Used Ford GT future values

Mmmmm.... sort of depends on your point of view. To most people, it's pretty much dead on from what they remember. That's what's important --- perception over reality.

Ford was into that "Heritage" period. You have to remember Ford brought back the Thunderbird in 2002, the retro "Mustang" look and the Ford GT in 2005. It was part of their "rebirth" marketing plan.

They weren't alone. VW brought back the Beetle. This was the peak of the "retro" cars, for better or worse.

 

I only know 4 owners of FordGts including myself plus Jay lenos positive comment for 5 owners. None of these owners have had problems. My view is thier may have been some teething issues altought I have no experiences with these but the car design is done right and has no nagging issues that hound the owners.

When I bought my car I made a professional call to the Ford engineering team an discuss the car. At the time I owned two of the cars they where targeted to beat as sport cars. I think they did a great job

 

I don't disagree with you. My point is that Ford didn't do itself any favors when dealing with the problems at the time. It was supposed to be a showpiece of the "new Ford" and it was causing more headaches than they wanted. It had an impact and I suspect it was part of the reason the program was shut down early.

It's easy to look back fondly now nearly 10 years later. In 2006, it was a black eye.

 

My point of view is I've owned both(SPF). A Ford GT shares similar body lines. That's about it.

 

But, that's ENOUGH. You are not John Q Public. To the average Joe who can't tell a 348 from a Testarossa because it has "strakes" on the side, it looks the same.

Personally, I think the designers did a good job in the interpretation. I saw the prototype at Monterey and I liked it very much at the time. But, it's not ground breaking design because it does look too much like the original or the cheaper kit cars that were available.

Like it or not, that's a knock against it.

 

How did it not do itself any favors dealing with the problems at the time? Can you point me to the owners that were angry over the way the control arm replacement was handled? That's a rhetorical question.

It was not part of the reason the program ended in 2006. The program ended because the car would no longer meet the new FMVSS standards, and would have had to be redesigned due to a new regulation related to unbelted occupants below a certain height potentially hitting the headliner in an accident.

As for the speedy-sleeve, again, people that have a problem with that are just being snobbish needlessly. Ford used a tried and true technique to eliminate a minor problem. Ferrari recalled nearly 1,300 458's because "wheel-arch adhesive" (also known amongst laymen as "glue") was repeatedly causing cars to burn to the ground.

 

I'd rather have a drip of oil on my floor than a drip of hot glue haha

http://www.autoloud.com/images/ferrari-italia1.jpg

 

Look, you are arguing facts. Facts DON'T MATTER. What matters is what people were saying at the time.

The car had a troubled start. Do you disagree with that statement? Jeremy Clarkson didn't help them any either after fawning over the car and then shortly sending it back in a very public manner.

Ford didn't understand the negative PR or how to deal with it.

I'm not arguing that the problems were real or not real. The fact is that Ford didn't do a great job in fixing the perception people were forming that the car was a lemon.

Is it a lemon? Of course not. But in 2006 a lot of people were wondering out loud.

 

Well I suspect we can respectfully disagree. This forum is great becasue all points of view can be discussed. As I said perfect is perfect nothing to fondly forget.

I admit the shutdown after only two years was surprising. Leno says on his web site that the light could no longer meet the federal regs because of height. Look it up on his garage forum. I heard from the engineers at Ford that Ford loss money on every car. I was told as you said it was a show piece of technolgy for ford.

I have a the same ill feeling with Lotus as you do with Ford. My first Lotus Elize sport was perfect and my current Lotus Evora S has not been very good.

Lee

 

Once again we get into ****** waving contest. This is the real pity of discussions on Fchat -- you can't have a legitimate discussion about a car without someone saying "your car sucks more than mine". Are we 5 year olds here?

The issue is what Ford was doing at the time. If you want, I'll through in the Pinto and Mustang 2 for you and we can have a real nonsensical discussion.

I've said about 50 times already I'm not knocking the car. But, in 2006 Ford had a PR problem they didn't handle well-- and it hurt them.

 

Didn't hurt them too bad as they are now commanding $200k plus for a lemon no less

 

I heard GT production was shut down cus DOT changed law re headlights so it was impossible to maintain production

 

If you go on UTUBE where Jeremy discusses his problem it was the security device that was put on in the UK it was not done by ford. The device would phone him the FGT was stolen and it would shut the car down while he was in it going home. Others times it locked him out. If you watch the episode it is kind of funny. He says in the episode that the car was fine and had nothing to do with the car Ford built.

There is a second episode about the car where he complanes with the upper door protrusion you can not get in the car if someone parks close. That is really true and it has happened to me once.

Lee

 

The irony of the early shut down was that it had a greater appreciation of the car after the shutdown. It works in the car's benefit today.

Here's the reason. There was no way the board could keep this halo car alive under these circumstances:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/23/news/companies/ford_closings/index.htm

Ford in 2006 and 2007: It was bleeding.

Ford Motor Company today reported a 2007 full-year net loss of $1.35 per share, or $2.7 billion.

Ford Motor Company today reported a 2007 full-year net loss of $1.35 per share, or $2.7 billion.

