[darkpuppet]

So as i've mentioned before, my lease is coming up on my focus, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to go test drive the only car ford makes that I would be interested in buying... the ford mustang GT Convertible.

Now, please remember that these first impressions are coming from someone who has driven a focus for 4 years, and nothing but FWD's since 2001.

Holy hot damn!

first off, the convertibles look PIMP in black. The one I test drove had the 18" wheels, interior appearance package, including the MyColor dash... which adds a couple of buttons to your dash. I couldn't make much of the rest of the interior due to all the protective plastic on the 'appearance' package tidbits. but whatever..

First things first, convertible top operation...

Ford somehow found a way to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Raise parking brake - standard fare
release roof clasps - standard fare.. or is it?

I've been in new-model convertibles where all you do is pull a spring-loaded lever on either side and you're done. Here, you have to pull down, then out on the lever, ease the roof back a bit, then fold the handles back down again. Lo-profile, sure, but it's not a convertible top my mom could figure out.
Hold button to lower top
Hold button
hold button
hold button
hold button
hold button

ok top's down, let's drive!

First thing I notice when climbing in the driver's seat is that not only do I feel like I'm practically lying down, but the pedals are somewhere in front of the front wheels, and the clutch, while I don't mind stiff, has the equivalent travel of walking up steps 2 at a time.

Not to mention that the clutch pedal is extremely close to the brake pedal, but miles away from the gas... if you turned your foot straight sideways, you couldn't toe-heel brake.

Ok, it's not that bad, when driving, the clutch and brake feel intuitive... they feel particularily light, which makes you suddenly aware of the shifter sitting straight ahead of you, instead of down and low. The lever's action was extremely short, and somewhat heavy..

it could be that I'm just used to a car with light action on everything that suddenly I feel as though I'm presented with a collection of victorian signal boxes. To say that everything felt stout is an understatement.

You are further reminded you're in an unfamiliar place when you first turn the key and the car comes to life. It doesn't just open it's eyelids and sigh like the focus does, it bolts upright, gasping for air and screeming... the automotive equivalent of a drowning victim being recusitated. It's startling, shocking, and impressive all at once.

Time to roll..

I would have to say once you're on the road the car feels quite manageable.. sure the cockpit is a bit unfamiliar, but everything settles in and feels natural. In the time it takes your foot to travel from the brake to the gas is about the same amount of time it takes your clutch foot to take up the travel, so everything shifts naturally and easily.

My only complaint is how surprised I was that the side of my foot clutch foot was getting caught underneath the brake pedal. I was wearing my square toed shoes, and have a slightly wider foot, and on a couple of occasions I'd mix clutch dragging with engine revving as I tried to get my foot from underneath the brake. Which would have been embarrasing if the sales lady hadn't done the same thing a few moments earlier.

On the street, on the gas, the car accelerates both the car and your senses. This is not a quiet car by any means. It's angry, pissed off at all the japanese cars around it and it's not afraid to voice it's displeasure..

While I would say noise is a bad thing, in this case, it may be a very good thing.. it let's you know just how hard the car is working. The problem I found is after getting used to the sound, and getting on the gas meant that taking turns aggressively meant the backend felt like it was wagging, begging to be let out. Without going sideways, I'd say the car was good at letting you know when you were approaching the limits.

But how does it feel as far as convertibles go?

it's good, but it's a tossup on rigidity. I'd have to say that this is the most rigid convertibles I've ever personally driven, but you notice the cowl shake in strange ways. In cheaper convertibles (ie, sebring convertible), cowl shake is immediate and uncompromising. You go over a crack, the front of the car moves with the crack. You know immediately and exactly what you just drove over. Once you're over it, your done.

The GT convertible spreads out bumps over a lifetime.

You drive over tracks, and you feel nothing, then a rumble, a slight dull shake that reverbrates, and 20 feet away from the tracks, it finally settles back down.

Is it rigid? yes.. but the cowl shake is odd at best, muted, but reverbrating...

