Hey folks, looking to rejoin the ranks of Mustang owners.
4/1/15, 01:58 AM
#1
V6 Member
Thread Starter
Hey folks, looking to rejoin the ranks of Mustang owners.
Hey folks, name's Brian and I'm a long time Mustang lover and former owner. Looking to get back into the owner category by this week's end, with a low-mileage 2008 Vapor Silver GT. Recently got myself completely out of debt, so I didn't want to go too deep back in, so the $40,000 2015's are out of the question for me at the moment.
Owned a lot of Mustangs in my teens\early 20's (I'm 30 now), mostly 4-banger fox boxies and V6 '99. Briefly flirted with a 2001 Cobra convertible in 2006 that a guy I worked with was trying to get me to buy so his wife would let him get a new GT500, but my financially-focused brain overruled my lustful heart. I left my last Mustang in 2007 (99 turboed v6, still owned by a good friend, though) for a Duramax 3/4 ton Chevy (made sense, for the work I was doing at the time). In 2010, I foolishly decided to go deeper into the dark side, and traded that Duramax in on a 2010 Camaro, since I no longer "needed" a truck due to some lifestyle restructuring, so to speak. Hated that car after the novelty wore off within 5-6 months of purchase.
So I decided to trade it in on a barely-used BMW 330i in early 2012. Figured I'd see what all the noise was about with these German-engineered cars. And it's indeed a fantastic little car, but far too..."refined" for my tastes. Never really felt comfortable in it, and that has nothing to do with the truly fantastic upholstery the car offered. So for the last year and half or so, I've let my niece use it while away at college so she could get to\from work and make occasional weekend trips home, until she can afford her own first car. I've been driving a 2009 GMC Sierra since mid 2013. It's been a great truck, I have zero issues and lots of fondness for it, but I once again find I have little use for a truck outside of getting to\from work in the snow, which I actually have many other options for. The GMC was originally purchased by my father, who seems to prefer a 1994 C3500 dually diesel I had given him as a gift, so I've just been driving the GMC and paying the payments for him. Now he kinda wants it back, and my niece is getting her own car soon, so here we are today with my getting my BMW returned to me Thursday, and the local dealership having something a little more up my alley recently available...
They have a 2008 Vapor Silver GT Premium, manual 5-spd (I've missed that!), seems to be pretty well fully loaded, with just under 41,000 miles on the ticker. New tires, new battery, new brakes. As clean a car as I've seen, truly. Asking a bit over $17k for it. I have some family history with the dealership owner, so I should have little to no trouble getting a chunk knocked off that number, and I have plenty of equity in the BMW trade-in to cover TTT and a bit of down payment, and can put down a few grand on top to make the financing easy (and a lot cheaper than I paid for the GMC).
Work has been crazy (been looking at 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, on nights, and no end in sight for a bit), and I don't get the BMW back from my niece until Thursday, so Friday morning I'm hoping to get to the dealership and see about making this happen. If it gets sold out from under me, I'll be disappointed, but not broken. I've resolved to get behind the wheel of a Mustang again, so I will just have to keep looking if this one doesn't work out. Might be I find just the right combination of gently-used and 5-liter engine to make out better, anyhow
Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings.
Owned a lot of Mustangs in my teens\early 20's (I'm 30 now), mostly 4-banger fox boxies and V6 '99. Briefly flirted with a 2001 Cobra convertible in 2006 that a guy I worked with was trying to get me to buy so his wife would let him get a new GT500, but my financially-focused brain overruled my lustful heart. I left my last Mustang in 2007 (99 turboed v6, still owned by a good friend, though) for a Duramax 3/4 ton Chevy (made sense, for the work I was doing at the time). In 2010, I foolishly decided to go deeper into the dark side, and traded that Duramax in on a 2010 Camaro, since I no longer "needed" a truck due to some lifestyle restructuring, so to speak. Hated that car after the novelty wore off within 5-6 months of purchase.
So I decided to trade it in on a barely-used BMW 330i in early 2012. Figured I'd see what all the noise was about with these German-engineered cars. And it's indeed a fantastic little car, but far too..."refined" for my tastes. Never really felt comfortable in it, and that has nothing to do with the truly fantastic upholstery the car offered. So for the last year and half or so, I've let my niece use it while away at college so she could get to\from work and make occasional weekend trips home, until she can afford her own first car. I've been driving a 2009 GMC Sierra since mid 2013. It's been a great truck, I have zero issues and lots of fondness for it, but I once again find I have little use for a truck outside of getting to\from work in the snow, which I actually have many other options for. The GMC was originally purchased by my father, who seems to prefer a 1994 C3500 dually diesel I had given him as a gift, so I've just been driving the GMC and paying the payments for him. Now he kinda wants it back, and my niece is getting her own car soon, so here we are today with my getting my BMW returned to me Thursday, and the local dealership having something a little more up my alley recently available...
