crossover appeal?

I think that many owners of other vehicles like Dodge, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, ect. will cross over and buy the new 2005 Mustang GT. That will be good news for Ford. This would not occur if there were other vehicles other than the Mustang to choose from.

i disagree...mustangs are muscle cars, and most import enthusiasts regard the mustang as being too old, heavy, and unsophisticated. especially the people who like cars like the miata and mini cooper won't appreciate the mustang's generous exterior dimentions. others regard the mustang as being 'too much for them. but, some don't care where it's made, and i think these fence-sitters coud be prime targets for ford...
mopar guys don't have much anyway
chevy guys, for the most part, are too hardcore to really consider driving a mustang

People that buy miata mini cooper and beatles. Most likely will not be buying a new mustang. Since there is a significant size and price difference. And likely they will think the mustang will pollute more and get less mpg. Then there is insurance cost. I can see it attracting more of the people who have camaro's or other performance cars. But many of the people that drive imports feel they have better quality than a domestic. And with all the recalls. You can't exactly fault them.

The Mustang will capture only a few people from these camps. If it had IRS and a 250 HP V6 is might have a chance, but not with a live axle. The Mustang is also a HUGE car compared to the ones you listed so whether the Mustang is American or foreign I don't thing there will be a lot of cross shopping.

I'd say Ford has a better chance of capturing old Firebird / Camero owners.

Ron Jeremy said:

I think that many owners of other vehicles like Dodge, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, ect. will cross over and buy the new 2005 Mustang GT. That will be good news for Ford. This would not occur if there were other vehicles other than the Mustang to choose from.

Click to expand...

I don't think it will happen as easily as you predict it will. For the Mustang to have to appeal to people outside of Mustangers and 21 year old college girls (let's face it, somebody has to buy those V-6 convertibles), they have to feel that the 05 Mustang is either on par or exceeds the performance, quality, and value of those aforementioned cars.

In most automotive circles, even though Mustang is considered a great bang for the buck, it's still viewed as archaic, unsophisticated, cheap, and unrefined, especially when put right next to it's market competitors (with no Camaro or Firebird, we have to look beyond them to cars such as the 350Z).

Now, the 05 addresses many of those problems.

Interior: The current Mustang has had a lot of knocks againts its interior. It's too tight, you sit too high (you basically sit on the car, not in), it looks cheap, and the build quality left a lot to be desired. The 05 seems to address much of those issues, and from the pictures, definitely looks the winner. I'd frankly would hold up the 05 interior to anything and would choose it over anything else save a Bimmer.

Chassis: The current Mustang has been described as a flexy flyer. It rattles, it shakes, and I'm on a constant hunt to find the source of some new clang or thump whenever I'm on the road. Hopefully this all new chassis will go a long way to tighten up the car and make for a nice solid base for the suspension.

Suspension: This has been covered ad naseum in other threads, but there's simply no excuse IMO for the Mustang not to have IRS. Especially when you considered that other cars in the Mustang price point have it. It's not whether you're a drag racer or not. In real world situations, the choice of suspensions is going to have a serious effect on how the car feels and drives, especially in places like the Northeast and the Midwest where winters do a number on the local roads. Now hopefully, with the new stiffer chassis, the engineers will have been able to address some of the issues surrounding the Mustangs classically light rear end (the old chassis demanded an overly stiff rear end to compensate for the flexi flyer chassis, not a good thing with a rigid axle). However, there are still severe limitations to a live axle that an IRS setup you don't have to worry about.

Power: This is where the Mustang has them all beat. Nowhere else can you get a 300 hp V-8 for under 30 grand. But unfortunately, the GT still only accounts for a small percentage of Mustang sales.

Over all though, it's still comes to when the rubber hits the road. Like I said, for the Mustang to have crossover appeal and bring in those people who would normally drive BMW's, Nissans, Miata etc. Hopefully, the Mustang is relying too much on it's history. I don't think you'll see some guy trade in his BMW M3 or 350Z for a Mustang GT. And you don't have to a be a road racer or drag racer, but just somebody who enjoys high performance driving.

