PONY CAR!!

[Twitchin Kitten]

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I just bought a car! Details, photos and more tomorrow when it's daylight.

I can barely afford this but - well, I'll explain tomorrow.

[LKTraz]

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Got a Mustang eh?

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Shhh.... I'm waiting on a call back from a customer I've been on the phone with all day and then I'll tell the long tale of how and why I bought a car I can barely afford!

[Twitchin Kitten]

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So starting around the week of July 4 the truck started giving me problems. Big problems. It was in the shop for a week and the mechanic couldn't figure what's wrong for the life of them. They even had a hard time replicating the problem, BUT whenever I went there to see WTF they were talking about, I was able to have it happen even before I got out of the lot.

The front end shook like a mother*%#@ when you hit a 30º turn at normal speed. Sometimes at a slow speed in a jug-handle or u-turn, the steering wheel would literally pull out of your hand.

We thought maybe this was due to a bad tie rod job. It wasn't.
The ONLY thing the mechanic could think of was the clutching mechanism in the rear differential. In effect, the limited slip was locking up on curves and the 'energy' of this 'locking up' would push forward to the front end.

The whole week was a mystery. They decided to open the rear and see if there is a problem. Turns out it was dry. Bone dry. So, he fills it with $340 worth of fancy oil for the LSD and a couple hours labor. I was told to drive for about 50 miles to let that all soak in the clutching mechanism again and it should stop.

Well, I go pick up the truck and I don't even get out of the lot to see this is terribly dangerous to drive. The steering wheel is pulling out of my hands about 6 inches in each direction. Hard enough to break a wrist. There's no way I'm going to be able to drive this for 50 miles to get it working. So, I bring it around the back of the shop and tell them it's not going anywhere and they need to fix it.

Another week, they can't replicate shit. I was there twice and was able to replicate. They pulled the gears out of the FWD in front so they can test if its that causing problems. Nope. Still did it with no FWD at all.
Ball joint testing yielded nothing among a mess of other tests.

By the middle of the third week they gave up as they can't replicate the problem. Which I called bullshit on because driving it home it wobbled but not as much.

It's home two weeks now and it seems to be fine. WTF? But on a rare occasion it will wobble the front end but ever so slightly and on turns of around 30º. Maybe that whole "engery" bullshit is true and sitting for 10 days allowed it to work.

So we're thinking let's just sell this thing and buy a smaller SUV type vehicle that will cost less to fill and run yet suits the needs of Matt and hold some ladders on the roof rack etc. So we go shopping.

The local Ford dealer LOVES my truck. Well hell, it's behaving and it's loaded and well taken care of for it's age. It has a class 5 hitch and other aftermarket goodies. He offers me $6100 for it and put toward a trade in. I think it's worth more. They claim they want it for a plow vehicle for the dealership.

So we play with some numbers and we can afford to finance about 11K with the trade. We looked at an 09 Escape. Front wheel drive, no 4x4 and I drove it. Not terribly thrilled but it financed out to $200 / month and I can afford that. So, I slept on it. This was Friday BTW. By the morning I was NOT wanting this little shit box. I wasn't thrilled. I felt pressured and I just didn't want the damn thing. It has rear drum brakes to boot. I don't like changing drum brakes.

So I call the deal off. I want to look around. I want to figure a way to keep the truck too. Well, after looking online at specs and what's available on all the local lots and all different models and makes of SUV type vehicles, nothing is going to save me any more gas mileage than the big truck does now. Nothing that suits our needs anyway. I need to figure a way to do this and keep the big truck. It's useful and we actually do need to have it.

So, the deal is off, and Monday rolls around. The Ford dealer is calling me up like nuts to push this sale. Well, I already know what I can afford, I know how much the insurance is going to hit me per month etc and I still know I need a car and put the big truck on standby instead of my every day vehicle.

Well, going back and forth with the dealer, it turns out that I can finance the WHOLE THING with nothing down. $16,4somethingK.... all of it. Whoa.... things have now taken a new turn. I can keep the truck and now concentrate on a nice car. No more looking like hillbillies when we go to an affair all dressed up and climbing out of a damn pickup truck.

We're on the lot looking at 'sane' and 'reasonable' cars in the price range of $16K or lower. The Focus is cute. It'll do the job and they have one there with a stick. I prefer manual transmissions. They have 3 Mustangs..... oh oh.

Well two of the pony cars I can't afford but this one I can. AND... get this - the insurance is cheaper by hundreds for the pony car than the Focus or the Escape.

Guess what I bought? That's right, the Mustang.
It's not the GT nor the Boss but I like it. I get to keep my truck, much to the dismay of Frank, the dealer owner who really wanted it, and I got my car. I just wish it had the electric drivers seat. I'll live with this. I love it!

We figure Matt has to only make two side jobs a month to afford this comfortably and one to afford it by the skin of our teeth and all without compromising our other expenses. Easy to do!

So, now it's raining and I have errands to run. Go figure. Well, I'll get to test it out in the rain earlier than later I guess.

I'm going to see about putting a small class 1 or 2 hitch on there so I can use the bike rack with it so I don't need the truck all the time for bikes too. I don't want to use one of those strap on racks that may mar the paint.

I need to take it back for detailing too.

   

[LKTraz]

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It has the basic package 3.7 L V-6 engine?

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Sadly yes. There was a sweet Boss 302 on the floor with a manual tranny but that is way out of my financial range.

[LH]

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Thats nice!

[LKTraz]

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Hey, the 6 banger still has a fair horsie rating! 305 ponies under the hood sure ain't in the "grocery getter" category.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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No and it's got quite a bit of torque in the ass too. Like the truck, I have to be careful "off the line" in the rain. Found that out yesterday when I tried to go at a green light and the car just stayed there
Eased off the gas a little and it was fine. It handles nicely in the rain though, unlike my brothers IROC, which slipped and slid all over the place for no reason.

I was going to consider looking around for one with a stick but I found out that they fly off the lot when they come in and they hike the price up on the used ones with a stick as well, so I took this one.

I'm finding out I may need a seat cushion to see. I need that electric seat! Damn it. It's that little tilt downward at the back of my seat that gets me a blind spot on the driver's side mirror. 3" UP and I'm good. LOL Remember those old wedge shaped car cushions 'dad' used to always have in the car? When I was a kid those were SOP in all our cars for whatever reason. The had a little handle on them too. That's what I need. So, I go on a quest for one while I'm out looking for something to put across the front window when parked in the sun. The car interior bakes in that 100% southern sun in the driveway.

We need to find a place to keep the damn truck parked now. Space is tight in the driveway without having to jockey the things around and I hate parking on the street.

[Rhubarb]

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WOW!!!

Of course it would be a totally useless vehicle over here Joan, but hey, who cares!

I like it and in white too, I like white cars, hence we have two.

Do you want to have a bar-code on the rear like my Fiat ?