RancorKeeper

There are a plethora of reasons why two identical cars may handle differently on any given day, the presence of Traction Control being the most obvious in this case. At any rate, the Pony Package & the Stampede have identical suspensions, from shocks & spring rating to sway bar sizes. That's all there is to it.

The upgraded suspension pieces are available on the Pony Package, so ordering a Stampede Edition isn't getting you anything in addition to that, suspension-wise.

Most enthusiasts (and automotive journalists) give far greater credence to recent Special Edition Stangs like the Bullitt, Mach 1 & Shelby 'cause they're much more than just "Tape 'n Stripe" releases. They incorporate drivetrain, suspension & braking upgrades, as well as interior & exterior mods.

While this is technically true, in reality, if a dealership refuses to make repairs under warranty, you will be forced to take legal action to resolve the matter if you feel it's a valid claim. My parents went through this with their '85 Country Squire while it was still under the original 3yr/36K. The motor seized and three dealerships, including the one they bought the car from, refused to replace the engine, giving a litany of reasons why it wasn't covered. My parents consulted a lawyer, but the guy said it would probably cost more in fees to go to trial than to just pay for it out of pocket. Meanwhile, the car would just sit there completely useless until the issue was sorted out. Eventually, the dealership they bought the car from offered to do an engine swap for half the labor price if they bought the a new engine from them. This can backfire, too. A good friend who works at a garage that specializes in European cars (mainly Audis, BMWs & Mercedes) installed lowering springs on a friends new GTI a few years ago. When that kid had a warranty issue with suspension (some alignment issue with the front end), his dealership told him they wouldn't do the work because the springs weren't installed properly & contributed to the alignment problems. When he went to another VW dealer, his warranty claim was in the system as being denied, so that dealer told him they wouldn't fix it either. He ended up paying Dave's shop to do all the repairs. From my personal experience, when I took my Bullitt into my dealer for the 1-2 shift fork replacement (which was a TSB) I got a call the next morning asking how long my aluminum driveshaft & aftermarket shifter had been on. I said I installed it them both the first week I had the car & the next thing out of the tech's mouth was one or both could have caused the bent shift fork & they probably wouldn't do the work under warranty. I had to argue with the Dept. head for about ten minutes (and threaten to write a nasty letter to the owner) before he begrudgingly agreed they would do the work, but he made it clear he felt he was doing me a favor. Point of the story is while there are legal reasons why dealers can't refuse certain repairs based on certain mods or upgrades, it might require you to argue with them or even seek legal action. Might not be worth the aggravation - something to think about.

There's volumes of research to show that we drive more aggressively (follow cars too closely & drive too fast for traffic conditions) as braking performance has improved over the years. My 1970 Monte Carlo never needed ABS in Chicago traffic the numerous times I had to make a panic stop in rush hour. Good driving skills were more important than braking technology - I think that's true of most situations. Oh, and one other comment - I'll take a big tough tranny like a C6 or turbo 400 over ABS anyday to help me slow down. I was just in the F250 a couple weeks ago & the truck in front of me came to a complete stop from 60mph to make a left turn. I slammed on the brakes with both feet & downshifted into first. I bet I didn't have a spare inch between our vehicles, but I didn't hit him & I didn't lose control when I pulled toward the shoulder, although the rear tires did lock up.

I agree with silvrsvt - I don't think the 94-98 look anything like the 99-04 on the exterior. And I personally much prefer the 99-04; I think the early SN-95 looks like a weakling compared to the later years.

Why? Anti-lock brakes are useless if the tire isn't breaking contact with the road surface and losing adhesion, causing the car to skid. This almost always occurs when the road surface is covered in snow, slush or enough water to cause hyroplaning. If the tire isn't locking up, the driver hasn't lost steering control & thus doesn't need ABS to help maintain vehicle control or reduce stopping distance during hard braking . In fact, stopping distances increase in ABS vehicles under heavy braking in deep snow & gravel. Since there are many parts of NA where climate conditions are dry enough to make locals consider ABS an unneccesary option, I don't see why they would want to pay extra for a supposed "safety feature" they see no benefit from.

I have about ten. If you find anyone willing to give you more than the price of shipping, let me know.

I gotta say, the only pink sports cars that look good were the Moulin Rouge & Panther Pink Mopars.

The Ford's had a 300 cubic inch 6 though, so they had a fair amount of torque & could tow decent loads.

