I think another component that people are missing here is the fact that these cars are getting insanely fast, when you look at it from a historic and realistic perspective. Everybody keeps screaming for "more power, more power" out of the Mustang, from the GT on up to the special eds including the Cobra, which currently is a high 12-second machine. Just for perspective, a new Cobra will DESTROY most anything from the muscle car era of the late 60's, with a/c and a nice stereo and quiet cabin. So here's the quandary: When you keep making the car faster, even if you achieve the h.p. and quickness without adding to the price, you start alienating the cost-conscious mass-consumer due to insurance rates that increase exponentially with the h.p.. Also, higher horsepower is harder on parts, and Ford gets stung on the warranty side of the equation (and/or they have to build everything sturdier or tighter tolerence, which is yet again more $$$), which adds up to higher MSRP's so that they can cover that anticipated cost. On the OTHER hand, in order to achieve the IMAGE the Mustang needs that helps sell the entry-level cars that are truly your bread and butter money makers, you have to have a Mustang that can hit the track with Corvettes and M-series BMW's and give 'em hell. You've got to fight that supercar war, and fight to win. So Ford is stuck in the middle, trying to stay in the fight in the current horsepower wars, but also trying to build a product that is affordable enough, both in purchase price AND insurance, that they can sell a ton of 'em. They strike a balance that they believe will sell the most units while keeping the Mustang's muscular reputation and strong allure intact. Chevy took the "let's just build the fastest stinkin F-bod we can with the parts we've got", and overlooked other issues of importance to more mainstream and practical buyers (a much larger market) like quality/packaging/image, and the sales imploded, because they forgot about what was really important for long-term viability. I think that Ford has the right recipe down pat. The GT will sell TONS, the V6 even more, and the faster cars will come in limited productions that are in-check with what the potential market demand is. Everybody gets what they want, and PLEASE, there's no free lunch. Factory hot rods have ALWAYS cost more. You look back at the muscle-car era of the 60's, it was only a SMALL HANDFUL of the cars that were optioned up with the top-drawer engines, from a statistical perspective. Only a small fraction of Chargers and Super Bees and Cudas were hemis or 440 6-packs. Only a small small fraction of Camaro's were aluminum headed 396's or 427's. Only a small amount of people went for the 428SCJ drag pack option in a Ford product. Those cars fought for bragging rights, but the public was buying the smaller-engined more affordable models at a comparitively enormous ratio. Win with a hemi on Sunday, sell a 340 on Monday. Win with a Boss 429 on Sunday, sell a 351 on Monday. Win with a LS6 454 on Sunday, sell a 350 on Monday. That's REALLY how it always worked, and that's still how it works from a business standpoint, where selling cars at the end of the day is the goal. The Cobra will be the no-compromise "hit-man", who's mission is to assasinate the competition. The rest of the Mustang world basks in the glory, and you can ALWAYS mod the daylights out of your GT.