I was talking to a fellow Mustang owner they other day, and he claims Mustangs are meant to be driven hard on a regular basis. "You see, the way you ruin these cars is by driving around town at 2k rpm." Let's just say that his MPG usually reads around 12-13 to get an idea of how he drives. And he claims to have had no problems with his 05' stang after 24,000 miles.

Fact or Fiction?

 

I just turned 18k miles. My avg MPG for '06 was 17.35 in 7,706 miles. I think the way the GT revs and feels, that Ford designed it to be used. But, to be sure, I use Redline 5w-20 and 8 ounces of Tufoil at each 5k oil change. I have better than 300k miles of experince with that combo, and believe in them totally. I always drive it slow and cool until it is at operating temp, and never abuse the car with STUPID stuff.

 

Did they design it to be regularly used above 5k rpm tho? hehe..... cuz if so....................

 

I dunno about that guy but i know i drive my car at least once a day real hard.... usually after work hitting boost

 

Oh I stomp on it too about once a day, but this guy was talkin like every time he drove....

 

I drive it hard every day, and when I say hard I mean 4k rpm shiftpoints are the norm during "daily driving" and when usually punch it which is 6.5k rpm all thru 3rd gear which happens around 4-5x a day. Not a problem yet. 2005 36,630 miles and not a hicup.

Andrew

 

The mustang is one of Ford's mainstay products. They sell tons of them, to all sorts of different people. I would bet that the Mustang is designed to be driven by the average customer. That's not to say that you can't drive it hard--I do, and I have no problems either. But I don't think it's valid to say "you must drive it hard if you want it to last". For an all-out "race" car likeFerrari, maybe. But for a very common car with a broad market of "regular people"...that makes no sense.

 

I'm with Crazyal on this, that just sounds dumb to say your ruining your engine if you take it easy. Most people dont drive like maniacs and Ford isnt going to sell a car that forces them to. I get 20.8 mpg and drive with RPM's around 2k on my 30 mile commute to work in the morning. Now on the way home its a different story. I leave work a few minutes early to avoid rush hour and and drive the snot out of it on the way home. I drove my last mustang like that for close to 7 years (125k miles) and never had one problem.

 

I don't think you should beat any car. Just use common sense and have fun with it.

 

+2 - Perhaps he meant 'not taking advantage' instead of 'ruining'. The Spanish Oak Processers do have an 'adaptive learning curve' and the car will adjust to your driving style. If you regularly drive it very easy and unitilize low shift points, the computer will compensate for that for the best effeceincy through timing, a/f, ect, etc. The result is your car could have lower performance when you stomp on it than others.

That's another great reason to have 2 tunes - a street and race. That way, the race tune is only being used when it is driven hard and keeps the aggresive tune sharp.