Orion_240

Reread the original post.

He is asking for mpg performance that will only be available in a smaller car. The physical size of the Mustang will never allow great mpg.

jdmcbride

I am glad to see you off of the Corsa's. How do you like your boomtubes?

jdmcbride

Ford could take the current 4.6 and redesign it with direct injection and obtain greater fuel efficiency (it would also make more power). Check out what Cadillac did with their 3.6 litre V6 direct injection engine in a 3900 lb CTS car - 304 hp, 273 tq, 17 mpg city, 26 mpg hwy.

Cuzzo

Have to agree

torch red

Agreed,,If u want a 4 banger buy a Focus..

really hope Ford drops in a real motor in the GT for 2011

Norm Peterson

You realize that in today's frame of reference that you've just called out a basic design spec for a 21st century Pinto. Do it - and give it some other horse-related name that indicates "little horse" that avoids the Pinto's bad press - and you might have something.

But less than 200 HP will dilute the Mustang image too far and toss it into competition with cars that most people would not normally consider cross-shopping to (IOW, 4-cyl Japanese and Korean imports, 2.4L and smaller). I realize that a turbo motor is more widely acceptable today than back in the SVO's day, but when you say "smaller" I get bad visions of Mustang II's and Probes. Not that those were necessarily bad cars, just too far away from what a Mustang has always been.

225 HP and 3200 lbs would put it right where my wife's DD 2001 Maxima lives. Not a bad place, but anything that wants to call itself a Mustang should have at least that level of performance.

High-tech costs $. What cars are currently offered at prices in that range, and what sort of engine technologies do they use?

I don't think that special colors other than those associated with high performance have historically played very well. IMO, they grossly overestimate the volume of buyers willing to be that obviously different when it finally comes down to putting money where mouth is. A little research involving the "Playboy bunny" early Mustangs and the more recent "Warriors in Pink" campaigns is a starting point.


What would help the most might be to develop a small V6 with corporate-wide application. Nissan reaped huge benefits from their VQ engine series and did precisely that. There isn't much of anything that's really new, so if you're going to copy something, at least be bright enough to copy a successful 'something'.


Norm

83gtragtop

More non V8 Mustangs on the road then V8.

aynjell

Everyone already can afford one. They are the most cost effective vehicle on the market for performance driving. Oh, and if I recall they are also the most popular car ever (not trying to overstate it). Also, it's the only road you cannot NOT SEE on the road at any given time (the rule of mustang is at any given time, a 360 degree rotation of your field of view will reveal at least one mustang).