Hollywood_North GT

Entertaining read from one of the world's most entertaining automotive journalists. Of course, being Clarkson, he trashes it because it's North American-made, yet at the end confesses a sneaking admiration for it...despite all the "rubbish" in the car.

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0...1794313,00.html

red454

I have to laugh when I read car reviews like that - they take a car and thrash it, and then complain that it does not hold up.

Was the Mustang designed to run at Laguna Seca? Who encounters those driving conditions normally? Let's drive it off a cliff and see what happens... (then complain about it)

That is why exotic European car don't impress me. Joe Average doesn't have $120K to drop on one. (plus insurance!)

Now let's add $35K of performance and handling goodies to the Mustang and take it to Laguna. Oh, wait - now I have a car that few can afford.

It all comes down to two things: Classic styling and Bang-For-The Buck. In the $25 to $30K range, there really is not much competition.

(And as BC_Shelby mentioned above - I think Clarkson did like the car - but he had to bash it for his buddies back home)

Louie

"The Mustang, then, is a great car in America. But here you’re better off with a Golf."

I don't think he liked it too much...

On the other hand, this is a typical Clarkson review of an American car: too big, too thirsty, too clumsy, etc.
If you watched the video where they tested it on TopGear, you'll see that at the end, the Mustang GT ends up in the "cool" section of their Cool Wall. And that for me, says it all.

P.S.: remember though, this guy chose to buy the Ford GT supercar over countless other European competitors, despite saying that "the American way means they’ll never be able to build a sports car".

adrenalin

Yes, that would be considered typical for Clarkson, but I do agree with him on some points. The biggest issue, well, how in the world can you honestly compare an F-150 to a Ferrari :scratch:

X13

So he admits that he nearly exposed that he's full of it.

Louie

I too agree with him on a couple of points (especially the brakes, which are awful for this car) and with you on the startling comparison between a Ferrari and the F-150 (one would expect more common sense from Clarkson).

I took the time to read some of his other reviews, namely for the Mustang's direct competitors on the European market. The conclusions:

BMW 645Ci: "good to drive, but unsure of its purpose and personality"; score 3/5
Nissan 350Z: "more snoar than roar"; score 2/5

Other cars like the Aston Martin DB9 and the Porsche 911 got perfect scores and great reviews, but let's not make the same mistake and compare the Mustang with cars which cost 3 to 4 times as much.

P.S.: even the 350Z is as expensive as the Mustang GT over here, and the 645Ci... not below $120k !

Hollywood_North GT

Well, to be fair, he hates the Nissan 350Z too - "A Datsun with a Renault engine," I believe he called it.

Doesn't seem to be too fond of the new BMW 330i either.

I think all he likes is Ferrari's, Astons and certain "select" European vehicles.

I can't wait till TOP GEAR get their hands on the new Shelby - and the Stig drives it. That ought to be entertaining. We'll see who soils themselves then.

Rondosa

Ya, but have you read his article on how he gave it back - i guess Roush does all the service on the GT overseas (UK) and apparently the alarms on the cars are such a nightmare, he got so fed up that gave it back.

Boomer

Just a note it wasn't the Ford Alarm...it was the manditory alarm that has to be installed in order to be insured...

wjones14

Heh, that's a really funny write-up, even though I was lost on some of the British humor. He made a lot of good points, except I'm not so sure that a Golf GTI would be more competent than a Mustang GT around Laguna Seca. :scratch:

In the end though, despite bashing nearly component of the car, he said he had fleeting thoughts of buying one because it was so fun. And he admitted that nothing else really matters besides liking the car, so in that sense, it's actually a positive review.

This review was a lot more fair than the idiotic review recently in Forbes.

jdruid

I am soooooo sick and tired of these "european" car lovers when they compare a mustang 4.6 to a BMW engine.

"Well, you get 300bhp, which is about 200bhp less than BMW gets from a similarly sized engine." Yeah but he does not tell you that the Bimmer is in a M5 which is what...like $80,000!!!!

C'mon...get real.

jgsmuzzy

also, as an aside, the Top gear magazine 2006 calendar has a Yellow 05 GT as it's picture spread for November.......

rhumb

Interesting read, once he gets to talking about the car itself. He does make some good and valid points about the good and not so good points about the Stang. But he does like it in the end and that, and for not a lot of money, really is the Stang's strong suite, even if it does suffer from being designed to a low price point in various areas.

GhostTX

Why? They'll bag on it like they did with the C6, even though it beat ALOT of Euro-cars on the track (and it really wasn't a fair test 'cause the track was wet. <_<)

Top Gear has been, is and always will be Euro-elitist on cars. That, and somehow they always figure $30K American Sports cars are directly compared to $200K Super cars.

I'm curious, if one were to tweak the Mustang motor to get the same torque as the BMW, what would its horsepower rating be?

ex-Galaxie500

Its all relative. If he test drove Honda Civics for a living, the Mustang would be amazing. This guy drives Ferrari's, BMW's and the like. Of course the Mustang isn't going to be up to par with those things.

Strickland

Its rather silly comparing a Mustang to a BMW, they're not the same style/type/catagory of car.

As for the numbers on the M5(which is what I'm guessing he's compairing it to): 5.0 Liter V-10 putting out 500hp and 383lb-ft of torque. It starts at $81,895... which you could by 2 Stang GTs with a good bit of cash to mod them both.

Vermillion98

Jeremy Clarkson doesn't like any American cars period. I've never seen him say anything good about an American car. It seems like most Americans just laugh it off as "oh, its his British humor". But he just hates American cars. I love this:Guess what... the Mustang wasn't built to European standards. It's built for Americans. Does Europe have anything that can match it's performance at an equivalent price?

Adam8g

Many thanks for the link.
It’s a pleasure to read Proper English.

364

A Punting Gun? OK, he's an Englishman so naturally his sense of humor is slightly insulting to those of us that love this car, but I have to agree with him at least on the brakes.

freyke

Euro-trash!