At Home Mechanic

Buck writes, "Thanks, Scott. I appreciate your in-depth review and honesty... The bottom line is that they built a beautiful commuter car, especially for a Southern Californian. I could buy a C6 or an AMG McLaren but how would that make more sense given my driving opportunities while commuting?"

Buck, you say that you want a commuter car for Southern California but there are far more fuel and space efficient commuter cars from which you could choose. But the key clue to your desires is your declaration that the new Mustang is "beautiful." While I will not deny that the lovely shape of the current Mustang does bring a nostalgic twang to my heart (I was an irrational fan of all things Ford in my childhood when the original Mustang was introduced)I find that the shape of the car is too large and non-aerodynamic in this fuel conscious age to be beautiful to my eyes. But to each his own, beauty lies in the beholder.

Buck, you speak of sense. Does it make any sense to buy a commuter car that gets less than 20 miles per gallon? Does it make sense to buy a car with a tiny and nearly inaccessible trunk? Does it make sense for you, a father for two, to buy a car that has a vestigial back seat? No, sense has nothing to do with your decision to buy or lease (I shutter at the thought of pissing your money away on leasing a 6 cylinder Mustang that will depreciate so rapidly) this car.

Lets face it. For the average American (and Buck you are very average with your two children and your suburban lifestyle) a car purchase is not about practical matters. It is all about emotion. Your emotional response to the shiny convertible on the dealer lot is all that Ford is counting on to sell you a car.

Ford and the other American manufacturers will not bother to engineer a decent car until Joe Average stops buying dumb, impractical automobiles. You see Buck, you are an "enabler." Just as the family of a drunk that refuses to confront him is allowing the destructive behavior to continue, consumers like you are holding the Detroit Three to a low standard. In effect by buying the Mustang you are declaring, "I really do not care how crappy this car is under the sheet metal, I will buy it because it will make me feel good about myself."

And by doing that, by encouraging Detroit to make lousy cars you are contributing to killing the American automobile industry. The Big Three have gotten fat and lazy selling style rather than delivering solid design engineering. And today with gas prices approaching $3 per gallon, Detroit does not have the products that Americans will need.

Sure there will be giant blinging SUV's, Corvettes, Vipers and the such to create show room traffic for American-made car dealers. But the rest of the product line is a hollow shell of crap.

So go ahead Buck, do as you wish. You may absolutely love your Mustang for its few virtues and its many flaws in my opinion. It appears to me that your interest in automobiles ends at the sheet metal.