Tag: Mustang GT

August 26, 2020 – Just a car…

August 26, 2020 /

Tomorrow I say goodbye to the Mustang. It was tentatively sold within one hour of being put on Craigslist. I had heard that this was a buyer’s market but man, I was not prepared for this.

We stand to make significantly more than we currently owe, and with it we will pay off our other car loan as well as pocket some money. You could say that God provides because we are in a position where we need to get some financial momentum. This will make our obligations $1200/mo less than last month. We will also be able to reduce our insurance bill as well, not sure what the total benefit will be.

Despite the very positive, I am sad. I wanted to drive that car more. I wanted to be involved in a car club, go on rally runs and drive it on the track. I wanted to make cool modifications and show the car off. Lots of places I went, I got compliments on the car. You could often start up conversations with people about the cars they used to own.

Did you know that Mustang drivers have a secret club? They often wave at drivers of other Mustangs. There have been countless times I have gotten a friendly wave from people just to say that “I see your car”. There have also been times when people want to race you off the line or down the freeway. I never did, but its the little things that I will miss.

Here are some final pictures to remember the car.

It is after all just a car. I enjoyed it as much as I could. When I worked, Friday would be the day I would put it into sport mode and use the paddle shifters. I loved getting it up to 6000 RPM before shifting into the next gear and hearing the engine roar.

It was a bit indulgent to purchase this car in the first place. I got kind of caught up in the want over the need. I was looking at used Porsches and this was a more affordable entry into sports cars and performance driving then the latter. We kind of purchased it on a whim, without too much thought. Now, it has turned into more of a financial liability as I work to repair the income side of our lives.

What I learned from this was that there is something as too much car. When you cannot actually use the power that the machine possesses, you have exceeded the necessity to have any more. My biggest regret was that I could never drive the car to it’s full potential. I never got to try launch control or put it into racing mode to really put the power to the test.

Some of the biggest things that I won’t miss are having a back seat too small for anyone but children. I won’t miss people making assumptions about your personality by the kind of car that you drive and leaving nasty notes on the windshield. I like to be able to see the parking lines when I am trying to park; this was a very difficult car to park, often I had to get out to see if I was in a good position.

I am now relegated back to my old F-150. It will continue to do journeyman’s work even though it has probably felt pretty lonely in the last four years. I did drive it a bit as I was working on the house all spring and summer, but it is in the need of some TLC. After seventeen years, things are finally starting to give up. I need a new battery, an emission line hose is leaking, the A/C is not working. So, those will need to get addressed shortly.

May 6, 2020 – Covid-19 has turned my 5.0 GT into a commuter car

May 6, 2020 /

My son sees a medical specialist every couple of months for monitoring. That specialist works at the research hospital in Portland. For us, that is over an hours drive on a good day. Normally, I make the next appointment when we are at the doctor’s office. I try to make it where it will have the least impact on the school day or in other words ‘as late as possible’. That leaves us at the whims of rush hour traffic during most appointments.

As a life-long, small town guy I find rush hour traffic extremely frustrating. This is born largely out of my belief of the colossal waste of time commuting is. My two years living in the suburbs or Portland cemented that for me in the 1990s. I have tried very hard not to live or work where I had to deal with those frustrations.

First, I needed to get fuel before we left. The Mustang has a small tank to begin with at 16 gallons. With the low price of gasoline I filled the car up for $32. I almost always reset the trip counter when I fuel up because I monitor the fuel economy during that period. It is a habit that I have always done as a double check on the gas gauge.

During our trip, traffic was incredibly light. I would characterize it as Saturday morning. I think that we stopped at two lights in Salem on our way to the freeway and two lights once in Portland. For an appointment at three PM, we would start to encounter the afternoon rush hour at this time, however typically not terrible in the mid afternoon.

Our round trip spanned from 1:30-5 PM. I would have expected 1:30-6:30 PM so I was really happy about that. Now, the best part… the Mustang’s overall fuel economy. I averaged 29.2 MPG on that trip. I have never seen the economy that high before. I usually average about 20-22 MPG. For that trip specifically I have seen it as high as 26 MPG.

The net of this is that the Mustang can be more than double as efficient as my other two vehicles. I am typically no lead foot nor am I a hyper-miler. I enjoy the power sometimes, but it is hard to find a place where I can safely exert it because usually there are too many people about. That usually leaves me with merges or passes when I flex it the most. But, when there is little traffic, it is nice to see what can be done at a steady pace.