I GOT ONE!

Um, that's a brand-new car. I rather suspect they don't have a high *reliability* rating, there's no way we can know yet. They probably have a very high *initial satisfaction* rating, though, given all the hype.

Or Yugos.

Dana

There is no doubt about it, in a metro area you gotta have an auto or the car's for weekends only. I drive my kids' stick-shift '65 fb to work sometimes, crossing the SF Bay Bridge. Along about the 20th minute of stopping and going to get through the toll booth I'm ready to get out and start walking. Keeping the faith is all well and good, but the car will get a lot more use if it's not torture to use it.

Glad to hear they're dealing (a little) on the GT's. My local Ford dealer has a silver/black GT vert out front and of course they want the $5,000 added dealer profit. That makes it a $38,000 car, just a few thou below a Corvette!

180 Out

There is no doubt about it, in a metro area you gotta have an auto or the car's for weekends only. I drive my kids' stick-shift '65 fb to work sometimes, crossing the SF Bay Bridge. Along about the 20th minute of stopping and going to get through the toll booth I'm ready to get out and start walking. Keeping the faith is all well and good, but the car will get a lot more use if it's not torture to use it.

Glad to hear they're dealing (a little) on the GT's. My local Ford dealer has a silver/black GT vert out front and of course they want the $5,000 added dealer profit. That makes it a $38,000 car, just a few thou below a Corvette!

180 Out

As you know, I get to choose my poison. Today is the "official" first day of Spring (mid-60s and sunny), so I've got the '93 GT convertible with automatic (CFrog). But on those days that I take the '93 LX stick (TFrog) to work, I can usually count on a good, long traffic snarl. Yes, the left knee gets a great workout, but I never complain. Well, maybe if it's a

10-feet-at-a-time crawl up a big, steep hill, but I'm still happy to be driving stick, when the traffic lets up and we get moving again.

As for the weekends, yes, it's TFrog for a romp, and CFrog for tooling around with the top down and my wife in the passenger seat.

I have yet to see a GT convertible locally. I was just checking out a white coupe, which listed at about $27K. The dealer's markup was an additional $2,000, but I want to talk to the guy who actually pays that. That's as bad as taking out a personal seat license for the privilege of buying season tickets. Well, worse, actually.

dwight

Don't let Dave here you say that....

Well, it was a swap for an MSRP order, so... not really a deal, but nice of them to do that. I'll probably buy my LoJack there.

See dealers? Be nice and get repeat business.

On 30 Mar 2005 10:08:43 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote something wonderfully witty:

Aww come on. If I can ride a Harley in a Metro area you can certainly drive a manual transmission car.

Hell when I was first looking the dealer made me an outstanding offer of $33K for a used Blue one with only 1K miles. Such a deal.

I know this is hard for some to understand, but I don't *want* to drive a stick. :)

I understand completely ;). Just what is the fascination with a clutch?

I used to commute from Modesto to San Mateo. Believe me *I* understand!

I was happo to have an auto then.

Kate

| >> The new Mustangs also have a really high reliability rating. | >

| >

| > Um, that's a brand-new car. I rather suspect they don't | > have a high *reliability* rating, there's no way we can know | > yet. They probably have a very high *initial satisfaction* | > rating, though, given all the hype. | >

| >> You wanna talk about crap? lets talk about early to mid 80s Jags or | >> early to mid 80s Cimmeron/Cavaliers. | >

| >

| > Or Yugos. | >

| > Dana | | | Don't let Dave here you say that....

Isn't that just the coolest thing! Ya gotta love a guy that has that much gumption.

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:53:13 -0800, Quiet Desperation wrote something wonderfully witty:

Ahhh the truth comes out.

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 07:10:42 GMT, "Richard" wrote something wonderfully witty:

Ah my good man, it is the difference between driving an automobile, or simply steering it.

Ah, but then again you haven't been out with me. Downshifting as you enter into the curve and powering your way through it with one hand on the wheel and the other on the stick,then upshifting as you come out of the curve just doesn't do it for me anymore. I would bet that I can out drive most others on a stick with an automatic that is properly set up.