[Bill Wells]

an early september 2003 article in Automotive News magazine said Ford will build approx 1500 cars per year and has 3800 dealers. it said not all dealers will get one during the build of the car. top rated dealers who win the Presidents Award in 2004 will get ONE GT to sell. typically the article said, about 10% (or 380) delers win this award. the rest will be distributed among high volume dealers and to winners of a lottery. specifics of the dealer allocation plan will be given to the dealers after jan 1, 2004.

they further said that some dealers will receive more than one GT and fewer than 1000 may not get a GT at all !

in other publications i saw total volume numbers to be prox 4500 or so during total build expecting to go thru or into 2006, but dont know if that is guessing or fact on part of the writers.

the half million dollar plus car that sold at monterey was a charity car, dubbed the first production car for the public that ford will sell (car number 11 as i recall..the other 1-10 serials destined for ford's usage/sale/ or whatever..expect to see some ford family members get one i would suspect) . the amount paid for the auction car over the value of the car would become a tax write off i am sure and price estimates in other publications suggest a price somewhere between $135K-$150k. to my knowledge ford has not yet announced their final msrp price. however, with so few dealers getting so few cars you can count on significant dealer mark up, at least early on ...and expect hoarding by some dealers, ie, their car will go into their own hands not to be sold...nothing new there, happens all the time with a hot product where initial demand outpaces supply. over time the dew is off the lily and the car becomes more available and price falls to msrp, or lower...as was the case of the new thunderbird as it was first available/introduced to what it is today. with a 1500 per yr build for only 3 model years this car may never get cold, just not as hot perhaps over time vs intro time, but not cold.

with the lottery and with the presidents award many small volume small town rural dealers will get an allocation for a car that otherwise they would not get. now, try to find one and nab those cars that will not have a market in the middle of no-where, usa , before they 'sell' or 'auction' off their quota if not kept by the dealer or sold locally ! good luck.

you can rest assured that eBay, Autoweek and Automotive News will have their share of early profit makers, be it the dealers getting the extra mark up or an early lucky customer turning his new car for a buck....dealers allocations may even be offered for bid,ie, over msrp as it was with the thunderbird and some select mustang models in last couple of years. it will be interesting to follow the evolution of price and availability during the full cycle production build into 06 or whenever they shut it down !

the car in the flesh is great, i have seen the first 3 built for the 100th anniversary several times and stare in wonderment each time i see one ...early reports by auto analysts that have driven the car are overwhelmed with it... a friend of mine rode in one at the ford test track , driven by one of their hand picked test drivers and he said 'outfrickingstanding' car, and he is an experienced high performance car owner. it will be a nice car to have for the fortunate few that can get their hands on one ! bill