It put down WHAT!!!!

big T said:

True, but many 4/6cyl cars are making 250+hspwr for cheap and less weight. The mustang is a good car with its 300 hspwr that can run a 13.5 stock (awesome drvr), but take off 300 lbs and it would be an easy 13.1-13.5 car on avg.

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Perhaps....but it's a big car and with bigger cars come bigger weight. Don’t think other manufacturers are doing any better. Take a look at the 350Z for example. Sure it makes great power for only 6-cylinders, but it’s just as tubby as the Stang and a dimensionally smaller car to boot. Sure you're getting high horsepower 4-cylinders like the SRT4 and the Cobalt SS, which have decent power levels with lower weight, but in order for them to pull it off, they had to build it around "half-a-car". People are complaining about the S197 Mustang being too heavy and not having enough horsepower, but at least it was a purpose built car with its own platform. If anything, it should be the SRT4 and Cobalt owners that should be going out of their minds. You've got to hand it to Dodge and GM. Give the public a few more horsepower, a flashy body kit and some shiny wheels and then strap it to the most basic, inexpensive bottom of the barrel car in their line up, then give it a new name...all while charged buyers twice the price for it. And on top of that have they've convinced potential owners to feel good about it. Now that's marketing strategy!

If Ford wanted to make the car lighter, they could have easily made it a mid-size, or compact car like many of the rice burners you see out there, but that's not what the Ford Faithful demanded. The closest the Mustang has ever been to a compact was the Mustang II and everyone hated it. Sure, I guess they could have cut a few pounds here and a few pounds there with aluminum this and plastic/fiberglass/carbon fiber that, but then as the weight decreased, the cost would increase. And we all know the next argument would have been...."Damn....$35,000 just for a Mustang!?!"

As portly as the car is, I still think a pretty decent balance has been struck. Of course there's room for improvement, but you didn't think Ford was going to go all out right off the bat did you? Leaving room for more power, better suspension parts, brakes, etc is how they're able to stretch the platform for so long. Why do you think the Fox was around for so many years? Perhaps this is where Dodge and GM got their ideas from?