That's crap. I bought a house, a dog and a brand-new Bullitt making $33K a year back in 2000 & 2001. If you can't live on that you're doing something wrong. $16/hour is an excellent starting salary & it's a lot more than I made when I got my first job as an architect, which was $10/hour in 1998. And that was at a firm in downtown Chicago!

I made over 300hp on my '85 easy with just a cam, headers & exhaust (timing was for 93 octane). I wouldn't touch the bottom end unless you know it to be suspect. Also, your '87 has forged dish-top pistons with the E7TE heads, which had bigger valves & exhaust ports. Great stock motor to start upgrading.

That's correct, but they have the openings for them in the bumper cover, unlike the V6 which has three horizontal slats in the foglight location.

You could call a dealership & have them look up a bumper cover for a GT vs. the V6 and compare the part #s. But as long as your body guy does a competent job of removing the slats in the foglight opening on the bumper cover, I wouldn't be concerned.

I've heard it won't be sold as a convertible. Can anyone confirm this?

If stripped interior means no radio and no power windows, I'm not interested.

I've gotten 18 on the highway in my '99 2wd Tahoe (just me & the dog - pretty light) & I've read on other boards the new Tahoe gets 22 or 23 for some people on their daily commute. Not too shabby.

I'm hoping there is a model between the GT & Shelby in the next 18 months, priced somewhere around $35K 'cause then I could afford it and a few mods - right now the Shelby is just out of my reach financially. I really want my next Mustang to be a convertible, though.

"For investors, the entire dividend is not the issue. It is what it means when Ford cuts the dividend without a plan for how they will use the money to grow the business, and thereby the value of the stock. It is the drop from $15 and better that hurts, not the $.05!" This is mainly what I'm concerned with as well and what I feel most analysts took from the dividend cut. Without specifying how the additional $237M in yearly savings would be spent to help the business & thus hopefully increase stock price, the shareholder is left guessing as to what Ford plans to do with that money. That doesn't build confidence & I think that's mainly what so many analysts reacted to. Personally, I'd just like to hear Ford managment say specifically how they will use this money to help the turnaround & when they expect SUV sales to level off & at what percent they expect market share to stabilize at. I think specific response to those questions might stave off a lot of the negative perception people have of FoMoCo going from bad to worse lately & the dividend cut only seemed to further fuel that mindset.

The Mach 1 has 10.1:1 compression and since Ford recommends 91 octane, I'd suggest sticking to that, especially during the hot summer months. If you're really feeling the pinch in your wallet, do the half 89-half 91 every 3rd tank. You should be ok with that. In the cooler months, you could probably go half 'n half every other tank. But if you start hearing pinging or engine knock under hard acceleration, stick with the 91 octane.

My biggest concern about cutting the dividend is it affects how much money I can reinvest into buying Ford stock. As a general rule, most shareholders use dividend returns to purchase more stock; lessen the shareholders' ability to do this & they may very well sell it all & move on to some other investing opportunity. If enough people do this, I think it becomes something to be concerned with. For instance, I've held on to my Ford stock for over five years now, but in that same timeframe, two of my mutual funds have dropped Ford from their portfolios. While I often don't agree with Wall Street's opinion of Ford's future performance I won't ignore the fact that, as a whole, those analysts have a direct effect on Ford's bond rating & that has cost implications, especially if it keeps getting lowered. As ignorant as Wall Street seems to be of the auto industry, that's reality & I think Ford needs to start doing something to turn around analyst opinion. Cutting the dividend isn't helping.

Nick, I run a 315/35R17 KDW on the back of my Bullitt - it factored out to less than .05% change in the speedo reading. I suppose as I do more burnouts, that will wear down to zero.

Looks like the 400lb gorilla in the corner at GM finally stood up. Their market share for June looks like it's going to be below 22%, which is a full 10% less than last June. Granted, last June was their first month of the "Employee Discounts for Everyone" sale, but still, that's an enormous drop. Does anyone else think the General's share might dip below 20%? I thought they'd stabilize right around 24 or 25, but maybe not. I certainly don't see them doing much better anytime during the summer.

Exactly. Mazda & Subaru are more "Japanese" than Nissan.

The flip side of that argument is the recent Pontiac GTO. Here's a car with tons of performance but virtually no style or presence and it sold 25,159 total between the '04 & '05 models. That's a resounding "No thanks!" from the enthusiast demographic. Personally, you can always bolt-on performance, but you can't add styling presence after the car leaves the factory.