Gday, I am having trouble deciding what car to buy, I was initially planning to buy a BF XR8 but then i saw that i can get a BA GT for the same money. I have not driven a gt but have driven a BA XR8 and a BF XR8 and i much prefer the lighter clutch action of the hydraulically operated t56 on the bamk2+'s.

I dont know to much about fords, but from what i can gather, the gt is just a lightly more powerful version of the xr8 with a few extra bells and whistles is this correct? I am just trying to figure out whats more important to me, a nice 6 spd tranny or having leather and a nice sound system etc to compensate me for the crap 5 spd from the 80's.

What would you go for? Mileage doesnt really concern me, both cars are available with well under 100,000k's which is half the mileage that my previous car had when i bought it, so im sure reliability wont be a problem. Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

You do realise all manual BA Falcons have a hydraulic clutch. Also, the GT runs a TR3650, not a T5.

if it's a mk 1 the gt it will have the body kit the slightly bigger brakes (not brembos) and the slightly better seats. The xr would probably have the climate control that the gt wouldn't. Not much help 2 ya it's a hard choice between the name and the slightly newer and tamer option.

and the 290 kw of the GT vs the 260kw of the XR
as far as options goes , well it depends on which BA GT in particular your looking at..mine has full leather, premium sound etc. some dont.
GT has a lot more "road presence"
........plus the prestige of owning a GT

I test drove a BAII xr8 ute with 6spd and a ba pursuit ute with 5spd both on the same day and only a couple grand price difference. Both with leather and same audio and I took the xr8

I'd go the XR8, lighter with a 6 speed.... or wait/shell out for a 6spd GT

I'd go the GT and put a 6spd in it when funds allow or just find a MK2 manual GT.

I had a test drive of the GT the other day, with a 5 speed, it was quite nice, but didnt get to have a propper drive of it so not too sure yet. Is the 5 speed really that bad? I noticed it had a longer throw on the clutch, but is there really such a big disadvantage to them? I must admit the 6 speed did feel nice on the xr8 that i drove, but like i said couldnt really get a feel for the gt cos just had a short drive of it.

When shifting fast the 5 spd has a really bad 2-3 shift I've found, and it doesn't seem to get fixed by aftermarket shifters either. They are still a pretty strong gearbox though. It wouldn't be too difficult to swap to a 6spd if or when the time comes.