How Happy are you Dark Horse owners with your purchase?

[R3G]

if you are doing a special order, there isn't much price difference between the fully loaded GT and the DH premium. If you are shopping for dealer lot inventory, there are discounts to be had right now on both. More for the GT and less for the DH. The DH has additional parts than a fully loaded GT over the base performance pack on the GT. But my reasons for buying it was the blue stitched interior, upgraded tremec transmission and the dark horse badging. I think there are some good color combinations on the GT so its all preference really. I will say that in my lot searches, it seems that dealers are not really ordering the GT with Magnaride, even when the performance pack is selected and the take rate there is pretty low so liekly you have to special order your GT with magnaride if you want that...that was a must for me, it is simply too awesome to pass up when the price of admission is already over 60K+.

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[AZ_Ryan]

Who’s giving discounts on an order for a new 2026, or even a discount on one already sitting on a dealer lot?

Plenty of 25s are sitting on lots with discounts.

 

[exm]

Plenty of 25s are sitting on lots with discounts.

I'm sure you remember my conversation about my order last year; I'm probably going the DH route. My wife really wants adriatic blue so I have a good sense about discounts on 2025 models (if anyone wants a 2025race red, I have a fantastic deal to share). I'm also working on some minor discounts on 2026 models that are on dealer's lots. Again, more than happy to share what is possible as far as discounts are concerned (note: you might have to travel a bit)

 

[AZ_Ryan]

I'm sure you remember my conversation about my order last year; I'm probably going the DH route. My wife really wants adriatic blue so I have a good sense about discounts on 2025 models (if anyone wants a 2025race red, I have a fantastic deal to share). I'm also working on some minor discounts on 2026 models that are on dealer's lots. Again, more than happy to share what is possible as far as discounts are concerned (note: you might have to travel a bit)

I recently saw an Adriatic Blue 26 in person and its a great color.

 

[Handsaw]

Love it as I fortunately have other cars to compare to. However, I should have ordered mine vs buying off dealer lot. A few items I would have changed but not enough to start over. Great Ride, love Tremec

 

[COBill]

Ordering is a bit tricky; five different Ford dealers in my area have told me ordering a DH is difficult, they get an allocation for one per model year.

Another said it wouldn't be a problem, so I'm not sure which is accurate; the one that said they could order said Ford gives DH allocations as a reward for meeting certain EV sales targets.

I too would need to order because I don't want the hood stripe nor Recaros but do want Adriatic.

There are three Adriatic DHs on dealer lots right now across the country but two have the hood stripe and the one that doesn't has Recaros.

 

[Frogdog1]

I think dealers will tell you anything they want you to hear. My dealer couldn't get rid of a darkhorse. It sat in their showroom forever. They told me never again.

 

[tommyd]

Hi. Totaled my 24 gt premium manual in September and decided to buy a 25 m240. The car was awesome but I missed the growl and shifting even more. I became obsessed with getting into another mustang and jumped at the chance to buy a 24 dark horse manual with a great deal. In hindsight I should have settled with another gt premium at 10-12k less. The dark horse has features l don't need since I will never track it and the tremec doesn't justify the extra money . I'm happy with the car overall , so in the end that's really all that matters.

 

[BimmerDriver]

...and jumped at the chance to buy a 24 dark horse manual with a great deal. In hindsight I should have settled with another gt premium at 10-12k less. The dark horse has features l don't need ...

I think that sums it up well. If it has stuff you want, it's great. If it doesn't, it's overpriced. Although I guess that applies to just about everything.

Just a question, do you need better credit for that extra 14 HP or something, is it only exclusive for guys with small pee pees?

I bought mine used, so I was able to bypass the pee pee evaluation.

 

[ChitownStang]

I think that sums it up well. If it has stuff you want, it's great. If it doesn't, it's overpriced. Although I guess that applies to just about everything.



I bought mine used, so I was able to bypass the pee pee evaluation.

Shit. I bought a new one… my peepee got Yuge! lol
See, another Dark Horse perk

 

[COBill]

I think dealers will tell you anything they want you to hear. My dealer couldn't get rid of a darkhorse. It sat in their showroom forever. They told me never again.

If that was in reference to my post about ordering a DH being tricky, that doesn't make sense - why have a customer ready to give you money walk out the door?

If they don't have allocation, it makes no sense to lie and say you do, but if you do, you wouldn't let a buyer walk out the door like that.

I can't say why they couldn't sell their DH; it was probably an automatic transmission with Recaros in a strange color.

The dark horse has features l don't need since I will never track it and the tremec doesn't justify the extra money.

You must be a "a manual is OK, but so is an auto" person.

The Tremec would be worth a $10K hit to me, it's that good.

The two things that are most important in a car are the steering wheel and shifter since they're what you will touch every single time you drive it.

 

[ChitownStang]

You must be a "a manual is OK, but so is an auto" person.

The Tremec would be worth a $10K hit to me, it's that good.

The two things that are most important in a car are the steering wheel and shifter since they're what you will touch every single time you drive it.

Agreed, I almost went down the route to replace my 10-speed in the Mach 1 with the Tremec since I hated it so much but traded it in instead for the Dark Horse Manual . Way better choice and probably cost more than $10k to do it but well worth it. I had a Getrag in my 15gt and it was not good, test drove the 24 GT and it's better but not in the same league as Tremec IMO.

 

[COBill]

To get back to the topic of the thread, how are DH owners dealing with the NVH issues?

It's one thing to say "turn up the stereo," but every time I've test driven a GT, when in Sport mode the exhaust would make the entire interior resonate at some RPM or another, and that would drive me up the wall after dropping almost $80K for the DH. The Tremec feel would help, but only to a certain degree.

I love the sound of the exhaust, but short of removing a lot of plastic or applying a lot of foam I'm not sure how that would get fixed…

 

[BimmerDriver]

To get back to the topic of the thread, how are DH owners dealing with the NVH issues?

It's one thing to say "turn up the stereo," but every time I've test driven a GT, when in Sport mode the exhaust would make the entire interior resonate at some RPM or another, and that would drive me up the wall after dropping almost $80K for the DH. The Tremec feel would help, but only to a certain degree.

I love the sound of the exhaust, but short of removing a lot of plastic or applying a lot of foam I'm not sure how that would get fixed…

I suspect that you are hearing the annoying ESE.

 

[COBill]

I suspect that you are hearing the annoying ESE.

Could be; it's certainly possible the subwoofer is causing the rattles rather than the exhaust itself.

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