Detroit News Muzzy review
10/6/04, 07:17 AM
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Detroit News
Still feeling its oats
All-new Mustang recaptures spirit of seminal pony car
By Anita Lienert / Special to The Detroit News
BATTLE CREEK -- Karen Kozik loved her two Ford Mustangs, an original 1964 model and a 1966 fastback, so much that long after she sold them, she wore the car keys on a chain around her neck.
2005 Mustang
Celebrating 40 years of Mustangs
Collector Mustangs
She called them her "dog tags" and they served as a reminder of a happy youth in Detroit. To Kozik, the original Mustang sports car always stood for "power, fun and innovation." Besides, she felt cool behind the wheel and "picked up a lot of guys on Woodward with this car."
So when Kozik, now a 57-year-old Rochester resident and recruiting manager for UHY Advisors of Michigan Inc., spotted an all-new 2005 Mustang parked at a rest stop here on I-94, she hustled over to scrutinize the car and gauge whether it measured up to her memories.
"Fantastic," Kozik gushed, admiring the new Mustang's retro interior and clean lines that recall the 1967-68 'Stang. "It would get me to get rid of my SUV. This is probably more like the original Mustang than any of the other ones they've ever done."
Score a big one for Ford Motor Co.
The Dearborn manufacturer is throwing a lot of new product at consumers right now, including the Five Hundred sedan, Escape Hybrid sport-utility vehicle and Freestyle tall wagon.
But the true emotional hit of the year for the company is bound to be the new Flat Rock-built Mustang, a clever product calculated to push all the right buttons, especially with aging baby boomers.
The Mustang may not break a lot of ground in terms of design or technology, but for Kozik and other boomers , the Mustang appears to be better than Botox for recapturing youth, especially if that time was spent lusting after the "pony cars" of the Sixties.
"They caught the essence of the old car and that is so rare," said Bob Kazanowski, 58, a bar owner from Wolverine Lake Village and a member of the 2004 Detroit News Automotive Consumer Panel.
Kazanowski, the former owner of a white 1967 Bullitt edition Mustang, sampled a 2005 Mustang GT at a Ford consumer event on Belle Isle during the summer.
The '05 Mustang is on sale now, starting at $19,410 for the base V-6 model and $24,995 for the GT version with a V-8 engine. Prices include a $625 destination charge. A convertible version is due in the spring.
Most people of a certain age seem to have a Mustang story, including Larry Erickson, the 47-year-old Mustang chief designer.
"My dad had a used-car lot in northern California and I got to know the personalities of the muscle cars," Erickson said. "The old (Pontiac) Firebird had more bits of chrome while the Mustang was more down-to-earth and fundamental. In the redesign, it was important to study the original Mustang and get the proportions right."
We spent an hour walking around the new rear-wheel-drive Mustang at the GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, as Erickson, who owned a 1967 Mustang when he was 19, pointed out the 2005 model's highlights and explained the thinking behind the redesign.
Erickson said designers embraced the classic fastback profile and cleaned up the exterior, stripping off the hood scoop and side scoops that adorned the 2004 model.
"You put those things there when the basics aren't working," Erickson explained.
The new Mustang's design cues center on a long hood, which indicates "there's a lot of business under there," Erickson said, as well as a short deck, a forward-leaning grille, and a side window that is supposed to frame the driver.
The sportier GT version gets two fog lamps built into the grille to visually differentiate it from the V-6 model.
At the I-94 rest stop, James Farris, 37, a machine operator from Kalamazoo, marveled that the new Mustang "looked mean, even in baby blue."
"I'm not a Ford fan, but I would buy this," Farris said, who drives a 1995 GMC Yukon SUV.
The Mustang's interior is just as retro as the exterior, evoking powerful memories of the best of the old Mustang, a car that the Standard Catalog of American Cars describes as an "instant hit" when it debuted in April 1964.
The 2005 model's cabin is dominated by a three-spoke steering wheel with the old-style horse and tricolor-bars logo on the hub and square-arched "eyebrows" above the instrument panel.
The most outrageous option is the $175 Interior Color Accent Package, which pairs charcoal carpet with screaming red leather seats, red door inserts and red floor mats. A satin-aluminum trim package adds another $450 and lends a high-tech look to the cabin.
A color-configurable instrument cluster can be backlit in any of 125 colors at the touch of a button.
Unlike the redesigned Ford Thunderbird, which never quite had an interior that lived up to the promise of the retro exterior, the Mustang manages to be pleasing inside and out.
And what about the business under the hood that Erickson referred to? It doesn't disappoint either.
The 2005 Mustang V-6 is powered by a new SOHC 4.0-liter engine that replaces the old pushrod 3.8-liter engine in the 2004 model. It makes 210 horsepower and 240 pounds-feet of torque.
The '05 model is the first Mustang GT to break into the 300-horsepower arena in more than 35 years, according to the company, with a modified 4.6-liter V-8 that also delivers 320 pounds-feet of torque. The engines are paired with a standard five-speed manual or a $995 five-speed automatic transmission.
Expect to get 20 miles per gallon in city driving with the base V-6 Mustang and 29 mpg in highway driving.
