kevinb120

Took a V6 premium out several times today, lime green with beige, cloth interior, no IUP, upgrade wheels, no traction control MSRP $20,990. Ill skip all the stuff we have heard eight billion times. Im reviewing it for what it is, not what it 'should' or should not have or what other cars do blah blah blah, so its not a comparo, its for MUSTANG drivers.

Fit and finish: are EXCELLENT on this car; wether under the hood, inside the trunk, or inside the interior. Everything is tight and consistant, much better then the preproduction pony drive cars. Paint quality very good, all outside trim assembled beautifully. It was put togeter exactly as the CAD programs that developed it said it would.

Interior: FIt is excellent. The hard plastics are easilly overlooked considering what it pays for in metal. Beige interior is going to be a nightmare to maintain, do not like the way it looks at all. Grey and Charcoal are definately the way to go. The cloth V6 seats are much better then the old gt's, very supportive for what the car is intended to do and comfortable. All electronic 'gizmos' work smoothly and quietly like windows(the 1" drop is slick) and all buttons and levers click, slide, and move with German precision. The Beige cloth will be a nighmare to maintain, again I would avoid it, they could of done a soft dash panel and skipped the beige all together. with the money saved for the extra work to do three interiors. Same complaint for the 500-beige looks cheap and boring, grey and black make the car look much more expensive. Really no complaints overall, nothing creaked under stress or wiggled. Yes the plastics are hard, when you are driving it the instrument cluster, size and thickness of the steering wheel, pedal placement and large mirrors make it so easy to drive you dont notice it while moving. Gauges are very easy to read and at night it looks like a perfect restoration rather then a new budget minded two-door. The quarter glass is just right for blind spots and backing up, I had no problems on a crowded hackneyed dealer lot.

Exterior: no complaints whatsoever, detailing is excellent, all paint looked good. Upgrade V6 wheels are nicely detailed and the spinners are very cool. Could not find a defect in the paint or trim installation, perfectly assembled as designed. Nothing looks flimsy, pulling and pushing on parts do not feel cheap(you can pull on say an Altima grille and the entire front facia bulges out disconcertingly). Lines are all crisp and straight and lines up from panel to panel like it is supposed to, no 'waves' or ripples in the metal anywhere(most old-school american cars have stamping errors near door edges, for example-the sn 95 was plagued with them). Looks like it is cut out of one piece of metal. Should hold up well after a few seasons, no dirt or water traps makes the car easy to wash, and KEEP clean. Underhood well organized, no loose wraps, and everything is clearly engineered to be where it is. No more of the lovely 'mustangisims' like the rear bumper bulge, the crimped feature line at the front of the doors, crooked windshield trim, wax-trap scoops with mismatched paint, or loose c-pillars anymore.

Driving: V6 is a little noisy, I can tell some acoustic engineering was intending to let the GT's exhaust note vibrate the interior. Its NOTHING like the old car, but I could see some good sounding exhaust from the aftermarket helping-I have heard Explorers with exhaust kits and they sound pretty good. One HUGE improvement is the firewall sound deadening. Like the new F-series, it is definately tuned to not let in anything but the engine sounds they want to come in. You can not hear acessory drives, fuel injectors, or any high pitch ticks from the electronics inside. I was driving it in the rain and there is some splash sounds from the wheelwells a little on the loud side from the back, but I only drove it windows up with no stereo on. I always drive with a window cracked no matter what the weather and it sounded fine with it down a couple inches. Road noise is average for just about any non-luxury car under 30k(rsx/eclipse/celica type cars). I may consider getting undercoating done in the rear wheelwells and the underbody in the rear seat area. Drove it up to about 75 mph in heavy winds, was pretty quiet in that regard and cuts through the air very cleanly, with no side to side blowing about or feeling of a heavy push driving into the wind. Seems to be very clean aero wize.

