Child Safety Seats

I never has been a family car. Oh, sure, you can squeeze a couple of kids in the back but they outgrow the rear seat about as fast as they outgrow their clothes. I know from experience. The same applies to Camaros, Firebirds, etc. An old Falcon has more back seat room than a Mustang of any year.

I don't know. My old '87 LX 5-oh was our family, and lone, car until

1995. By 1995, my two kids were 11 and 9. Yep, that old Mustang worked for us -- and that's including many 700+ mile vacation trips. Not to mention, a trip to the drags when I removed their two car seats to lay down a number of low-14 second passes.

Patrick

Mustang has been around long enough that some of us were kids that sat in the backseats of them and have different perspective ;)

I always thought the 5.0's were just fine for small children. My two kids grew up in the back seat of a Mustang II hatchback, then rode in the back of an '84 5.0, and by the time I bought my '93 they were 11 and 13, getting just a mite tight back there.

The good thing was that, as they grew, they wanted less and less to sit back there. When we went anywhere as a family, we would take my wife's station wagon (or, later, her Escape). I had no problem with that - it meant that the kids and ALL of their assorted parephernalia and trappings went in the truck, and not in my Mustang. No melted Crayons® in the side pockets, no empty french fries bags under the seats.

It had really been about 10 years, I guess, since anyone has sat in the back of TFrog. I was recently asked to transport a couple of adults to their hotel, and so I had a somewhat-nervous older man in the passenger seat and an absorbed-with-her-cellphone older woman sitting sort-of sideways in the back. It worked out okay, but I was glad that it was only a 20-minute trip. And, since almost all of my driving is solo, it was WEIRD having people in the car. Didn't care for it at all.

The trade-off has always been that, when we drove a distance for vacation, the Mustang stayed home. That always meant that I had no Mustang on vacation, and spent the entire week driving around in the Escape (which, I have to say, is NOT something I enjoy). And no, taking both cars was never an option. Of course, the moment we got home again, I would volunteer to go out for milk! After driving an Escape for a week, getting back in the Mustang always seems a bit strange, but always soooooo right.

dwight

When I was a kid my folks had a VW bug. We made one long trip in it when we moved from Cape Cod to Florida. Two adults, 3 kids (13, 11, &

5), and a couple of cats. Luggage in a luggage rack on top. Dad removed the back of the rear seat. VWs were "family" cars but that does not mean comfortable back there. Like with Mustangs (and I have had 2 65 FBs, a Mustang II, and a 72) not enough luggage room, not enough leg room in back for growing kids or adults... especially if those in front had longer legs. I have ridden in the back of many pony cars, and never found one to be comfortable for more than a short trip. Not saying anyone who disagrees is wrong. It's just my personal experience since the 1960s.

How old was it when you bought it?

GT or LX?

The CFrog was a low mileage car, right? How did you find it -- friend, classified, spotted a for sale sign while driving by?

Those are odd things to wear out from being abused. (Typically it's transmission, brakes or engine problems.) Unless the previous owner was a "modifier", and in this case a bad one.

My older brother once received three tickets in one evening -- in only about 4 hours time. He had a "hotted up" '72 Chevelle and had just installed some new wheels and tires, and the local authorities, apparently, found it to be irresistible. The first ticket was for 15 over. The second 10 over. He then came home to inform my mom and dad. After the discussion, he had but one trip do for the evening and that was to take his girlfriend home. My parents parting words were 'keep it slow, you can't afford to get anymore tickets." 30 minutes later he had ticket three -- for [slow] rolling through a stop sign. Three tickets, three different cops, in two different towns. Needless to say, not a good evening for my brother, or my parent's insurance rates. Also, needless to say, he quickly found himself on his own policy.

and I sold the

My brother's purgatory was his beloved Chevelle parked in the garage, and sitting behind the wheel of a rusted/crashed '68 Dodge pickup, a vehicle that later would became my "winter beater." (Never has there been such a cobbled-together, rolling wreck. (A cop who pulled me over for loud exhaust and partially non-functional blinkers was even astonished at the amount of dis-function and "band-aids" it sported. And even more astonished when I nearly ran him over during a parking- brake test. The plea bargain was I'll rewire the blinkers and fix the exhaust, in exchange for being able to drive it until Spring when I promised to junk it. Luckily and surprisingly, for me, he agreed.)

