Philostang

Spent yesterday at the show with the old man and my son. What a great time!

Anyway, I got to see the new 2010 Mustangs in person. Here's a few observations:

1. The rear is about as good as you want to make it. I wasn't a fan in the pics, I'm still not a fan. It isn't worse than I thought, and not much better, IMO. It just works. I will say, one thing that got my attention was how much narrower it makes the car look. This is NOT a good thing. The older Cobras were so killer looking precisely because they had that super wide look. I've got a few pics I'll post (although I still cannot figure out how to get them full size in the post ).



2. The GT500 is AWESOME! Even with the rear all skinny-looking, that is one fine looking car. The nose went from the previous "big-mouth bass" (I hated it) to "I'm-going-to-kill-you-right-here-right-now! SHARK." This is one mean looking Mustang. The Kona Blue is stunning. See pics.



3. On the whole, Ford has made a serious commitment to interior quality across their entire line of vehicles. The new Mustang's interior quality is significantly up, mainly in terms of the materials used. Every hard plastic piece in the first S197s has been pulled in favor of much nicer soft-touch plastics. I'm not a fan of the basic design of the dash (I prefer the previous version), but the materials throughout are fantastic.

4. On a non-Mustang related note, but sticking to the interior point, the big show-stealer was the new Taurus SHO. The SHO has had a loyal following, and those poor boys have been without for a long time. Ford paid back that loyalty in droves. The new SHO's interior flat out rocks! I'm still in awe just thinking about it. In fact, I wish they would do something very similar for the next gen Mustang. If you are in need of a real 4-door family sedan, you can keep 100% of your manhood intact in this thing. And going from the SHO to the Pontiac G8 is an embarrassment--I almost felt bad for the Pontiac crowd.

5. Still on that interior point, the new F-150s and F-250s interiors are just killer. The premier editions are like bad-*** dressed up action heroes (think Chuck Norris or Segal in a black leather coat w/dress boots). BAD! I'm telling you, Ford has had some kind of revelation and seen a light on their interiors.

6. The Camaro. You have to come to grips with it. The car is seriously well done, and should provide all the pressure Ford needs to up the Mustang's game. The SS is a fantastic bang-for-the buck, and its presence is amazing. Going from the SS to the Challenger is a joke, Dodge is way out of their league in such close back-to-back comparisons. They definitely haven't had the interior revelations of Ford and Chevy (at least on the Camaro SS). Even the SRT8 falls flat inside next to the Mustang and Camaro.

7. Also, Chevy had a Corvette Stingray concept car that was wicked fun! I think it's part of the upcoming Transformers movie.

Well there you go. If you're in the Chicago area, check it out. Doing the above and going from one car to another is both fun, as well as offering an unrivaled opportunity for comparison.

Best,
-j

speedstang06

thanks for the write up on it! I was planning on going on saturday with my dad, but the snow on friday night kept us from making the drive... Hopefully next year.

Doogie65

Glad to hear it was worth while as I am heading there on Friday and very excited about seeing the '10 Stangs a long with the Camaro.

drfister

On a related note, I went to the Toronto auto show and also got to see a '10 stang. Its different. The rear end isnt as bad as the photos make it seem. As the OP stated "it just works". However the faux gas-cap is reeealllyy tacky/ugly/bulging IMO. The front of the car is something else. I still dont know if I like it or not, it just looked 'weird' up close in person. The interiors are really nice too but I'm left wondering how one (if even possible) goes about replacing the radio head unit in something like tis with the one piece dash. A few pics below...





Also in unrelated news, while visiting some friends, I saw a red Camaro on the highway. Sorry no pics so feel free to call BS but it looked killer moving along on the highway (untill this point I found them to be ugly). It had owner plates on it but I was unaware that they were being sold. Hmmm. Cool none-the-less.

Cheers

Philostang

Ah! I forgot to mention what drfister pointed out - that dash is definitely NOT upgrade friendly. Unless that center panel can slide out on its own (which does not seem to be the case), you would have to remove the entire front dash. Alternatively, you would need to loosen the entire lower half enough to maybe slide the center console out. But even then, unless your center console came with the navigation screen, a standard head-unit isn't going to fit into the non-nav console. I've messed around with custom stereo installs, modifying hard plastic bezels to add or remove/cover openings, and my experience is telling me that this thing is going to need quite a bit of work. I smell a great opportunity for an aftermarket product to hit the public to ease stereo installs.

Here's a pic.


Best,
-j

oh, +1 on the fugly new rear badge...ish.

99RedStang

See, I disagree. I sat in a Camaro SS at the Detroit Auto Show and I think the interior is god-awful. It's a mess and not practical at all. But I will say, the car does look hot in certain colors. And I believe production for customer orders starts in mid-March.

drfister, how did the Grabber Blue look in person?

drfister

The grabber blue looked so nice. But maybe I am biased to blue mustangs... Not really, but the grabber blue is definatly one of my favourite colours for the new stangs.

laxplayer1028

here's that wide look you're talking about on the 03-04 cobras

Silver Vert 06

I agree about the camaro. I sat in a base model v6 camaro though, so Im not sure how the other models compare. The dash was terrible looking. I thought the center stack where the radio is was hideous and there seemed to be just as much hard plastic as my s197 stang. Another thing I didn't like on the exterior was the fake '69 style brake vents in fron of the rear tires. They aren't even cut out, the shape is just presssed into the body and it looks like GM cheaped out.

SirKnightTG

Wow you're right, the new GT500 DOES look like a shark from the front end.