26th Nov 2010, 00:54
We had a GT Convertible with lots of mods and 100 shot nitrous. A older lady coworker had a 6 cylinder convertible. She wanted a convertible; no need to go fast. Also on a budget as well. Each person buys a car for a different reason. You do feel a bit more vulnerable in an extremely fast open convertible at times.
26th Nov 2010, 11:40
"3) A V-8 owner pays 30-50% more to insure a virtually identical car."
Or even more. We own a luxury SUV, a sedan and a V-6 Mustang. We pay $260 a year LESS for full coverage on ALL THREE of our vehicles than one of our friends (with a great driving record) pays to insure just his V-8 Mustang. The coverage on our V-6 is actually 20% LESS than the insurance on our SUV. That was a big incentive to buy a V-6. The V-6 also rides smoother, and all our friends think it is a V-8 anyway.
26th Nov 2010, 12:29
Maybe it's getting 5 times the joy of ownership than a plain 6 also. I own 2 muscle cars; one is a big block, and I drive each less than 1000 miles a piece a year. My insurance is peanuts, and not that much fuel. They are insured classic. My friend has a street legal 69 Camaro, and burns 9 bucks a gallon of jet fuel in a 15 gallon cell. He makes all the local every weekend cruise nights and shows. And even that is cheap to drive based on being a great weekend car, and still street legal.
Buy a cheap new beater for the weekdays and have a great street strip car. 6 cylinder cars usually lack handling; skinny tires, small brakes, lousy shocks, no sway bars, barren instrumentation, poor interiors, few options, and sound and perform lousy.
26th Nov 2010, 13:19
Just the fact that you have to justify your ownership of a V6 Mustang repeatedly shows some serious envy of the GT. Once again... complaining about insurance, gas mileage and the price of the car? C'mon... should you really be driving a Mustang at all if these are your concerns? You could easily save $7K on a cheaper car than your V6 Mustang, and get even better mileage and pay even less for insurance.
Why is your choice to buy a V6 Mustang over a real economy car better than my choice to buy a GT over your car? Plus, the loaded up V6 you claim to have with its AT and all, comes to within just a few grand of a manual GT, and hardly a $7K difference. Plus, I am sure you've bolted on some of the useless add-ons like many of the V6 owners have, which cuts down the price difference to pretty much nothing.
In reality, there is not any car on the road that you can legally use all of its potential. Even the V6 Mustang, especially the 2011, has way more power and performance then you can legally use, so your point on this is basically moot. Having a Mustang GT, Camaro SS, Corvette, Challenger Hemi, etc., etc. is more than just going super fast.
I guess you just will never get that though. You buy cars purely for looks and nothing substantial past that. You even wish they would put a horrendous 4 cylinder in the Mustang. I have never been a fan of looks without performance on my cars. It is just a disappointing feeling when you get in and drive the car. I suppose if I were to just park it on my front lawn so everyone could gawk at it, that would be fine... but to actually enjoy driving a performance car, I need actual performance. Sure the 4.0 V6 performs as good or better than the Mustang of 25 years ago, but it won't even touch the average family sedan nowadays. Plus, the sound... talk about grating!
Really, just drive what you like, but don't pretend you are so against going fast. Like another poster said... every time I see a Mustang breaking the law, it is a V6 because the owner has to prove they can go fast too... just like the GT!
26th Nov 2010, 14:24
Oh the lengths V6 owners will go to... really, you had to talk to a psychologist about your car?
The list is really funny... Yeah GT owners are jealous. Man, you are too much!
I guess the Corvette owners must be losing sleep too over the fact they didn't opt for a Cobalt. Ha ha ha!!
C'mon! If I wanted to downgrade to a V6 to save money, I would have! It is more the fact that V6 Mustang owners can't afford the GT, and therefore they are the jealous one's. I don't think there has EVER been a case of jealousy over something that you could own that is less than what you do own. That doesn't even make sense.... not in the least!
That is like saying I am jealous over you living in your two bedroom house because I had to pay more for my 4 bedroom house. I mean... are you serious here? You know my friend just picked up a 32 inch LCD TV, and I am so jealous because it cost so much less than my 50 incher! Really, this is the logic you are now using to defend your purchase of a base Mustang over a Mustang GT.
Here's what you could do... take your list and put the Focus in there as the car you V6 Mustang owners are jealous of. That car is $7 grand less than yours, is cheaper to insure and uses much less gas. Aren't you so jealous of every Focus you see? Yeah, thought so.
Just drive what you want to drive and stop being so negative towards those who can afford more. If you had actually ever driven a Mustang GT, you'd know there is no way a GT owner will ever be jealous of a V6 Mustang. Like I said before... if you have to complain about insurance, gas mileage (which isn't that much less anyhow) let alone the price of the car... then you shouldn't even be looking at Mustangs!
Oh, and the GT has always been more than a second quicker to 60 until the 3.7 V6 came out.... but you don't own one of those now do you? The 4.0's best 0-60 run is 6.5 seconds with a manual (again, which you don't own). The GT of the same year as your 4.0 did 0-60 in 5.1 seconds. In other words, your V6 would easily disappear in my rear view mirror.
25th Nov 2010, 21:25
A psychologist friend of mine, who is a car enthusiast, and who drives 4.0 Mustang as well as a 5-series BMW, was recently discussing the attitude of V-8 Mustang owners, and we were all having a good laugh. I asked him his professional opinion about the excessively hostile attitude V-8 owners have, and his answer was very simple: "They are jealous", he replied. He then went on to explain why (and it makes LOTS of sense, I might add).
1) A V-8 owner pays 5 to 10 grand more for a car that is visually identical.
2) A V-8 owner pays 5 to 10 grand more for ONE SECOND faster 0-60 times.
3) A V-8 owner pays 30-50% more to insure a virtually identical car.
4) A V-8 owner pays 20-30% more for gas
5) A V-8 owner knows the extra horsepower is legally useless, so he becomes resentful that all he can do is brag about it.
6) A V-8 owner knows that less than 1/100 of a percent of people can tell a V-8 from a V-6 (or could care less), and this provokes anger and hostility for having wasted money.
7) A V-8 owner can brag about being able to wear out a set of rear tires in a week. Why this is something to brag about is questionable. Tires are expensive.
I found my friend's observations extremely accurate and find that I tend to agree. It really IS the V-8 owner who has to justify why they choose paying so much more for useless horsepower in an identical car. No wonder they get so touchy!!
As for me, I used the money I saved this time around in not buying a V-8 to purchase a very nice second car for my wife. Between initial savings, and savings on fuel and insurance, it pretty much pays for the second car, thus saving miles on the Mustang.