16th Sep 2010, 14:56
Is it rear wheel drive? The 93 4 cylinder. I'm getting one soon, but not if it's front wheel drive, that's a disgrace.
17th Sep 2010, 11:30
There has never been a front drive Mustang.
Why is front wheel drive a disgrace? On a 4 cylinder car, front wheel drive is actually better as the drive wheels would be under the heaviest part of the car, which improves winter time traction. Also, the 4 cylinder Mustang handled pretty sloppily compared to the front drive Escort of the same year.
17th Sep 2010, 11:35
It's been quite a while since this post, but I hope this person never got a 5.0 if they really ditched a 4 cylinder Mustang at 30 mph!
17th Sep 2010, 12:54
To 17th Sep 2010, 11:30:
As everyone knows, rear wheel drive is considered more appropriate to 'sports cars', and has the potential for better handling. In any case, it is nowadays a rarity and usually found only in expensive cars.
Back in the days of our ancestors, average working Americans bought huge, safe, comfortable, and durable rear wheel drive cars for a small fraction of their income. Nowadays we're stuck with, well, the dregs - non-union incomes and little front-wheel-drive plastic and aluminum eggs.
18th Sep 2010, 19:29
Yes, rear drive is geared more for sports cars, so why they put it under the 4 cylinder Fox body Mustang is beyond me. That car was the worst handling car ever made, and the Escort of the same years was far more fun to drive as a front driver.
Also, why do you say they are so hard to come by today? You have the Mustang still, the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger & Challenger and the Camaro for starters. Most BMW's are rear drive still unless they are AWD, as is the G37 from Infiniti. And how about the 370Z and the Miata?? Hmmmm, that is just a fraction of the cars I could list with rear wheel drive. Hardly a rarity!! And no, they all aren't that expensive. Many of them are under $40K, which is about average these days for a decent car. The Camaro and Mustang start in the low $20K range with over 300 HP.
You really think the old cars were safe? Lame lap belts if anything for seatbelts, no airbags, no crumple zones, no breakaway steering columns... etc, etc. I'd hardly call them safe by any standards. Bigger and heavier doesn't really mean safer as far as cars are concerned. As far as durable, maybe back in the 40's and 50's they were tanks, but by the time the late 60's and 70's came along, they were anything but durable.
Also, the percentage of income you'd have spent on a car back then really isn't all that much less than it is today to get into a decent car.
I would also prefer non union labor, as the unions are what caused the meltdown in the auto industry. Making more money than a job warrants is not going to help a company survive, as is evident by the recent events of the domestic car companies. How do you make it when you can't afford your employees? Hey we'd all like to be overpaid and then sail off into the sunset with a ridiculously lavish retirement package, but how can this be viable in the long term for the domestic car companies?
25th Sep 2010, 11:15
I disagree. We've owned both front and rear drive cars, and our best cars on snow have been rear drive. Our GMC SUV is very good in snow, and ironically, the BEST car on snow I ever owned was my classic 1972 Plymouth Duster V-8. Our front-drive compacts are only so-so on snow. We always take the rear-drive SUV. Even without 4-wheel drive, our SUV's have always done much better.
26th Sep 2010, 10:30
Simple physics would go against this statement. To have more weight over the drive wheels and have the drive wheels pulling instead of pushing already constitutes better traction and control. Then to have the drive wheels steer too just makes it all the better. Rear drive in an extremely overweight vehicle might be okay in the snow.
Really an AWD car is the best bet for winter driving. The 2 Subarus I had were the best I have ever had in the snow over any FWD and even any SUV I have had. They are balanced perfectly for winter driving and the primary drive wheels are the front on the AT models. The manual shift cars offer a 50/50 split front to rear that is on all the time.
I remember one morning of driving on treacherous roads. I followed an Explorer that was slip-sliding up every hill. I stopped at the bottom of each hill and waited for them to get to the top so they didn't lose it and slide backwards into me. I then drove right up the same hills without even a slip. This all on the regular tires that came on the car for year round use! They also get much better mileage then the average SUV as I was getting about 26 MPG mixed. We had a Trailblazer 4X4 when I had these two cars and I would definitely be taking either Subaru out long before I'd have taken that truck out in bad weather. They would run circles around it in snow. Oh and before you go on about ground clearance and a foot and a half of snow... well I stay home when it is that bad out on the roads. There is never a good reason to go out in that much snow and you are not safe no matter what you are driving. Plus we see that kind of snow maybe once or twice a year so having a couple of days off isn't that big of a deal.
26th Sep 2010, 12:28
Obviously, it's an SUV. It weighs over 5,000 lbs so it doesn't really matter where the drive wheels are, it's still going to get good traction. Front-wheel drive on smaller cars is far better than rear wheel drive though. With the weight of the engine on the drive wheels, it makes them far better in the snow.
Most of my friends have SUVs and pick-up trucks, and when it starts to snow up here in New England, every single one of them has admitted that their SUVs wouldn't even move if it weren't for 4-wheel drive. My front-wheel drive Corolla is great in the snow, and my front-wheel drive Cirrus is even better.
11th Mar 2006, 18:26
I know the feeling of taking 'a ride' like the one you detailed. I was 18 in my 396 Camaro on a wet back road when too much beer and too little sense caught up to me. Oh well, nobody was hurt and I'm a little wiser for it. Not to be mean, but you are probably the ONLY one who enjoys your music when you aren't in a parking lot w/your peers. If you don't believe me now, you will in a few years. It's a very subjective matter and guys who don't turn down their boomin' stereos in residential areas are THE reason that city councils are passing silly noise restrictions. You may not agree now, but you will.