2006 V6 or V8 ?

Thank you so much for all the great advice!! I haven't been ignoring everyone, but I have been away driving the Hertz Mustang up into Vermont and on up into Quebec Canada!!

The car had 700 miles on it when I picked it up last Wed, now it has 1745 and it goes back tomorrow

I don't have time at the moment to post a detailed description of my experiences with this car and despite some of the worst rain the Northeast has had in years, way up north it was crystal clear so I had the top down

99 percent of the time.

Like I said, I'll post tomorrow (Sunday) under the same thread my driving experiences....

Tomas

I agree with the previous poster... the 05+ V6 is NOTHING like previous V6's... I too was very doubtful about buying a V6... remembering those horrible old V6 rentals... LOL! But after test driving a V6 I was very surprised at their performance!

Now a couple of things...

1) Aren't the rentals still "de-tuned" a bit? 2) Was your rental an automatic? The automatic suffers greatly from the programmed Torque Limiter. Don't know if you noticed... the car will pull very hard in 2nd and 3rd...even 4th.. but from a dead stop it's a bit of a dog... well, that is the torque management system! I

Now for around $400 you can pick up an SCT X-Cal2 handheld flasher... reprogram the car.. and when you step on the gas you won't believe you are driving the same car! The X-Cal2 fixes a lot of the short coming in the cars programming! Remove the torque management system and fixes the throttle delay! It will make a night and day difference in your car!

BTW... for me the difference in price between my V6 and GT was about $8000...

To see just how carried away you can get with a V6 you can check mine out at:

We just pulled the N2O out and stuck a Vortech instead.. LOL!

At which rental center did you get the Hertz special, or was it just a regular Mustang?

John:

First: I checked out your URL.. Nice Car! Has the engine been replaced since the #5 cylinder "Issue"?

The point of my post, and wasn't as clear on the second read through, was that my '00 V-6 was very reliable, in spite of the "Reliability Concerns" that were raised back then about it...

So, Consumer Reports concerns regarding the 05+ V-6 could be more 'alarmist' than real.. I myself, have never taken CR as 'gospel'..

The bottom line is that everyone should buy the Mustang that are happy with, and can afford.. We are all 'different'.. For me, the 06 GT, Leather, and Ragtop were the critical factors.. Others may have different requirements..

Tony

I was just having this conversation with a friend yesterday. How do you suppose this de-tuning is accomplished? We all know that the parts changers working in Ford dealership shops can only flash newer programs, not selectively tune anything, or even step back to an older program. Do you believe these deliberately "crippled" cars are left that way when sold as used cars to the public? Do you think that could have any adverse effect on their resale value? Do you believe that the rental car companies have invested in the technology and infrastructure to address de-tuning/tuning issues that can't be addressed at the Ford dealership?

I have driven rental 05 & 06 V-6 mustangs, and test driven them off the dealers lots, I can say, I don't think there is a difference, I don't think anything is different between the rental car and the all other new V-6 Mustangs.

If anyone has any first hand knowledge of any de-tuning / tuning programs either at Ford, or within the rental car companies, please enlighten me. Who is doing it? Where, when and how are they doing it? I just don't think such a thing is going on.

You are correct about the 05+ V6 because in the past I have driven rental Mustangs including an 04 (Yellow rag top last year) and the engine was nowhere near as smooth or powerful as the 06 I just rented. Also I had an 87 T-bird 3.8L for a while and it was a nightmare with head gasket problems and just about everything else that could go wrong :( Bought it used, sold it after a year. I've also driven my fair share of Taurus rentals and they sucked as well.

Nahh. That's an urban myth kinda like alligators in the NYC sewer system AFAIK anyway.

Yes, I did notice this but I wasn't sure what it was? It seemed like the computer was getting confused or something and the car actually felt like it was in the wrong gear (too high). It kinda bogged down, almost like a weak accelerator pump from carb days, I found that you could fool it by goosing the throttle a little and then stomping on it. It didn't always work though. It was a bit weird but seeing as I'm not the jack rabbit start type it didn't really bother me.

For the record, this tranny has to be one of the smoothest I have ever experienced in any car excepting maybe a Lexus. It always seems to be in the right gear, doesn't hunt, has AMAZING pulling power in ALL GEARS... There is virtually no "wind up and go" factor, which I hate. IOW, some cars when you stomp the pedal at say 60mph the engine roars, and the car winds up and goes. I find that annoying. This car just downshifts smoothly and you feel the pulling of the engine instead of the roaring and of course you have a nice exhaust sound as well.

I liked passing slowpokes on 2 lane VT highways with no effort at all and then looking at the speedo and seeing 90 mph.

(My BEL RX65 is a must for driving in Vermont, the speed trap capital of the US)

Now my Impala SS (Vette motor) is no slouch, but it has no rush factor at all. It has so much torque however, from a standstill I can easily lite the tires or pull tree stumps out of the ground!