Initial criticisms of the new Mustang are few.
While Mustang engineers say they reduced the clutch effort on the manual transmission to make it easier for women, they made the decision to skip adjustable pedals to keep costs down.
Side air bags for front-seat occupants are a $370 option, but there is no air-bag coverage for rear-seat passengers, a distressing oversight. Antilock brakes and traction control are standard on the GT, but $775 on the base model. And you can't get stability control on the Mustang, which could pose a real problem on wet and icy roads, especially for a rear-wheel-drive performance car with a 300-horsepower V-8.
Ford has taken some heat internally and outside the company over the decision to use a solid rear axle in place of a fully independent rear suspension, like the one on the Thunderbird. That decision permitted Ford to save development and tooling costs on the new car.
Critics say an independent rear suspension provides better handling control and ride comfort than a solid rear axle.
Mustang chief engineer Hau Thai-Tang counters that the car's solid rear axle has been tweaked to deliver "improved steering and handling without having to trade off ride comfort."
The fact that the Mustang has a solid rear axle bothered me less than other things like a too-loud engine at highway speeds and noticeable wind noise. I also had trouble parking because you can't tell where the end of the nose is pointing or where the back of the tail is because of the way the edges fall off. Another gripe was lots of glare reflecting off the rear spoiler and into the cabin in bright sunlight.
None of those things are deal-breakers, however.
Even weeks after she saw the Mustang at the I-94 rest stop, Kozik was still raving about it, e-mailing me a photo of her first Mustang parked in front of her mom's house in Oak Park. She described the encounter with the new Mustang as a "blast that brought back a flood of memories."
"All of my friends say the same thing," she wrote. "We want cars that are cool and have power (and have some safety features wrapped in, of course. We're so done with the minivan thing!"
Still feeling its oats
All-new Mustang recaptures spirit of seminal pony car
By Anita Lienert / Special to The Detroit News
BATTLE CREEK -- Karen Kozik loved her two Ford Mustangs, an original 1964 model and a 1966 fastback, so much that long after she sold them, she wore the car keys on a chain around her neck.
2005 Mustang
Celebrating 40 years of Mustangs
Collector Mustangs
She called them her "dog tags" and they served as a reminder of a happy youth in Detroit. To Kozik, the original Mustang sports car always stood for "power, fun and innovation." Besides, she felt cool behind the wheel and "picked up a lot of guys on Woodward with this car."
So when Kozik, now a 57-year-old Rochester resident and recruiting manager for UHY Advisors of Michigan Inc., spotted an all-new 2005 Mustang parked at a rest stop here on I-94, she hustled over to scrutinize the car and gauge whether it measured up to her memories.
"Fantastic," Kozik gushed, admiring the new Mustang's retro interior and clean lines that recall the 1967-68 'Stang. "It would get me to get rid of my SUV. This is probably more like the original Mustang than any of the other ones they've ever done."
Score a big one for Ford Motor Co.
The Dearborn manufacturer is throwing a lot of new product at consumers right now, including the Five Hundred sedan, Escape Hybrid sport-utility vehicle and Freestyle tall wagon.
But the true emotional hit of the year for the company is bound to be the new Flat Rock-built Mustang, a clever product calculated to push all the right buttons, especially with aging baby boomers.
The Mustang may not break a lot of ground in terms of design or technology, but for Kozik and other boomers , the Mustang appears to be better than Botox for recapturing youth, especially if that time was spent lusting after the "pony cars" of the Sixties.
"They caught the essence of the old car and that is so rare," said Bob Kazanowski, 58, a bar owner from Wolverine Lake Village and a member of the 2004 Detroit News Automotive Consumer Panel.
Kazanowski, the former owner of a white 1967 Bullitt edition Mustang, sampled a 2005 Mustang GT at a Ford consumer event on Belle Isle during the summer.
The '05 Mustang is on sale now, starting at $19,410 for the base V-6 model and $24,995 for the GT version with a V-8 engine. Prices include a $625 destination charge. A convertible version is due in the spring.
Most people of a certain age seem to have a Mustang story, including Larry Erickson, the 47-year-old Mustang chief designer.
"My dad had a used-car lot in northern California and I got to know the personalities of the muscle cars," Erickson said. "The old (Pontiac) Firebird had more bits of chrome while the Mustang was more down-to-earth and fundamental. In the redesign, it was important to study the original Mustang and get the proportions right."
We spent an hour walking around the new rear-wheel-drive Mustang at the GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, as Erickson, who owned a 1967 Mustang when he was 19, pointed out the 2005 model's highlights and explained the thinking behind the redesign.
Erickson said designers embraced the classic fastback profile and cleaned up the exterior, stripping off the hood scoop and side scoops that adorned the 2004 model.
"You put those things there when the basics aren't working," Erickson explained.
The new Mustang's design cues center on a long hood, which indicates "there's a lot of business under there," Erickson said, as well as a short deck, a forward-leaning grille, and a side window that is supposed to frame the driver.
The sportier GT version gets two fog lamps built into the grille to visually differentiate it from the V-6 model.
