Luckily, this newer generation (I guess I get to say that now at 28) doesn't really care about high horsepower domestics anymore. I don't think there's going to be a ton of angry football players driving around in 2011 GT's. I think it'll still be the same Civics and so on keeping Darwin employed.

 

This really isn't anything new. You can get cars with much more HP than 400 HP for less price... they just aren't new cars. It won't be any different than it is right now.

 

Who cares. Let the weak meet the guard rails at high speed.

If it's a kid and their parents paid for the car then oh well.

 

In all my years working collisions I've seen more fatal and serious injury collisions in trucks and family vehicles than sports cars. You learn in the accident investigation schools that power isn't the killer, it all boils down to kinetic energy. How much the car weighs coupled with how fast it is going at the time gives you an incredible amount of kinetic energy which has to be dissipated when things go wrong.

If anything I think sports cars are slightly safer than any other high powered vehicle in the hands of an inexperienced driver because they offer that slight edge in handling when things do go wrong.

In any case I think the only true comfort you can have on the road is being a very defensive driver and always being on the look out for that knuckle head who is only out running the grim reaper by a few seconds.

 

If they really, and I mean REALLY teach people how to drive in the first place, it would be a big help.
As it is, it's a real joke about how you get your License in this Country.
Also staying OFF the f****** cell phone and using the turn signal once in a while, would improve things greatly.

 

+1, pascal. And the cell phone use really strikes a chord with me. Today's vehicles and all the electronics available are an incredible distraction. And many "youngins" today think that texting while checking your GPS and finding that song on their iPod is more important than watching the road. I shudder every time I pass someone or someone passes me and I can SEE that their eyes are on some electronics and not the road.

 

Yes it is way too easy. The test to get my license was to drive around a neighborhood block one time...

 

As stated by other posters, I don't think you'll find too many teenagers able to afford a new Mustang GT. And, if somehow they or their parents decide to swing it, at least they'll be getting a car that has standard stability control, front and side airbags, ABS, and handles well. Around here, most HS kids are driving pick-ups and SUVs, which I would regard as far more dangerous to the motoring public (as in me) than a few more Mustangs on the road.

 

My driver's ed teacher had me take him through the McDonald's drive thru.. I never forgot that lol, but that was over 13 years ago.

 

+1! As a relatively young, inexperienced driver I've done some stupid things just in my little 4.0. I think being without a car for the duration of my teen years (when you're "supposed" to do stupid things) then getting a Mustang as my first car led to a period where I had to get it all out of my proverbial system, so to speak...and having a GT would probably mean me wrapping the thing around a pole 5 minutes after driving off the lot

That said, my friends and co-workers often criticize me for being too cautious on the road. Better safe than sorry is my policy when passengers are involved.