Going To Be Buying An 05-08 Soon. Opinions?

Shouter

Active Member
Jan 25, 2010
47
6
29
Fargo, ND
Well my sister and brother in law just made the order for a 2015 gt the other day, and I think it's time to get myself a mustang as well. I've been looking locally and there are a few GTs for around 11k. And both under 100k miles. What's a reasonable price for a gt, manual car these days? I hope to begin seriously looking in the next couple months. My pickup will be paid off then. Also, anything to look out for?
 
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05-early 08's had the two-piece spark plug issue, I'm about to start on that job myself so we'll see how it goes.

Basically they used a long reach spark plug that gets gummed up with carbon and then has a tendency to break off when you try to remove them. I've been told if you're careful and use something to break up the carbon you can generally get them out without breakage.

Also, '07 and up have TPMS sensors if that matters to you. '07 and up also have a aux jack on the stereo, you have to buy a special kit to put one in '05-06 cars.

One last thing is the water in the footwell issue, the drain in the cowl gets plugged, water accumulates and goes into the passenger footwell and can short out the smart junction box. Something to look out for, my car doesn't seem to have that problem.
 
My 06 GT has 182,000 miles. The HVAC Blower resistor quit - $20. Now I need to replace my tie rod ends. That is it. I replaced the plugs with Champion 7989 plugs about 110,000 miles ago. I should repalce again, but it runs fine. I pulled them out once at about 60,000 on the plugs and checked them, cleaned and regapped. Great car.
 
racerraj reminded me that I had to replace my front ball joints at 70K- apparently it's a common problem, mine seemed fine but when I took it to get it inspected they told me they needed replaced. On these cars the ball joints are apparently spot welded into the control arms and you have to replace the whole arm.

Anyway you should definitely find a good car for that price. I bought mine in 2011 for $14K out the door with 53K on it. Granted that was from a wholesaler but I know the prices have come down.

It took a lot of searching to find the car I wanted for the price I wanted though, I was shopping for several months and drove 4 hours up to Cleveland to get this car.