I wouldn't. A friend of mine drives an 05 v6 auto mustang, and I'm not impressed at all. The interior is really cheap but it tries to look expensive, which just highlights the cheap-ness. The climate control knobs have all fallen off. The visibility is awful. It's a coupe, so it's also a pain in the ass to haul more than one passenger. It's not fast enough to justify all the downfalls of owning a "sporty" coupe.
0-60 is 6.8 seconds. That's not THAT slow. It's 1.6 seconds quicker to 60 than my current car and handles a hell of a lot better I imagine. My dad and my Uncle telling me about their 1977 Ford Granada that was supposedly very fast. Had a 5.0L V8 and the 3-Speed auto. 0-60 was 13 seconds. They drive my car and think it's a god damn rocket.
We were doing 0-60 runs and they ranged between 7.8s and 8.2s on a very slightly uphill road. The manual might be quicker. I haven't driven it for myself and I haven't seen anyone bring it to its lateral limits, but it doesn't feel like it'd really handle all that well. It has thick, hard economy tires on it.
Automobile-catalog simulates 6.7 seconds, but with a top speed of only 139 MPH, which as I recall isn't much (if any) better than an old V6/MT Probe. It'll also do low 15s in the quarter mile. The actual governed top speed is 112 MPH. I'm not sure what's sadder, that Ford added limiter chips to Mustangs or that they set them in km/h instead of MPH It's understandable, though still sad, if they set it to the speed rating of the tires... the tires on my mother's SUV were/are rated for faster than that! I guess it just goes to prove that V6 Mustangs really are poser cars.
That's about 1.5 seconds quicker thru the quarter than my car to. The speed limiter is there because of this The manual is a bit quicker. The extra weight could be at least part of it. They are said to handle better than the New Edge Mustang's but, having never driven one, I'm not sure exactly what that means anyways.
Well that's pathetic, though it shines a bit of a light on why my Sunbird might be chipped to 100 MPH. That doesn't explain why the limiter is set in klicks; if it's not for the tires, it's absolutely pathetic that they'd use metric anything on a Mustang.
That's the same reason why P-71's with 3.55 gears are limited to 120mph. Cars with the 3.27, 128mph. I've no idea why they used commie units tho on the most Murican of Murica cars.
If you want a mustang to have a mustang than by all means. If you want the Mustang to have a sporty car I'd say look elsewhere. It might handle better than the grand marquis, but some newer minivans do as well. For a commuter/long range cruise missile the mustang should serve you well.
I'm looking for something more at least slightly more fuel efficient. The Marq gets 18 city and about 30-32 highway if I take it easy. I want something that handles a bit better and is maybe a little faster. I could always just throw sway bars on the Marq and say screw it but idk. It's between an RSX Type-S, Legacy GT, Ford Mustang V6 Manual unless I can convince my dad to let me buy a V8 cause you know, my money, my car... But anyways, insurance to.
I say keep the Merc. I say the only plus going for the Mustang is its a standard trans. How much faster is the Mustang really? Sure. stock it might be a smidge faster, but you have to tell people you own a Mustang, and hop on that duechebus. Then, you get to tell them its a V6 mustang, even better. Merc is bigger, Comfier, Looks better, Can be (considerably) faster if throw some effort at it, Can handle as well too, if you throw some more effort at it, You won't have too look out your window at a Mustang. If people say its dumb to try and hot rod a Grand Marquis, tell them to go fry their head, Who cares what other people think.
I'm not entirely sure what is left to do. I think the only things left are headers, which are around $1,000. I could do the gears to. That'd hurt my economy even more though.
What all have you done to it? And headers are always a good idea, however, those gold-plated ones your looking at aren't really necessary. I'd say for a 4.6/5.4 A set of decent headers, a new throttle body, a more aggressive cam and a half decent tune could get you around the 350 HP mark, but thats just me thinking out loud, that could be way off, I'm basing everything I know off of older engines.
From what i've heard from cv.net, headers, cam and tune with the mods already done to it would be around the 270ish whp mark. torque around 320-330 at the wheel. Not impressive compared to newer v8's, but would make the car considerably quicker. Probably around a 6.3 0-60 i'd imagine?
So far, P71 intake and P71 exhaust system. I can do the E-Series/F-250 Throttle Body for like $60. Doesn't really give you much, if any, power boost. Maybe 2-3hp. The Cams are $616. Then you need installation if you don't want to/don't have the tools/space to do it your self. So, Probably $1,000 at least. Remember, it's SOHC so, two cams. Stainless Steel Works makes the only headers (As far as I've seen) that are actually made for the Vic. Mustang ones don't fit to well due to the steering rack. Those are $1030 without cats, $1425 with them. Then $426 for a set of sway bars. $190 for a set of KYB Gas-A-Just shocks. And that's leaving the 2.73 Open Diff alone. That's another $600 if I buy a new 3.55 Trac-Loc. Also needs a tune for the shift points on the transmission so another $600 for a dyno tune without a handheld tuner. $4250 or so for everything you would need to do to this car performance wise while remaining N/A. I paid $2800 for the car so...
That is true, these are cars that arent really meant to go fast. They certainly can, but you have to have a large budget and expect to not get back out of it what you put in. You'd have to have a true passion for the car. For the money it would cost for me to buy a lower mileage vic or marquis, and mod it to 300hp, It would cost the same to get a decent condition marauder, which has the 302hp 4 valve dohc engine from the factory.
