You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
04-08-2005, 06:41 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location:
Posts: 15
You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
Just a quick message to all of you eagerly awaiting the delivery of you 05s. I ordered my silver GT back in February and just got it the day before yesterday. Don't get me wrong from the subject line, the car is awesome! The power is there in all gears and handling is tight. Suspension is better than I expected and ride quality is much smoother than I thought it would be. The reason for this post is that I was a little dissapointed by some things at first when I picked it up at the dealership. The interior upgrade package still leaves a little to be desired. I don't know if I was alone on this one, but I was under the impression that all of the silver colored components included in the package were metal, they're not. The only metal piece is the ribbed one running across most of the top half of the dash. The rest is plastic, and the piece on the automatic shifter has a big seam right across the top of it. Also, when I was checking out the wheels, there was a huge amount of overspray in the wheel wells. If you feel inside the fenders you will also find a curled up lip in which I can only imagine what kind of road crud that's going to get caught up in there. All in all I've gotten over these indiscretions after the first couple of miles of asphalt tearing and head turning, but I want to save any of you out there waiting the first twinge of dissapointment I had. I agree the car is a good value for what you get under the hood, but for nearly 30k I guess I expected a little more fit and finish.
04-09-2005, 06:47 PM
#4
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 303
RE: You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
ORIGINAL: First GT
Just a quick message to all of you eagerly awaiting the delivery of you 05s. I ordered my silver GT back in February and just got it the day before yesterday. Don't get me wrong from the subject line, the car is awesome! The power is there in all gears and handling is tight. Suspension is better than I expected and ride quality is much smoother than I thought it would be. The reason for this post is that I was a little dissapointed by some things at first when I picked it up at the dealership. The interior upgrade package still leaves a little to be desired. I don't know if I was alone on this one, but I was under the impression that all of the silver colored components included in the package were metal, they're not. The only metal piece is the ribbed one running across most of the top half of the dash. The rest is plastic, and the piece on the automatic shifter has a big seam right across the top of it. Also, when I was checking out the wheels, there was a huge amount of overspray in the wheel wells. If you feel inside the fenders you will also find a curled up lip in which I can only imagine what kind of road crud that's going to get caught up in there. All in all I've gotten over these indiscretions after the first couple of miles of asphalt tearing and head turning, but I want to save any of you out there waiting the first twinge of dissapointment I had. I agree the car is a good value for what you get under the hood, but for nearly 30k I guess I expected a little more fit and finish.
Just a quick message to all of you eagerly awaiting the delivery of you 05s. I ordered my silver GT back in February and just got it the day before yesterday. Don't get me wrong from the subject line, the car is awesome! The power is there in all gears and handling is tight. Suspension is better than I expected and ride quality is much smoother than I thought it would be. The reason for this post is that I was a little dissapointed by some things at first when I picked it up at the dealership. The interior upgrade package still leaves a little to be desired. I don't know if I was alone on this one, but I was under the impression that all of the silver colored components included in the package were metal, they're not. The only metal piece is the ribbed one running across most of the top half of the dash. The rest is plastic, and the piece on the automatic shifter has a big seam right across the top of it. Also, when I was checking out the wheels, there was a huge amount of overspray in the wheel wells. If you feel inside the fenders you will also find a curled up lip in which I can only imagine what kind of road crud that's going to get caught up in there. All in all I've gotten over these indiscretions after the first couple of miles of asphalt tearing and head turning, but I want to save any of you out there waiting the first twinge of dissapointment I had. I agree the car is a good value for what you get under the hood, but for nearly 30k I guess I expected a little more fit and finish.
04-09-2005, 07:08 PM
#6
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location:
Posts: 864
RE: You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
The first thing that sold me on the 05 Mustang was the styling, but I wasn't convinced until I checked out the mechanicals of the car. Rather than be worried about materials used for trim, placement of the cup holder, ect. I looked at things that were really important.
For example...
The 4.6 liter V8 has some very impressive features.
1) A true hemisperical combustion chamber with a centrally located spark plug (Ford just can't call it a "Hemi" because Chysler has that name)
This chamber shape along with the centered spark plug means perfect flame propagation for very efficient combustion. This is also why they can get away with 9.8 - 1 CR on regular gas!
2) The 4.6 also has a nodular iron crank, hyperutectic pistons with full floating pins.
