hatsharpener

12/18/2004
My thoughts on the 2005 Mustang GT

I had the opportunity to drive a brand new 2005 Mustang GT. I was it's first driver .

Looks
The car looks great just sitting there. I think the stance of the GT is great. It does need the spoiler-delete option though. The car doesn't carry the same proportions as the SN-95s. The doors look a lot smaller and the car looks a lot more beefy. I hope it does considering it's bigger in every dimension. The tires have a huge amount of sidewall. I am surprised that the car comes with 235/55's. I suppose that is to allow for the optional 18" wheels in 06 which will have a smaller sidewall.

Feel
The car has a great feel to it when you open the door and sit down. The car I was in had the IUP. The seats felt great. They are much improved over the standard GT seats, although, I think I would still take my 01 seats over the GTs. The door didn't feel like it weighed a ton to close and shut with the just the slightest amount of effort.

There is a whole lot more head room in the car. I sit straight up in the car and I didn't even come close to hitting my head on the roof -- I do that in the 01 quite a bit.

The shifter is in an excellent place. It sits nice and low on the console, however, the throw is still much too long. An aftermarket shifter is in order for this car. More on this issue later. The e-brake looks funky but it works

All the gauges and buttons are in the exact spot you would expect them to be in a mustang. I do miss the pull out light **** though. I grabbed for the light switch and tried to pull it out. Whoops.

The gauges are all easily visible with the tach and speedo clearly visible.

Visibility
The visibility in this car is much less than the SN-95's, however, the mirrors do an excellent job at covering the blind spots in the car. It is hard to look over your left shoulder and see behind you in the car. You are better off using your mirror. The hood seems to extend further in front of you than the SN-95's. At first it felt like I was sitting behind the wheel of a Vette.

Startup
The car started up smoothly. The tach jumped to two grand before finally settling down to idle and all the dummy gauges proceeded to take their proper place. I flipped the lights on and headed for the gas station. The dash lights came on blue. I didn't feel like trying to learn how to change them, so I left them as is. The dummy gauges are worthless. If the computer can see the real numbers; I should be able to too!

Steering, Brakes, and Clutch
The steering response has more feel than the SN-95's, but it still felt a bit vague. Excellent improvement though. The brake pedal had a very mushy feel. The brakes did stop the car well, however, the pedal response was not nearly communicative as it is in the 01. The car doesn't dive forward nearly as much as the SN-95's under hard braking. A definate plus! The clutch was very mushy as well. The clutch also had way too much travel. The overall feel was much lighter than any SN-95, but again, was not nearly as communicative. This is not a plus.

Handling
The car has a very stiff ride. Ford has really done a good job at finally giving the mustang chasis some much needed strength. It makes SN-95's feel like mush. The car handled well in the corners and in a straight line. The rear end was very predictable with the live axle. That being said, it was still a live axle. The IRS in my 01 has spoiled me. That reason alone is enough for me not to consider the 05 I suppose that means I'll have to wait for the Cobra.

Power
The power of the 05 surprised me. It felt a lot like my 98 did. The 05 did feel like it fell on it's face near redline while the 98 would pull all the way to it's 7,000 rpm redline. The two are equally smooth as far as power output goes. In a race between the two, I would have to say the 98 would be faster only because of it's seemingly longer power band.

This car is also screaming for 4.30 gears. I think 4.56s would be too much for this car unless it was only seeing track duty.

Exhaust
I am going to have to be the oddball here and say that I did not like the stock exhaust in person. There was nothing distinct about the stock exhaust sound. The tone was much too bland.

NVH
This car made non of the usual mustang squeaks or rattles which was nice. The cabin was free from wind noise up to 80 mph. The tires and the transmission loved to talk to me though. The tires would sing from about 40-75 mph. This surprised me a bit as I would expcet more quiet tires on a production car. I can understand non-OEM performance tires wanting to sing a bit, but there was a lot of noise from these tires. That being said though, I'm used to tire noise so it didn't bother me at all. The transmission would sing between 1,400-2,500 RPM. The transmission noise I expected since they are still using the TR-3650 in the new Mustangs and that is what that tranny does. The shifter felt much more smooth than my 01 ever did with the stock shifter. There were no issues with getting the car into or out of any gear. All the gates seemed a lot more positive than my 01, although that's not too surprising since I received one of the early run TR-3650s. If you do not like the noise that the current transmission makes, DO NOT get an aftermarket shifter!

