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My New Mustang!


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With my Flex turning 9 this last November, I've been looking into new vehicles over the last several months and thinking about what to get. I've mentioned a few different times on various threads about vehicles I've been interseted in - Mustang, Edge ST, Bronco, and Mach 1 have all been contenders (obviously some of those are further off than others) at various points. Despite its age and having ~128k on it, I still love my Flex and have an attachment to it haha (I still give it "check that out" looks walking away/toward it), and love its' uniqueness, so the thought of parting with it has been hard. I think that and the fun factor had me leaning in the adding a Mustang to the "stable" direction as opposed to outright replacing the Flex (with an Edge ST, Bronco, etc) at least for now.

 

With that in mind, I had gone for a walk with my brother a few weeks ago and we walked by the local dealer; they had a used white '17 Mustang GT Premium convertible with 20k miles, which seemed like a lot, but he and I wound up searching online and found a pretty much loaded white '17 GT Premium 'vert with only 8K miles on it for $33k. 45 mins away at a Chevy dealer for the same price as the one with 20k on it. My dad came with me up to see/drive it. We call to make sure it's there before going (it was), and we arrive and started looking at it. The sales guy comes up and then says he'll get the keys so we can look at it. The thing looks like brand new inside and out, so I wanted to drive it.....we pull it up to the front of the dealer (it was off to the side) so that he can copy my license before we go. He comes out and says "bad news, someone has a deposit on the car and is coming to pick it up tomorrow." So basically that ended up being a waste of time.

 

The casual search continued, looking through used models trying to find ones with similar low miles, and there were a few around the state, but none jumped out at me, and I wasn't in a rush to do anything either. Then, I come across a listing for a new 2018 Lightning Blue GT Premium convertible in Tampa (4 hours away), and they're offering it for 8K off sticker because it's been on the lot for a while and they'd like to move it. It had the 401A package (digital gauges, upgraded interior trim, heated steering wheel, navigation), active exhaust, and the 20" wheels (which happen to be the only ones I like of the 2018+ wheels). The only thing it didn't have which I would've liked, but I could do without is the safe+smart package, which adds adaptive cruise control, BLIS, auto high beams, lane keeping, 3 seat drivers memory, pre collision/auto braking/pedestrian detection, and rain sensing wipers.

 

I call up, and they do indeed still have the car (and it's not sold this time haha), so this past weekend, I drove up with both my parents who wanted to come this time to check it out. I drove it, and liked it, and after a ridiculously long time at the dealer (a few hours, not helped by banks being closed on the weekend/at that hour), came away with a 2018 Mustang GT Premium convertible in Lightning Blue. I know you all want to see pics after suffering through my book here, so I'll put my initial driving impressions after the pics. These aren't the best pics, as I haven't had a chance to clean it up from the bugs and take proper pics, but they'll do for now haha.

 

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Now for initial driving impressions....

 

Though it sucked starting a 4 hour drive at 10:30 at night, having to drive it home 4 hours gave me time to experience it.

 

I think it's appropriate to start off a Mustang GT overview with the sound..... :wub: You can't beat the intoxicating V8/Mustang growl it has. With this model having the active exhaust, you're able to switch between Quiet, Normal, Sport, and Track modes. And there's a significant difference between the different modes - quiet is very quiet, while track is very loud. I tried to set the quiet start mode for mornings, but it didn't seem to work this morning.....unless that was quiet start and it's just still pretty loud haha. Making it loud is fun, but on a long drive, it's nice to throw it in quiet mode and slip along without too much noise.

 

Acceleration and performance is awesome - the 5.0 + 10 speed is a fantastic combo. It's fun to throw it in sport+ mode and especially when slowing down and hearing it downshift through the 10 gears. Did I mention the exhaust sound? Didn't experience too many twisties on the journey home, but I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with it haha.

 

Interior - awesome - this isn't the '05 Mustang here with hard plastics everywhere - materials are all of high quality, and soft where you'd expect/want it to be. As I mentioned, it has the 401A package which offers the upgraded trim and floor mats. While I wish it were the "midnight blue" option (which uses blue stitching and accents in the seats/dash, and would've been nice on the blue car), the gray stitching looks nice. SYNC3 is the same setup as in my dad's Raptor. I like it more than the MFT setup, as it's a very similar arrangement to my Flex's setup. I do wish that the "controls" panel would stay up (or at least minimized to a short bar on the bottom) instead of having to click the "controls" button in the corner of the screen before then changing feature, but it's not terrible. I LOVE the digital gauge cluster - MUCH better than the standard gauges/screen combo. I'll do a more complete writeup another time showing the variations it allows, but it's really cool the ways it lets you customize the setup to your preferences.

 

Anyway, I'll save further rambling for another review type post in a few weeks or so.... hope you enjoyed the pics!

Edited by rmc523
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Damn.......that is sexy. I'm usually meh on blue mustangs outside of a grabber blue boss 302 with black stripes, but that is drop dead gorgeous. She looks even better with the top down (don't they all?).

 

Would love to hear how much the tranny downshifts in sport mode on the twisties - does it keep the revs high so you can blast out of the corner like most supercars?

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She's a beaut! And again...photos reminding me just how vastly different the climate in Michigan is right now, LOL.

 

It's 79 degrees and cloudless with a nice cool breeze today :stirpot:

 

Needless to say, the top will be down on the way home!

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good color combo....must admit regarding styling, front end is finally settling in, was a bit much for me when i fist saw it...very busy. The car works well, theres only one thing that bugs me, and Ive come to ignore it, the strange "S" bend curve on the hood detail....STILL bothers me...but nice ride buddy......rather a SIGNIFICANT change from the Flex....the second row leg room differs somewhat.

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good color combo....must admit regarding styling, front end is finally settling in, was a bit much for me when i fist saw it...very busy. The car works well, theres only one thing that bugs me, and Ive come to ignore it, the strange "S" bend curve on the hood detail....STILL bothers me...but nice ride buddy......rather a SIGNIFICANT change from the Flex....the second row leg room differs somewhat.

 

The third row legroom differs even more - almost nonexistent! Much worse than that Explorer we were debating about last week too :P

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Congrats looks great...I agree in S.FL, no way would I recommend manual to anyone. There's no way to row the gears when your needed to text and change radio stations with your phone... ;)

 

Speaking of the phone, I get to take full advantage of FordPass now. I can lock/unlock and start the car with my phone. I can also locate it if need be.....I have to explore the app more, but it's got some pretty neat features.

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Speaking of the phone, I get to take full advantage of FordPass now. I can lock/unlock and start the car with my phone. I can also locate it if need be.....I have to explore the app more, but it's got some pretty neat features.

 

The Lincoln app also remembers where you park and alerts you on low tire pressure or low battery. Not sure if the Ford app does all of that.

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