Ron Jeremy said:
I think that many owners of other vehicles like Dodge, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, ect. will cross over and buy the new 2005 Mustang GT. That will be good news for Ford. This would not occur if there were other vehicles other than the Mustang to choose from.
I don't think it will happen as easily as you predict it will. For the Mustang to have to appeal to people outside of Mustangers and 21 year old college girls (let's face it, somebody has to buy those V-6 convertibles), they have to feel that the 05 Mustang is either on par or exceeds the performance, quality, and value of those aforementioned cars.
In most automotive circles, even though Mustang is considered a great bang for the buck, it's still viewed as archaic, unsophisticated, cheap, and unrefined, especially when put right next to it's market competitors (with no Camaro or Firebird, we have to look beyond them to cars such as the 350Z).
Now, the 05 addresses many of those problems.
Interior: The current Mustang has had a lot of knocks againts its interior. It's too tight, you sit too high (you basically sit on the car, not in), it looks cheap, and the build quality left a lot to be desired. The 05 seems to address much of those issues, and from the pictures, definitely looks the winner. I'd frankly would hold up the 05 interior to anything and would choose it over anything else save a Bimmer.
Chassis: The current Mustang has been described as a flexy flyer. It rattles, it shakes, and I'm on a constant hunt to find the source of some new clang or thump whenever I'm on the road. Hopefully this all new chassis will go a long way to tighten up the car and make for a nice solid base for the
suspension.
Suspension: This has been covered ad naseum in other threads, but there's simply no excuse IMO for the Mustang not to have IRS. Especially when you considered that other cars in the Mustang price point have it. It's not whether you're a drag racer or not. In real world situations, the choice of suspensions is going to have a serious effect on how the car feels and drives, especially in places like the Northeast and the Midwest where winters do a number on the local roads. Now hopefully, with the new stiffer chassis, the engineers will have been able to address some of the issues surrounding the Mustangs classically light rear end (the old chassis demanded an overly stiff rear end to compensate for the flexi flyer chassis, not a good thing with a rigid axle). However, there are still severe limitations to a live axle that an IRS setup you don't have to worry about.
Power: This is where the Mustang has them all beat. Nowhere else can you get a 300 hp V-8 for under 30 grand. But unfortunately, the GT still only accounts for a small percentage of Mustang sales.
Over all though, it's still comes to when the rubber hits the road. Like I said, for the Mustang to have crossover appeal and bring in those people who would normally drive BMW's, Nissans, Miata etc. Hopefully, the Mustang is relying too much on it's history. I don't think you'll see some guy trade in his BMW M3 or 350Z for a Mustang GT. And you don't have to a be a road racer or drag racer, but just somebody who enjoys high performance driving.