The ride quality was good. It was what I expected from a live axle car. It felt just like my 98, only much more solid!

Conclusion
This is a solid car. Ford did really well when putting this car together. It's not perfect, but there is no car that is perfect. For $25,000, you can not purchase a better quality automobile! An IRS would have been nice though. I would also like to still see real gauges.

Anecdotes
At the gas station, everone looked at the car. Also, over half the people who looked at the car also had to do a burn-out as they left the station. Silly people.

Mods
Gears first!
SFCs second; one can never be too stiff!
Exhaust third even though I didn't care for the stock exhaust; it is livable for a little while.

Cliff Notes (all categories out of 5)
Looks: 6 (not a type-o :P)
Feel: 5
Visibility: 3
Startup: 4
Steering: 5
Brakes: 3
Clutch: 2
Handling: 4
Power: 5
Exhaust: 2
NVH: 4
Conclusions: 4 (gimme an IRS and real gauges)

If you have any other questions about how I think this car compares to an SN-95, let me know!


~Hat

Altoid

Nice breakdown, although I obviously don't share the same opinion with some things. You are most definitely entitled to your opinion.

SurfnSoCal

well written. Thanks Hats.
couple of thoughts...

1. I am surprised you said the clutch was long. Is it longer than the SN-95? GT's Clutch? Cobras?

2. Brakes not stopping the car? Didn't the 05 have an excellent skid pad test?

3. And you said NOT to get an aftermarket for noise reasons. I have an 01 v6 convertible right now. I replaced the shifter with a steeda tri-ax. In the last 20k miles, it has become VERY noisy and VERY hard to shift in and out of gear. Would you say the STOCK 05 shifter is as loud as the aftermarket...or not?

4. How tall are you? I am fairly short for a guy (5'7", still growing though). Did height play a role in being able to see?

hatsharpener

1. The actual throw of the clutch is no longer than the SN-95's. It just happens to engage and disengage at the very bottom of the throw. On both my 98 and 01, it would engage and disengage within about 1.5" of the top. Not a big problem at all; it just took a few shifts to get used to it.

2. No, the brakes did an excellent job at stopping the car. The pedal just felt mushy and didn't communicate as well as it did/does on either my 98 or 01.

3. Well, if it's getting hard to shift in and out of gears, then I would say you might need to change your tranny fluid or get your clutch cable adjusted . You also have a different transmission with the v6, so I don't know if I can give you an accurate answer. The stock shifter for the 05 was louder than the stock shifter on either my 01, but not as loud as the 01 with the Tri-Ax. If you listen to the radio, you probably won't hear it. I usually don't so I have a tendency to hear most of the noises.

4. I am only 5'9", but as I said, I sit up straight in the seat, leaving only about 12" between me and the wheel. No height did not play a factor in visibility. It was probably more seat position. If I looked out my left hand side, all I saw was the pillar. Visibility infront and behind me was great, just not out the sides. Some of this may also be due to the fact that I am used to the drop tops .

BullittMustang50

Very Nice Review..by hat! 2 Thums up Liked how you broke it all down. From the Pros and Cons view. Also thats a very nice car .....

BEACHBOY

Nice reveiw Hat., You seem to have come to some good opinions based on your comparisons between the 05 and your 01 Cobra, I respect that. This forum is fun to read and respond to, I love it.
Did you weigh any of your conclusions since you are comparing a general production GT to a SE Cobra.

To me the 2005 Mustang GT is awsome, my heart races everytime I get behind the wheel, but all I have to compare this car to personally is my last Mustang a 1987 GT. Ever since then all I have driven were SUVs and trucks. I love this car

97svtgoin05gt

This is my seventh Mustang. I had 2 foxs and 2 SN-95s. I couldn't disagree with you more on most points.

