So i found a 2001 GT with 100,000 miles.. i bought it for $4050 When i was looking for a mustang i saw many GT's that were like new with under 50,000 miles for 7000-8000. Some private owners some at dealers. Look on craigslist and e-bay!!!. It also seems like auto's sell for less then 5 speeds.
You gotta look at the time of the year and take that into consideration. Everyone and their mother will be trying to buy a mustang this time of year driving the price up.
Easy way to tell if it was repainted crappy: the plastic piece from the roof to the rear fender must be unbolted from the inside, along with the louvers on the side of the car by the rear tires. Crappy mechanics will just spray without takin this off and it will start to peel in a few years.
Be weary of cars that already have lower gears in it. Especially 4.10's. Putting the lower gears in will make it harder to drive, and an inexperienced driver will cause things to wear out prematurely.
spark plugs blow out of the cylinder heads because of too few threads in the head or because the plug threads thread to far into the combustion chamber causing them to heat up and start to warp some of the cylinder head threads enough for them to give.
I wouldn't call this a COP issue. This is better described as a spark plug blowout issue that starts with an audible tick.
The COP issue is best described by coils going bad causing a miss/hesitation under load. Mine did it worst around 1500-1800 RPMs in 5th gear (65 MPH or so). I managed to get by with replacing only one coil, though.
I guess im lucky in never having the COP issue, nor the intake issue, and my 2000 GT Vert has about 112,000 miles on it. In fact, ive never had to replace anything mechanical on it! *knocks on wood*