Cheese302

I have been asked by another forum member to make a post telling the trials and tribulations of my ownership of a 2007 mustang GT, since it is almost a daily driver. He asked me because somehow just reading through some of my posts he was able to see that the car was driven quite a bit. I think I will begin with the reasoning I have the car, the use it sees, and the general way that I see the car as a car. Then I will move into my opinions and direct views of the car as a daily driver, and why it isn’t anymore. And lastly I’ll conclude with my maintenance and other suggestions that I have to other owners of these fine automobiles. I’ll post up some cliffs notes tomorrow or so, and I apologize for the long post but I don’t think this story will be able to be told in short version.

Why did I buy my Mustang?

Well one reason is I have been a huge mustang fan since I was somewhere in the 5-7 range. I saw a picture of a 69 boss 302 and fell in love. When I was 16 my father bought a Wimbledon White 1969 Boss 302 as well so I was totally hooked. So then when I finished college the new body style had came out already and I really liked it. As a gift from my parents for finishing school (although after I had started working) I got a bit of money toward a down payment for the ’07. If I didn’t get that, I would have a hell of a hooked up jetta right now, and a new motorcycle. April 26th 2006 I ordered, and took delivery on july 20th of that year.

Since then it has been 11,000 miles of awesome. I got a great loan and insurance isn’t too terrible. I am 23 years old, in NJ. The car is for driving. Not for showing, not for racing, just driving. There have been so many reviews about how well the new stang handles and I am impressed. For the first 5 or so months of ownership this car was my daily driver, and I can’t complain. I took it to a few shows, but I find the scene kind of stupid. I mean I enjoyed myself, and would enjoy winning an award or so with it, but I refuse to be the guy who only cares about how his car looks, and has schedules of car shows and will do anything or spend any money on some appearance mod to win. I bought the car to drive it. So that’s what I do. I find scoops, and louvers and body kits to be ugly as sin, and please don’t ask me about stripes. That said, everyone has their own thing, please don’t take that as an “attack” at you. If you like that stuff feel free, its your car, and I will NEVER say anything about your car. I have too much respect for other people to say something like that, on my car no, on yours go for it. Those parts will not be on mine. I am more of a European style person, which means one color, and smooth lines. I got a spoiler delete car because I like the clean look of no spoiler, not because of those god awful ducktail spoilers that everyone else is so in love with. I think they look kinda tacky because the body line doesn’t continue through it.it looks like a plastic tacked on ricey kinda deal to me. Now one spoiler I would like is if someone could figure out an easy way to integrate a nascar style spoiler to the back of the mustang, I would look into it.

Back to driving, I just like the way the car handles, I think the solid rear axle does pretty awesome in the back of the car also making parts cheaper and a lot more interchangeability in the rear end of the car. The front end is great. The power is there and after many trips of over 100 miles one way, and one to Virginia beach and back. The car has been great. Nothing has gone wrong with it at all.

Now I see this car as what it is, a car. Cars are built and meant to be driven, so I drive it. I take as great of care of it as possible, but this thing will never be a crazy garage queen that only moves for shows, or whatever. It’s a car for me to drive everytime I have the itch. It’s not under storage insurance, I wouldn’t be able to not drive it for months on end. It was just not my thing. We still drive the Boss 302, not that much but we still get in it a good bit, and that’s one of 1632 ever built. So I am a driver. I don’t plan on racing this one, but I am planning to take it on a few driving schools hopefully one at Watkins glen.

Now for the experiences if the car: daily driving. Well I find the car comfortable, but it is kind of a pain to get in and out of while running errands. The gas mileage is AWESOME for a car of its size, power, and performance. I get 26-28 on the highway and in regular south jersey driving I get 20-23. I am not a real granddad type driver either. I enjoy it. The only other thing about daily driving this car is the trunk. The space is fine, I have gone away to CT for a weekend with another friend and fit all the stuff needed, but the trunk opening leaves some to be desired with the fold down seats though, I have carried a 4 horse shop vac in the back of the car, so stuff will fit, just need to figure how to get it in there. Also I feel the car is very hard to see out of. Even this day I am getting used to it. My last car was a 99 jetta wolfsburg, and that car is like a greenhouse to this one. The positive notes, plenty of passing power, decent lighting at night, and a well laid out cockpit. The gauges are easy to read, very communicative, TCS works pretty well. The car does kinda stink in the rain, but with a little bit of extra caution, there is no issue. The car is very comfortable and easy to drive though.