I guess that's why there's so many people out there, all with their own opinions.

BEACHBOY

Thats what is good about this forum, many different opinions make for good reading even if we don't all agree. Man that would be boring if we all agreed on every point, that would also be very weird

Giddyup

Nice review HatMan, I enjoyed reading it. B) I am hard to please with automobiles, but this Mustang GT hits on all cylinders with me and makes me do this everytime I turn the key.

hatsharpener

The reason the comparisons were made between two cobras (98 and 01) is because that is what I have owned. I have had a cobra since 98 (that's when I got the 98, duh :P).

Did I weigh the numbers since the GT is a GT and the cobra is an SE, no. I just rated it as it compares to what I've driven from the mustang stable. IMO, the cobra is nothing more than a v6 mustang with a bigger engine shoe-horned in to the front of the car. In the case of the 01, an IRS is duct-taped onto the rear end too. That is how I look at the GTs too; they just need a slightly smaller shoe-horn and no duct-tape!

As mentioned in earlier posts, it's just a review; my personal opinion on what I felt from the car. Not everyone is going to feel that way. I just felt like sharing my thoughts and it is nice to see that people are willing to accept my review, even if they don't like it

After all is said and done, if I didn't already have the 01, I'd get an 05

sadsquared2

The new stang doesn't need spoiler delete.... the spoiler makes the stang look 10x better IMO.

Sonic 05

Thanks for the review I dont agree on all your points but how boring would life be if we all agreed on everything B) By the way are you a porter at a dealership???


Paul

jgsmuzzy

I agree

Nice review Hat, good of you to take the time to get all that down on "paper"

BEACHBOY

Hat, we are on the same page in our opinions. You compare the 05 to 98 & 01 Cobra, I am comparing to an 87 GT. We both are taking our past/present experiences respectively and using that to make a personal observation to the 05 Mustang GT. I respect your comparison sir, have a Merry Christmas and that goes for everyone.
I wish you all a healthy and happy new year.

The Boss Hog

~Hat,
Interesting comparison. Thanks for taking the time to do it. My previous Mustang was a '79 back in 1979 so I can't really compare the two. My only real disagreement with you is concerning the IRS and your first mod. I have owned two IRS cars ('76 Vette and '90 T-Bird SC) and the Vette would break the left outboard U-Joint on a regular basis during a 1st to 2nd power shift :angry: . As for changing gears, it would work better with the auto than the manual. For the manual, with its 3.38 low gear, going to a 4.30 rearend would make low gear virtually unsable on the street.

The Boss Hog
(Like you, that's just my opinion . . . . . . . )

Montrose

"The dummy gauges are worthless. If the computer can see the real numbers; I should be able to too!"

Are you saying the four small gauges are not real gauges, just idiot lights in disguise? I thought they were real gauges, that actually measured in gradations what they were supposed to measure - i.e. oil pressure? That stinks!

:angry: :angry: :angry:

hatsharpener

No, I am not. I have no affiliation with any dealerships.

I run 4.56s in my 01 and I love them; the 01 has the exact same tranny. It was even a daily driver for a long time with the gears. She now only sees weekend duty. First gear is still completely usable on the street. I have no traction issues either. The problem I see is that a lot of people fear the gear with the modular engines. They love to rev! Let them rev! Instead of being able to redline at 40mph in first gear, you now readline at 30mph. No big deal. I don't see how that is not still usable. If I have no issues with the IRS and 4.56s, I don't see how the live axle will have troubles with 4.30s. But this is a topic for a different thread .

Not once in my driving did I see any of the gauges move. That leads me to believe that they dummy gauges, just like in the SN-95s. On the SN-95s, they read "normal" oil pressure if there is more than 6 psi of pressure. If you only have 6psi, you've got problems though A real oil pressure gauge will vary as your rpms vary. *edit* Also, the temperature gauge will slowly increase, however, it will not give you an accruate temperature -- it will just read normal once it is in the normal range of operation. You won't know you have started to overheat until it is too late

I think that answered all questions.

<Still waiting for the IRS **** to chime in...>