GTO a bust?

I'll give you the outside, but the inside of a Fox was terrible!

MadDAWG

I think that is a sign of the times. When the LX hit the cars performance is what made it get noticed. Personally I preferred the four eyes over the

87-93 versions. Those headlights reminded me to much of a Caviler. (No wonder Chevy changed the name to Cobalt. It seems Caviler is the benchmark for bad. lol). The interior of the 87-93 was incredibly cheap. That dash was one of the worst I have ever seen. However the car kicked a$$ and took names so all those short comings were easily forgotten. Today I think the car has become nostalgia. Hell there was a thread last week about a retro Fox. The one thing I do like about all the 79-93s is that they didn't follow the typical Mustang trends. I like having hints to the original cars like the 94-04, but the 05 is like a bad copy job IMO.

Now fast forward 17 years and there are plenty of cars with similar performance to the GTO so it needs something to make it stick out. I don't mean fake wings and tacked on scoops, but the general body lines. In the current Hot Rod they have some ideas for paint jobs and body mods. Check out thee Judge redo. Now I might use my dad's GM discount for one of those. Its amazing what recessing the grill sections does for the front end. And the simple stripe down the side helps as well.

The GTO has a great interior and typically I'm not a fan of colored interiors.

MadDAWG

"MadDAWG" wrote in news:412a1ebf$1 @news.mhogaming.com:

Ya got me there, Dawg.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

No matter how bad you think those interiors were, the seats in my '89 GT were the most comfortable of any of my other Mustangs; '98 GT, '00 GT, or '03 Cobra. The seatbelts in the '89 would also lock slightly loose from the body. I've been constantly tugging the shoulder belt away from my shoulder, over and over again as I drive since 1998 when I bought the '98 GT.

LOL! I liked the Probes better than the later-model Tauruses, though. Talk about bubbles!

The Fox GT certainly stood out more than the LX did, but it was all ground-effects, wasn't it? And the GT was slower than the LX because of the added weight.

But you're right: some people dig the Foxes. I just don't happen to be one of them, although I liked their power.

I haven't seen an '05 up-close-and-personal, but I think I like them. They could have gotten rid of the fender flares, though.

doc

doc

I read the magazine article about it's engineering and performance specs. Pretty impressive for a small (relativly) inexpensive sedan. But I happend to see one in the parking lot last week. I was not impressed. It looked like a honda/toyota/nissan/whatever. It just didn't do it for me.

But what is so great about it at all?

-It has a large engine that produces acceptable horsepower but nothing earth shaking.

-It's small but heavy.

-It's handling is nothing great.

-It looks like a better version of a Cavalier or a lesser version of the Grand Prix.

There is nothing exceptional about it.

-Rich

It's a 2-door, RWD-coupe with a stout V8 and 6-speed transmission?

Yes, large displacement, but light and very compact...all good things.

Since when is 350 HP and 365 ft-lbs of torque just "acceptable?" Gosh, it was just a few years ago when our Cobra only put out 320/300. And the Mach 1 only has 305.

Small is good. And while it isn't a flyweight, it isn't a porker like the last T-bird.

Actually, I think it's weight is comparable to the Cobra's.

It's more the bad tires than a weak suspension.

All the better. I'd rather blend in than be cop bait.

An automaker produces a car with 350 normally-aspirated horsepower,

6-speed, RWD, IRS, 4-wheel discs/ABS, sweet interior, clean stealthy exterior, and we complain. We sure have gotten picky, haven't we?

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

Well Patrick,

Maybe we can pick them up real cheap in a few years. I'd be cool having one as a daily driver if it were cheap!

Steve

72 Skylark

I agree, with one caveat. As I posted earlier, it's a great car, but do we really want a "stealthy exterior"? To me, that's a nice way of saying the car is nondescript.

Give me the eyball baby!!!!

John

66 2+2

I kinda like non-descript.... A guy I once worked with put a V8 in a VW..... At stop lights he'd catch 'em off guard and blow their doors off.... embarassing for the other guy to get beat by a vanilla looking Bug. Needless to say you couldn't haul much in it, but it was a lot of fun seeing the looks on the other driver's faces. And in keeping with that, my fastback is pretty well stripped of anything which might look racey. Even the exhaust is toned down. Kinda like dealing with a mosquito in malaria country... it may be small but it's got a bite that can kill.

V'ger jma(NOSPAM)@snowcrest.net

1965 Mustang Fastback 2+2 Vintage Burgundy w/ Black Std Interior 289 ci 4v V8 oem A Code Dual Exhaust C4 Auto converted to AODE 8" Trak Lok Vintage 40 wheels BF Goodrich gForce T/A 225/50ZR-16 KDWS tires Built in San Jose, CA on my birthday, May 10th ; ) Restoration by: Cool Mustang Restorations Cool, CA

1hp per cubic inch is no brag nowadays. P.S. the Mach's engine is what, around 287 cu in, 63 less than the GTO. Also, claims regarding 'Vette gas mileage; Are there people who actually drive them in 6th gear much?

-Rich

It's really only for cruising. That 6th gear is such a huge overdrive it isn't really usable for anything else. 75mph on a flat road is do-able in 6th, everything else needs lower gears. Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

I remember on my 96 M6 SS I rarely used 6th except at higher speeds...i.e. 75 or over. 5th was usually fine.

///Mike

1993 BMW 525i of all the old cars

I wish my Cobra was like that, I'm in 6th by 40 mph. I think Ford screwed up the gear ratios in the Cobra. I like the 3.55 rear, but wonder what difference a 3.27 would make with all that torque. The overall gearing in

6th is less than what it was in my '00 GT in 5th.

"A Guy Named Steve" wrote

Autotrader.com has a couple dozen starting at $26,000 and going up to $34,000 for brand new. That's a lot of performance for the money for a one year old car.

Probably the biggest reason for the soft sales is consumer snobbery. In the majority of cases purchasing decisions on cars in this price range are not based on objective qualities. They're based on status.

By "status" I mean a guy's personal perception of how he will be perceived by others when he shows up at the health club or the singles bar in this car rather than that car. This explains why SUV's are so popular with young men and mini-vans so disdained. The mini-van will do everything the SUV, and for a lot less in buy-in and operating costs.

An Aussie-built Pontiac-branded pushrod-engined performance coupe just does not have the status of equivalently-priced BMW's and Lexuses -- or SUV's. And that's why sales are soft.

180 Out TS 28

Apples and oranges. There is NO COMPARISON to the build quality of a Pontiac anything and a BMW, and I actually really dig the GTO. You just have to spend some time in one to know what I mean. My car is tight hell EVERYWHERE...motor, trans shifting, suspension, cabin seal (read: no air leaks) etc and it has just shy of 200K. I LOVE the new GTO and would buy one, but it's gonna take a lot to get me to consider anything else but another BMW for a daily driver. Just makes the daily grind too enticing, especially for my late 30's azz :-)

///Mike

1993 BMW 525i of all the old cars

Let me ask you this. How would it be comforting for a losing Mach 1 driver to know he lost because he wasn't packing enough cubes? Because I know I don't feel any better when I get smoked by an LS1 car knowing he has me outgunned by 45 cubes. All I realize is that I need more horsepower.

Rich, after a race, no one cares what the bores and strokes of the engines were; the only thing that matters is who won and who lost. Any talk afterwards about what the losing driver didn't bring to the race is an excuse.

Not sure where this comment came from. I can't answer that. You'd have to ask a Vette or Cobra owner about their 6th gear usage.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD