As some of you knew, I owned a Oxford White 2016 Mustang GT base w/PP. I purchased the car back in 2016 not really knowing if I'd like owning a RWD car or not after owning many Subarus. Well it didn't take long for me to fall in love with the body lines of the S550 and how easily they could be modded to look like a completely evil, destroying car. My one regret was not purchasing a premium however. At the time of my purchase I looked at a premium and tested it but purchased the base not knowing all the things that would be missing as Ford has some funny ways of optioning their cars.
I still grew to love the car and it did not matter where I went, I was always getting compliments on how it looked. As far as performance the only thing I did was a PMAS intake and a Lund e85 flextune. Mostly everything else was cosmetic. My best run with slicks was a 12.4. But I'd usually screw up 2 or 3 runs because I'd get locked out of 3rd.
After the 2018 Mustang GT started hitting the blogs, etc I was not personally a fan of the front end. In February I went and test drove a 401a standard GT in the Lightning Blue with the A10. That to me was the biggest change that made me curious. Took it for a test drive and while I found it interesting I wasn't sold on it. Plus I still had a problem with the front end.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted to purchase one because, well, I just wanted something new, a reset. Plus I really wanted an auto for track, drag, and cruising. I was set on finding an Oxford white, A10 premium with the 401a package. I found one place within 100 mile radius that had the exact package. They were advertising the car for 35k which I felt was an OK price. The only issue is, once I sent them pictures of my car they appraised it visually for 23k. I already gotten it appraised by 2 other dealerships prior and they both offered me 25k which I was OK with. My car was base, and it had 31k miles on it.
Later that night I found a dealership that had a white, 401a, a10, PP with redline interior listed for 32k. I knew there was no damn way that was correct but figured I'd go ahead and try anyways. The following morning the salesman got to me and I had him check for the car. He swore up and down that it wasn't on the lot but I think he actually knew they had priced it wrong. I told him what I was looking for and spent the first half of the morning emailing and calling back to try and find me something. I told him I was not driving anywhere until he could confidently say he will be able to sell me a car. Well he said that another dealership had a OW 401a A10 on their lot and would pick it up for me. So I went in then he did the old bait n switch. Said the car was actually already sold and waiting for pickup.
We tried looking for more but the 401a is a hard package to find with the A10, everyone wants the digital cluster. After realizing I won't find the configuration I wanted without ordering (i will never order a car) he asked if I was set on white. After I decided the only reason I wanted white was to be a low key purchase because to a lot of people they wouldn't even have noticed the difference, I was like **** it.
He told me he had a car on the lot that didn't have the 401a package but it was a premium with the A10 in a blue. I was like "Kona Blue?", walked out and it was! I always had remembered LOVING Kona Blue on the S197 cars. Walked over to it and noticed it was also a performance package which I was not expecting to look at because I knew the MSRP was well above what I wanted to pay. I still decided to take it for a test drive and fell in love. It felt completely different from the one I had tested a few months prior. Once we got back to the lot, I knew I would regret buying anything else at that point. The only thing it didn't have that I wanted was the digital dash but as I was driving I was trying to figure out why I even wanted one as I'm not spending a lot of time looking at the dash. I told him if he can get the price started on a right path we will talk.
He went to go talk to the sales manager. While he was away I went back onto cars.com to see what else was on their inventory and noticed that the car I just test drove was listed at 39998 internet price. When he came back he started at 41k with rebates and I told him, hold up, car is listed cheaper than that online. Then he did the whole back and forth to the sales manager. He said that he will do the internet price which reflected the rebate. I told him to try better. The sales manager came out and we talked and he offered me 39 flat. I told him try harder. Well after all said and done I got them to give it to me for 38500. This was almost a 48,000 MSRP car. The rest was history. Here is the option package I got.
I was a little worried I would regret not have the M6 for the curves but I will say as of now, I do not. The A10 performs great in track mode/D and hits the downshifts correctly on turns, stays in the RPMS and seems to shift hard. In S mode with paddles I enjoyed it even more. I couldn't tell how it wasn't much different than the M6 experience other than I was able to keep both hands on the wheel. The gear will stay in redline until you shift. I still can't explain why this car seems SO much faster than my other one but it does. When I punch it, it scares me still. It just feels like there is nothing stopping it from moving and I can get in trouble with it real quick.
I did a drag mode pull from a stoplight yesterday and just laughed at how ignorantly I left the cars behind me.
So yes, the car lives up to the hype. I actually love the styling of the front and rear now. It just makes more sense to me. I think having the PP front chin helps the aggressiveness over the standard which is why I didn't warm up to the others I had saw. The rear diffuser and quads give it that performance car look in addition to the sloped front end. The 03/04 Cobra style vents/hood with the new lines look great. I will say the car looks more like a sports car now and less like an American muscle car, even though the GT has never been a muscle car.
The interior is such a nice treat to have over my previous base car and the seats are super comfortable. Having the smart and safe package/memory seats is really nice and mostly having the ambient my color just allows you to make the car yours. There are just a lot of things aftermarket can not do for the base trim and installing OEM stuff becomes a very expensive or intensive process.
Anyways, I just figured I would share my story even though its TL;DR. As of right now I'm actually very happy with how it sits even on the stock PP suspension. Only mode I have done was 35% tint. I am in love with the shifts of Kona and how it reacts to different lighting for pictures.
