Go drive the Aston Martin and see if you change your mind. A quality SMG will outshift and outperform any conventional 5-6 speed manual. I'm not talking about a glorified automatic, but a true SMG.

 

No...I just would like to be able to have a few different choices when I buy my 3rd Cobra. I'm sure people who want the truck will get just that, I just wasnt too happy when I got my '01 Cobra, and there was the Lightning with bigger wheels/tires, more power, and nicer gauges.

 

For you cobra owners. How realiable are cobras?Like, 100k, 200k, etc.

 

[quote]Originally posted by wantan05@October 12, 2004, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVTJayC,October 12, 2004, 10:05 AM

All I am saying, is that I am told from someone rather connected (we are talking meets Hau Thai-Tang weekly), that it's a 5.4, S/C V8. He went as far as to give me HP numbers for both 40k mile and 100k mile reliability tests. He has seen, and driven it. He even told me whose facilities they are designing it at (and, it's not Ford's).


Could you find out, or do you already know, how reliable the engine will be after 100k? I don't want Ford to go, 'well it passed the 100k test but not the 110k, oh well let's sell it anyways'. Not saying Ford will do that just wanting to know how long it lasted in the reliability tests.

I could be wrong, but I believe the reliability tests are driven mainly by emission laws. Current standards allow a specific amount in deterioration in emmision performance over 100,000 miles. If you can't demonstrate your powertrain will continue to be clean enough over that distance, it doesn't get certified by the EPA.

That's part of the reason you see more and more cars with hardly any traditional "tune-ups" needed over 100,000 miles. Having such a maintanence requirement calls into question the car's emission performance if the work isn't done.

So, just because it passes a 100,000 emission test, doesn't mean it won't be reliable beyond that. The fact that modern engines can run that long and continue to be clean (despite wear) is a pretty impressive engineering feat.

 

There has been alot of talk about the engine and drivetrain for the next gen Cobra, what about styling? Personally, I'd love to see something along the lines of the concept for the next gen Cobra (sans the glass roof of course). Something tasteful and muscular without being ricey. I'd hate the see Ford come up with a killer engine/suspension combo only to make the same mistakes Steeda did to the GT...uggh