One of the best parts of the car is seeing the look on peoples faces, kids staring as I pass on the highway. The husbands that look over and immediately start daydreaming, and the girls that just think it’s so cute. It’s an awesome car to look at and it has 69 style headlights. Since owning the car I have added spin-tech mufflers, a hurst shifter, Bamachips power programmer, and C&L intake. All of these are great modifications, sounds awesome. The power programmer is great, gets rid of the horrible throttle lag of the worst mistake ford made which is the electric throttle. The stock shifter is something that I would love to throw at the person who designed it. Who thought having half the shifter attached to the body and half the shifter attached to the trans. It just won’t work right, and someone needs to design a total remote shifter for it. I can say the two most important thing people can do to these cars is to add a shifter and a chip to it to fix the throttle, and shift better.

I have also added the all weather floor mats, which work quite splendidly. The seats (crimson leather) seem to be great. The radio sounds great to me, couldn’t imagine wanting to spend a grand on the two speakers in the trunk. I have Sirius, the interface works well and sounds good. The antenna location isn’t the greatest, but whatever, it’ll all work in the end. I love the auto up and down windows, as well as remotes that work well.

Nowadays I don’t daily drive it. The reason is simple. I got a second car from my sister for $250. it’s a 96 cavalier (soon to be replaced, I hate working on chevy’s) but it’ll get me through the winter. It gets almost 40 to the gallon, and costs me less than $500 a year to insure (yes I said YEAR). Why do I still choose not to drive the mustang. Two reasons, the first, I don’t trust others on the road. If I am on the road in the snow, I could get slid into. If it happens with the cavalier, I’ll just give the tow yard the title. The second reason I don’t drive the stang, it allows me to keep the excitement of the car. I think newer cars if kept properly clean and driven, you don’t need to worry about the salt, and what not. Since I got the second car, less than 2000 miles have been put on the mustang, which is kind of nice, but I am never going to sell this car. I’ll give it to one of my kids when I am older. When the summer starts again, the miles will start racking up. Hopefully it will never be on a trailer. I love driving and that’s what’s it here for.

All I have done to this car so far is maintain and the few modifications. The maintenances are two oil changes, and keeping the tires up to pressure. Other than that, the car has been flawless. I would like to fix the front end clunk but will wait till there is an affordable strut cap for the struts. Also I am in the future planning to lower the car, I will be putting different sway bars in it at that point. So that will fix the end link issues that I have read about before. I have not taken my car in for the passenger side leakage, but I will be. Basically I try to allow my car to go to the dealer as little as possible. I don’t trust techs, and I can do ANYTHING my car needs. So I maintain myself, there is no reason to pay someone to do work I can do myself. I am also changing the wheels and tires, as well as placing the GT/CS rear bumper on the car. That’s pretty much it in the looks department.

Now for my suggestions to other owners. First, wash your car yourself, I have heard many horror stories of car washed, it will also give you one more way to look your car over for imperfections that need attention. Also if your going to store your car, take the battery out and don’t rest it directly on concrete, battery tenders work really well too. If your going to just “start it up every couple weeks” remember that wont keep your battery charged, or at least not as well as keeping the negative terminal off in between uses. Also if you want to warm it up and keep the fluids going, just take the car for a drive. Let it move around, the trans warm up, rear end oil too. For you auto guys that still refuse to drive it in the winter, just pull the parking brake and shift the engine into neutral till the motor warms up then shift up and down through the gate a bit to keep it going. And be sure to treat your fuel for winterization. You wont lose much in settings, and you’ll allow the battery to last longer. Keep your oil changed, however except if you race your car a lot, you can keep to the factory recommended 5000 mile intervals. I have run 5000 miles with oil and filter change my entire driving life, and the past three vehicles had 185000, 295000, 176000 and 182000 on the clock when I stopped driving them (except the last one, that’s my current cavalier) those engines as well as the mustang v8 sound awesome. Always change the filter as well. I personally use motorcraft 5w-20, have no reason to use others yet. I stick with purolator pure one oil filters except I have been running motorcraft in the mustang. For leather owners, keep the leather cleaned and treated. I use leatherique. www.leatherique.com . it WORKS, leather always looks awesome. I am trying to be pretty **** about it too. The first couple times you use it, the color of the seats might come up on the rag, but I have seen no fading in the seats whatsoever, so don’t worry about it. Cleaning I personally use mainly Maguire’s stuff. Always keep a clean wash mitt though, very important, and keep your wheels clean if you let them sit with brake dust on them, it will never come off. Lastly ( I think) Make sure you drive your car. Letting a car sit kills it. Seals dry rot, gaskets fail, fluids break down, connections oxidize. Keep your car clean and keep it on the road, it will keep going forever. Remember every car has problems, you just chose to deal with the ones that this car has. That’s my philosophy. If anyone needs help fixing something, or modding, feel free to PM me, I am always more than happy to help. I can offer hands on help for install of stuff to people in the northeast. I love working on the car, its half the reason I have the car, the ability to spin wrenches on it. one last thing. if you are running on the stock program in the car, you should def. only run 87 throught the car. running higher octanes not only doesnt give you any performance advantage, but could also cost you some fuel mileage. i dont know why i get such good numbers, but i do.