But was the car fun to drive?

hell yeah..

sure I noticed a lot of things that I didn't care for, or made me uncomfortable, but just the feeling behind the wheel of this behemoth is amazing.. I could learn to love it's imperfections, because as far as convertibles go, this is tonnes of old-school fun.

but it also felt nice to climb back in my tiny, high perch, reach down into 1st and quietly exit with minimal mental and physical effort.

[ANTHONYD]

Nice.

so are you going for it?

[NefCanuck]

Y'know that sounds just about right given everything I'd seen/read up to this point. The Mustang is a much more involved beast than a stock Focus ever will be. I think a lot of that is deliberate, though the problems you experienced with the clutch/brake/gas pedal placement seem so glaring on a car like the Mustang that begs to be flogged.

Did you actually play with the "My Colour" dash controls at all? (I'm just curious because I'm wondering if it would be possible to re-create the dash colours used on my dad's old '67 Stang green numerals and orange pointers IIRC)

NefCanuck

[nass]

you missed your calling. You should be a writer for an auto mag :)

I assume the GT is the big engine version? and not the V6

[ANTHONYD]

don;t forget the gas prices at the mment :P

[naz]

are you going to go for it?

[NefCanuck]

ANTHONYD,Apr 21 2006, 10:15 AM Wrote:don;t forget the gas prices at the mment :P
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Hell gas prices right now make driving even a mere FI Focus a pain in the wallet :blink: Esp. if you need 91 octane

NefCanuck

[darkpuppet]

I'd love to.. I can afford it...

But paying off the focus means I can concentrate on saving up for some property...once I have property, buying a new car would be trivial, not to mention I would be able to afford a nicer car.

that and the dealership isn't offering me any deals... the only positive side is that I get rid of the focus before it can be any trouble to me. The downside is that the only car I want from them is one that'll put house ownership into my 40's..

Time to start being sensible I guess.

[naz]

gas isn't going to get any cheaper so if you want a car with stupidly low fuel economy now is the time to do it IMHO. if you travel 1500mi/month and gas it 3/gallon the difference between 50mpg and 22mpg is around 115/month. that's non trivial but not exactly an insane amount....

[darkpuppet]

but the 260HP saturn sky is coming out.. better on gas, probably tonnes more fun too.

So I can wait and get a better car.. I don't have to do it right now.

[Oscar The Grouch]

Wait for a bit. At least till you can find a nice Ford GT to smoke all those Honda poseurs...

(Jay is the exeption to the poseur rule.)

[darkpuppet]

another gripe about the car.

When you put the top down and auto-down your windows, it has the senses to lower the door window AND the rear corner glass.

When you raise the top and auto-up on the window, it doesn't have the sense to raise the rear corner glass. So the uninitiated will sit there for 10 minutes wondering why their window goes up, then immediately retracts time after time of hitting the auto-up button.

you can hit one button to lower the windows and top, but you have to press 2 or 3 to get it all back up again. If you see someone driving a stang convertible with the top down in winter, I can tell you why.

Like I said, it's a fun car, but I should do the sensible thing and then save up for a car worthy of the I SWERVE plate.

[SVT ZX3]

Is this the first Mustang you've driven dp? I thought your comment about how you feel like your lying down was funny, and later refered to "the high perch, and reach down into 1st" feel of the focus. First time I drove test drove a focus I could not get over how high the seat was, I prefer the feeling of sitting IN the car instead of sitting on some phone books on top of the seat like in a focus. To me the focus seating position is the one that feels alien and wrong, I much prefer the Stangs arrangement. I really like the new stang, but I wound't buy one just yet, and you've got so much done to your focus, it doesn't make sense to give it back to Ford. Wait 3-4 years when the value of the 05-06 stang drops to almost half then look at one if your still interested. Whats the MSRP on the one you took out? Probably about $40k give or take a couple grand, right? I dunno, as much as I like them @ that price point I think I'd be looking elsewhere.

[euro_zx5]

Nice write up. I'd love to get behind the wheel of one of them.

