Dark Horse at Dealership

[Bob Lob Law]

I actually like the 650 GTs, but , the dark horse loses me. I cannot stand the stupid black mask stripe thing that only looks good on black! The second is I cannot stand that the dark horse comes with cloth and blue leather(ewww). Finally, for $70k I'm getting a ZL1! If Ford ends up doing special financing on the 650 GTs I may just trade my '22 in, although my wife said that she would likely kill me if I do.

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[Idaho2018GTPremium]

From a design perspective, the S650 has a heavy looking front end; sort of truck-ish, and doesn’t look light and lithe. It also appears to have a FWD overhang, way too long. The rear is scrunched vertically and not really natural looking. Additionally, in person they look like a lightly refreshed S550, not a new gen. That doesn’t bother me as much as reusing the chassis and calling it a new gen. 911s only lightly evolve in looks over the years, even when they’ve changed generations. But there’s substantial performance and other improvements Gen to Gen that equate to new gen cars.

 

[MAGS1]

I’m not saying they’re anywhere near the same class. My point was those cars are desirable by many, and they aren’t doing the tacked on widescreen. Low end manuf are doing it because they’re lazy and cheap and catering to the younger crowds who for some reason think one pane of glass separating multiple screens equals tech and luxury or whatever.

One doesn’t need to make a $300k car to have decent design thought put into a car. The S650 interior is a prime example of Ford trying to fix what wasn’t broken. If they wanted a bigger infotainment screen then sure, make it bigger; just integrate that and the gauge cluster screen into the dash.

I agree, the design could’ve been much better and likely not cost them much, if anything more.

They do cater to the younger crowd as their target market is very different than that of a luxury or exotic brand. Hence, the design tilts more towards the Kia/Nissan vs a BMW or Mercedes. But overall, thoughtful design shouldn’t cost that much more to where you don’t even make the effort. So hopefully they clean it up with a mid cycle refresh (I have my doubts though, will probably have to wait until Gen 8).

So I do think we agree, I just found it funny that a Mustang and Aston Martin were in the same sentence as they are clearly very different.

 

[MAGS1]

I actually like the 650 GTs, but , the dark horse loses me. I cannot stand the stupid black mask stripe thing that only looks good on black! The second is I cannot stand that the dark horse comes with cloth and blue leather(ewww). Finally, for $70k I'm getting a ZL1! If Ford ends up doing special financing on the 650 GTs I may just trade my '22 in, although my wife said that she would likely kill me if I do.

My dealer calls me weekly to get me to trade in my 2022 for a 2024. I always say no, there’s just not enough in a new one that would make me want to part with mine.

At least in my area, Ford is running 3.9% financing on Eco and GT’s for 60 months. And my dealer is very much willing to do a deal below sticker (they price matched Granger in the middle of the Covid price run up). So at least here, there are deals to be had on S650. I would imagine 2025 MY production will start in the late fall, so dealers will want to start clearing inventory this summer. Should be a return to “normal” with discounts and special financing that we were accustomed to for a long time.

 

[ChitownStang]

I just think it’s funny that after all the hate for the the Mach 1 being a parts bin car it turns out to be better in looks, power to weight, chassis than any new gen s650.
Pretty happy with my purchase the longer I have it!

 

[MAGS1]

But when I was talking to my 21 yr old son about the iPad dash, his comment was that resolution and graphics styling change so fast that the most critical elements of driver/car interface will date out faster than the tires thanks to Moores Law (essentially doubling computing power every 2 years). Hadn't thought about that but the video screens may become the achilles heel of tomorrow's resale values.

This is a really good point. Look no further than phones, computers and TVs to see how quickly the tech becomes outdated.

I purposely ordered my car with the 4” calculator screen knowing the Hextall kit was a much better price to get the 8” screen and drive modes (thanks to this forum). I didn’t care about the few extra speakers that also came with the 301a package, so to me the package price wasn’t worth it (maybe for resale but again that pesky outdated tech thing).

But, I’ve been hesitant to order it and install to your exact point above. It’s already somewhat outdated and will continue to be. I think the only real reason I’d do it at this point is for the drive modes and to this point I haven’t really had the need for them.

 

[MAGS1]

I just think it’s funny that after all the hate for the the Mach 1 being a parts bin car it turns out to be better in looks, power to weight, chassis than any new gen s650.
Pretty happy with my purchase the longer I have it!

Don’t use the word hate, youngling.

 

[ChitownStang]

Don’t use the word hate, youngling.

I Love being called young at 45… keep the compliments coming!

 

[JetGray_Mach1]

Don’t use the word hate, youngling.

yeah or you are going to trigger @young at heart

 

[JetGray_Mach1]

I Love being called young at 45… keep the compliments coming!

Yep feels good that I was called young at 37

 

[JetGray_Mach1]

I just think it’s funny that after all the hate for the the Mach 1 being a parts bin car it turns out to be better in looks, power to weight, chassis than any new gen s650.
Pretty happy with my purchase the longer I have it!

Yep same here.

I think that is just how these car forums work. People hate on the new thing. Then when the newer thing ages they accept or love the thing they hated and hate some more on the newer thing.

sorry @young at heart

 

[young at heart]

yeah or you are going to trigger @young at heart

Yep feels good that I was called young at 37

Hey, watch that “trigger” stuff too! That’s another one of those words.

Tell ya what Jet, when you’ve just hit 75, 37 is pretty young. Enjoy it, I sure did!

 

[young at heart]

Yep same here.

I think that is just how these car forums work. People hate on the new thing. Then when the newer thing ages they accept or love the thing they hated and hate some more on the newer thing.

sorry @young at heart

Yeah, I get it. I do. No prob.

I’m not wild about the 650 and that’s partially why I grabbed a couple of the last Mach 1s, which I am pretty wild about.

Having said that though I don’t hate the 650s. Guess it just comes down to the current vogue on term usage. And I ain’t too current I suppose.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

The rear lights don't bother me. Its the front end and interior that I'm not a fan of. Its not a bad looking car by any means, but the headlights look too much like a Camaro. And I'm all for technology, but that interior is absolutely hideous. I understand styling updates are needed periodically. The S550 was a needed and drastic improvement over the S197, but the S650 just seems a needless one that didn't improve anything. That's why I chose a '23 M1 over a DH. Well, that and the insane price tag for what is essentially the same car.

 

[MachNroll]

I was at my Ford dealership getting the Shelby GT350 serviced and spotted a Dark Horse in the show room. There were some things I really liked about it, others not so much. The front end should have been used during the 2018 s550 refresh. It is the best feature of the new body design. From the back I get the narrow tail lights being a nod to the old school fast backs, but I don't think it works on the modern design.
The interior feels more upscale, but the lack of tactile knobs, buttons, and switches for often used controls really bothered me. Everything is stuck in those ipad screen displays.
The seats were pretty comfortable.
Not sure if I like the dark horse logo/badging.. just kind of meh.. maybe it's the size and placement.
Overall for the price I would not desire to own one of these. For 15k less I'll keep my Shelby.
.

I was looking at the DH to replace my base '21 Mach 1. I wanted something a little newer to keep long-term but the DH price, overall appearance, dash configuration just didn't appeal to me. So, I found and purchased a slightly used low mileage Mach 1 with the handling package and couldn't be happier. Now, IF let's say I was given a choice between an electric performance car or a DH, because all performance cars were electric except the DH, I would choose the DH.

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