Anyone hoping to import a 2016 GT350 to the UK?
Discussion
sumpoil said:
DSLiverpool said:
Chris Evans mentions an official rhd model is being discussed in today's paper.
Yes, I saw that. Let's hope a) it's true and b) they keep the price as competitive as it is in the US and not pitch it at a level where only folks like Chris Evans can afford it.
DSLiverpool said:
Chris Evans mentions an official rhd model is being discussed in today's paper.
I suspect Mr Evans is reading forum wish lists rather than having any greater insight with ford.Ford isn't trying to please uk pereolheads, they are trying to maximise profit and that includes minimising expenditure.
Demand for mustangs continues to outstrip manufacturing capacity. Selling them in the US nearer the production plant is cheaper and requires no redevelopment to meet EU wide legislation. Look at what was required to get type approval for the base models in Europe/Australia etc. The gt350 would also have to go through type approval. That means no strut brace, no recarro on rhd, less power due to more restrictive manifold on rhd etc.
Is the investment worth it when the base models continue to sell in Europe? Probably not. Will it be worth it in a few years time when initial demand subsides and gt350s can be sold to existing GT customers when they look to replace their 3 yr old cars.. Maybe.
Edited by ducnick on Tuesday 15th March 07:55
Yes you are quite right - the car is rather dirty. Typically, a day after collecting her I had to put her outside because my garage has been closed for maintenance. She has just gone back inside so I will bet her cleaned up. I don't really have much intention of driving in the rain again, either.
Incidentally, while putting her back into the garage I accidentally went out onto the freeway and I take back my previous comments about the acceleration being less brutal than my TVR...
Incidentally, while putting her back into the garage I accidentally went out onto the freeway and I take back my previous comments about the acceleration being less brutal than my TVR...
strat said:
Yes you are quite right - the car is rather dirty. Typically, a day after collecting her I had to put her outside because my garage has been closed for maintenance. She has just gone back inside so I will bet her cleaned up. I don't really have much intention of driving in the rain again, either.
Incidentally, while putting her back into the garage I accidentally went out onto the freeway and I take back my previous comments about the acceleration being less brutal than my TVR...
Ha! .... I expect you'll be making a few 'accidental' journeys, I know I would be Incidentally, while putting her back into the garage I accidentally went out onto the freeway and I take back my previous comments about the acceleration being less brutal than my TVR...
Being new, I guess you haven't explored the full rev range in it yet? ..... or is that how you access the TVR-like acceleration? From what I hear about the engine characteristics I'm guessing it must be like my mate's Honda S2000 - he took me out in that and gave it the beans, then just when I thought he was going to change up a gear I realised that it had just come on to the cams (at about 6,500rpm!)! ..... it just kept revving and took off! Awesome.
If there is no UK version coming (I've still got my fingers crossed) I guess import is my only option. What's the state of play with regard to orders in the US at the moment, is demand still outstripping supply?
Thanks for the pictures and update, keep them coming! Cheers and enjoy! .....
Sumpoil - no, I haven't explored the full range of revs yet,but I am building up to it! I am very cautious giving it too much around here as there are lots of coppers and I don't want my nice new shiny Florida licence being sullied. The breaking in procedure appears to be virtually non existent, though, so I am may start building up quickly towards the magi de 8,000 rpm point! The tvr was rev limited well below that...
Regarding the situation here, people are still desperately trying to get hold of them. My local dealer has one in stock but he wants 25k over. This is not uncommon. Plenty are saying that when the 2017 becomes available the ADMs will disappear on the 2016s but I am not so sure: the dealerships often don't seem to mind having a Shelby hanging around the showroom as they are rather pretty, so they are not bothered about waiting to sell. Further, there's no real idea about how many years the 350 will be made, or even how many they will make each year. An awful lot of people think it will only be a 2 year run, but we will have to wait and see.
All in all, there are a lot more questions than answers. However, I wish you good luck in getting one! If I see any msrp deals going I will let you know.
