ruh roh

[roland]

ford is targeting the A6 for advertisements, I doubt any A6 buyer is actually going to consider a SHO as an alternative vehicle. The MKS is priced to compete with the A6. MKS EcoBoost = more luxurious, less sporty vs the A6 which is a more luxurious, less sporty and larger S4.

It's kind of like the Genesis targeting the 5 series and E class, no E class buyer would actually pick up a Genesis, but a 3 series buyer or C class buyer who wants a 5 series/ e class get the chance to own something similar.

 

[stephen newberg]

ford is targeting the A6 for advertisements, I doubt any A6 buyer is actually going to consider a SHO as an alternative vehicle..

I do not agree. An A6 is a possible for me, but I am now more likely to buy the new SHO.

pax, smn

 

[roland]

yeah but I'm willing to take a guess that you'd buy the SHO because you know what it is and like it, I mean you are on this site afterall. The other 99% of A6 buyers probably don't know or don't care about some high performance Taurus (what's the difference between it and a Charger R/T or Impala SS - it's all cheap garbage right?) Kinda a similar deal with the Genesis, they've been pushing really hard to convince people that it's a legitimate 5 series competitor, that's even harder to do with a Taurus.

This is just me, but if I have 45k to blow on a car and I'm the average joe schmo, I'd much rather show off my Audi A6 than my Ford Taurus. I'm not trying to bad mouth the SHO, but I don't see very many luxury car buyers "downgrading" that far. I'd see them going for an MKS EcoBoost or S80 T6 rather than the SHO - or if they want something sporty I'd see them going for the S4 before the SHO.

 

[stephen newberg]

Depends entirely on how these mythical other people shop and what they want in their car purchase. If they want an Audi to show other folk, they will end up spending the extra bucks and get the Audi. If they are after the specifics of the car for the price, they will get the SHO. If you view it solely as 'downgrading', then obviously it is not for you.

I have been remarkably pleased with my Gen III and would have no problems buying from Ford again. But I am not trying to show off a German car, I just want particular things in my next vehicle and will go after whatever has that at a good price. For me, at the moment, the SHO looks a lot better than the A6 and is really only in a fight with the G37XS. I have driven the G, but not the SHO as yet, and am looking forward to trying it when one gets out here. But if you think that people only buy their cars for what others will think of them as per their purchase, I think you are making a false assumption. Lots of people do research and buy on the basis of what they want, not the display it will make.

pax, smn

 

[somedude_001]

yeah but I'm willing to take a guess that you'd buy the SHO because you know what it is and like it, I mean you are on this site afterall. The other 99% of A6 buyers probably don't know or don't care about some high performance Taurus (what's the difference between it and a Charger R/T or Impala SS - it's all cheap garbage right?) Kinda a similar deal with the Genesis, they've been pushing really hard to convince people that it's a legitimate 5 series competitor, that's even harder to do with a Taurus.

This is just me, but if I have 45k to blow on a car and I'm the average joe schmo, I'd much rather show off my Audi A6 than my Ford Taurus. I'm not trying to bad mouth the SHO, but I don't see very many luxury car buyers "downgrading" that far. I'd see them going for an MKS EcoBoost or S80 T6 rather than the SHO - or if they want something sporty I'd see them going for the S4 before the SHO.

everyone on here is quoting the WRONG prices when comparing to Audi. The base audi A6 starts at 45K with the 255hp V6. if you want to step it upto the 350hp V8 to match the SHO you have to fork out a min of 61K for a based out A6 (which is still very nice)

so to properly compare a base A6 to a SHO is incorrect. A base A6 to a standard taurus is the right way to do it. 25K to 45K or 37k (lets call it 40K for a fully loaded SHO) so 40K to 61K.

 

[Jonny Cash]

that first one kinda reminds me of a gen1 SHO...

Take it back.

 

[38SHO]

I just drove a 04 All road quattro and I couldn't believe the fact of plastic failing and rubbing off. My interior in my Taurus is in better shape, and the Audi has less miles!

I concur, damn near every VW/Audi I get at work has door panels falling apart, headliner issues, center consoles messed up, and carpeting wore out.... one thing that seems decent are the seats...

they look nice new, but I've just seen way too many tore up to say they last a long time and still look good.... plus I think the VW/Audi plastics are the most prone to breaking in the car industry.....

BMW and Benz have Audi/VW really beat out as far as keeping the interior integrity together when the car has some use on it...

also the new Camaro interiors are badass... if you take the old LT1/LS1 style camaros and compare the interiors then and now, the old ones would be like an old cavalier and the new ones are like a BMW.... Chevy has come a long ways, even the trucks are MUCH nicer inside

 

[roland]

everyone on here is quoting the WRONG prices when comparing to Audi. The base audi A6 starts at 45K with the 255hp V6. if you want to step it upto the 350hp V8 to match the SHO you have to fork out a min of 61K for a based out A6 (which is still very nice)

so to properly compare a base A6 to a SHO is incorrect. A base A6 to a standard taurus is the right way to do it. 25K to 45K or 37k (lets call it 40K for a fully loaded SHO) so 40K to 61K.

I'm not comparing it to a V8 Audi A6, I'm comparing it to the boosted direct injected V6 AWD Audi A6, which does 0-60 in a little over 6 seconds and costs $50,100.

