04 Cobra or 05 GT

[RICKS]

Parts coming off in your hands??? Hmmm....... Quite honestly, I've seen owners of cars that basically trash everything and anything they own, the car doesn't stand a chance in hell, it could be a Sherman Tank, and it would fall apart in the hands of some folks. Don't know you at all alan64, and maybe you're a caring owner of your machinery and I'm off base. But I've had plenty of Fox-era Mustangs, and they were all sturdy and bullet-proof. I couldn't KILL my '88 GT convertible, with weekly raping at the dragstrip, and over 100,000 youthful and hard miles on a heavily modified car. It was an anvil, especially considering the butt-a$$-cheap price (relatively speaking). Yeah, they rattled some and the chassis definately had their issues, although with each go around (1987, 1994, 1999) Ford made distinct improvement. But junk?? No, not at all. If that's the case, then EVERYTHING on the market that sold for a similar price was junk also. You just need to buy more expensive cars and quit playing with Mustangs, because as time and progress marches on you'll be trash-talking this new '05 as "junk" just the same..

As for the Z06 vs. C6 question, I'd take the C6. The performance advantage of the Z06 actually proves to be quite minimal, and the price you pay in awful interior, lousy shifter, worse styling, teeth-rattling ride, and boat-anchor depreciation isn't worth the extra 2 tenths and extra .02-.04 g's. Hell, you could probably pick those up with a set of Bilsteins and a cold-air kit. And with the extra displacement, the "potential" pendulum will always swing to the C6's side. The Lotus Elise kind of points out where you wind up when the quest for all-around performance gets way outside of the realm of what you'd want to drive to work every day. No, it's not a straight-line rocket, but you see where I'm going. Everybody has their own threshold of how much is too much to sacrifice just to be a bit quicker.

 

[Jpjr]

As for the Z06 vs. C6 question, I'd take the C6. The performance advantage of the Z06 actually proves to be quite minimal, and the price you pay in awful interior, lousy shifter, worse styling, teeth-rattling ride, and boat-anchor depreciation isn't worth the extra 2 tenths and extra .02-.04 g's. Hell, you could probably pick those up with a set of Bilsteins and a cold-air kit. And with the extra displacement, the "potential" pendulum will always swing to the C6's side. The Lotus Elise kind of points out where you wind up when the quest for all-around performance gets way outside of the realm of what you'd want to drive to work every day. No, it's not a straight-line rocket, but you see where I'm going. Everybody has their own threshold of how much is too much to sacrifice just to be a bit quicker.

-Boat-anchor depreciation.. sort of a moot point since this applies to all cars, anyone that buys a muscle car for resale value should be having their head examined.

-I agree on the threshold comment. But the larger displacement will in no way make up for the added weight... it just makes for cheaper factory mods to save GM money. With 4.6 Mustangs making over 400hp stock, a 5.7 is plenty to mod with. However, I'm coming from the mod world and you seem to be coming from the daily driver perspective.

 

[RICKS]

-Boat-anchor depreciation.. sort of a moot point since this applies to all cars, anyone that buys a muscle car for resale value should be having their head examined.

Yes, depreciation applies to all cars, but at far different rates. Typically, when an existing "generation" of car is replaced by an all-new "generation", the older generation takes an immediate and enormous hit, far more painful than the rate of depreciation that had existed for it prior to the new generation hitting the market. The same thing goes for pre-2005 Mustangs now that the all-new '05 is in the showrooms. So, if you were buying an '01 Z06 brand new in 2001, I wouldn't have a thing to say to you about depreciation, it would be a non-issue, just business as usual. But when you talk about buying an existing generation just as an all-new generation is hitting the market, man, it's like pouring gas on money and lighting a match, unless the newer generation really sucks and is seen as a step backward. I usually keep my cars forever, rarely selling. But, I never buy much towards the end of its lifespan, I always like to get in early-to-midway through a generation so that I'm not paying new-car-money for an already old car.

Secondly, the new C6 is LIGHTER than the outgoing C5 (non-Z06). It weighs 3245 lbs. The C5 Z06 weighs 3116 lbs. So you're talking about 130 pounds. That's fairly negligable, not the kind of weight that would keep a C6 from stomping a C5 Z06 when you start applying mods. And no, just because I daily drive my cars, doesn't mean I don't mod the snot out of them. I've been drag racing and modding since I started driving in the mid-80's. But I don't turn away from a totally superior car just because of a tenth or two and a hundred pounds in stock form... That's shortsighted. I bought an '88 GT convertible new. The convertible was HEAVY, but the top went down , and once the wrenches started flying, I was TOASTING all those light LX coupes at the track. As a modder, I would think that you could care less about the slight advantage the Z06 brings to the table bone-stock, as it wouldn't be staying stock for long, which is where those 130 pounds just get tossed out the window as fairly irrelevent. And, let's be honest, except for the folks who can afford a Sean Hyland longblock, 4.6's aren't eclipsing 400 h.p. without the help of a blower. It's apples and oranges when you're talking displacement.

 

[RandyB]

I would also take the C6 because as RICKS pointed out, the differences aren't as big of a deal as you think. I also thought the new C6 coupe was closer to $40-45k. I don't care about the image of having the 'latest and greatest' - that's irrelevant to me. That's another reason why I always wait closer to the end of a model run to purchase a car - you get a more evolved version usually for a better price. Technology marches onward and you can't turn your back on that. This isn't about liking the new car because it is 'the next great thing', it's about liking it because it is leaps and bounds ahead of the current car in every way underneath regardless of how cool it looks.

 

[RICKS]

It's a double-edge sword, a chicken/egg scenario, buying early or late in the run. You buy early, you watch improved and increased h.p. versions come out later in the model run...... You buy late, and you've got the most evolved of the model run, only to soon watch an ALL NEW car come out that immediately casts your "most evolved" model into the tar pit with the rest of the dinosaur fossils. That's the way it is with buying a new car!! That's why alot of people trade-up every few years. Others stick with their babies for a long long time, others have the income to keep everything.... there's all kinds of enthusiasts.

 

[Jpjr]

It's a double-edge sword, a chicken/egg scenario, buying early or late in the run. You buy early, you watch improved and increased h.p. versions come out later in the model run...... You buy late, and you've got the most evolved of the model run, only to soon watch an ALL NEW car come out that immediately casts your "most evolved" model into the tar pit with the rest of the dinosaur fossils. That's the way it is with buying a new car!! That's why alot of people trade-up every few years. Others stick with their babies for a long long time, others have the income to keep everything.... there's all kinds of enthusiasts.

I understand the generalization your trying to make, but have you ever driven a Z06 and C6? I'll give you that the Mustangs were sitting on archaic chassis and the '05's are significant improvements. But comparing a C6 to Z06 is like comparing a Mustang GT to a Cobra. Your talking about a lighter race tuned car with more hp and plenty of displacement running against a car with more significant stlying and interior innovations than anything else The major car magazines have highlighted this, as evidenced by this months Car & Driver. If you wanted to tell me that the 2006 Z06 will blow away the 2004, then I would *totally* agree. But if I were building a Vette for speed it would be on a Z06 platform until the next one comes out. Same goes for the Cobra. Of course I am considering price to mod since its always a factor.

 

[RandyB]

I have driven a couple of Z06s, an '01 and an '03 but no C6 yet. The Z06 has a weight advantage of about ~130 lbs over the C6, but not much else. Either would make a great car and base to start from if modding is your thing, but there really isn't much of a performance difference between the two - they have significantly narrowed the gap. The Z is still a click faster, but that is all. I'd rather have 6 liters than 5.7.