Cheers.
Regarding the situation here, people are still desperately trying to get hold of them. My local dealer has one in stock but he wants 25k over. This is not uncommon. Plenty are saying that when the 2017 becomes available the ADMs will disappear on the 2016s but I am not so sure: the dealerships often don't seem to mind having a Shelby hanging around the showroom as they are rather pretty, so they are not bothered about waiting to sell. Further, there's no real idea about how many years the 350 will be made, or even how many they will make each year. An awful lot of people think it will only be a 2 year run, but we will have to wait and see.
All in all, there are a lot more questions than answers. However, I wish you good luck in getting one! If I see any msrp deals going I will let you know.
Cheers.
strat said:
Sumpoil - no, I haven't explored the full range of revs yet,but I am building up to it! I am very cautious giving it too much around here as there are lots of coppers and I don't want my nice new shiny Florida licence being sullied. The breaking in procedure appears to be virtually non existent, though, so I am may start building up quickly towards the magi de 8,000 rpm point! The tvr was rev limited well below that...
Regarding the situation here, people are still desperately trying to get hold of them. My local dealer has one in stock but he wants 25k over. This is not uncommon. Plenty are saying that when the 2017 becomes available the ADMs will disappear on the 2016s but I am not so sure: the dealerships often don't seem to mind having a Shelby hanging around the showroom as they are rather pretty, so they are not bothered about waiting to sell. Further, there's no real idea about how many years the 350 will be made, or even how many they will make each year. An awful lot of people think it will only be a 2 year run, but we will have to wait and see.
Hi Strat. So you've got more performance to unlock yet?! ..... excellent! That's going to be a LOT of fun Regarding the situation here, people are still desperately trying to get hold of them. My local dealer has one in stock but he wants 25k over. This is not uncommon. Plenty are saying that when the 2017 becomes available the ADMs will disappear on the 2016s but I am not so sure: the dealerships often don't seem to mind having a Shelby hanging around the showroom as they are rather pretty, so they are not bothered about waiting to sell. Further, there's no real idea about how many years the 350 will be made, or even how many they will make each year. An awful lot of people think it will only be a 2 year run, but we will have to wait and see.
Cheers for the feedback on the dealer situation - kind of what I expected. I certainly hope it's more than a 2 year run of production or I fear I'm going to end up disappointed.
strat said:
...... If I see any msrp deals going I will let you know .....
Much appreciated, mrsp would be good ..... oh, hold on - was that a pig i just saw passing my bedroom window?! 
Cheers ....
sumpoil said:
Much appreciated, mrsp would be good ..... oh, hold on - was that a pig i just saw passing my bedroom window?!
Cheers ....
The msrp deals might come along at some point,mor there's always the second hand market. Assuming a GT500 comes out and becomes the latest/greatest thing maybe some people will sell their GT350s. Currently there are a glut of second hand ones on eBay,mall being sold by people trying to make a few grand. Cheers ....
strat said:
The msrp deals might come along at some point,mor there's always the second hand market. Assuming a GT500 comes out and becomes the latest/greatest thing maybe some people will sell their GT350s. Currently there are a glut of second hand ones on eBay,mall being sold by people trying to make a few grand.
Yes, the second hand market was an option I had in reserve - but as you say, as time goes on maybe a few more msrp deals will be come along, especially when the GT500 appears. If that ends up being a twin turbo V6 (if the rumours are to be believed) then it's not going to appeal to me like the FPC V8 does so it might put me in the slightly better position of wanting the 'second best' Mustang. I've also heard that Ford are stopping dealers from selling 350's for export so I might not be able to get my hands on one even if I can find one at msrp!Cheers for the info, very useful to get first hand intelligence. Hope the weekend weather lets you get out and have some fun
.sumpoil said:
Yes, the second hand market was an option I had in reserve - but as you say, as time goes on maybe a few more msrp deals will be come along, especially when the GT500 appears. If that ends up being a twin turbo V6 (if the rumours are to be believed) then it's not going to appeal to me like the FPC V8 does so it might put me in the slightly better position of wanting the 'second best' Mustang. I've also heard that Ford are stopping dealers from selling 350's for export so I might not be able to get my hands on one even if I can find one at msrp!