I actually can see a few 350z drivers possibly switching over. Depending on how well the new suspension performs. It's not really even the same style as the old suspension. But until we have real numbers. Then it's really hard to make an comparisions or predict if anyone would switch over.

I think more Chevy people will be proud stang owners. Since they don't have anymore affordable muscle cars, and appreciate the rumble and torque of a V8, as the import owners don't understand. Maybe it won't handle like its on rails, but thats the American way. If you can turn, you aren't going fast enough.


Ok, ok. So I like the bendies, too. I think the Mustang will be satisfactory for all car drivers, it just comes down to the certain persons taste.

I wonder if the snow driving will improve? All previous years... Mustang + Snow = Mustang on Ice Skates.

The trendy folks that buy Mini-Coopers...no. Bunch of new generation Preppy 30 somethings likely wouldn't touch a Stang. So I don't think much from that group.Although if you'll notice old 60s-70s American iron is becoming VERY popular in Hollywood and in the music biz(the cars have great lines and readily stand out in a crowd so the chic are starting to get in on them) so get ready for a lot of people who aren't car people to start looking and buying up a bunch of older cars. But I don't think they'll be into a retro looking newer pony car.
The younger crowd/import guys. I think you'll see a substantial crossover here. Reason being two part. The Fast and Furious crowd have now had what 4 years since that movie came out to realize fartcanned Civics and neon might get "mad props" from their equally clueless friends they get their butts handed to them by anything with any reasonablely amount of power. The new Mach and Cobra are also helping the Mustang's image quite a bit in this market I lurk at a lot of import and sport compact boards and they all damn near cream their pants when a vid or story of a Cobra is brought up. Many ricers are now seeing the light and realizing that 15 seconds and FWD is NOT fast. Many of them noticed this earlier but they had no ability to do anything about it. Now a lot of these guys are getting out of high school and college they are getting money and many of them rather than throwing it down the drain on a gutted turboed Civic that runs 13s they are starting to see the point of actually paying for a car that is fast out of the box. They can now afford to get something better and many are making the switch a new Stang that should handle well and that will dust pretty much all but the most heavily modded 4 bangers will attract many a buyer.
Now for the most important market IMO. The Mopar and GM boys.
I think the Mopar folks are going to be the hardest to get. Dodge IS putting out some impressive machines lately and the logical next step is a fast RWD Hemi powered car to fight the Mustang. A lot of them are hoping and are holding on to every rumor of a Hemi Charger with all their strength. So they'll be hard to bring over because it looks like there's actually a feignt glimmer of hope something good might come their way as Dodge hasn't screwed up every attempt at performance in the last 3 years....unlike GM.

GM guys don't have much joy. Everything that's been promised to them has had some kind of flaw. SS Silverado....powerful...but heavy and expensive and kind of boring. SSR many think are ugly powerful but also WAYYYY to expensive. SS Impala....an embarrasement to the name plate. Monte Carlo...ditto. The GTO is the best thing GM has done but again it's got flaws many have problems with. It's got the power but not the styling and it's a little more than most will want to pay for a Mustang fighter. Basically after GM killed the Fbody you had a jaded group of Fbod fans. Then after seeing abortion after abortion being pooped out of GM a lot of those guys have long lost their patience and they see the Mustang as a viable solution or at least a stop gap for many. So I expect a lot of ex Fbody loyalists to come over to Ford and a lot of ex-compact drivers. Some will leave as soon as something else shows up they really love(new Camaro in 07, more powerful Japanese rally inspired rides etc...) but I think a LOT will stay in the Stang camp and a signifcant number will branch out into other Ford products. That's why this car HAD to be good. They had the opportunity to make a bunch of life long fans and I think they have succeeded. Hopefully between this ,the new F-150 and the new car lineup this will put Ford well on it's way back to dominance.

