welp, she's sleeping in my garage as we speak. Here's how she came to be.

The morning started at Cal Worthington Ford in long beach. They lured me down with promises of a testdrive on one of their multiple GTs. Upon arrival, they had exactly 1. A white GT in automatic, they'd promised a test drive and delivered...1 lap around the block. The sales idiot then tried to tell me several times that GTs won't come in manual until January. Unimpressed by the feeling of the auto, and pissed at the waste of time I left. Thankfully, my luck soon changed.

A friend of one of my coworkers is on the lead sales team at Galpin Ford, the #1 Ford dealer in the world. I'd placed a call to him before heading out to long beach and he gave me a shout to tell me they'd recieved 13 Mustang GT's the night before, and 5 had already sold (we spoke at 1:30pm). He promised me a test drive if I could make it up there that day. We did, and immediately stumbled on the package I wanted: Black with ICAP Red interior. Unfortunately, it had already sold before we got there. I was a little bummed, and figured we'd just have to place an order if I was going to get my stang when we came across the 4 they had still available, and there she was: Mineral gray, with the same packages as the Black, including the Red Leather I love! We took her out for a long detailed test drive, spending some time on side streets getting to know her feel before jumping up on the highway, with both my GF and I getting a turn. All of our reservations were gone. The manual really makes THAT much difference in power delivery, and is further enhanced by the sound of the engine and exhaust entering the cabin via the shifter channel. The next few hours would see my poor girlfriend laboring through rush hour LA traffic to bring the Lightning over for trade while I went through the deal and financing. Galpin is beginning a speed shop on site, and we spent some time talking about some of my ideas that they would like to do for me. We finally were signed sealed and delivered around 10 PM, and off to Mulholland Drive we went. I'll be honest, I was expecting her not to hold up very well, compared to the car I'm leaving (a 2001 M3), but she surprised me. She's a little heavy and has some excessive body roll, but for the most part passed the mulholland test with flying colors!

I'm glad to now be an official member of the community, and will update everyone with pictures soon and more pictures and info as she begins her transformation.

For the curious, here's what I got and what is happening to her in the immediate future:

2005 Mustang GT Coupe Premium
Mineral Gray
IUP ICAP
Shaker 500
Active Anti-theft (which is yet to be installed, by the time my deal closed 12 of the 13 mustangs had been sold and the final was in process. they were moving so fast they could barely get them cleaned before they were sold)
Wheel Locks
18" upgraded wheels

Mods Coming as soon as next week:
Wheels Powder Coated Black
Shaker swapped for Kenwood Exceleion in-dash CD/DVD/GPS/MP3 Touchscreen Unit
Custom Targa Top

core

 

Wow congrats! Very cool story.

 

18" upgraded wheels??

what wheels did you get? any pics?

 

AWESOME!!! Congrats and good luck!!!

 

Congrats. I am glad to hear that you did not buy a car from those idiots in Long beach. My cousin bought his stang from them and they have the worst service department. I am gald to hear that you didn't let that moron salesidiot stinker you in to believing his crap. Also, stay away from Ford West's service dept. they are very unprofessional and don't give a darn about customer service. I wish I never bought my car from them. On the other hand, I have heard some good things about Galpin. Do you have any regrets about trading in your SVT? Best of luck with your new stang

 

it's just the optional "bright finish aluminum" wheels available on the GT, nothing special

 

I realize that most dealers don't keep as up to date as enthusiasts, but the Long Beach salesman was just clueless. He was obviously trying to move the car on the lot and not listening to a word I said about not wanting it, and know what features I did want.