3) The aluminium block is of the deep skirt design with cross bolted 4 bolt main caps and a windage tray. It also has cast iron sleeves for durability.
4) The bearing clearences are tighter than other engines with wider than "typical" bearing surfaces. This also reduces friction.
5) The differential in all GT models have an 8.8" ring gear diameter and traction lock (limited slip) as standard equipment. This is way more strength than a 3450 lb car with a 300 hp engine will ever need. Ford knows many of these cars will be modified and are supplying a differential that will take the extra power.
6) The brakes are also very impressive with 12.4" rotors with dual piston calipers up front and 11.8" rotors in the rear.
7) The exhaust system is made of 2 1/2" mandrel bent tubing. Those are big pipes for a realitivly small displacement engine. This is best stock exhaust system I have ever seen, on any car, domestic of foreign. In fact, it's good enough that many people are seeing little to no difference in power using aftermarket pipes.
The list of technical improvements in the 05 Mustang is impressive, paticularly for what the car cost.
If more people worried less about the material used to trim the dash, placement of the cup holder, ect. We might have some better performing cars out there.
I think Ford has done an excelent job this time and focused on what's really important.
For example...
The 4.6 liter V8 has some very impressive features.
1) A true hemisperical combustion chamber with a centrally located spark plug (Ford just can't call it a "Hemi" because Chysler has that name)
This chamber shape along with the centered spark plug means perfect flame propagation for very efficient combustion. This is also why they can get away with 9.8 - 1 CR on regular gas!
2) The 4.6 also has a nodular iron crank, hyperutectic pistons with full floating pins.
3) The aluminium block is of the deep skirt design with cross bolted 4 bolt main caps and a windage tray. It also has cast iron sleeves for durability.
4) The bearing clearences are tighter than other engines with wider than "typical" bearing surfaces. This also reduces friction.
5) The differential in all GT models have an 8.8" ring gear diameter and traction lock (limited slip) as standard equipment. This is way more strength than a 3450 lb car with a 300 hp engine will ever need. Ford knows many of these cars will be modified and are supplying a differential that will take the extra power.
6) The brakes are also very impressive with 12.4" rotors with dual piston calipers up front and 11.8" rotors in the rear.
7) The exhaust system is made of 2 1/2" mandrel bent tubing. Those are big pipes for a realitivly small displacement engine. This is best stock exhaust system I have ever seen, on any car, domestic of foreign. In fact, it's good enough that many people are seeing little to no difference in power using aftermarket pipes.
The list of technical improvements in the 05 Mustang is impressive, paticularly for what the car cost.
If more people worried less about the material used to trim the dash, placement of the cup holder, ect. We might have some better performing cars out there.
I think Ford has done an excelent job this time and focused on what's really important.
04-09-2005, 07:18 PM
#8
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location:
Posts: 181
RE: You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
ORIGINAL: 281GT
1) A true hemisperical combustion chamber with a centrally located spark plug (Ford just can't call it a "Hemi" because Chysler has that name)
This chamber shape along with the centered spark plug means perfect flame propagation for very efficient combustion. This is also why they can get away with 9.8 - 1 CR on regular gas!
1) A true hemisperical combustion chamber with a centrally located spark plug (Ford just can't call it a "Hemi" because Chysler has that name)
This chamber shape along with the centered spark plug means perfect flame propagation for very efficient combustion. This is also why they can get away with 9.8 - 1 CR on regular gas!
http://popularhotrodding.com/feature...stang_12_s.jpg
not even close.
04-09-2005, 07:34 PM
#9
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location:
Posts: 864
RE: You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
I stand corrected. I used a poor choice of words. After a closer look I can see the chamber isn't like a hemi. The only real similarities are the centrally located spark plug and that the valves are canted like a hemi which is certainly an improvement over the old Ford small block's inline valve setup but you are correct, this is not a true hemi. Thank you for correcting me on that. That's what I like about this forum. You can make a mistake and not get totally crushed for it.
04-11-2005, 12:06 PM
#10
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location:
Posts: 15
RE: You Get What You Pay For, Or Not?
That's crazy! If you're going to spend 30k on a car and don't care about anything but what's under the hood then go buy a motorcycle for half the price. You can have better 1/4 times and there's no interior to worry about at all.