Just curious - why did you never buy a new car before and what made you decide to 'break that habit' for the GT?
Cees,
I am 38, and have been a hard core car nut all my life. I basically never liked any of the new cars! I liked classic cars from the 50-60s and thought for the price of a new toyota you can get a used 911 or a 250 SL. So that never made sense.
However, I did realize that if you buy a flagship sports car that is 7-10yrs old its 50-85% of its original value. So all those 80s sports cars: Porsche 928, BMW 6 series, etc. were great buys. I did buy a '85 BMW 635 CSI Blk/Blk 5spd in '94 for $8K; so i would have a modern sports car with a/c, etc. (still have it)
Anyway, after 20yrs of not buying new cars you end up saving a bit. So that brings us to the summer of 2006. I said you are a car guy, and you have never treated yourself to a new car! So in 3 weeks, I was in a new car. I did look at everything in this price range: Porshce 911 Turbo, Ferrari F430, Lamborghini, and numerous mass market sports cars (Vette Z06, Viper, SL500, BMW 6r, etc). The Ford GT was head and shoulders above all. First in the way it looks (its about the size of a Lincoln town car and wider); second in the performance: at 218 mph top speed its basically the fasted production car out there (road and track did a shootout); even faster than the Ferrari Enzo. Price was also the most reasonable in the supercar segment; durability, maintenance, and service was also better (esp. v. Lamborghini, Ferrari quality control issues).
I would recommend to all that are on the fence, to follow you car passions. Life is too short.
