Ford Dangling Shelby GT500 KR In Front Of Dealers
Ford is dangling a Shelby GT500 KR-shaped carrot in front of its dealers. With healthy rebates and sales on its F-series pickups (especially its hot-selling Super Duty models), the Blue Oval is keen to maintain sales momentum throughout the summertime. Thus, it is promising dealerships who meet their July F-series sales targets entry into a lottery to win the allocation rights to receive one of fifty examples of the high-performance models.
Just 1000 of these 540-horsepower monsters are planned, and simple math informs that most of Ford’s 3700 dealers will not receive one. With many showrooms expecting the KR to draw a crowd (which might, in turn, be sold on other vehicles), or perhaps a hefty ‘market-demand premium,’ franchise owners are clamoring for the KR… thus the F-series sales inducement.
+ Automotive News: Ford uses Mustang as incentive to keep dealers moving F series
Comments
The Stig
Interesting strategy......
mo
don't they already have the shelby GT500 .... why did they release another type of it with 40 extra bhp. and making it at low numbers as well is so strange.
if the regular GT500 almost can barely handle, this doesn’t stand a chance.
man, ford is so pathetic.
john
they released a somewhat limited edition and it sold for 50,000 markups, now they sell one that only 1000 examples will ever exist, do the math and THAT is why they did it, they're looking at multiple hundred percents profit margins.
Don
I'd imagine having one of these suckers on your showroom floor would increase foot traffic.
ryan
reminds me of last year (or maybe 2 years ago), with their marketing strategy for NASCAR, running the fusion...
"buy the truck designed by the same team that brought you the nascar car" or something like that.
seems to me that i'd probably, if i WAS a nascar afficionado (or whatever they call themselves), want to buy the same car that's running in NASCAR, not the truck made by them. but, truck profit is where it's at, instead of car sales, so whatever. just another example of ford missing the target audience...
The Stig
It's extra potential profit for the dealers and not for Ford. If I truly wanted one, I would just wait until next year when no one cares anymore or the GT500 KR v2.0 comes out and get one at 50% off.
André
I won't be dismissive of the GT500KR. I didn't like the GT500 because of its weight and its common looks. Ford should have built the Shelbys to follow the 2003 concept car--outside and in. The KR does look mean, and those extra forty horses should have a nice effect on the track numbers. The GT500 may have been spanked by the Corvette in comparison tests, but its numbers were pretty damn good compared to large coupes and sedans. The only drawback (okay, okay: aside from the weight) will be the price. Ford dealers are desperate for any dollars they can make.
Steve K.
And dollars the delers will make on this. Didn't PT Barnum say something about a fool and his money.......hmm.
Winding Road » Archive » Happy Birthday, Carroll Shelby!
[...] celebrates his 85th birthday today. And, to mark Carroll’s special day, the first 2008 Ford Shelby 500KR rolls off the production [...]
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