They have a 2008 Vapor Silver GT Premium, manual 5-spd (I've missed that!), seems to be pretty well fully loaded, with just under 41,000 miles on the ticker. New tires, new battery, new brakes. As clean a car as I've seen, truly. Asking a bit over $17k for it. I have some family history with the dealership owner, so I should have little to no trouble getting a chunk knocked off that number, and I have plenty of equity in the BMW trade-in to cover TTT and a bit of down payment, and can put down a few grand on top to make the financing easy (and a lot cheaper than I paid for the GMC).
Work has been crazy (been looking at 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, on nights, and no end in sight for a bit), and I don't get the BMW back from my niece until Thursday, so Friday morning I'm hoping to get to the dealership and see about making this happen. If it gets sold out from under me, I'll be disappointed, but not broken. I've resolved to get behind the wheel of a Mustang again, so I will just have to keep looking if this one doesn't work out. Might be I find just the right combination of gently-used and 5-liter engine to make out better, anyhow
Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings.
4/1/15, 08:03 AM
#3
Legacy TMS Member
Welcome! If you get that '08, check the hood and trunk edges very well...our S197s have a tendency to have paint bubbles/corrosion. Still, I loved Vapor Silver! My dad has a '08 Fusion SE Sport in VS. It's a really nice color!
4/1/15, 02:58 PM
#4
V6 Member
Thread Starter
Thanks guys, and I'll keep an eye out for that, laserred.
Spectre, that's awesome. It will take me a little longer than 18 months to pay this one off, but probably not much longer than 24 months or so. I could probably pull it off in 18 if I pushed, but I'm also saving to buy property, and I would have to save less towards that to pay this off sooner. It took me about 16 months of killing myself working to pay off all of my debt, and having no fun aside from a single fishing trip throughout those long, painful months. I feel completely liberated now, though. I'm considering this my reward for a job well done. I promised myself I'd only ever accept 2 debts again the rest of my life - mortgage and auto loans (can't get to work to make money without a reliable vehicle, right?), and even those only well within what I can easily pay off and with at least 20% down.
Spectre, that's awesome. It will take me a little longer than 18 months to pay this one off, but probably not much longer than 24 months or so. I could probably pull it off in 18 if I pushed, but I'm also saving to buy property, and I would have to save less towards that to pay this off sooner. It took me about 16 months of killing myself working to pay off all of my debt, and having no fun aside from a single fishing trip throughout those long, painful months. I feel completely liberated now, though. I'm considering this my reward for a job well done. I promised myself I'd only ever accept 2 debts again the rest of my life - mortgage and auto loans (can't get to work to make money without a reliable vehicle, right?), and even those only well within what I can easily pay off and with at least 20% down.
4/6/15, 01:13 AM
#8
V6 Member
Thread Starter
Figured that now that I've got her, I might as well show her off a bit:
As she sat in the showroom (40800 miles):
It was getting dark when I left the dealership Friday evening, so I took my first daylight shot of her when I got to work Saturday afternoon:
From a second, frontal angle:
And the '06 330i I traded in (95000 miles. nice car, like I said, but wasn't right for me.)
Really considering the Roush cat-back exhaust. I want to go as aggressive as I reasonably can, with minimal to no drone. I've heard good things about the Roush, and the price is reasonable (I spent more than 2x that on a turbo-back on my '07 Duramax). Here in NJ, deleting cats isn't an option (we don't care about safety here, so there's no safety inspection...but **** if they don't make sure your emissions are good!), but I was thinking an after-cat H-pipe setup might give a more aggressive growl too.
The tires on the car are brand new P-Zero Neros, so I'll stick with them for a year or so to get some use out of the tread before I upgrade my wheels and tires and relegate the stockers to winter wheels. I had TSW Nurburgrings on the Camaro, I think they might look great on the Mustang too. Also have my eyes on the Boss 302S wheels, and the 2010 GT500 wheels. We'll see. my older brother manages a tire shop, so hopefully I can get a good hookup.
For body mods, I love the Cervini's C-series body kit, but I don't foresee that kind of change laying around anytime soon, so I'm going to start small with their side scoops, quarter window scoops, and a good quality chin spoiler. Loving the Raxiom Gen5 tails too, definitely have those on my short list.
