Hi, travelling from UK to Vermont area, New Hampshire area and Boston from middle to end of August. Anyone know any good Ford dealers where I can 'feel and touch' the 2015 Mustang, maybe even have a test drive?! Thanks
Middle to the end of August may be too early to see a production version. If final assembly starts on Monday August 11 as planned, there will be many cars made by the end of the month, but they will be held for QA, possibly for a month or more.
Your best bet is to find a training session at a dealer to see a pre-production car or attend an auto show where the Mustang is being shown. Unfortunately I don't have dates for any events or training sessions. Your chances of a test drive before September isn't very good.
It's our Massachusetts car club
this page has a link to our events for august, so while you may not be able to check out a 2015 you can at least come check out a bunch of mustangs from just about any year. We are a very active club, so have events all the time.
I can talk to a few dealers and see if, or when they will have any of the 15, Either just for training, or on the lots
Portsmouth Ford in NH is a large volume dealer and buys a lot of inventory with cash, I grew up in Vermont and New Hampshire, I would check there first, but that is really early, we aren't expecting cars to be here until September.
Tasca is more likely to have a training car due to close ties with Ford and the Mustang Volume they do.
I am not certain but pretty sure no dealer would tie up a dime paying for inventory upfront. All dealers floor plan their cars otherwise their books would be in the red. I worked for a dealer who started as a Ford Rep and he explained how it worked. Ernie Boch used to go on tv claiming "I pay cash for my cars" <<<BullSh*t>>> Volume dealers are not laying out anything up front, daily operating costs are astronomical and become exponential the larger they are. I worked for a very small dealer almost 20 Years ago and his comment to a salesman who wanted to borrow a Navigator (at the time a $7K profit) for the weekend. The agreement reached was you sell a Navigator and you can borrow one because it cost's $7K a day to be me. You want to be me, make me $7K today.
Thanks for all your replies. Don, thanks for the details, I will get an email over although may be difficult to persuade the wife to go to a car show for a full day as she has little interest in cars!
I've worked for dealerships from before I graduated high school, I know how the floor plans work, I know some use third party financing to get lower interest. I have worked at two of their competing dealers, and worked with several of their previous employees and managers. I can't say I've seen their books, but I doubt they're wasting money paying floor plan financing, and I've heard otherwise more than once.
Tasca is definitely a better bet to have one though if you can make it that far.