Galpin is *wonderful*. I could not have had a better experience. The whole deal, including waiting on my girl to sit through rush hour, took around 8 hours. My salesman, Brian Deming, went out of his way to stay attentive to us and never once rushed us or complained. He had past customers came in, took the time to show them the cars available, but when they wanted a test drive that would take him away from attending me (even though we were in a holding pattern until the trade arrived) he handed them off to another salesman. We walked over to the galpin muesem to check the kenwood out in one of their "galpinized" cars, an f250 done in a matte black Mad Max theme complete with exhaust pipes through the hood, sidepies, a machine gun styled water canon in the bed and custom patchwork leather interior and headliner. We then spent time looking over the inventory of everything from Marilyn Mansons suicide door lincoln from the "Tainted Love" video, to past Bond Aston Martins and Nic Cage's GT40. If you're in SoCal and need a car, pm me and i'll give you his info. Heck, if you're NOT in socal and need a car, PM me for his info and he can dropship to your local dealer for $800.

I don't regret letting go of the L, it'd been sitting since I bought the M3 this spring. My GF and I are getting serious, she's finishing law school in the midwest. I decided to let go of the L and M3 to reduce expenses/maintainence costs and the stang called out to me as the perfect replacement.

Believe it or not, even in glossy LA, the stang stops traffic. We had a motorist stop dead in his tracks turning onto the freeway and quadrauple take the car during our test drive. I was complemented 2 dozen times before we left the dealership, by customers and employees alike. I didn't even get this much attention in the M3!

 

Tell me more about this planned custom!

 

"Hey Ford! I hear your Mustang's being driven by SQWEAK!!"
(The Lemon's Ford misses the shot, and the Beers win!)

Couldn't resist. Congrats on your new 'Stang!

/me is slightly jealous.
//probably gets that 'squeak' thing too often to mention.

 

it's just the optional "bright finish aluminum" wheels available on the GT, nothing special [/b][/quote]
Do you mean 17" premium wheels, because Ford doesn't offer 18's

 

cant wait 2 see pics

 

sqeak-


I live close to Galpin and almost right on Mulholland. It is a GREAT road isn't it? I go down Mulholland to PCH then up Malibu Canyon all the time. Great drive.


Congrats. Hope to see you on Mulholland some time!

 

Tell me more about this planned custom! [/b][/quote]
The idea is to chop the top right after the front seats. It'd be the roof panel that gets the hack, the pillars that create the roofline and match with the windows would remain. Ideally, this piece would get latches to lock in place, and be small enough to fit in the trunk. If thats not a possibility, two distinct pieces or a hinged piece would be created. For bonus sun time, I'd also like to have a drop in glass piece. That said, this is all obviously speculation til I meet with galpin's custom guys and we talk price and feasability. if it doesn't work out, I must admit I am eyeing the CDC glass top.

 

houtex: for years and years i've gotten those comments, no worries though

2005muzzy: right, my bad. I'm confusing my cars again. To be honest, I wanted the bullit's, but these are just going to hold me over until putting some Bonspeed's on.

badandy: we'll have to do a drive soon! You need to show me mulholland west of the 405. I do mulholland from the 405 to 101 and back all the time, but whenever i go west, i end up getting turned around in the neighborhoods back there and haven't explored enough to find where mulholland continues through.

 

West is great. Some great windy (curvey, not as in wind blowing) roads that goes to Malibu. Very fun. Then you go down to Malibu and back up Malibu Canyon. Very fun drive, I hope to see you and your cool CDC glass topped Mustang!

 

That's awesome that you got your car!! B)


But trading the Lightning for it?

 

congrats BUT

 

ok, they're from my camera phone but it's all I've got for right now.

updates:

wheels are being powdercoated friday, and the active alarm is being installed too. Finances willing, the double din kenwood DVD/GPS will be put in at the same time. Hopefully I can squeeze a tint into the budget before the wheels are back.

madhouse: I loved the L, but needed to have something more open for sunny SoCal. Thats why I switched to a M3 'vert. The L had been sitting, and not selling, for 6 months. She had some issues (among them, the intercooler recall was never done by previous owner, and she had developed the faulty co2/o2 sensors as a result) so I was more than happy to offload her for the new pony!

 

hmmm, never saw that colour combo before. Red with Mineral Grey. Not bad. Congrats

 

Cool Story. Beautiful Car. Enjoy!!