GoatMonkey

I have a friend who went head on with a drunk driver (at 8am). He was driving a '96 Mustang Convertible and the drunk guy had a Chevy S10. He has a huge scar over his eye from where he hit the corner of the windshield frame, most of his vision in that eye is gone. He spent a month in a hospital unconscious. He actually did pretty well compared to the drunk guy in the S-10 who didn't make it. Anyway, that story made me decide on the Mustang coupe. No window corners to hit your head on in a coupe. And no, they didn't roll in the Mustang. But think about the sheer number of accidents there are in the U.S.. Even with a low percentage of rollover accidents there are still plenty of them. Enough that I don't want to risk having a 3500+ pound car on my head. No matter how good of a driver you are, it's often more about how good a driver the other guy is. There are a ton of absolute morons driving now. Consider this also, a large percentage of V-6 Mustang Convertible buyers are women. I hate to make myself sound like a complete sexist, but yeah, a lot of them are gonna roll that car at some point. It would be great for Ford's sales to have some kind of rollover protection in the Mustang. I just don't see the problem with having your fun car be safe at the same time. Does it make it less fun for you if you aren't risking death quite as much?

Absolutely. I second that.

Finally... "In addition a new dual-clutch six-speed PowerShift gerabox will also debut in the MKS." Ford getting DSG style transmissions Thanks Ford.

Only if it's actually an auto. What we really need is a manual with the electronic shifing like in Ferraris, Lamborghinis and especially Audi's dual clutch system. Upshifts are virtually seemless. It's something like 0.08 seconds to change gears. Think what that will do to your times. Formula One jumped all over it and it has been very successful.

Yes, that's exactly what I was saying. Ford just needs to remember them and use them.

In order to better compete with Japan the companies of America need to remember that Japan's perceived quality and efficiency is the result of an American's ideas. There is nothing mystical or magical about Japanese people or culture that inherently makes them better at creating products. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming There is no reason that American companies can not use the same ideas now, since they still apply.

The PT Cruiser seems to be pretty high production and not expensive. The Magnum is getting to be pretty common too. I can understand how Ford would be reluctant to do this though after the Thunderbird. I think the Thunderbird was just overpriced. There were a lot of people who wanted one but it was out of their price range. Ford needs to look at the success of the Mustang instead. You can tell it was a labor of love in the design of the Mustang right down to the small details that you don't even see. Now Ford has new cars like the Fusion, which is a nice car, but it lacks passion. Maybe handing it over to SVT can give it a little help, but it would be even better if it was there from the start and included on the regular base versions. Exactly what that is is harder to quantify though. It pretty much comes down to attention to detail and stand out styling though.

I was told that I would get a check in the mail in 3 to 4 weeks. They sure didn't have any problem charging my credit card immediately when the repairs were done. It would be nice if they would pay it back immediately too. I guess they need to draw it out as long as possible to collect more interest on my money. The dealership I went to did not give me any problems with what needed to be done. They had the paperwork ready for me to sign once I gave them a receipt once the settlement was made final. Before that they acted like I was crazy and the lawsuit was just a ranting junk mail sent across the country. However, I am worried about it since they wanted the original receipt instead of the copy I had made, and I have no way of knowing if they really sent it in or not. As far as I know they could have collected my paperwork and dropped it in the dumpster as soon as I left.

Ferrari has never been known for having extremely high reliability or ease of mainenance. From what I've heard you have to take out the engine to do things that should be minor repairs. If Ford put together a system along the lines of Audi's system I think it would be significantly more reliable after going through Ford's usual torture test. If they could get it reliable with smooth and fast shifting it seems like they could save a lot on manufacturing costs by building only one transmission.

The Saturn Ion has the worst interior. Same kind of company. Same kind of car.

The yellow and black one would make a nice Dodge Charger.

Here is some description of what I'm talking about. Click on --> TT Coupe Features --> DSG http://www.audiusa.com/model_home/0,,bodyS...sh_home_theater http://www.autozine.org/technical_school/g...gear_manual.htm You can see the difference between a regular automatic with paddle shifters and a electronically controlled clutch system. I think the Audi dual clutch system sounds the best. 8ms upshifts could take a good chunk off your quarter mile times.

That's because it's just an automatic with paddle shifters instead of a manual with the electronic clutch.

I would like to see Ford make a 6-speed manual with electronic clutch, activated by a paddle style mechanism, or a standard lever with no clutch pedal, or a regular automatic style lever. In my opinion, this style shifter is the only logical choice for new transmissions. You make 1 transmission that can satisfy both the traditional manual transmission driver and the automatic transmission driver, or anyone in between. You could make this 1 transmission to satisfy the automatic transmission driver by having all of the shifts controlled by the computer. The user interface for most cars would not even have to be different than what they have now with a P R N D 3 2 1 style lever. If the customer doesn't want a manual mode or the target market would likely just be confused by it there is no reason to put it there. The manual transmission crowd will cry over not being able to skip gears, so this 1 transmission could have an interface similar to a traditional manual. There could even be a clutch pedal for those delusional people who think they can outperform the computer. I see no reason that you couldn't have a switch to deactivate the electronic control of the clutch if you get some kind of thrill from pressing that pedal. Then of course there is the paddle shifter user interface to the transmission. Which is pretty much what Aston Martin, Ferrari, etc. currently have. The rumor mill says that other car companies are going to have this type of transmission in mainstream cars soon, such as the next Mitsubishi EVO. Ford needs to have the ability to compete in this market, and this market will soon demand this type of transmission. My personal preference would be to get it in a Mustang though, one with a 5.4 32v N/A .

What I would like to see is someone making a kit to inset the rear side window a few inches so that side louvers could be flush with the body instead of looking tacked on like the current aftermarket products. I would actually prefer the side louvers but no rear louvers. Side louvers remind me of the 66 fastback, while rear louvers remind me of the '77 Cobra II more than the '69, which is not something I want to think of.

I think what we need is something in between the current production Mustang and that one pictured. If it could be made with the nice curve to the fender and the integrated ducktail, but still keep a more reasonable side window. I would also like it without that air intake on the fender, a clean look is better. The large area of metal on the roof when the side windows are smaller, make the car look bigger and heavier in the tail. My friend calls the early 70s Mustang the fat Mustang, and I think a lot of that has to do with the small side windows. The other thing that the Mustang needs in the styling department is that concave rear end between the tail lights. Look at that Mustang in the upper picture. You can see how deep that concave area is. The tail lights are actually raised from the surface on that one. It's much better than the bulbous rear end that the Mustang has now, which can only be improved slightly by adding a good ducktail spoiler. Even GM and Chrysler have picked up on this being a better look. Take a look at the Corvette C5 vs. the Corvette C6. The car looks much more trim in the back thanks to the concave rear end on the C6. Chrysler even saw this back in the '90s on the Intrepid.