In its final years, I believe the Camaro plus the Firebird sold about 70k units together. The majority were V6s selling for $20,000. Those people aren't likely shopping for a GTO. So now you're down to about 30k units of V8s. The GTO may be light years ahead of the F bodys in quality but it's also significantly more money than the AVERAGE V8 f-body. So 18k units when there's demand for 30k units at a 6 or 7 thousand dollar increase means the current GTO will NOT sell out ridiculously fast.
Especially since the '05 will have more power, nicer wheels, and more aggressive styling. Many people will choose to wait when this becomes more publicly known.
So the GTO will sell for sticker for several months, then it will be slightly discounted to move as the '05's come in. Compare that to the 04 Grand Prix which was discounted pretty much from day one. That's why I said the GTO will hold its value a little better than most cars, but will end up being discounted later. When I said discounted, I hope it didn't come across as 3 or 4 thousand. I'd say $500 off at the end of the 04 model run.
03 Cobras were only holding their value early on. Couple months back I could have gotten into one for 3k under sticker.
I stand behind what I said: anyone who pays over sticker wants one today and is not willing to comparison shop. There are dealers all over the country selling right at sticker. A certain GTO fan site might help anyone interested in getting a fair deal. ;-)
Brian [/b][/quote]
Your logic is somewhat flawed I think.
You seem to be suggesting that the GTO's customer would have been the same people as F-Body customer.
Just to let you know I am seriously considering a GTO, but I have never seriously considered buying an F-body, and I know for a fact I would never ever buy one.
My current car is a BMW Z3. My aspirational car is an ///M5 but unfortunately I probably couldn't comfortably afford more than 40-45k for my next car.
To sort of quote Jeremy Clarkson, I am viewing this GTO as a cut-rate ///M5.
Its almost identically proportioned to the ///M5, has very similar driving dynamics from what everyone with experience has said, and its interior is more BMW than Pontiac.
I will be completely honest in that I am not a Pontiac enthusiast (or a GM enthusiast) but their recent offerring have this BMW fanboy checking them out very closely (XLR, Solstice, CTS-V, C6, GTO, and even the G6 to some extent).
Sorry if I am being long-winded but I think you guys are selling the GTO short if you think its customer base is going to be former F-body guys (although I am sure there will be plenty of those).
But for me the GTO is basically competing with the 330ci, G35c, and to some extent the RX-8 and the IS300.
Oh...I better be more on topic...
I think the Cobalt will be an excellent compact car! B)