So... if you do decide to 'get rid' of the Focus... and not keep it long term perhaps, will you continue to manage and run FC.net?

[OAC_Sparky]

Re: Window Auto Down

Roll down -- open windows, maybe get cold.

Roll up, close windows -- maybe on child's neck. = big lawsuit.

That's why the "autodown" rolls them all down (no harm there) but "auto-up" only rolls up the window you're looking at.

You can thank sue-happy Americans for that.

[naz]

darkpuppet,Apr 21 2006, 04:47 PM Wrote:but the 260HP saturn sky is coming out.. better on gas, probably tonnes more fun too.

So I can wait and get a better car.. I don't have to do it right now.
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get a M3 and call it a day... :)

[bluetoy]

OAC_Sparky,Apr 21 2006, 07:44 PM Wrote:Re: Window Auto Down

Roll down -- open windows, maybe get cold.

Roll up, close windows -- maybe on child's neck. = big lawsuit.

That's why the "autodown" rolls them all down (no harm there) but "auto-up" only rolls up the window you're looking at.

You can thank sue-happy Americans for that.
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My Vee-Dub has auto up and down on both front windows. Rears are normal power up and down.

[darkpuppet]

SVT ZX3,Apr 21 2006, 06:39 PM Wrote:Is this the first Mustang you've driven dp? I thought your comment about how you feel like your lying down was funny, and later refered to "the high perch, and reach down into 1st" feel of the focus. First time I drove test drove a focus I could not get over how high the seat was, I prefer the feeling of sitting IN the car instead of sitting on some phone books on top of the seat like in a focus. To me the focus seating position is the one that feels alien and wrong, I much prefer the Stangs arrangement. I really like the new stang, but I wound't buy one just yet, and you've got so much done to your focus, it doesn't make sense to give it back to Ford. Wait 3-4 years when the value of the 05-06 stang drops to almost half then look at one if your still interested. Whats the MSRP on the one you took out? Probably about $40k give or take a couple grand, right? I dunno, as much as I like them @ that price point I think I'd be looking elsewhere.
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oh, I know...

My mom had a mustang, and I drove it a few times... ended up driving her to work every morning tho (I had an 84 nissan 4x4 with lift and pathfinder wheels)..

I don't mind the lay-down layout per se... but I do concede that I've gotten use to the focus' minivan-like perch. I've been in other cars with a lower layout, but the mustang made me VERY aware of it. Could be the higher sills of the car, it's that feeling of sitting in a tub, vs sitting low to the ground. Sit in a corvette, or porsche and you don't feel like you're sitting in a tub..but the mustang feels like a tub. Like I said, I could get used to it... it's just very different than anything I've ever driven that wasn't a boat.

the stang I was looking at was about $42,000 ..but I'd want a dealership to try to deal with me before I considered giving up my car for it... They seem awefully eager to take my car off my hands which is strange. The head sales dude even commented on how nice the gauges looked on my car vs the one they did up.

I see my car as quite flawed, but maybe I do have a keeper....

[darkpuppet]

OAC_Sparky,Apr 21 2006, 07:44 PM Wrote:Re: Window Auto Down

Roll down -- open windows, maybe get cold.

Roll up, close windows -- maybe on child's neck. = big lawsuit.

That's why the "autodown" rolls them all down (no harm there) but "auto-up" only rolls up the window you're looking at.

You can thank sue-happy Americans for that.
[right][snapback]182733[/snapback][/right]

I doubt a kid would fit in the back seat, or even find a way to stick it's head into the rear quarter glass.

it was odd..and funny at the same time.. window goes all the way up, shoots back down.. goes up, shoots down... WTF?? oh.. rear quarter glass.. gotcha...

[P-51]

Your mention of the "loose rear end".... Damn, I thought they'd fixed that with the new Mustang. Classic Mustang feeling. My guess is, at least it won't go into snap oversteer with no warning like the Fox used to. The car was very intimidating at the limit.