Dark Horse Depreciation vs GT

[RaceRedder]

Reality is to me the GT is simply an entry level mustang, it is infact the lowest price new ford you can get excluding the maverick hybrid and the ecoboost stuff. They are really over produced and have the market saturated, even here in the middle of nowhere.

I exclude the ecoboost stuff simply because they have a definite life span, in higher miles, turbos are typical failures along with engines. I get it there is much love for those, in reality longevity is a problem.

Future value factors reside on production numbers followed by emotional desire to own one. When the market is overfull with a model, well the value drops.

And still there are a lot of second hand S550 Mustangs with a price tag almost as high as a brand new S650 all around in the us.

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[Ryunker]

And still there are a lot of second hand S550 Mustangs with a price tag almost as high as a brand new S650 all around in the us.

Yes here too, and the Mach1's are even priced stupid higher!

 

[MarkS650GT10]

Yes here too, and the Mach1's are even priced stupid higher!

Do you think the Mach 1's are reselling closer to MSRP than a GT of the same year, mileage? that would be a similar comparison of the Dark Horse to a GT

 

[Eurasianman]

Do you think the Mach 1's are reselling closer to MSRP than a GT of the same year, mileage? that would be a similar comparison of the Dark Horse to a GT

Yes. And if I understand it correctly, Dark Horse is essentially the Mach 1 replacement seeing as the manual sports the TREMEC and it has additional cooling (i.e. differential cooler).

 

[mmerholz]

I believe my Mach 1 has held its value in Virginia. I regularly see them pop up on Ford lots and they are priced near $50k. Which is nuts since they ran $60-65K new..

 

[horned-toad]

I believe my Mach 1 has held its value in Virginia. I regularly see them pop up on Ford lots and they are priced near $50k. Which is nuts since they ran $60-65K new..

yes, like in Braveheart there was a LOT of "hold... hold... hold..!!!" but it's collapsing. Cars.com has plenty in the 40's now. Big bites (5K) are coming out of prices. There are exceptions of course.

 

[steyr]

I think it depends what you want in the car. The car is my daily driver. I went to the dealership fully intent on getting a Dark Horse they had on the lot, and left with a loaded GT Premium Performance Pack.

I drove both, and that was what influenced my decision. I didn't think the dealership would let me test drive the Dark Horse but they did. After I asked for a GT test drive just to compare. Speed wise they felt the same. The GT actually has a better power-weight ratio than the DH, but you couldn't realistically feel any speed difference between them.

For me I'll never track it, so I decided to save almost 15k and get the GT which I got to use A/Z plan on. Plus the GT had some extra comforts I wanted like cooled seats and full leather vs. Alcantara in the DH and no cooled seats.

If the dealership didn't let me test drive the Dark Horse I'd have ended up with it, which is funny. But getting to drive both made me realize, for my purposes, the price difference didn't make sense. If I was going to actually track the car, though, I'd have gotten the DH and not looked back.

I'll also say if you can't use A/Z plan and are looking at a fully loaded GT vs. Dark Horse the price difference is minimal. The Dark Horse I wanted was 67k, and the sticker on my GT was almost 61k but A/Z plan knocked off almost 6k. If I couldn't use the A/Z plan I'd have just spent the extra few thousand and sprung for the DH.

As for price I was looking at about a $400/mo difference between the two cars total on payments/insurance. Didn't matter to me all that much, but again with them feeling similar enough I figured I'd get the GT and save the extra $400/mo.

They're both great cars, it just depends what you want.

 

[Eurasianman]

I think it depends what you want in the car. The car is my daily driver. I went to the dealership fully intent on getting a Dark Horse they had on the lot, and left with a loaded GT Premium Performance Pack.

I drove both, and that was what influenced my decision. I didn't think the dealership would let me test drive the Dark Horse but they did. After I asked for a GT test drive just to compare. Speed wise they felt the same. The GT actually has a better power-weight ratio than the DH, but you couldn't realistically feel any speed difference between them.

For me I'll never track it, so I decided to save almost 15k and get the GT which I got to use A/Z plan on. Plus the GT had some extra comforts I wanted like cooled seats and full leather vs. Alcantara in the DH and no cooled seats.

If the dealership didn't let me test drive the Dark Horse I'd have ended up with it, which is funny. But getting to drive both made me realize, for my purposes, the price difference didn't make sense. If I was going to actually track the car, though, I'd have gotten the DH and not looked back.