Suspension, I'd like to do a watts link rear, with either the hotchkis stage 1 TVS (LINK), or the steeda mustang handling package stage 1 (LINK)
As for power mods, beyond the exhaust, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I love the idea of doing a procharged setup, but I don't know if I want to spend that kind of money before paying off the car. So that will definitely take a backseat for now. In the interim, I'm considering the Steeda CAI and tune combo, and the AirRaid CAI and tune combo (I have used AirRaid products on other vehicles, always had great results.) A cam and heads work aren't out of the question, but this is going to be my primary transportation so I don't want to get too crazy in that department.
At some point this summer, I'll likely pull the interior pretty well apart and go to town with some Dynomat, particularly in the trunk area. I generally roll with the windows down to enjoy the sounds of the car and the road, but sometimes I want to be able to put them up and enjoy some quiet too, which is my main reason for wanting a low-drone exhaust (I've noticed at a few frequencies, even the stock exhaust drones a bit).
Anyhow, I'll probably start a build thread at some point, to chronicle everything for myself if nothing else. I expect this to be a long-term project. Thanks to everyone that's welcomed me so far, I appreciate it. Any and all input\suggestions are also very much welcome. I've had several Mustangs, but this is my first S197, my first GT, and my first 3V all wrapped up into 1.
Edit: Yes, in those pics I'm parked in a handicapped spot. That lot is 1/2 handicapped spots, and 1/2 employee parking. After 5pm (I start at 5:30pm) the building those HC spots serves is closed, and those spots are used for additional employee parking. So while I may appear to those not in-the-know to be a real bastard, truth is I would never steal a legit HC spot.
As she sat in the showroom (40800 miles):
It was getting dark when I left the dealership Friday evening, so I took my first daylight shot of her when I got to work Saturday afternoon:
From a second, frontal angle:
And the '06 330i I traded in (95000 miles. nice car, like I said, but wasn't right for me.)
Really considering the Roush cat-back exhaust. I want to go as aggressive as I reasonably can, with minimal to no drone. I've heard good things about the Roush, and the price is reasonable (I spent more than 2x that on a turbo-back on my '07 Duramax). Here in NJ, deleting cats isn't an option (we don't care about safety here, so there's no safety inspection...but **** if they don't make sure your emissions are good!), but I was thinking an after-cat H-pipe setup might give a more aggressive growl too.
The tires on the car are brand new P-Zero Neros, so I'll stick with them for a year or so to get some use out of the tread before I upgrade my wheels and tires and relegate the stockers to winter wheels. I had TSW Nurburgrings on the Camaro, I think they might look great on the Mustang too. Also have my eyes on the Boss 302S wheels, and the 2010 GT500 wheels. We'll see. my older brother manages a tire shop, so hopefully I can get a good hookup.
For body mods, I love the Cervini's C-series body kit, but I don't foresee that kind of change laying around anytime soon, so I'm going to start small with their side scoops, quarter window scoops, and a good quality chin spoiler. Loving the Raxiom Gen5 tails too, definitely have those on my short list.
Suspension, I'd like to do a watts link rear, with either the hotchkis stage 1 TVS (LINK), or the steeda mustang handling package stage 1 (LINK)
As for power mods, beyond the exhaust, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I love the idea of doing a procharged setup, but I don't know if I want to spend that kind of money before paying off the car. So that will definitely take a backseat for now. In the interim, I'm considering the Steeda CAI and tune combo, and the AirRaid CAI and tune combo (I have used AirRaid products on other vehicles, always had great results.) A cam and heads work aren't out of the question, but this is going to be my primary transportation so I don't want to get too crazy in that department.
At some point this summer, I'll likely pull the interior pretty well apart and go to town with some Dynomat, particularly in the trunk area. I generally roll with the windows down to enjoy the sounds of the car and the road, but sometimes I want to be able to put them up and enjoy some quiet too, which is my main reason for wanting a low-drone exhaust (I've noticed at a few frequencies, even the stock exhaust drones a bit).
Anyhow, I'll probably start a build thread at some point, to chronicle everything for myself if nothing else. I expect this to be a long-term project. Thanks to everyone that's welcomed me so far, I appreciate it. Any and all input\suggestions are also very much welcome. I've had several Mustangs, but this is my first S197, my first GT, and my first 3V all wrapped up into 1.
Edit: Yes, in those pics I'm parked in a handicapped spot. That lot is 1/2 handicapped spots, and 1/2 employee parking. After 5pm (I start at 5:30pm) the building those HC spots serves is closed, and those spots are used for additional employee parking. So while I may appear to those not in-the-know to be a real bastard, truth is I would never steal a legit HC spot.
Last edited by esfkotaro; 4/6/15 at 01:15 AM. Reason: explanation
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
ThatStangGuy
2010-2014 Mustang
5
1/21/16 07:24 AM
ssjbuu
Repair and Service Help
6
8/28/15 08:55 AM