Didn't you have a time when you thought about getting another motorcycle?

It's weird how some vehicles just click with their owner. My '76 Dodge stepside and the LX both had that magic.

Back when there were scores of trolls and regulars, one of which who wouldn't stop lambasting the then new Mustang for under performing compared to competition.

I miss the smallish, intimate dimensions and very appealing "crudeness" of those Foxes -- it's a combination the new ones lack.

Patrick

You ask a lot of questions. Okay, here we go... I believe I bought it in

1988, sold it in '91.

It was a sad precursor to TFrog - same LX hatchback, but an automatic. (See, I STILL don't know why I bought it.)

It's hinted at on the website:

I did look at quite a few 5.0 convertibles, after selling off the Princessmobile. The ones in good shape were asking too much, the ones asking not too much were not in good shape. I found it online (autotrader.com, or one of those), and the seller was in New Jersey, just across the river. We met in Philadelphia (neutral ground) so I could see the car, and I pretty much bought it on the spot. Funny how you don't notice things, until you actually own the car... As I was driving it home from Jersey, I saw that the windshield was finely pitted, as if someone enjoyed tailgating dump trucks. There was a spot on the hood that looked like it was repainted - poorly. And a slight indentation right at the "5.0" on the left fender made me think the car had been smacked at some point. Still, it's been pretty good for the last 7 years. And I just did finally have the windshield replaced with brand-new glass. Oh, and I hit a deer, which made an even BIGGER indentation right at that same "5.0" badge. CFrog had slightly less than 75,000 on the clock when I bought it, and just recently topped 150,000.

The car was cursed. It's possible that the previous owner did NO maintenance on the thing at all (like, oh, flushing the radiator) and I ended up paying the tab.

Definitely true that trouble comes in three's. I haven't been ticketed since. I've been pulled over twice recently, but I don't think the police knew exactly how fast I WAS going (one seriously lowballed it, before sending me on my way with a warning). It's kinda nice being an old fart. I'd have to go WAY out of my way to get a speeding ticket, apparently.

This paragraph got me thinking about my previous life ('72 Pinto, '74 Mustang II, etc.), when a repair was something that could be put off until it became necessary. Driving with a snapped clutch cable. Not "real sure" that I could stop with my worn brake pads and scarred rotors. Stupid stuff like that. Hell, these days my daughter just has to look at me funny, and she gets a full set of new tires for her Focus. I've learned to respect replaceable components and preventive maintenance. In hindsight, it's a wonder I'm alive today.

I think "motorcyclist" is kinda like "alcoholic," in that you never are cured. I think about buying a new bike every Spring (my annual itch is coming soon), but Jean has made it very clear that she will never sit on the back of a motorcycle again. For myself, I would look again at cruisers, something above 750cc certainly. I'd always hoped that she and I would cruise the highways on a Goldwing, which we saw a lot of up in New England one vacation, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. (I even pictured our matching leather outfits, too... ) Since selling off the Kawasaki in '94(?), I've never seriously look at bikes. What I have looked at lately, I haven't really liked. And Harley's are out of my "toy" range. For $10,000+, it would have to be my ONLY mode of transportation. Hah!

Yep. It just fits me like a well-worn shoe. Whenever the two Frogs are both broken, I picture trading them both in on a new V6. As long as one is running well, I'm pretty content. But when I can finally get TFrog into the garage for a two-day marathon of buffing and waxing, I just fall in love with the thing all over again. That's my baby. I did promise that car a home for life. I'm still married to my first wife, too, so it's possible that TFrog will be with me until I die. And that, of course, would piss off my wife...

That's it. Raw. Compared to today's rides, TFrog is just raw. Not a lot of creature comforts (even fewer now, after 18 years as a daily driver), just a large engine in a small, acoustically horrible chassis with plenty of go.

dwight