Mustang Musings: Does a 5.0 Make for a Good First Car?
S197 GT owner answers a few questions about mods, joys and challenges of Mustang ownership.
A teenager’s first car is usually a blessing and a curse. It’s freedom on four wheels that opens up your world of possibilities. The catch is that it’s usually a battered hand-me-down with dents, faded paint, and an older sibling’s bumper stickers on it, an ugly means to a liberating end. Some young people are fortunate enough to get something cool for a first car, such as a newer Ford Mustang 5.0. But should they?
That’s one of the questions Youtuber Jacob R. Doty addresses in this video. He’s off to a nice start. At the age of 21, he has two cars: a Ford Focus ST and an S197 Mustang GT (and he’s insured to drive his mother’s Mustang). The Sacramento State student hosts a short tour of his sinister 5.0 before taking it for a drive to campus.
It’s immediately clear from its slammed stance that Doty’s car is modified. His blacked-out beast sits low on an air suspension and Mickey Thompson rubber. Stiffer bushings limit body roll and lower the chances of “that crazy meme action where everybody slides and fishtails.” The Coyote under the hood howls through a quad-tip dual-exhaust system. Inside, it has a digital auxiliary gauge pod, a cool aftermarket steering wheel with a center stripe at 12 o’clock, and yellow seat belts. Whatever he has under the hood, it causes him to lose traction in first, second, and third gear.
Once Doty gets moving, he starts answering questions from his subscribers. One of the biggest ones is whether or not a 5.0 makes a good first car. Of course, every young driver would love to have one right after they get their license, but there are a lot of things to consider. One of the most obvious is insurance, which involves a number of factors, including your driving record and zip code, and the type of car you’re insuring. The price of fully covering a 5.0 can be prohibitively high for some. Luckily, Doty has a 15-percent student discount and only pays $165 a month.
That’s not enough for him to recommend a 5.0 as a first car, though. He says, “Unless you have a background in racing or you’re just a high-performance driver in general, I would not suggest a five-oh. One, the insurance is going to be way too high. Two, the cost of the car, you may not be able to support that. And three, the actual class of this car, it wants to bite back, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re rough on the throttle.”
What does he suggest instead? A mild-mannered Camry or fuel-efficient Nissan Sentra? Nope. Doty thinks it’s important for would-be Mustang GT owners to get familiar with the dynamics of a rear-wheel-drive car. Doty says, “Buy a car like an E36 [BMW], a Miata, or something like that, a nice, balanced rear-wheel-drive car and learn from there.”
For those who already have a 5.0 and want to install an aftermarket exhaust system on it, Doty recommends a setup he can personally vouch for: the one on his car. His ‘Stang rocks a Corsa Sport system designed for 2013-2014 Mustang GT500s…and a cat-less off-road H-pipe. Judging from its big, bad-ass roar, we give it a thumbs-up, too.
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