ZStanger said:

I wonder if the snow driving will improve? All previous years... Mustang + Snow = Mustang on Ice Skates.

Click to expand...

Honestly...despite what Ford has said...I don't think it will be any improvement. Having driven BMW's and Jaguars in the snow...I can tell you there's definitely a bigger comfort zone with the IRS.

Omegalock said:

GM guys don't have much joy. Everything that's been promised to them has had some kind of flaw. SS Silverado....powerful...but heavy and expensive and kind of boring. SSR many think are ugly powerful but also WAYYYY to expensive. SS Impala....an embarrasement to the name plate. Monte Carlo...ditto. The GTO is the best thing GM has done but again it's got flaws many have problems with. It's got the power but not the styling and it's a little more than most will want to pay for a Mustang fighter. Basically after GM killed the Fbody you had a jaded group of Fbod fans. Then after seeing abortion after abortion being pooped out of GM a lot of those guys have long lost their patience and they see the Mustang as a viable solution or at least a stop gap for many. So I expect a lot of ex Fbody loyalists to come over to Ford and a lot of ex-compact drivers. Some will leave as soon as something else shows up they really love(new Camaro in 07, more powerful Japanese rally inspired rides etc...) but I think a LOT will stay in the Stang camp and a signifcant number will branch out into other Ford products. That's why this car HAD to be good. They had the opportunity to make a bunch of life long fans and I think they have succeeded. Hopefully between this ,the new F-150 and the new car lineup this will put Ford well on it's way back to dominance.

Click to expand...

Being a GM guy...you hit the nail right on the head for me. Not a fbody fan but GM has been very disapointing to me in the last 5 years. IMO over priced, lacking style (except the SSR is awesome but still fell in the over priced crowd)...GM, wake up and smell the coffee BURNING. I am a serious cross over contended.

GM will be even more disappointing if they don't wake up and build a car that will compete with the Mustang. It seems that GM is building only ultra expensive Corvettes and GTO's. They have no outlook for the future. Plus, they have been making ugly cars now for the past 20 years. I will praise GM when I see them change for the better. But I doubt that this will ever happen. That's why I will stick with Ford and the Mustang.

66Satellite said:

I don't know, a lot of Mopar guys are PISSED about the Daimler takeover. Also, it's looking like the Charger will be a four door and pricey--most Mopar guys want two doors and cheap. I posted the 05 Mustang pics from Hod Rod over on my Mopar board and the response was incredibly positive--possibly more positive than at Stangnet, lol. The main holdouts in the Mopar camp are the guys with old 60s/70s Mopes who drive newer Dodge trucks for their daily drivers. But the car-only guys should be pretty interested.

Click to expand...

True but there are a LOT of them that just are holding onto the hopes. Will there be bleed over to Ford? Likely but I don't think it'll be as great as GM converts or would have been as great as if Dodge hadn't been doing what they have been doing the last couple of years. The Mopar guys are pissed about DCx but a lot of them from what I can garner through conversations on the Net are slowly turning around and embracing the company again. Some maybe to the point of lunancy the militant Dodge owner is becoming a far too familiar sight these days. Heh I had a guy trying to convince me then mid to high 14 second 300C and the Hemi Magnum would likely be faster than the 05 Stang.

Well....I'm a "Chevy Guy" in so far as I drive a Chevy....but I'm not product loyal when it comes to cars. I like the GTO because of the power plant....I'll wait for the AutoCross edition next year, but if that doesn't do it for me, I'd like to see what direction the next Kebra goes in. I think it's going to be a beast, and I like all of the "possibilities" of the new stang (as far as the chops I've seen). I think it looks good, but something is left ot be desired in the tail end.
I consider myself a danger to some car makers, and an asset to others....only becaus eI'm not Brand loyal, I'll go wherever I get the best bang for the buck (excpet Neons/STI's/Evo's).