Faults:
Piping on edge of convertible top scraped and cracked due to design of retraction.
Computer kept sending code for "overdrive not engaging properly" (it was/did)
Engine light came on regularly, and usually blinked out within 10 minutes. When retrieving codes from the computer, no problem codes came up.
Consistently balked when gas first applied. Had to "ease on" to the gas pedal. Repeated trips to dealer and testing revealed no problems.
General Comments:
So the problems above ain't all that bad, and the car never left me totally stranded. The few times it really gave it there it ran enough to at least get to the next station and park it.
But that's not my main issue with the car. It's really just a general piece of junk:
The car cornered so poorly it was actually dangerous. The slightest bump while cornering would lift the rear end up and it would try to come around along side you!
The suspension was generally just uncomfortable. Extremely bumpy and unstable. I'll accept a "taut" suspension in return for performance. This car's suspension went beyond taut to spine-fracturing and it gained no handling for it!
The seats looked like they came out of a 1970's mercury, just unappealing.
The interior fixtures were simply cheap and shoddy. While nothing ever "fell off" most of the controls were very loose and most of the labeling had rubbed off before it hit 50,000 miles.
But the damning final test was that this car didn't even do what a Mustang MUST do: ear-popping acceleration in a straight line. This is a car that, if nothing else, is supposed to apply 5.0 litres of V-8 power to the rear wheels and rocket you forward at entirely too rapid a pace.
But nooooo. Somehow Ford managed to get only marginal performance outta the big pushrod engine. Hell, the car could be taken out by a kid in Mom's Nissan Altima, if he had half a mind. I'm no street-corner racer boy, but it was literally embarrassing how pokey the car really was.
2nd May 2004, 00:08
So do you really own a V8 5.0L Mustang? I mean, I have used my bro's 5.0 V8 Mustang and never had those kind of problems with the suspension and all.