Hope you get your car soon, I'm sure you'll love it.
Off-topic: I have an acquaintance at school who currently drives a 2000 Ford Ranger (125K miles, over $2,500 worth of unfixed damage from an accident, though he didn't cause the accident). He's always lusted after Mustangs, but they really aren't my thing, as I really classify them nowadays as 'teenager' cars and think kids get them, have no idea how to drive them, and get in wrecks.
Well today he went down to the dealer and picked up a brand new 2011 Mustang GT Premium with quite a few options, out the door for $39,xxx after TT&L. Please tell me you others think buying a college-bound 18 year old a $40K car is a crazy idea? This kids family makes a modest $75,000 a year, and God knows that factoring in interest this thing will produce a low-mid $800/month car payment for the next 4-5 years. Just thought I'd mention how crazy it is giving a kid a car like that. Not to mention his college commute when he comes home for holidays and such is about 220 miles.. a 450 mile trip in a V8 with a teenager at the wheel is a gas saver.
I wouldn't call them teenager cars with $35-$40k stickers on them. In fact, that's the oxymoron of the cars (Camaro and Challenger included); those cars were originally built to be affordable for mid-twenty-somethings and aimed at them, that was the whole idea. Now the only people who can afford them comfortably/realistically are middle-aged guys (FTR I see a lot of young people on the Stang forums who are putting virtually nothing down on them, or are upside down on them because they were upside down on their trades). You could argue that the retro style is aimed at middle-aged guys, but its not like 25 year olds could really afford 2002 Camaros or 2004 Mustangs when they were new either, since they were still $30k+ cars with any options on them beyond being stripper models. Granted you get a hell of a lot of car for the money (400+ hp, WOW) but that in and of itself kind of rules it out of being aimed at teenagers. It's a coffin on wheels in the hands of the unexperienced.
While I think it's asinine to buy an 18 year old kid a $40k car just to show your big financial dick to your neighbors (that's all it is, parents competing with each other...I mean come on, the "regular" GT wasn't good enough, it had to be the premium, and loaded at that?), I'm more concerned with the fact they thought it was wise to buy an 18 year old kid a 12 second, 412 horsepower car, that very, very, very easily can be made to have 500 horsepower and 11 second time slips. That's a coffin on wheels. Also it's kind of laughable that they bought the $39k dollar car, there basically wasn't an option they left out; while they were at it they may as well have just ponied up another $8k to get a 550 hp Shelby, lol. I priced one out the other day, GT premium with every performance option including Brembos, 3.73s, HIDs, and everything but the worthless Microsoft SYNC crap and the biggest stereo option, and it was $37k. I could get a loan for it, I'd qualify, but I certainly couldn't afford it, let alone afford it and contribute to savings/retirement. I'd have to have $17k down, and even then I'd still feel pretty iffy about a $400-$500 payment for five years. My 225 hp GT would/should be plenty enough fun for an 18 year old kid. Hell I'll be 27 in less than two weeks, and I'm happy with my old GT.
Hope his parents enjoy the insurance bill on a 412 horsepower car for an 18 year old. My guess is they are completely aloof to it being a 412 hp car. That car sadly will get trashed on a college campus. Parking it outside is a crime in and of itself, let alone on a street at a college where a bunch of drunks will be stumbling by every weekend, puking/pissing on it, or screwing with it just because it's a brand new Mustang on the street and will attract unwanted attention.
FTR, I think this horsepower renaissance is going to be short-lived. Two things killed the F-body (Camaro/Firebird): GM's asinine policy of not advertising the cars, and the insurance and death rate for them. Those last 98-02 cars were rated at 305-325 hp from the factory, and it has been proven time and time and time again that those cars were severely underrated in power from the factory, with guys putting as much as 300 at the rear wheels, meaning the cars really were making around 360 at the flywheel. Too many people killed themselves with those and shot insurance rates through the roof, and now all of a sudden we have 412 hp Mustangs, ~425 hp Camaros, and ~376/425 hp Challengers (and I believe the Challenger is up in power now with the 392 Hemi, but I haven't checked). Not to mention the 550 hp Shelby GT 500, the 440 HP Boss 302 coming out in a couple months, the Camaro ZL1 which is going to be a supercharged 427 (600+ horsepower??) or the absolutely INSANE 638 hp ZR1 Vette. There's also a Z28 in the works, and Chrysler's got a couple things up it's sleeve too I believe. Basically 412 hp is the
bottom of the scale, which is freaking crazy. Granted all of these cars are priced far outside of what a teenager, or even twenty something could afford, and a lot of those cars will remain high in value for a long time, staying out of the hands of those young guys, but when the regular Camaros/Mustangs/Challengers start to drop in price over the next couple years and CAN be gotten into for under $20k, you're going to see a lot of deaths, and you're going to have a repeat of 2002 when the F-Body got killed because it was too much of a liability with its power levels and image. I'm not saying they will kill the models entirely, but they are going to scale them back dramatically; unless you've ridden in a 400+ hp car you can't even begin to fathom how much power and how fast that really, truly is. It's an insane power level.
I think these horsepower days are limited. Hell of a time to be buying, the cars are faster than most of the muscle cars of the '60s, by a good margin. I wish I could be dropping dimes at the dealer on any 400+ hp machine of my choice. But I'll have to stick with my "lowly" 225 hp 14 second GT, and hope the wife lets me put an exhaust on it. I figure I may be able to get a new one when I'm 40, and that's being realistic, and probably stretching it. Maybe 45.
