I got on a list somewhere for 05 Mustang owners and was invited to a focus group to evaluate 5 2-door coupes this last weekend. I walk into the hall where there were conducting the evaulation and I see a Toyota Solara, a Honda Accord Coupe, a Mitsubishi Eclipse and a prototype of the new Nissan Altima Coupe they hope to market very soon. All of these cars were of the V6 variety and were very well equiped and were all silver. Then I see that the 5th car was an 06 Mustang GT in Satin Silver with literally NO OPTIONS on it at all. All the other cars listed were right at or below $23,500 and of course the base model GT showed $26K. I just couldn't believe that they were comparing a 300HP V8 to V6's. I would have thought they would have had a V6 Stang not a V8! They probably had to use the GT because a base model V6 would have been WAY cheaper than all the Japanese models they had there.

Not saying anything bad about base model GT's, but while I was sitting in the car filling out my evaluation I was very very happy that I got a GT that was fully loaded...gotta love that IUP and the nice looking steering wheel. That base model they had had only 4 speakers too and all the Japanese cars had 6+ speakers in the evaluation.

The Altima coupe had a few things that were (in my opinion) blatently stolen from our Stang babies...they tried out a honeycomb grille, a triangle shaped quarter window behind the door window that looked exactly like the stang all the way down to the black edging, AND they used very similar door handles. Otherwise, the thing looked exactly like a G35.

I got $200 out of the gig so that made all the Japanese seat time more bearable!

 

Must have been hard on you, its not really fair that they want to make the Mustang look bad because a V8 GT w/o options is a little bit more expensive. Ironically, they are making themselves look bad

 

An Altima coupe?! WTF...?

Sorry, have to do it >>

 

Sorry guys! They confiscated all cell phones and cameras before entering the hall. Take a 4 door Altima, shorten it a bit, and make the lines look more like a G35 with a not so bulbous rear end. That is basically what it looked like...and it had a keyless start button.

The Mustang similarities were a blatant rip-off though. Very obvious and the black honey-comb in the grill looked stupid.

 

This sounds like photoshop time

 

So what aws the overall opinion of the group? How did the mustang turn out? Unfortunately its comparing apples to oranges but for sheer power and speed the mustang will blow the other cars doors off.

 

Did anyone (or you) voice the concern about the GT being in the comparison. they should have just gotten a V6 and optioned it up to be comparably priced to the other cars there. that would be fair game to me i would think.

curious to see the results. was this nissan doing the research?

 

Who the hell thought a bunch of WWD(Wrong Wheel Drive) V6 chick cars would come close to bieng compared to a base model GT? COMPLETLY different class of cars. Morons.

 

I did the same type of eval myself but it was sponsored by LINCOLN and got $125 for my time. Tomorrow I'm participating in a Car and Driver Editor for a Day drive event that's been sponsored by Cadillac in the past. No cash for this one, but if you someone named Bob from RI in a coming issue of Car and Driver - glowing about how great a Cadillac is in comparison to BMW and Lexus - you'll know I drank the Kool Aid! Later in August, I'm also doing a Mazda drive event - no cash and no print publicity for this one, just drive the hell out of Mazda cars on a parking lot track and have a great time!

 

I made it into the June issue of Road & Track for the Cadillac Editor for the day event. I did the drive last fall so it took like 9 months to end up there. I was very surprised!

 

I'm doing a similar thing tomorrow afternoon, says I was picked because of my Mustang GT, wonder if I get to look at a new altima

 

This comparison reminds me of one of the major magazines (I think Motor Trend) a few years back, when they compared a Mustang GT to a Dodge Stratus! This was around 2003, and what made the comparison even more silly was the fact that the editors named the Stratus as the winner.

What I really remember about the article was that a couple issues later, in the "letters from readers" section, one guy wrote in to say how silly the comparison was, and that most Mustang guys "wouldn't even know what a Stratus was."

 

Where does a 2 door Altima fit in against the 350Z? They sound like very similar cars.

 

They looked very similar, except the Altima looked less round, more like the lines of the 2-door G35.

 

Close to the end of the survey I was asked if there were any cars in the group that didn't seem to belong. Of course it was the GT and the fact that even if it was a V6 it was base model.

 

I believe it was sponsored by Nissan because they were showcasing this protype they are going to come out with. The research peeps made a point to say that they "will be coming out with one".

I do have to admit that the Altima coupe prototype was way better looking than the Accord, the Eclipse and the Solara. Just no match for a Mustang and I did think that it was wrong to have a base model GT up against all of these fully loaded cars. Their horsepower rating on the Altima coupe was somewhere in the 260 range I think. I can't remember the torque.

I did hear from a few other attendees (they invited coupe owners) that they had shopped for the Mustang and then ended up with a Japanese car of some sort. One lady said she and her husband were going to get twin Mustangs and ended up getting twin Tiburons. After that comment, I walked away, that was such a stupid decision if you ask me, it was not even worth an effort to ask her why.

My only thoughts on why so many would go Japanese might be the gas mileage and the reputation of being a higher quality/longer lasting car (although I think that is BS).

There were two questions that they asked that I personally think were set up to dog the Stang. One was "Look in the back seat and describe the roominess. Can two adults fit comfortably?" The other was "Go outside and examine the trunk. Is it roomy and does it give the perception that it would be easy to load baggage, etc. easily?". All of the Japanese cars there had huge trunks compared to the mustang (and the Eclipse is a hatch so that doesn't really count) and the Altima did a pretty good job at shortening the engine bay and stretching out the cabin (as compared to the Stang's long hood and shorter cabin) enough to give you a feeling of greater room.

All in all the whole thing was set up to get opinions on their prototype and hope for consumers. They didn't like the fact that I wasn't looking for a new coupe. I tried to make it seem like I would possibly consider their car so I could continue along in the Focus group the next day. They booted me out when they figured out my devious plan....LOL! Luckily I still got the extra $100!

 

Maybe you'll end up with the same thing! Love to hear your opinion if you get to evaluate the same cars. They may invite for a second Focus group if your answers qualify you...that is how I got the second $100.

 

Could it be possible that the GT was used because the V6 couldn't hang? I haven't driven a V6, but I know that Nissan isn't F-ing around anymore.

 

Mine was not the same thing. There was no one there to talk about the cars or anything, just followed this lil handheld device and gave opinions on current cars, including the current mustang which was a v6 pony package. The rest of the cars seemed top of their line which I found kinda funny. There was one new car, that I cant wait to see in 2009-10 there.

 

Sounds like they're trying to beat the Mustang. It must be (it is) kicking their hiney's on the sport car market.

With those kinds of questions, it blatant that's what they're trying to do.