I am sorry for the length of the post again, and please let me know what you think.

red454

Well said. Well worded. Well put.

Well, I can't really think of anything to add... I think you have it covered.

randy_tho

Speaking of visibility, and interior / trunk space. I'd be coming form a Dodge Stealth. The trunk hatch consists of a space about 1 ft high and 4' by 3'. You can't get a gallon of milk back there with the retractable cover down without putting it on it's side. Visibility isn't bad once you're adapted but I'd imagine the mustang is better. The stealth spoiler pretty much blocks the rear view.

Which wheels did you get? What's the best way to clean the bullet polished wheels? I think I read they are coated so you can't use any polish. Yes, brake dust and rain = wheel problems.

Has yours leaked yet? What about the brake fluid cylinder cap?

TacoBill

Wow, I read your whole story! You're right, that was a long one.

You pretty much described me and my car, but no offense taken.

Well, one thing we both have in common is that we love our rides.

Enfynet

Sounds like me as well. I go to shows and stuff, but I don't really expect to win. I've gone almost 38k in 2 years here, so I know what you mean about driving it.

1mike1

nice write up..

any pictures of the spoiler delete you did?

Cheese302

Randy: I just make sure to hit the wheels with some wheel cleaner at least once every week or two weeks, you cant polish the bullitts, but if they never really get dirty, you dont have to polish them anyway.

Mike: i dodnt delete the spoiler myself, i bought it that way, however here is a pick from the day i picked it up.

Cheese302

Oh also, i havent gotten new wheels yet, gotta save up some money, and having a really hard time figuring out which ones. i kinda want the fr500 wheels though

YaoNYC

hi Cheese302,

2 things!

1. you are in NJ!! so, you must meet up with the NY/NJ crew when the weather gets better.

2. post here as well! "I LOVE MUSTANG"

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=59813

great story brother. i read the whole thing too!

Cheese302

Yao, thanks for the reply. i have been on your thread a few times as well. would love to start meeting up when it warms up. go hit some twisties or something

YaoNYC

hi cheese302!

your very welcome brother!

thanks for posting at "i love my mustang"

for sure...i met this other dude in NYC who is a mustang nut. he garages his car like i do...and his car is tricked out....

We should all cruise...big mustang style to HOT IMPORT NIGHTS in philadelphia!! HAHA!

NJJOE

Nice write-up. I got the GT\CS and love it. I am like you, in the winter it doesn't get drive too much, NJ drivers are the worst in the snow. But in the spring and summer it will be out a lot. A cruise through Philly may be fun.

Cheese302

yeah man, maybe a cheesesteak run or something

Mustang_Ed

Joe,

Enjoyed your Mustang story. Thanks for your perspective and suggestions. As a new Mustang owner I appreciate your excellent post.

Phorty

I wish I was getting your gas mileage.

Cheese302

i'll tell you, i am amazed myself. i mean the highway driving the trick to that is to never go over 65, stay a little under. if not it'll drop to 24-25 range.

and city driving, sometimes it drops to 19-20, but for the most part if i lay off the fun button a little, it'll go up. i dont lay off as much now though since the car isn't a dialy driver anymore.

and update on that one, usually for me except since its winter right now with salt, but other than that the mustang i drive pretty much everywhere except i use the cavalier to go to and from work. and if i need to buy something that i need to fit more easily.

05fordgt

Hey Joe, great story, and a great write up. No worries dude, I won't take offense to the ducktail, stripes, and car show hater references.

Cheese302

all i am saying, is thats its not my thing. much more about cars that are in motion.

htwag

Whenever I see a Mustang, I get enthusiastic.

mrkabc

Did you get rid of that "Miller" sticker on your trunk?