Cheers for the info, very useful to get first hand intelligence. Hope the weekend weather lets you get out and have some fun.
The dealers are indeed briefed not to sell for export; some buyers have even said they were asked to sign something saying they wouldn't take cars abroad! I wasn't. Apparently a company called Geiger in Germany might have some...Cheers for the info, very useful to get first hand intelligence. Hope the weekend weather lets you get out and have some fun
.http://geigercars.de/fahrzeug/detail/4193988.html
Good luck!
strat said:
The dealers are indeed briefed not to sell for export; some buyers have even said they were asked to sign something saying they wouldn't take cars abroad! I wasn't. Apparently a company called Geiger in Germany might have some...
http://geigercars.de/fahrzeug/detail/4193988.html
Good luck!
Cheers for the website - one for the 'favourites' folder! http://geigercars.de/fahrzeug/detail/4193988.html
Good luck!
..... but .....jimboy2 said:
Bill Shepard had his full showroom on display at Goodwood over the weekend. The GT350 looks like a beast! £87k IIRC !
..... I suspect they'll be after this kind of silly money, which is well over double the price of the car in the US. Looking at the pictures the Bill Shepherd car isn't the 'R' and it's hard to tell which option packages it has (it's not listed for sale on their website either so can't check). IIRC a top of the line 'R' in the States is just over £40k so even factoring in duty and VAT £87k sees a little bit on the expensive side - but then again, it's probably the only one in the UK at the moment .... so another way of looking at it is that it's considerably rarer than a GT3 for half the money 
Cheers for the info guys.
£87k for the Bill Shepherd one then? Yikes! That said, isn't their Shelby GT £80k? I think the GT350 is a lot more car for not much more money.
That said, as you rightly point out, it's way more than in the US, and it's not an R. However, the regular 350 is as rare as the proverbial rocking horse turd and the R is even harder to get hold of. People are paying way, way over for it. They are paying a premium to be the first to own the car,Manucho is exactly what Bill Shepherd are hoping will happen in the UK.
I am pretty sure their one is a regular 350 with a tech or track pack. That means that it would have cost them approx $62k (with approx 6% sales tax stateside). If you apply 10% import duty and 20% vat and convert to sterling using 1.43 it comes to roughly £52k. Add to that maybe £3k for shipping and IVA and you have a very healthy profit!
Someone will buy it, though!
That said, as you rightly point out, it's way more than in the US, and it's not an R. However, the regular 350 is as rare as the proverbial rocking horse turd and the R is even harder to get hold of. People are paying way, way over for it. They are paying a premium to be the first to own the car,Manucho is exactly what Bill Shepherd are hoping will happen in the UK.
I am pretty sure their one is a regular 350 with a tech or track pack. That means that it would have cost them approx $62k (with approx 6% sales tax stateside). If you apply 10% import duty and 20% vat and convert to sterling using 1.43 it comes to roughly £52k. Add to that maybe £3k for shipping and IVA and you have a very healthy profit!
Someone will buy it, though!
Bill shepherd charges an awful lot for what you can get for a great deal less. Still advertising the gt500 for 65k which is bonkers, I've bought cars there in the past through David. After I went back to sort out a very small issue I was asked by Bill to pay for his time to search for a service copy...having bought 3 cars there I didn't expect that kind of care.
I think you'll be able to import a gt350 pretty soon when they start coming up for sale second hand. Bill needs to be more competitive on his prices or his stock will sit for a long time.
I think you'll be able to import a gt350 pretty soon when they start coming up for sale second hand. Bill needs to be more competitive on his prices or his stock will sit for a long time.
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