Today I went down to the Ford dealer here in Minot, North Dakota to give the new mustang a good look and here are my observations....
When you sit in the car, it dosen't feel big at all, and when I raise the steering column all the way up I was able to clearly see all of the gauges.. The 5-speed shifter felt very positive, no slop, and the shifter was a real improvement over the new edge cars. The seats are SUPER comfortable. The "aluminum" trim on the dash is silver colored plastic simply stuck on to the dash, looked kinda cheap, imho..... the red leather interior option is really nice, but the dark charcoal cloth was even nicer! Moving to the engine compartment, alot has changed!! As you know the air cleaner is on the opposite side now, and the dual throttle body is huge!!!! I'm sorry to see that the factory hasn't gone back to making the intake out of aluminum, still compositie plastic stuff.....the stock exhaust manifolds are just fine, they're basically a cast iron header, so no need to change, the exhaust is a true dual system with a real cross over system and the big plus is that they used MANDREL BENDS!!!! I also liked the fact that they put the muffler behind the axle....it gives you more ground clearance, and it would be easy to swap out the mufflers if you wanted too!! Disc brakes all the way around, and appear to be larger than the new edge cars as well. Both cars I looked at had the rear spoiler, it's a personal thing, I think it kinda screws up the retro look imho.....in pictures it looks like the rear end is really big, but in person it seemed okay.....out of the two cars they had, one was a redfire GT with the red leather, shaker 1000 stereo, etc, and the other was a legend lime V-6 with the black strip down the side, the automatic, and the plain black dashboard, etc. but the interior was dark charcoal black. The new dash looks better without the fake aluminum trim to me, but wouldn't mind buying the aluminum trim over the counter for the steering wheel and fitting it on myself.....the V6 package is really a nice setup....gone is the crappy pushrod 3.8 and now the jewel of a motor SOHC 4.0 v-6 from the Ranger pickup is in there. The packaging etc. of the V-6 really appealed to me personally, the valve covers on the v-8 look like they need to either be polished or painted, the finish on them looks like aluminum that's been sitting out in the weather for about 15 years (would personally paint them glossy silver or powdercoat). The GT engine is super nice, and with Ford motorsport planning to sell a whipple charger over the counter for them in the spring, only the most devoted SVT owner will feel the need to wait for the 5.4! Also the rearend on the GT in addition to having the new 3-link setup also has 3.55 gears and 31-spline axles( I know the automatic gears are different, but I don't know the ratio)
Compairing price the GT is basically 5 grand more than the V-6, but the v-6 dosen't come with the TREMEC transmission, the rearend setup, etc that the GT does!! It's really a shame that alot of people are passing on the v6 car, it's REALLY NICE!!!
I can also vouch for the legend lime paint....it has a pearl top coat over it that really looks sharp, not personally a fan of redfire, but it looks like a carry over from '04.....
Basically, if I end up buying one, I'd go with the V-6/automatic premium package and skip the faux aluminum interior kit, legend lime and dark charcoal interior, and get the rear spoiler deleted (no cost). It would be a perfect commuter car for me, as my baby, the blown GT ('01, zinc yellow) will continute to sit in a garage with a cover on, only to come out on nice days!!
Just my .02
joe
When you sit in the car, it dosen't feel big at all, and when I raise the steering column all the way up I was able to clearly see all of the gauges.. The 5-speed shifter felt very positive, no slop, and the shifter was a real improvement over the new edge cars. The seats are SUPER comfortable. The "aluminum" trim on the dash is silver colored plastic simply stuck on to the dash, looked kinda cheap, imho..... the red leather interior option is really nice, but the dark charcoal cloth was even nicer! Moving to the engine compartment, alot has changed!! As you know the air cleaner is on the opposite side now, and the dual throttle body is huge!!!! I'm sorry to see that the factory hasn't gone back to making the intake out of aluminum, still compositie plastic stuff.....the stock exhaust manifolds are just fine, they're basically a cast iron header, so no need to change, the exhaust is a true dual system with a real cross over system and the big plus is that they used MANDREL BENDS!!!! I also liked the fact that they put the muffler behind the axle....it gives you more ground clearance, and it would be easy to swap out the mufflers if you wanted too!! Disc brakes all the way around, and appear to be larger than the new edge cars as well. Both cars I looked at had the rear spoiler, it's a personal thing, I think it kinda screws up the retro look imho.....in pictures it looks like the rear end is really big, but in person it seemed okay.....out of the two cars they had, one was a redfire GT with the red leather, shaker 1000 stereo, etc, and the other was a legend lime V-6 with the black strip down the side, the automatic, and the plain black dashboard, etc. but the interior was dark charcoal black. The new dash looks better without the fake aluminum trim to me, but wouldn't mind buying the aluminum trim over the counter for the steering wheel and fitting it on myself.....the V6 package is really a nice setup....gone is the crappy pushrod 3.8 and now the jewel of a motor SOHC 4.0 v-6 from the Ranger pickup is in there. The packaging etc. of the V-6 really appealed to me personally, the valve covers on the v-8 look like they need to either be polished or painted, the finish on them looks like aluminum that's been sitting out in the weather for about 15 years (would personally paint them glossy silver or powdercoat). The GT engine is super nice, and with Ford motorsport planning to sell a whipple charger over the counter for them in the spring, only the most devoted SVT owner will feel the need to wait for the 5.4! Also the rearend on the GT in addition to having the new 3-link setup also has 3.55 gears and 31-spline axles( I know the automatic gears are different, but I don't know the ratio)
Compairing price the GT is basically 5 grand more than the V-6, but the v-6 dosen't come with the TREMEC transmission, the rearend setup, etc that the GT does!! It's really a shame that alot of people are passing on the v6 car, it's REALLY NICE!!!
I can also vouch for the legend lime paint....it has a pearl top coat over it that really looks sharp, not personally a fan of redfire, but it looks like a carry over from '04.....
Basically, if I end up buying one, I'd go with the V-6/automatic premium package and skip the faux aluminum interior kit, legend lime and dark charcoal interior, and get the rear spoiler deleted (no cost). It would be a perfect commuter car for me, as my baby, the blown GT ('01, zinc yellow) will continute to sit in a garage with a cover on, only to come out on nice days!!
Just my .02
joe
