wjones14

The last couple issues of Car and Driver magazine have featured Mustang articles, leading to this month's (Mar '07) issue, where some readers sent letters in saying they are tired of the Mustang articles.

So one issue had the FR500GT race car that you can actually buy for a little over $200K, as a cover story called the "King of all Mustangs."

One particular letter, written by Seth Gillman of Boston, MA, was simply:

That "King of All Mustangs" is like saying the king of all Kias.

I'd love to fire back at the guy, but unfortunately, there's no email address attached to his letter...

05fordgt

Hey Bill, I saw that letter. I just let if roll off my back. The guy probably drives a Kia Rio to work, and thinks its the best car on the planet because he gets good mileage.

shwaco1967

Yeah, I just picked up my C/D issue today and read that comment. I put it flat on "never-mind". There will be haters.

97svtgoin05gt

I would bet BIG money that SETH GILLMAN drives a Honda and believes it to be the best car on the earth.

MOVE OVER SETH...there are people with real cars trying to drive here.

classj

Little related story. An aquaintance of mine, who currently drives a minivan, and has never owned anything more powerfull than a 4cyl civic with a five speed that he claimed had "great pickup" . Was telling me the other day that he was looking at new cars as he got a new job a few months back, and felt that the mustang GT was not fast enough for his tastes and was thinking of saving for something quicker. God only knows what that would be within his budget. He was thinking a about a vette. Which indeed is faster. Or a preowned E46 M3, which he quickly proclaimed was faster despite me telling him that in a straight line, they were pretty well matched with only a intake and tune to the stang.

So anyway, I said, "have you actually been in or driven the mustang or the vette, or anything that gets to 60 faster than 8-9 seconds yet". To which he replied, NO, I know the stang is not quick enough based on this and that article that say the vette is faster. So I say, "come on, I will take you for a ride, tell me what you think". Poor bas tard He should have just said no. He had no idea what he was in for.

So I start the car, blip the throttle a bit and take off normally. He tells me that the car is alot louder than he thought, now my exhaust is stock mind you. So I drive nice and normal for a while. then I flip the TC off as we are approaching a highway ramp and bring the tach to about 3500rpm in first and jump on it through first-second-third to about 110 then brake hard back down to 65. With the snow tires we were loose through alot of all this. He was squirming in the seat and grabbing at the dash and I could swear I heard whimpers over the engine. So after a couple more romps on the throttle, we get back and he tells me "not bad". A week later he told me he was at a ford dealer "looking".

Most of these readers drive camerys and kias every day and will try to justify that supercar X is some how faster than supercar Y because it can hit 60 .1 seconds quicker. Or how this or that is such a wonderfull machine as compared to a mustang. All while they never have even been behind the wheel of something other than a FWD 200hp pos.

It is usually based around what they would buy IF they had the money.

My first question to all these people to bash any car I have is, "let me see what you drive".

WindveilBlue

I absolutely hate Kias. They are the most boring cars on the market today. Kia's only hope is that the Chinese come to American with the funny looking things they call "cars". At least the Koreans have decent labor laws when it comes to manufacturing. The Chinese are the biggest polluter in the World, don't give a **** about labor laws and then flood us with their crap. It's bad enough we have Kia's here. I sure hope that if the Chinese come to the US with cars, no one is stupid enough to buy them. Our trade deficit with China is HUMONGOUS! The more we buy their cheap, bad quality stuff, the poorer we become and pollute the planet.
OK, I'm done now. Sorry.

Zastava_101

I don't mind Kias, I drove Spectra for few days last summer and its nice little car. But its nothing compared to Mustang.

wjones14

Well, the only thing we know for sure about the car he drives is that it ain't a Mustang.

My first thought when reading it, was that he is a snob, and that he probably drives something at least like a BMW 3-series or a Lexus. And like classj pointed out in his post, there are a ton of ignorant folks out there who have no clue of the reality of the Mustang GT performance. They've never felt it. They've never felt what 320 lb/ft of torque feels like in a 3500 lb car with a 3:55 rear axle. They simply dismiss the Mustang based on its relatively low price or whatever other reason they have.

nole_trainer

Well I have the best of both worlds, I drive a Hyundai (kia's big sister) for my 50 mile/day commute and the Mustang on Friday's and the weekend.....don't hate the player hate the weekday car....

Little Black Pony

That's awesome!

My wife owned a KIA Optima when I meet her. She now drives an F-250 SuperDuty 7.3 TurboDiesel.

The reason KIA's are so inexpensive is that they make up the difference when you have to get the darn things serviced. Sheesh, they still use timing belts!

Ranger

There are "car crazy" people - regardless of model and then there are folks who just don't understand. A good friend of mine has an Acura TL - he still can't understand why I would have bought a Mustang without all the "goodies" the TL has. As a previous post stated," fast" is driving on an interstate at 85-90 period

azoufan

Pure poetry.

IWantMyNewGT

+1! I know a guy with an F430 and he says he has great respect for my GT. He agrees that the Mustang is one of the best performance values there is today. And I have great respect for his Ferrari and don't hate on him just b/c he can afford an even faster car than mine.

Hollywood_North GT

You should have used green font, not red. Cause that guy is just green with envy.

Poco

Comparing "Man Car" to a KIa is absurd.I would figure that most magazines keep bringing up the Mustang as an excellent value. The Mustang sold stock is a basic platform for much modding potential from suspension to all out HP applications.Stangers know that but some folks are in the mind frame that perforamance comes in a old fashioned push rod engine and some of them were no doubt.But a 281 cubic inch engine that runs on low octane fuel,gets fuel economy,performs,reliaible...everybody here knows.
Sure,I would love a Vette or a Shelby GT 500 but it isn't going to happen in my life time.But what I do have gets me around just fine.I'm a happy camper.The Mustangs are still cool after 40 years.And KIA's never will be.

MTAS

He is clearly a limp wristed faigle who has a rainbow sticker on the back of his quaint little Kia or what ever little ghey import he drives.

metroplex

A 07 GT deluxe w/ the TR-3650 can be bought for $25k + tax. Find another car that has a weight to power ratio of about 12:1 (3600 lb / 300 hp), runs on 87 octane, does 0-60 in under 5 seconds, runs the 1/4 mile in low to mid 13s, all straight out of the factory for $25k + tax. Let's not forget the factory exhaust that GROWLS when you start it up or if it is idling. The "foglamps" on the GT are also bright enough to **** off brain donor Cheby/Dodge pickup truck drivers which means the lights are doing their job

Emu Hunter

Nah, he has a rainbow sticker on the back of his Schwinn 10-speed...

Poco

Schwinn is a quality bike and I'm pretty sure this yahoo rides a Huffy.And his rainbow is tattooed right on his forehead.

slipnotovk

for some reason the "schwinn is a quality bike" response just had me crackin up. not ONCE have I had someone from work or one of my friends tell me that they could get more power for less or that their car can take mine. sure, some of my friends can take me on and we joke about it all the time but its all in good fun. only a few ask me why i got such a small car and that i cant fit anyone in the back seat. i say the same thing every time, im 24, single and i wanted the most powerful car my wallet could handle. not to mention the black stang is so god**** sweet lookin. only other complaints i get are people that are in it and they actually say "y do you need all this power?!?!". i just shake my head and say "thats y youll never own a mustang"