Imagine you're one of the 138 owners of the Ford GT, the most technologically-advanced car ever built by Ford. Then the gearbox fails. You look for a replacement and dully pay the price of a Corolla in exchange for your broken one. You then tell your Mercedes-owning friend about it. He also had his identical gearbox changed on his AMG-GT, but he only paid half for it. How is this possible?
It's not uncommon for unrelated manufacturers to share parts, those made by third-party companies. You may remember more striking examples like when Lamborghini borrowed the headlights for its Diablo 6.0 from the Nissan 300ZX or Venturi when it ripped the external rear-view mirrors from a generic Peugeot. This time around, we're talking about two manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz and Ford, who use the same gearbox from Getrag.
Although the said transmission is virtually identical, even down to the gear ratios, the two companies resell the gearbox at different price rates. In fact, a version of the same Getrag unit but with altered ratios can also be found in two older Ferraris, the California and the 458, and the Italians too have a price of their own for this component.
Be careful when changing gears in a Ford GT, you really don't want the gearbox to give up on you
Manufacturers have been using similar or identical parts on their cars since the dawn of the motoring industry. The idea is simple: an independent parts company builds something that is then put to work in a number of automobiles to save costs and cut on development time. Such is the case of Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Ferrari, who use the same Getrag transaxle - the 7-speed dual clutch 7DCL750.
If bad luck hits you in the face and you are forced to change the gearbox on your GT, you'll have to pay $27,624, and that's only if you can provide the broken gearbox back to Ford. According to Road & Track, if you can't send the ruined unit back to the Blue Oval, you have to pay $32,324 - a mere $5,000 more.
Meanwhile, let's say the same the same misfortune bestows you while in the ownership of Mercedes-Benz's flagship supercar, the AMG-GT.
Motor Authority passed the question that was on everyone's lips over to Ford: what's with the double MSRP in Ford's case? A spokesman said that "the Ford GT is the pinnacle of Ford Performance innovation. Parts replacement costs reflect their limited production volume and integrated, race-bred calibration and performance." In short, Ford doesn't have an answer to this question. They just do it because they can. I mean, you can imagine that if you're wealthy enough to pay almost $500,000 for one, itwon't bother you that a new gearbox costs almost $30,000.
Then there's Ferrari, maybe the most revered name in the automotive world. According to Road & Track, "the Ferrari 458 variant is available from online sellers such as Scuderia Car Parts and shows a price of $22,186 on their site, a $6,000 discount compared to the replacement part for the Ford GT." Ferrari is nitpicky when it comes to customers buying replacement parts from third-parties, but it's doable in the end.
So, the answer is simple: Ford uses the GTs exclusivity to charge ludicrous amounts of money for replacement parts - as well as maintenance - as they consider that their customers have unlimited pockets and don't really care how much little things like a transmission are sold for. You've also got to remember that Mercedes built much more AMG-GT and SLS examples over the years and the same applies for Ferrari, so they buy much more from Getrag and are, as a result, able to get them cheaper which translates in a smaller resale price.
Further reading
Read our full review on the 2017 Ford GT.
Read our full review on the 2018 Mercedes-AMG GT.