I did not do any hard-core manuvers, for average spirited driving felt very poised and quickly dispatched bumps and potholes without incident. Corners well, very good steering feel and pedals modulate easilly(they feel natural as far as the pressure needed to make the car do what you want it to do.). The pedals also feel very well matched pressure wise-no touchy breaks and notchy throttle or vice versa. The entire setup feels like a matching set(pedal modulation and steering). The tilt column is so long overdue and makes for a 'normal' natural steering position after years of the stupid school-bus(or 1979 fairmont) tilt of the old wheel. Big tires on the V6 do not roll under noticeably on turns that are average-spirited(as in faster then what you would want a cop seeing you do coming the other direction, but not pushing any limits).

I really coulnt hit the gas hard from a stop because it kept lighting the tires up in the wet, but after a 5mph roll the cars pulls with great authority. Nothing is spikey, the car has good low end torque and is VERY consistant all the way through the rpm range. The auto shifts super-smooth. Im sure if I had a cup of coffee in the car, the liquid would stay quite planted at an angle-no climbing torque curve and then jerk the next gear and repeat again-like the old car or any 4cyl engine does. As mentioned before, I couldnt see being able to get much more out of it with a manual in a straight line at least to 60mph or so, its a smart tranny even with 30 miles on it, it feels like its 'learned' its driver. Obviously someone who autocrosses or drag races would want a manual for resons to long to list, but if you just want to get on it a little bit at a light, the auto is great. It does not seem to be any real penalty in the real world at all like the old dog, and has a great 60's car feel to the whole thing with the auto(one arm out the window and palm-steering the car around town like an old car) . Feels like some breathing and exhaust mods would actually DO something for this V6. All in all, a MUCH better car for the average V6 customer. Younger drivers could actually put a few suspension mods, low profile tires, and a few motor and exhaust mods and have a decent sports car on a budget.

The car feels MUCH LIGHTER then the old car to drive, and is fun to look over the long hood. It reminds me SO MUCH of an actuall 60's mustang to look out the front window. Turning radius are great, no creaks or groans throwing the steering wheel lock to lock and backing in and out of spots. Delivers exactly as designed.

Other then the grumbly-sounding exhaust note in the car, some rear tire noise and the beige interior :notnice: I really have no complaints. I test drove it with 4 people interested in V6's today and they liked the exhaust sound, so I am a little biased. After a few mentions about the hard plastics on the lower dash from customers, they ALL said, 'looks really good though'. A few years ago I wanted to restore one of my 67 Firebirds with modern seats and safety, modern brakes and suspension dynamics, sound system, and a computer controlled fuel injection system and just keep the body stock. This car is better then that. Its going to be an easy product to be proud of to sell for us. When a lime green car with 16" rims and no wing or scoops looks THIS good, you know they did something right. One old guy actually thought it was a 69 at first B)

One other note, after spending a day around the car, it would be a travesty to touch or modify the hood, its absolutely geogeous bone stock. I keept running my fingers over it every time I walked by it.

It has fixed just about any complaint in driving and interior dynamics I have ever heard. It seems this car will be more a matter of what options you want or need rather then finding customers who cant drive the car at all comfortably like the last car. Ironically I moved an 04 tonite and it felt like the seat was being pushed forward and I was going to eat the wheel and still had to reach for the shifter and the pedals were all out of whack. Wow. I know what they were complaining about. You dont need to get USED to this car, you either like it or you dont, its no longer the compromise torture machine.

Im going to burn a cd tonite to test out the shaker 500 tomorrow

kevinb120

I may also have a bunch of pics of our GT40 by the end of this week for yas :worship:

os121

kevin, thanks for providing the in-car review ! You have a unique perspective on cars, and I appreciate the detail you provide.

Badandy

Cool. Looking forward to GT pics. Great review by the way! I agree, the hood is great how it is.

Karpro

Will you get to do a review of the GT40's ride and power too? If I got to drive that car once, I'd have to walk the rest of my life because nothing could compare from that point forward.

Did you guys lose a deal on a Mustang? I remember you saying that your first 20 or so were already sold. I'm excited that I might get to drive the incoming GT that we lost our deal on. Of course if it sells first then I've got to just live vicariously through all you guys.