Full-year net loss of $2.7 billion, an improvement of $9.9 billion from 2006. Fourth-quarter net loss of $2.8 billion, an improvement of more than $2.8 billion from 2006.

 

Luke, I know the SPF is as true as you can get. But its probably a little too raw for some. As the GT is too soft for the purists. But it's an awesome alternative for those who wanted it.
Like those that could buy a 458 and prefer the 328 or 355. People who miss the vintage rides.
That's why I think cobras are still so popular. But I do have to say, it'd be a hard choice between an SPF and a GT.


As for who's better, it doesn't matter. I still believe the GT would look best next to a Ferrari in my garage

 

Lee... once again you are arguing facts. I actually agree Clarkson was a total whiney dick at the time.

But the perception at the time was it was a troubled car and Ford did a lousy job of combating that perception. There is no question of that.

 

I agree. But, they took a dip at first and then, after the shutdown, they came back pretty fast.

I do agree the car has a good long time collector potential. It's unique, pretty, fast, is low maintenance, and has a great lineage. But, it's also important to understand that in 2006, it had it's issues and was part of the flood of "retro" cars coming out of seemingly everywhere.

Their target was the Ferrari 360 and they beat it. Not an easy thing to do right out of the box for a company more interested in selling 3.8 million family cars a year.

 

I'm not sure I understand your point though. It obviously has not hurt the car, as the car frequently commands a huge premium over what it sold for initially. So back to your original point where the GT has this as a "knock against it," how is it a knock if it is a) not factual and b) not factual and not even considered by buyers? So who does this non-factual knock matter to? Not sure.

And no, I don't agree that it had a troubled start. My Dad has a 458 Spider. He bought it despite the fact they recalled twice as many 458s for a very serious and potentially life threatening issue as Ford recalled GTs. That's the price we pay for buying expensive, sometimes temperamental sports cars. I wouldn't hesitate for 5 seconds to buy a 458 or a Superleggera and I didn't hesitate when I bought my 5th GT a couple weeks ago. People paid well over sticker to buy the GT long after the control arms had all been replaced and the crank finish had been changed, so by that standard, it was a non-issue.

You should read this. If you mean Ford didn't know how to handle the issue in terms of getting magazines to stop exaggerating and fabricating about the issues, you're right. If you mean Ford didn't know how to handle actually making their customers happy, you're incorrect. =

 

I like facts. We disagree about the "Lousy Job".

No facts on this but I think Clarkson is paid to be whiney. I do enjoy his antics. I do wish he was not always putting down non British things. But than I remember his main audience.


Lee

 

I think values will go way up. To say the fact that it is a retro design is a knock against it is utterly ridiculous. That is precisely WHY it is appreciating already, combined with the 3 pedal manual. If they'd have done a Merc SLS job with it, it wouldn't be worth anything by now.

 

Jay's perception of how things were being handled and the perception of the public and press were two different things. The A arm replacement and the crankshaft problem were a black eye in what was supposed to be a showcase for Ford and it's "comeback".

You can try to gloss over history but that's what was going on in 2006.

Does it make a difference today? Nope. Did it hurt back then? Yep. And I believe it was part of the reason for the early shutdown.

 

i actually find it hard not to be offended by your calling the spf a "cheaper kit car". those cheap kit cars often have fia papers and are FAR from kits!!! look in to them or better yet spend some time speaking to dennis olifoff.

 

But my question is what does it matter? If it certainly doesn't matter to the owners and it certainly doesn't matter to the buyers, it's a case of a tree falling in the woods. 99 out of 100 people on the street have absolutely no clue about the press whining Wyss started. Half the people on the street don't even know what the car is besides expensive and fast.

I'm not trying to gloss anything over, I'm just illustrating the lack of a point to the assertion.

It's not a matter of belief or not, the car stopped production because of FVMSS rules. It's the reason they ceased making US production cars and finished the run by building exclusively Canadian cars through September 2006. The car as designed and as it appears would not meet US safety regulations. The program manager and chief designer are two of my best friends. We're not acquaintances. One bought a house across the street from me. We've gone on vacation together. When I speak about Ford GT, it's because I hear it from the horse's mouth.

 

Translation... Word!

Now surely they don't intend to rest on their laurels for eternity do they?

 

Pretty much. The new head of global product development is a big time car nut/racer, and the head of global sales and marketing is as well (black no stripe GT), but I'll be surprised if they decide to build anything remotely considered an FGT successor any time soon. There's really only 4 guys that have the power to unilaterally make that happen, at this point, none of them have shown such an inclination. At various times, there's been groups of people that want to do it, but never the right aligning of the stars.

It's like clockwork, every year one of the magazines says Ford is seriously considering a Ford GT successor, every year they are full of ****. The people at Ford get a laugh when magazines like Automobile pay Camilo to render a "new" GT, even though he hasn't worked there in 5 years. Whenever it's a slow news month at MT, C&D, Automobile, you can count on someone resurrecting that rumor.

Personally, I wish they would build a new sportscar. I know some people are dead set against it thinking it would hurt GT values, but at this point, anything they would build would be very different.