Ford Gt Cobra

[Venom XR6]

Looks hot. Pitty no one knows about them.

As usual, Fird's biggest let down is their marketing department.

The had a Cobra decorated FPR running around at Bathurst, but no advertising to back it up. I, along with most viewers, thought why is that car dressed up like a Cobra?

Typically Bathurst was saturated with Expensive Daewoo advertising and nothing for Ford. Ford whitewashed the Holdens this year and they've wasted an opportunity with no advertising.

Expensive Daewoo hasn't been winning the sales race by having a better product, we all know the BA/BFs sh*t all over the VX, and are a close match to the VE. They also have the highest recall rates and breakdowns of any car on the Aussie market. It's all to do with their cleaver marketing and saturation advertising.

The more you tell, the more you sell!

Why would they waste money on advertising a product that can sell itself. They would have lost all the profit they made from the 500 Cobras to cover the advertising. Selling out in 2 weeks has proved that advertising would have been a waste of money that they don't have.

[F6BF]

Peter Warren, Warwick Farm

PM me if you need anything

Cool, know Paul B ....Will drop in and say hello if in the area

Will see what orion has to offer, might be the time to change over

[senna_T]

no probs, pauly is on long service leave at the moment, welcome anytime

[tmac450]

Why would they waste money on advertising a product that can sell itself. They would have lost all the profit they made from the 500 Cobras to cover the advertising. Selling out in 2 weeks has proved that advertising would have been a waste of money that they don't have.

The Cobra was just 1 example. Why don't they advertise any of the Flacons properly?

Anyway, they'd advertise the Cobra to generate some hype for the rest of the range. If they sell out quickly, then even better, that creates even more hype and urgency. It creates a 'must have now' attitude in the market. Expensive Daewoo do it all the time, they'll advertise top line models that have limited supply in order to create long waiting lists etc. Punters then steer towards the brand because the get the impression that they must make fantastic vehicles because of their high demand (in reality they may have 100 orders for a model that only has a production run of 10 a month). It gives the dealerships much more leverage to get people to order right now.

Marketing and advetising is not a clear cut as just doing adverts for one particular model, and traditionally, limited edition vehicles are never done to make money on that model (the special production runs generally cost too much for that), they are done to create hype for the brand.

Ford is missing the boat with the Cobra (again), just like they have done with marketing off the back of Sandown and Bathurst for the last 2 years.

[tmac450]

And just to touch on the Advertising......... SEEN Mark Skaiff and his "Expensive Daewoo Celebrating Bathurst" Add? WTF are they celebrating??

Now that's what I call well thought out Advertising..............

At least they're advertising.

Ford went 1,2,3, won Sandown and the double last year, they also have an outgoing model to get rid of, yet the do nothing at all.

[Turbo6man]

The original Cobras didn't even get an upgrade in power, they were just a stripe kit and handling package......and they couldn't sell em....

You are wrong on two out of three.

The original Cobras didn't even get an upgrade in power ... true.

they were just a stripe kit and handling package ... they also had a unique interior trim package, unigue (Globe Bathurst) mags, four wheel discs, LSD, and a few Fairmont extras like sports instruments (also on GS models) and intermittent wipers. The homologated ones also got transmission cooler, strut braces and a bonnet scoop that actually worked.

and they couldn't sell em ... they were all presold before dealers even got their allocations. Some were sold at $1000 and $2000 above the RRP of around the $9000 mark (depending on the options fitted). The only options (which the customer had no say in - you just took what you were given) were power steer, power windows and air con. Every car that had power steer also had power windows so I don't know why they listed them as separate options heheheh. When I sold mine it was under 5 years old and I got $5000 more than I paid for it so their appreciation in value was immediate. Can that be claimed by ANY other Ford model? I think not.

But back to the present Cobra ... just two things wrong with it IMO. The back doors. Other than that, it is a great marketing exercise and sales success for Ford.

[F6BF]

The original Cobras didn't even get an upgrade in power ... true.

With the original 1978 Cobras out of the 400 there was 50 bathurst models with the 351 cleveland all the others were 302's

[TornadoJudd]

With the original 1978 Cobras out of the 400 there was 50 bathurst models with the 351 cleveland all the others were 302's

sorry but that is wrong. There was 200 351s made. 30 were the Bathurst models which were know as Option 97 and 200 302s made. 100 of the 302s were auto and the other manual. 120 of the 351s were auto and 80 were manuals. 30 of the manual 351s were the Bathurst model.

[Turbo6man]

With the original 1978 Cobras out of the 400 there was 50 bathurst models with the 351 cleveland all the others were 302's

Nope ... there were 30 Bathurst Specials - the homologated models I mentioned above. They were all 351 manuals with the close ratio box and 3.0:1 diffs.

The next 70 cars ie. up to build no. 100 were also 351 manuals. The next 100 (Build Nos. 101-200) were 351 autos (with 2.75:1 diffs). Then 100 302 manuals with wide ratio box. The last 100 were 302 autos. All had 9" diffs. The 351 autos were FMX but the 302 autos were C4s as I remember. This is the only point I'm not real sure about simply because the 302s had absolutely no interest for me and I just didn't take much notice of them LOL.