I'm not comparing just cars, i'm looking at prices. You can't say, a Jaguar XF with the new 5.0L V8 is going to be comparable to the Pontiac G8 GT, just because they both have 375 some odd horses, RWD, and are midsize sedans. Absolutely no one is going to be cross shopping those two cars (i hope). Yeah that's an extreme example, but I seriously do not see someone cross shopping an A6 with a Taurus. The A6's competitor is the MKS, Ford puts the A6 in their Taurus commercials to show a buyer in the 30-40k range that it can keep up with a much nicer car, not to tell Audi A6 buyers to run to a ford dealership and buy a Taurus. You could argue that a Taurus SHO fully loaded at 44k or whatever is pretty close to a base A6 3.0T Quattro in price (around 6 or 7k in difference). But I don't know anyone who would go from

Depends entirely on how these mythical other people shop and what they want in their car purchase. If they want an Audi to show other folk, they will end up spending the extra bucks and get the Audi. If they are after the specifics of the car for the price, they will get the SHO. If you view it solely as 'downgrading', then obviously it is not for you.

the "downgrading" is in quotes to say that that's how some people would view it. I'm using that as sarcasm.


I'm not saying the A6 can't be compared to the SHO - i'm saying this: A buyer who is going to throw down 50k on an Audi is probably not going to consider a car that costs 10k less - if they are intrigued by the EcoBoost stuff, they'll be going to the Lincoln dealership to take a look at a 50k Lincoln MKS EcoBoost.

 

[typhoon5000]

I just finished reading Car & Driver's review of the new SHO w/Track Pak from their visit to GingerMan Raceway with the TCCA and there was one comment that made me realize how fast the new SHO really is:

Launching it is easy: Hold your foot on the brake, raise the revs, and release the brake. It rips to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, 0.2 second quicker than the V-10–powered Audi S6.

Faster than a V10 powered Audi!! Holy smokes .

Car & Driver article

 

[ViPER1313]

People rant and rave about the quality of Volkswagen / Audi interiors, but they really have a tendency to fall apart and show wear prematurely.

I owned an 07 Rabbit for 9 months, and the best example I can think of that sums up the difference between how GM/Ford designs an interior and VW designs one is they way both companies designed the sunglass holder on the overhead console.

VW: Holder was made of well molded plastic, switch felt expensive, and the movement of the holder was dampened when it dropped down.

Pontiac Grand Prix (always ridiculed for having a horrible interior) - Holder is made of cheaply molded plastic, cheap button, no dampening.

Only problem with the VWs was that there was no padding on the inside of it so it caused any sunglasses put into it to rattle constantly, and the holder was too small to put a sunglass case into it, making it entirely useless. GM was smart enough to make it large enough and pad it, making it cheap looking but 100% functional.

The same was true about most other things on that VW. The driver and passenger windows had one touch up and down, but the aerodynamic properties of them caused any water (morning dew, light rain) to be channeled along the body and then spit right into my face. You couldn't smoke in the car because the windows had no draw.

The dashboard had a center vent that did nothing but rattle since 300 miles.

The stereo was awesome, had lots of bass and was really loud, but it caused every piece of plastic molding in the rear to resonate starting at 4 or 5k miles. My Pontiac doesn't rattle like that at 60k miles.

All the doors were padded in really nice materials and the dash was expensive, but there was no center armrest, and I could never rest my left arm on the door comfortably while holding the steering wheel.

I will take an American interior over that BS any day of the week.

 

[stephen newberg]

I'm not saying the A6 can't be compared to the SHO - i'm saying this: A buyer who is going to throw down 50k on an Audi is probably not going to consider a car that costs 10k less - if they are intrigued by the EcoBoost stuff, they'll be going to the Lincoln dealership to take a look at a 50k Lincoln MKS EcoBoost.

And I am saying, on a pure factual basis as one of those people, that you are wrong. And I did look at an MKS, but did not like it. That still could happen for the SHO when I get a chance to actually get in one, but in the meantime, you are simply wrong.

But hey, no sense letting a real data point get in the way of a good rant.

pax, smn

 

[shobote]

Depends entirely on how these mythical other people shop and what they want in their car purchase. If they want an Audi to show other folk, they will end up spending the extra bucks and get the Audi. If they are after the specifics of the car for the price, they will get the SHO. If you view it solely as 'downgrading', then obviously it is not for you.

I have been remarkably pleased with my Gen III and would have no problems buying from Ford again. But I am not trying to show off a German car, I just want particular things in my next vehicle and will go after whatever has that at a good price. For me, at the moment, the SHO looks a lot better than the A6 and is really only in a fight with the G37XS. I have driven the G, but not the SHO as yet, and am looking forward to trying it when one gets out here. But if you think that people only buy their cars for what others will think of them as per their purchase, I think you are making a false assumption. Lots of people do research and buy on the basis of what they want, not the display it will make.

pax, smn

Well said; ego centric individuals care more about what others think of them by how much they spend on a car, and will not want to be seen in a Ford. In this time of economic downturn, more folks will test drive the various cars and make a sound decision based upon what they like. There are numeorus new models coming out in the next year in the similar price range of the SHO that will also be worth considering; the 300C AWD, the M35 and M45, and a few others, so Ford will need to be on their toes and continue to refine/develop the SHO.