Paris MkVI

Kevin, that is one terrific review. What a fine job of recording a lot of detailed impressions. She does live REAL easy on the eyes, doesn't she?

Speaking of that last sentence, I realized today that the new Mustang is the first car I have thought of as "she" since my '69 Mustang. And that means a whole lot of good things. This car has character in all the good ways.

kevinb120

The V6's came on autoorder. I thought we were going to get a few gt's in for stock but it looks like they sold on the way here too. So it may be a while before I even get any seat time in one. One of my Hybrid orders fell through for a re-order for a less expensive one. You wanna see salespeople go nuts for a hot vehicle- Everyone was like a slingshot waiting for word wether I had it available or not. And no GT40 rides I dont think we are even allowed to touch it


The personality of a V6 feels a lot like a super clean 65 with a 289 in it. I think its a great car for a young kid. They could talk dad into helping them score a base 5-speed sonic V6 with black cloth under $20k, score a set of gt wheels and bolt on a couple basic mods and have some real fun with it. Like I said 5 times above though, the beige interior is el yucko, they could of skipped it entirely and not skipped a beat.

Karpro

I think my guy would actually kill me if I tried to drive his. What color you got coming?

kevinb120

Red with white stripes and the bbs wheels, was supposed to show today. Its going to the Fairfax store.

Boomer

Great write up kevo

kevinb120

One other gripe though, the dot matrix on all the rear windows will make it a nightmare to tint the windows. I think dark tinted windows look cheap and was not going to bother anyway, but good luck for film tint fans.

V10

Nice report Kevin.

One small point. The 5R55S trannie does not learn the driver. It has programmed in optimum shift parameters. The computer then continuously adjusts it to attempt to replicate an optimum shift given mechanical variations from one trannie to the next and mechanical wear in the trannie.

Galaxie

great write up kevin,

I totally agree about the hood, it is so nice and clean, no need to put a scoop on it.

kevinb120

My point is it feels like its used to me stomping on it right off the bat. A lot of them you can feel them get stronger after several miles on the road. I wanted it to go fast and it went right up to max rpms with no complaints or early shifts, and shifted quickly and very docile with my customers' test drives. The programing in Explorer can be hit or miss sometimes. This stinker is crisp between gas, drivetrain immediacy, and transmission reaction times. You want go! press pedal hard, you want smooth, press pedal less. A lot of learning transmissions will shift very hard under light throttle after flooring it a few times at the lights prior.

kevinb120

A couple other notes, the auto shifter is in a awesome position. Its much lower then I thought it would be. I like the retro gear indicators to match the cluster.

As for colors, not to offend any fans of any color but I would love to have been on the board deciding them.

legent lime green would of definately been passed for the drop-dead georgeous dark green satin on superduty(better then DHG too by a long shot), merlot would replace redfire in a heartbeat, and the King Ranch superduty's new Dark Copper would have made the cut.

Donna

Very interesting read Kev, thanks for the time and thought you put into writing it. I agree with most everything you said except, to me, the car feels heavier than my 2000 was. It definantly takes pot holes and railroad tracks alot better than the earlier models.

RaGsHoCkEy88

wow thats long it would take me days to read soo im just assuming u liked it

kevinb120

Its mostly a feel issue, the faster turn-in, fast throttle with no lag, exponentially more responsive brakes and a very quick rebound without the suspension getting upset over bumps or quivering make it feel lighter to the senses when driving. I dont actually know what the actuall curb weight difference is in V6s are though. The 'slush' factor is gone.

kevinb120

I type fast B)

houtex

Awesome write up. That cinches it. I want one now so bad... But I must wait still. Sigh.

Kevin, I'm curious. Why do you say the beige going to be hard to keep up with? Does that mean the gray isn't? Why is that? The black, of course, is farily easy I guess, and the red leather ICAP couldn't be terrible.

Also looking to absolutely confirm the non-existance of a cut out of any type on the v6 bumper.

TIA.

Awesome writeup. Did I tell ya? Oh yeah, I did. Well it bears repeating.