What do you think?

Hey man, looks like a sweet car, i hear the mustang can be fairly reliable for many miles if properly maintained. The car looks like it has a few little customizations than add extra detail and may save you some money if planned on doing any of that yourself. It does look like the rear honeycomb panel between the tail lights is painted it also looks like it has a chin spoiler that is painted silver as well on the front bumper. I thought that these parts were a type of ABS plastic, i may be wrong but not sure if they were designed to be painted. I would check it out the paint make sure it was quality work. Ill also give you a few tips to looks for, just little things that i have gathered vigoursly reading forums since 2 weeks ago when i bought my first stang hehe. First is the transmission, there has been quite a few threads on the matter and a few different experiences. I believe this is the first year of the Tremec 3650 transmission and they have a notorious issue from the 1-2 and 2-3 shift. They have released a few TSB's some people say that the revised fluid level helped solve their problems but they have also designed upgrade for the syncros, shift forks ect.. So unless the transmission has this upgrade i would not be afraid to get on the gas a little and try shifting above 3500 RPM's to make sure everything feels good. It may lead to future problems, ask the dealer and see about some type of warranty on it. Your car may have the t45 transmission, check out the VIN to see what type of transmission you have i believe they switched to the 3650 mid year in 2001. Carfax should list if the transmission has been serviced. Aftermarket shifters, if the car has one, also may cause damage to the transmission if the shift stops on the shifter are not adjusted properly, there is a TSB on the matter, if it has an aftermarket shifter i recommend removing the shift stops. Another problem i have been reading up on, is the spark plugs. The aluminum heads of the 4.6 have been known to blowout spark plugs if not installed properly on a cool engine, with a car of this mileage i would assume they have been replaced before, if not, then they probably are due for a tune up. I would try and take it to a mechanic and see if it has had any work done to the spark plug threads, they usually add a sleeve into the head to allow you to install the spark plug properly. If it has had this type of work, its hard to tell if the piston was damaged, or what kind of damage it may have caused when it blew out. Then again it may have been serviced properly and there has been no damage done at all to the car. Those are the only 2 main things about this model Mustang that i have noticed from reading around on the internet. other than that its a great car, i am in love with mine. Im not sure what your gas mileage is like on your previous car but be prepared to shell out some gas money, even more if you are gonna be installing gears hehe, it was a bit of a suprise for me, even after daily driving my lifted chevy 1500 on 35's haha. That is unless you are planning on driving like a little girl lol. They are good cars, very fun to drive, especially if you dont drive stick regularly, this is my first stick car and it makes the car twice as fun. Good luck and sorry for the ginormous paragraph haha

Also, i will agree with Roadman4.6 in that i would def. not be in a hurry to purchase the first Mustang that you see. Keep your eyes open and be patient there are a lot of these cars out there, i usually see a new one posted on Craigslist every other day. Ofcourse if it is a good deal on the price ect... for your area, dont be too hesitant on buying it i missed out on a couple of steals that i could have had when looking around. I wouldnt give more than 500-1000 more than what you think you could sell it for the next day if you decide to.

Wow..that was a long post but did contain some good information.

That's weird.. they used green paint for the cash for clunkers program...

Sorry to hear it didn't work out. Just keep looking, there are some good deals out there. The 4.6 is a great engine, this is my third one with the highest milage being 175k on a 96 gt. I drove that thing hard and it ran great when I sold it. Its all about the routine maintenance.

whiskey said:

Man what a waste of time, she looked so good in person till i popped the hood. There was green writing all over the front of the engine ans all parts in the engine bay, either it was in a huge front wreck or had the engine replaced. It didn't help that there was oil dripping from various areas also and the oil looked like chocolate milk (NOT GOOD!).

Thanks for the advice though guys, my quest continues for a nice Stang.

Click to expand...

Wow that really sucks. At least you found out before you bought it. Good luck with the search!

BTW, what kind of budget do you have for a Mustang?