Here is my first time giving it some gas. After I cut the video I was using all sorts of words for excitement. This was a pull in Sport+ in Sport mode using paddles.
These were some videos from Monday. I took the day off and drove up to some of the local mountains.
View attachment 1486486
I still grew to love the car and it did not matter where I went, I was always getting compliments on how it looked. As far as performance the only thing I did was a PMAS intake and a Lund e85 flextune. Mostly everything else was cosmetic. My best run with slicks was a 12.4. But I'd usually screw up 2 or 3 runs because I'd get locked out of 3rd.
After the 2018 Mustang GT started hitting the blogs, etc I was not personally a fan of the front end. In February I went and test drove a 401a standard GT in the Lightning Blue with the A10. That to me was the biggest change that made me curious. Took it for a test drive and while I found it interesting I wasn't sold on it. Plus I still had a problem with the front end.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted to purchase one because, well, I just wanted something new, a reset. Plus I really wanted an auto for track, drag, and cruising. I was set on finding an Oxford white, A10 premium with the 401a package. I found one place within 100 mile radius that had the exact package. They were advertising the car for 35k which I felt was an OK price. The only issue is, once I sent them pictures of my car they appraised it visually for 23k. I already gotten it appraised by 2 other dealerships prior and they both offered me 25k which I was OK with. My car was base, and it had 31k miles on it.
Later that night I found a dealership that had a white, 401a, a10, PP with redline interior listed for 32k. I knew there was no damn way that was correct but figured I'd go ahead and try anyways. The following morning the salesman got to me and I had him check for the car. He swore up and down that it wasn't on the lot but I think he actually knew they had priced it wrong. I told him what I was looking for and spent the first half of the morning emailing and calling back to try and find me something. I told him I was not driving anywhere until he could confidently say he will be able to sell me a car. Well he said that another dealership had a OW 401a A10 on their lot and would pick it up for me. So I went in then he did the old bait n switch. Said the car was actually already sold and waiting for pickup.
We tried looking for more but the 401a is a hard package to find with the A10, everyone wants the digital cluster. After realizing I won't find the configuration I wanted without ordering (i will never order a car) he asked if I was set on white. After I decided the only reason I wanted white was to be a low key purchase because to a lot of people they wouldn't even have noticed the difference, I was like **** it.
He told me he had a car on the lot that didn't have the 401a package but it was a premium with the A10 in a blue. I was like "Kona Blue?", walked out and it was! I always had remembered LOVING Kona Blue on the S197 cars. Walked over to it and noticed it was also a performance package which I was not expecting to look at because I knew the MSRP was well above what I wanted to pay. I still decided to take it for a test drive and fell in love. It felt completely different from the one I had tested a few months prior. Once we got back to the lot, I knew I would regret buying anything else at that point. The only thing it didn't have that I wanted was the digital dash but as I was driving I was trying to figure out why I even wanted one as I'm not spending a lot of time looking at the dash. I told him if he can get the price started on a right path we will talk.
He went to go talk to the sales manager. While he was away I went back onto cars.com to see what else was on their inventory and noticed that the car I just test drove was listed at 39998 internet price. When he came back he started at 41k with rebates and I told him, hold up, car is listed cheaper than that online. Then he did the whole back and forth to the sales manager. He said that he will do the internet price which reflected the rebate. I told him to try better. The sales manager came out and we talked and he offered me 39 flat. I told him try harder. Well after all said and done I got them to give it to me for 38500. This was almost a 48,000 MSRP car. The rest was history. Here is the option package I got.
I was a little worried I would regret not have the M6 for the curves but I will say as of now, I do not. The A10 performs great in track mode/D and hits the downshifts correctly on turns, stays in the RPMS and seems to shift hard. In S mode with paddles I enjoyed it even more. I couldn't tell how it wasn't much different than the M6 experience other than I was able to keep both hands on the wheel. The gear will stay in redline until you shift. I still can't explain why this car seems SO much faster than my other one but it does. When I punch it, it scares me still. It just feels like there is nothing stopping it from moving and I can get in trouble with it real quick.
I did a drag mode pull from a stoplight yesterday and just laughed at how ignorantly I left the cars behind me.
So yes, the car lives up to the hype. I actually love the styling of the front and rear now. It just makes more sense to me. I think having the PP front chin helps the aggressiveness over the standard which is why I didn't warm up to the others I had saw. The rear diffuser and quads give it that performance car look in addition to the sloped front end. The 03/04 Cobra style vents/hood with the new lines look great. I will say the car looks more like a sports car now and less like an American muscle car, even though the GT has never been a muscle car.
The interior is such a nice treat to have over my previous base car and the seats are super comfortable. Having the smart and safe package/memory seats is really nice and mostly having the ambient my color just allows you to make the car yours. There are just a lot of things aftermarket can not do for the base trim and installing OEM stuff becomes a very expensive or intensive process.
Anyways, I just figured I would share my story even though its TL;DR. As of right now I'm actually very happy with how it sits even on the stock PP suspension. Only mode I have done was 35% tint. I am in love with the shifts of Kona and how it reacts to different lighting for pictures.
Here is my first time giving it some gas. After I cut the video I was using all sorts of words for excitement. This was a pull in Sport+ in Sport mode using paddles.
These were some videos from Monday. I took the day off and drove up to some of the local mountains.
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