is because he had no new updates for me. He even went as far as stating AGAIN that we never discussed delivery time frames and that the condition of the sale was not contingent upon an agreed upon delivery time.

This is the customer service I get from this dealer.

So I hold my breath to see what other surprises are in store for us as the vehicle is built & delivered.

 

Based on this customer service we've received from the dealership, I've called Ford Customer Service. I've learned 2 very important things during this process:

1) Each dealership is an independatly owned & operated franchise. They follow some very basic Ford guidelines but are allowed to run their business as they see fit.

Even the sales contracts are not generated by Ford. Each dealership words their own stipulations on the backs regarding who is liable for what, cancellation policy & how / if deposit money can be refunded.

The only thing FCS said that they could do if a person is having a bad experience at a dealership is to escalate a complaint against the dealership. The problem is that if the dealership is uncooperative, they would surely be less cooperative after you've registered a complaint about them.

2) Some delaerships are either poorly informed or poorly motivated to learn more about the ordering process. I tried many times to get information from my dealership about our order & the allocation process. The Regional Sales Rep is the person who controls allocations & is the only one who can move up your order status.

And dealers don't like consumers who are well-informed. When I asked this dealership very specific questions about our allocation & our order's priority, he just gave a very generic answer saying that our order priority is the "best priority."

So hopefully my experience, first experience ordering a vehicle, can help others who are looking to order a vehicle and don't know what to expect. I wish I had been able to find a more customer-friendly dealership to deal with. According to others on this site, they do exist.

 

I had a really tough time deciding on the color. I already have a black 88 GT that we've been turning into a UOP Shadow tribute. I was tempted to get a black Shelby and make that the tribute and sell the 88. But the wife is ok with letting me keep the 88 so we decided to go with the original Shelby colors; white with blue stripes.

The bad thing about the blue stripes is that they are not the Guardsman Blue color like the original cars. Initially, Ford had the stripes listed as grabber blue like the 2012 cars. Then it changed to sonic blue. Now, I looked at the website today and the stripes are listed as deep impact blue. I'm tempted to change the order to stripe delete and have them painted on in guardsman blue.

We ordered a convertible because we're ragtop people. I know that the car has its speed limited to 150mph but we'll never take it to the track. Since it won't ever see the track, we didn't get the SVT performance pack either.

We ordered the upgraded shaker pro stereo & the Shelby cover. Other than that, it'll be delivered stock. Once we get it, we plan on putting some hood supports on it & possibly lowering it an inch.

 

Before I start getting posts or PMs about which dealerships I'm talking about, I will not be posting the name of the dealerships. The purpose of this thread is not to rat out a dealership but to inform others of the difficulties we've had and hopefully provide some insight to others on what types of pitfalls to expect or watch for when ordering / buying a car.

 

We finally received a VIN and a build date this week. My guess is that the car won't be delivered until the end of October. A month later than we'd hoped for but better than the end of December like SVT said.

I just can't wait until we get an actual window sticker.

 

The wonderful part of this journey so far is this site and the members here. Deysha, Five Oh Brian & 05fordgt (Jeff) are invaluable resources! They have been a gold mine of information during this process. Had it not been for them, I'd probably have cancelled my order in disgust. Because of them, I can look past my lousy dealer experiences and weather this storm to get a truly amazing car.

After our car is delivered, I'll gladly take the 3 of them out for a Chicago style pizza if they are ever in town to thank them for all the information they've provided.

If you've been getting the run-around from your dealer like I have, try contacting one of these 3 members. Great people & very helpful.

 

I agree the process leaves much to be desired because of the many many crappy dealerships and the fact that Ford is not more strict about it....however through all that glad you are getting the car and you will love it, trust me!

 

I have run into problems in the past with dealers here in the valley and the fact that they and really not part of ford cause alot of issues.

 

I think it would be so much better if the dealers were better informed and willing to pass along accurate information to the customers.

We are very eager to get our Shelby. And the fact that they bumped it up another 100bhp from last year makes it even more sweet!

 

Congrats sir, I know you've had a rough go at this. I can tell you 100 % though, when you get to drive it after 53 miles on the odo, you'll know why you went through this

 

So what you're saying is that I may never want to drive the 88GT again after I get the Shelby?

 

Hey buddy, thank you very very much for the kind words. It was my pleasure to chat with you a few weeks back and answer your questions. If you ever are in doubt of what your dealer is saying, my phone is always open here at the store. I'm always willing to help. It may take a little while to get, but it will be SO WORTH IT when the car arrives, TRUST ME!!!

Oh, and thanks for the pizza offer. I only wish I could make it out to Chicago. Don't think that is possible anytime soon.

All the best

Jeff

 

Her status will change

 

Then I'll just save the 88 for my son. He's only 4 but ready to drive!

 

Shoot, you just ordered yours on 06/30. I ordered mine on 06/13 and I still have heard nothing other than mine still sits in order processing. And many others who ordered before me still have yet to get their cars. I consider you pretty fortunate in getting a VIN so soon. I'd be pretty ticked at my dealer but I saved a couple grand off of sticker, and they are a tiny dealer with only one allocation, so I sit patiently waiting for my 13 Shelby Coupe.

 

Here is what we ordered. The OTT stripe color keeps changing on the Ford website so I'm not too sure WHAT color they're gonna be.

 

Didn't you have the choice of sonic blue or grabber blue?