With the Mustang, cruise at 60 mph, stomp the gas and get pushed back in the seat as the car roars ahead. Pretty neat for a rental V6!

The V6 like I've said (10 times already!) is a very strong puller and the exhaust sounds wonderful but not obtrusive at all. It all makes for a very fun car to drive.

The suspension is very nice and tight and the car felt solid as a rock without being jittery. Expansion joints in the road go thump with a solid feel instead of a hop and skip I did notice a little tail spin when making quick right turns (real quick!), but it was totally controllable. This thing is VERY comfortable to ride in on long trips, which surprised me. The tight suspension does not cause driver fatigue on those long hauls and I will say it is just as comfortable as my Impala SS and more so in the seat department because the SS is like riding on a couch. Can you say back pain!

So what about the rest of the car? Ok!! Here are some of my musings in no particular order.

This one had larger tires (I think?), aluminum rims, Shaker 500 sound system, Sirius sat.radio, vinyl power seats (drivers) and was a cranberry metallic red color. No fog lamps in the grill so I guess it didn't have Pony Package?

Radio is easy to use and sounds pretty good for a factory unit. I think it had a sub because I could feel/hear some thumping going on.

I'm also a musician/audiophile with a small project recording studio so I am sensitive towards crappy sounding audio. This one isn't bad. I like staying with the factory unit if at all possible so I would buy the biggest/best they make.

Seat adjusts easily, but I could not find a lumbar adjustment? It might be hidden somewhere?

I'm not sure I like the multi-position seat back thingie that you use to let passengers escape from the rear seat . It seemed awkward to operate.

Trunk is quite large for a car this size and because it is flat and boxlike it is actually all useable space.

Turning circle seems quite tight which is good compared to the Saturn Vue I rented a couple of weeks ago that turned, well, it turned like a *large* truck and was so slow and sluggish it was dangerous.

Mileage, mostly highway hovered around 25 mpg and I was not easy on the throttle at all. Impressive IMHO.

A/C was ice cold and all controls were logical and easy to operate.

Not enough storage bins, etc...Oh well it is a sports car though :)

One thing that did bother me a little bit was that my right leg/knee rested on the right side of the lower dash and it became uncomfortable at times no matter how I positioned the seat. I think I would put a little foam rubber pad over there. I am 6'1" tall BTW and other than that I fit in the car extremely well which is not always the case.

Example: A Suburu Outback I rented required me to almost fall out of the seat to get out because no matter how I adjusted the seat/steering wheel, the steering wheel was almost resting on my knees.

Horrible car BTW.

One thing I noticed with these Mustangs, convertibles especially, if you don't want to attract attention, don't drive one!

Last one (04) I had was yellow and I figured it was the color.

Nope.

It's the car/convertible.

I had people honking, flashing lights and coming over to ask me about the car.

God, if I wasn't married.......well....let's just say this thing is a chick magnet as well as a testosterone builder :)

So there you have it.

As you can tell, I rent a lot of cars mostly on business trips and because my company is a gigantic Hertz customer, I get upgrades all the time and my contract always has free mileage.

This car was for pleasure, but I still get the business rate which in NY was $40.00/day with all miles free. This car normally goes for about $180/day with mileage extra.

For those asking questions about renting a Mustang from Hertz, here is how it works. Most major airports will have them on the lot, but you can't normally reserve a Mustang or any other car (Except minivans and Expeditions)but you can reserve a class of car.

What I did was choose a small location near my home and called them directly and spoke to the manager. She took my name, told me to make my Gold Reservation for a "Standard Class, Grand Am/Alero etc) and she would see what she could do. Bottom line was they had the Mustang waiting for me when I went to pick the car up.

Free upgrade for me.

Nice letter to Hertz thanking them for making my day!

You could also take the "go to the airport and ask method" which from my experience will usually work if you go midweek. Be nice to the people and just ask them.

For those that don't know, rental cars for Gold Card members (sign up, it doesn't cost a dime I believe) who work for companies with large corporate accounts are along the lines of airline tickets. The price you pay, has no bearing at all on the car you drive just like the person sitting next to you on the plane may have paid 5 times what you paid for the same ticket.

My contract says I have to rent a class C car or lower, which is a standard car and my reservations always say Class C.

I've driven Volvo's (Prestige car), Outbacks, SUV's, Mustangs and so forth all at the same Class C rate.

There is no rhyme or reason to it for corporate Gold Card members. the yellow 04 Mustang I got was just the car they gave me.

So that's it! I'm still trying to decide between a V6 rag top or a V8 coupe. I think I will visit the dealer this week and test drive the V8 to see what it's got :)

Thanks again for all the advice and if you have any ?? fire away and I will do my best!

Tomas

Yea my rental was a V6 and it seemed to have a lot of power to me. FWIW I drive an 96 Impala SS which is no slouch either.

I do have to test drive the GT to see/feel what the difference is.