Well, as some of you know, I'm in need of a new car. Last Tuesday I was out for a drive and I stopped at the local Ford dealer.
Sitting out front was a beautiful '05 Black GTO for sale. 16k miles on the clock, six speed manual. Looked it over for a sec, and then went inside to talk to a salesman.
Was told the car is priced at $22,900, and was traded in that day
(it was sitting in a parking spot, instead of on the lot itself, so I'm inclined to believe him). After chatting with the salesman and getting inside the car,
I went home and did some research.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...=1&cardist=100
Same price, 11k-12k less miles than the one I'm looking at. The only difference is that it'* red.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...g=1&cardist=91
Same price, same mileage as above, year newer.

So using these two vehicles as leverage and reference, what seems to be a good asking price for this car (the black '05)?

Now granted there are things I can't compare against, like tire and brake wear, abuse etc., but assuming all things being equal, where should I stand?

You might want to look into buying a new one. Sometimes the price per month will be very close because of better interest rates on the new car.

Without looking at the other two cars, I'm surprised with 16,000 miles it is still $23,000.

After looking at the two others, and if not buying new, I'd pay $20,000 tops.

I notice you're in Pennsylvania....have you heard of Simmons-Rockwell?

They have 04 GTOs - 6 speed - with the same or less mileage as the black one you are looking at. They are all $16,999. They offer 100,000 mile warranties as well, they are $1700 and cover everything. They are 04s though and not 05s or 06s, but I figured I'd let you know for price comparison.

I've bought a newer car from them and would recommend them.

BOTH links you posted are 06 cars....

Personally id go with the 06....6.0 Vs the 5.7, and a better looking hood and rear bumper with dual outlets

Pat, the '05'* are essentially the same as the '06'*. Same engine, same hood, same split dual exhaust. The taillights are the biggest exterior differences, I believe
Where at in PA are they? East side or west?

http://www.simmons-rockwell.com/Home.asp
They have several locations.

They are usually very wellp riced..so much so that they are not allowed to advertise here in Syracuse NY. LMAO

Yikes, wrong end of the state for me!

But if these guys are willing to go that low, others are as well.
Sometime this week I'm going to try and make it down t the dealer and have another chat with 'em. See what kind of deal I can swing.
The Bonne isn't going to last too much longer...

dude check out some ls1 t/a and z28s. they are a dime a dozen and CAN be affordable

You can use *-R as a bargaining point too. When I was getting my Astro they were willing to beat my local dealer enough for me to make the 5hour roundtrip; even lower than their advertised price. My local dealer decided to match them rather than loose the sale AFTER they had given me their bottom price. Take thier ad to the dealer and say "Look, for 4hrs drive I can save 5 grand, what can you do for me." You don't have anything to loose do you?

*-R is a volume dealer, they'd rather sell 200 cars at one thousand dollars profit than 5 cars at three thousand; in the long run they come out way ahead.