Let me start by saying I have a bias towards American made vehicle, I think as a whole they are junk. I own a retail repair/tire shop and with out american vehicles I would not be able to make a living - the percentage of american made vehicles that need repairs to asain or german is ridiculous, further the frequency that they need these repairs is much higher. With that said the mustang is probably one of the best made american vehicles, IMO. Yes they do have some common problems, but most of them are easy to fix and its not as common as a Focus or taurus for a mustang to frequently need repairs. Common things I see on mustangs, brakes, they go through brakes pretty quickly, if you get over 30k miles on your brakes your doing good. IAC's are common to go, though its not usually till after 50k miles and its an easy cheap fix. Coil packs are common, again its a cheap easy fix, shouldn't be much of an issue till after 50k miles, chances are slim more then one or two coil packs would go bad at a time so worrying about replacing all 8 at once is not a concern. EGR problems, this is the real current problem with the 4.6, again not until 50k+ miles, it usually is not a faulty EGR valve but clogged passages or faulty solenoids, some what troublesome to track down, but replacing everything and cleaning everything would take an afternoon and a few hundred bucks(for parts, assuming you are willing to fix it yourself) and your back on the road. The old 4.6's also had a big problem with cracking the intake manifold, they seemed to have improved the design and made them stronger where they were braking, but until the new mustang has aged a bit it will be hard to tell if this problem will re-surface... Again a few hundred dollars and an afternoon project, its actually such a problem that the intake manifolds are available aftermarket and most parts stores stock them. If you can get passed the interior(or if you like it) and realize its not a refined acura, its a muscle car, its about as good as it gets for the money.

 

I wouldn't buy a Focus or FiveHundred, as I think the japanese companies make better vehicles for those segments (civic,accord,corolla,camry, etc)... But until a import manufacturer makes a RWD V8 powered coupe for around 25-27K, there's little room for agument

Heck, acura doesn't even have a coupe in it's lineup anymore... I'd love to buy another acura, but I'm looking at the G35 and Mustang as the leading canidates for a replacement for my CL...

As I said many times before, my 4.6L tbird was very reliable....

 

Tht Mustang is awesome and those look like American Racing Torque Thrust Wheels. But i love how much people jump on the Mustang Bandwagon, yet there were guys knocking the Fbody in the Camaro SS post. I dont care what anyone says, This mustang is just one of the reasons why i love American muscle.

 

i was thinking the same thing...

i like that cowl hood you got going on to

 

I was woried too about it braking down all the time...but after my last 2 cl's I think it doesn tmatter who makes the car...some are junk and some are not. American cars might have more junk mixed in them...who knows.

I LOVE this car more than any carI have had...civis...preluds....integras...few cl's. The hood not only looks good...it sucks cool outside air in under the hood right on top the blower to keep it cool. It also relieves under hood pressure so more air flows into the gril in the front.

 

Hey Tireguy, were those cars newer most recent years or like 90's and early century cars? I ask because I keep reading how domestic and Korean quality has improved.

 

Korean cars have made dramatic improvements.

Certain GM and Ford cars are pretty good in terms of reliability. Now if they can get rid of some of the cheap interior plastics they'd be almost on par with the Japanese.

 

I like the GT interior. I just installed nexus autometer gauges tonight...they change color like my dash stuff....red...bluegreen...pretty cool.

 

My dad's Ford van is currently @ 110k with typical maintenance. His previous one went to 150k with no probs.

My sebring has 78k with no probs. My parents have owned pretty much all domestics and they've all been pretty bulletproof.

Edit: And *drool* that stang is hot!

 

It may have improved but as a whole I see an alarmingly higher rate of repair needed on domestic and korean cars then japanese. The problem with korean cars(Hyundai in particular) is whe you go to repair one thing, lots of other things break getting to it, in particular in this climate(snow and salt). Domestics have not improved at all, from what I see day to day, in other words business is good