At the I-94 rest stop, James Farris, 37, a machine operator from Kalamazoo, marveled that the new Mustang "looked mean, even in baby blue."
"I'm not a Ford fan, but I would buy this," Farris said, who drives a 1995 GMC Yukon SUV.
The Mustang's interior is just as retro as the exterior, evoking powerful memories of the best of the old Mustang, a car that the Standard Catalog of American Cars describes as an "instant hit" when it debuted in April 1964.
The 2005 model's cabin is dominated by a three-spoke steering wheel with the old-style horse and tricolor-bars logo on the hub and square-arched "eyebrows" above the instrument panel.
The most outrageous option is the $175 Interior Color Accent Package, which pairs charcoal carpet with screaming red leather seats, red door inserts and red floor mats. A satin-aluminum trim package adds another $450 and lends a high-tech look to the cabin.
A color-configurable instrument cluster can be backlit in any of 125 colors at the touch of a button.
Unlike the redesigned Ford Thunderbird, which never quite had an interior that lived up to the promise of the retro exterior, the Mustang manages to be pleasing inside and out.
And what about the business under the hood that Erickson referred to? It doesn't disappoint either.
The 2005 Mustang V-6 is powered by a new SOHC 4.0-liter engine that replaces the old pushrod 3.8-liter engine in the 2004 model. It makes 210 horsepower and 240 pounds-feet of torque.
The '05 model is the first Mustang GT to break into the 300-horsepower arena in more than 35 years, according to the company, with a modified 4.6-liter V-8 that also delivers 320 pounds-feet of torque. The engines are paired with a standard five-speed manual or a $995 five-speed automatic transmission.
Expect to get 20 miles per gallon in city driving with the base V-6 Mustang and 29 mpg in highway driving.
Initial criticisms of the new Mustang are few.
While Mustang engineers say they reduced the clutch effort on the manual transmission to make it easier for women, they made the decision to skip adjustable pedals to keep costs down.
Side air bags for front-seat occupants are a $370 option, but there is no air-bag coverage for rear-seat passengers, a distressing oversight. Antilock brakes and traction control are standard on the GT, but $775 on the base model. And you can't get stability control on the Mustang, which could pose a real problem on wet and icy roads, especially for a rear-wheel-drive performance car with a 300-horsepower V-8.
Ford has taken some heat internally and outside the company over the decision to use a solid rear axle in place of a fully independent rear suspension, like the one on the Thunderbird. That decision permitted Ford to save development and tooling costs on the new car.
Critics say an independent rear suspension provides better handling control and ride comfort than a solid rear axle.
Mustang chief engineer Hau Thai-Tang counters that the car's solid rear axle has been tweaked to deliver "improved steering and handling without having to trade off ride comfort."
The fact that the Mustang has a solid rear axle bothered me less than other things like a too-loud engine at highway speeds and noticeable wind noise. I also had trouble parking because you can't tell where the end of the nose is pointing or where the back of the tail is because of the way the edges fall off. Another gripe was lots of glare reflecting off the rear spoiler and into the cabin in bright sunlight.
None of those things are deal-breakers, however.
Even weeks after she saw the Mustang at the I-94 rest stop, Kozik was still raving about it, e-mailing me a photo of her first Mustang parked in front of her mom's house in Oak Park. She described the encounter with the new Mustang as a "blast that brought back a flood of memories."
"All of my friends say the same thing," she wrote. "We want cars that are cool and have power (and have some safety features wrapped in, of course. We're so done with the minivan thing!"
10/6/04, 07:28 AM
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The fact that the Mustang has a solid rear axle bothered me less than other things like a too-loud engine at highway speeds and noticeable wind noise. I also had trouble parking because you can't tell where the end of the nose is pointing or where the back of the tail is because of the way the edges fall off. Another gripe was lots of glare reflecting off the rear spoiler and into the cabin in bright sunlight.
10/6/04, 08:18 AM
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Originally posted by Wombert@October 6, 2004, 7:31 AM
The spoiler glare thing is interesting. Question is how "noticeable" the wind noise is compared to <05 Stangs.
The fact that the Mustang has a solid rear axle bothered me less than other things like a too-loud engine at highway speeds and noticeable wind noise. I also had trouble parking because you can't tell where the end of the nose is pointing or where the back of the tail is because of the way the edges fall off. Another gripe was lots of glare reflecting off the rear spoiler and into the cabin in bright sunlight.
10/6/04, 01:27 PM
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Anita better not buy a mustang, if she's worried about those minor details. If the sun glare is reflecting off the spoiler, I say don't look. The front is too long? It's a Mustang for cripes sake! What does she expect? Give us a break!
And as far as the rear Air Bags! Who cares,
no one will probably ever sit in mine anyways!
As a matter of fact, I'd like to see them take the back seats out, and make a nice 2 seater fastback coupe!
Now would'nt that be a dream machine?
And as far as the rear Air Bags! Who cares,
no one will probably ever sit in mine anyways!
As a matter of fact, I'd like to see them take the back seats out, and make a nice 2 seater fastback coupe!
Now would'nt that be a dream machine?
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