fire818 wrote:Well pat I think ford has answered your prayers cause I heard the new mustang is going to have paddle shifters and about the same 5.0 so it won't be that boring trade in your car and get the new one
I doubt that I will be a fan of the new Mustang since it appears that Ford will once again make it an even better car than the made better than Fox body one that I currently have. This means more electronic stuff that the current generation of buyers seem to want, such as a big touch screen TV in the center of the dash, etc. But, when it comes to Mustangs, I remain old school. And, I would rather not have an IRS, even one designed specifically for the vehicle. I am sure that the new Mustang will be impressive in terms of handling and ride and all those things, but, I was not impressed with the styling. It remains to be seen how it will look on the street, and, of course, it will cost more. Finally, paddle shifters might be an improvement, depending on how well they work with the transmission. My 2012 has a selectable 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears, as well as a button on the side of the shifter that locks the car out of 6th (they say for towing). The 2013, and 2014, got a feature that is a toggle on the side of the shifter, that allows manual selection of all six gears in the auto trans. I was very envious of this, until I viewed a detailed test drive video of a 2013 and the reviewer complained about exactly the same hesitations and slow responses when manually shifting that my auto has. It is really bad, and it was why I only used second and third at the Streets of Willow. Getting the car back into first gear for the tightest corners, was basically impossible. So, funny as it seems, the auto trans functions at its best when it is left fully auto. I always leave It fully auto after doing a burnout, at the drag strip, as I could never match the precision of the auto, which shifts at exactly 7000 RPM every time. The trans shifts so slowly manually that at full throttle, I have to move the shifter to 2nd at approximately 6350 RPM to get it to shift at 7000 RPM, and I have to move the shifter to 3rd at just short of 6600 RPM to get a 7000 RPM shift. Hitting these precise shifts points, with the poor detents on the shifter and with other distractions is very difficult. And downshifts also take forever. In a canyon run, which I don't do anyway, one only uses second and third, which work OK, except that second goes 76 @ 7000 RPM, so it is boggy out of tight corners, and 3rd goes 117 @ 7000 RPM (so there is a wide gearing jump from 2nd to 3rd), and, 117 is too fast for the Streets of Willow, or almost any canyon, and 3rd is a big sluggish due to being such a tall gear. Strangely, the car used every bit of the first three gears at Famoso, and although it did suffer because of the big jump from 2nd to 3rd, it still ran through the traps at 7000 in 3rd (which is close to 114 on smaller MT DR's). At Willow, it is geared incorrectly, but, it does OK because it generally doesn't spin.
So, I am hoping that the 2011 and 2012 5.0's become classics when the new car comes out. I am not a fan of the restyled tail and rear deck treatment of the 2013 and 2014's, which is why I left them off. And, in any case, my car has less than 11000 miles on it, as I am too elderly and feeble to drive much, so I will not need a new car ever again. As it stands, it works OK for getting to the store for Gin, and other necessities and, in fact, for ordinary driving around, an auto trans and a bit of refinement can actually be appreciated.