I'll also say if you can't use A/Z plan and are looking at a fully loaded GT vs. Dark Horse the price difference is minimal. The Dark Horse I wanted was 67k, and the sticker on my GT was almost 61k but A/Z plan knocked off almost 6k. If I couldn't use the A/Z plan I'd have just spent the extra few thousand and sprung for the DH.

As for price I was looking at about a $400/mo difference between the two cars total on payments/insurance. Didn't matter to me all that much, but again with them feeling similar enough I figured I'd get the GT and save the extra $400/mo.

They're both great cars, it just depends what you want.

Thanks for sharing. I honestly wanted a DH originally as well, but had a hard time justifying the extra cost. To add to it, my dealership had not received any DH allocations at the time of my purchase. There just so happened to be a 6-speed manual GT fully loaded (see sig). Took it for a test drive and fell in love. And as @steyr said, I don't plan on tracking the car, so the DH would have kind of been wasted in a sense. One of the main reasons I wanted a DH was for the 6-speed TREMEC, but after driving the MT82-D4 for over 1,000 miles, it seems just fine. I think the whole MT82 reliability concern is a bit overblown.

 

[horned-toad]

I think the whole MT-82 reliability concern is a bit overblown

on 2018+ yeah. The pre-15 were pretty bad says the internet lore. I drive both a D4 and Tremec and the D4 shifts a lot more willingly but it also has 30k miles and the Steeda bracket on it vs the Tremec which is quite young (1500 miles). I definitely like the Tremec ratios over the MT82. You owe it to yourself to anchor the MT82 shifter so it behaves like it should.

 

[Eurasianman]

on 2018+ yeah. The pre-15 were pretty bad says the internet lore. I drive both a D4 and Tremec and the D4 shifts a lot more willingly but it also has 30k miles and the Steeda bracket on it vs the Tremec which is quite young (1500 miles). I definitely like the Tremec ratios over the MT82. You owe it to yourself to anchor the MT82 shifter so it behaves like it should.

And I would, but man, if I was watching the right video, that's very intensive on improving the shifting feel and action of the MT82. Not only do you have to disassemble the interior surroundings, but you also gotta get under the vehicle and lower the transmission.

 

[mmerholz]

Here's a Mach 1 on a Ford lot now near me in Virginia. $47499.

 

[horned-toad]

Here's a Mach 1 on a Ford lot now near me in Virginia. $47499.

and you missed a used DH?
https://www.richmondfordlincoln.com...hmond-va-893e2f1a0a0e0834133efa703bbff60c.htm

 

[zee_g7]

If you pay $x to go from GT to DH then you will _not_ get the $x difference in later trade-in. The value will likely be lower.

For eg: if you paid $12,000 more to upgrade to a DH, the eventually trade-in value will likely be < $12,000 more for the DH.

What Ford should have done is add a different name for a fully loaded GT considering you can easily add $15,000 worth of options to a base GT.

 

[Marty1000]

I say forget the re-sale value and enjoy the car. As for GT vs DH if you love manual tranny the DH is the way to go. For me after test driving the DH the tranny is fantastic and worth it not just on track, but also during daily driving. BTW- In my neck of the woods I also get lower insurance costs on 6speed manual vehicle. Who knows what will happen in the future when it comes to cars ICE or EVs and life is way to short, so I say enjoy GT or DH they are great V8 machines to have fun with every day.

 

[Zengineer]

If you think of the DH as an option package and not a completely different model, it will likely pay back about as well as the PP, NP, Magneride or Active Exhaust options on a GT...which is to say not spectacularly. Let's say a GT is $54k new and a Dark Horse is 12k more at $66k. At some point the GT will be worth 60% of that, or $32,400. Obviously, a Dark horse with same age and miles will be worth more but it's highly unlikely it will be $44,400. Will it be 61% of MSRP....or 65%, or some other %? Nobody knows.

If 2026 brings a Gen7 Shelby (GTxxx, Mach 1, Cobra, Extra Stout Dark Horse- take your pick) with 629HP, that certainly won't help matters down the road. I'm a convertible buyer so I haven't had to think about it personally since...when...about 2008? Besides, a nice F-150 still cost me more two years ago than the fully loaded (except automatic trans) GT convertible I have coming and if I thought about how much it cost me to drive each of the 17,000 miles I put on my BMW since 2017 I'd be buying a used Fusion.

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