Motor Trend says about the 2005 Mustang 4.0 V-6:

[ponyboy'sV6]

"...our sense is that the team managed to preserve much of the old 90° 3.8 liter engine's coarseness and thrash. Probably it's a big improvement, but no blindfolded passenger will ever mistake this for a Japanese six - unless perhaps the car is traversing a concrete freeway at 70mph and tire noise is drowning out the engine."

Can't those prejudiced Calijapanese goofs ever say something complimentary about an American car? They also bitched about the angle of the dead pedal and bemoaned the fact that there were no cupholders in the back seat when they reviewed the new Mustang GT.

I've subscribed to Motor Trend for well over 40 years, and frankly, I'm getting tired of their worshiping at the altar of the rising sun.

[pete]

I guess we don't spend enough advertising in their biased rag.

[evil03mustang]

I sent the editor a "nice" email. :evil:

[Chad2001]

thats total bs, I have a 4.0 sohc in the wife's explorer and it is lots smoother and quieter than the 3.8 in my mustang. I drive around a 05 4runner at work from time to time and the explorer 4.0 is every bit as quiet as the toyota v6. :uhh:

[Carlos]

Frankly, their obviously biased pont of view has never bothered me nor influenced my decision-making. I enjoy reading Mustang articles in any rag and no matter what they print, the true Stang enthusiast will accept these "shortcomings" to own another piece of the greatest Ponycar in history.

Carlos

[Clint]

autoweek said something similar.

to them, if it isnt european..it's junk.
they even bitched about the cool color changing feature of the guage
cluster... said they had to press too many buttons.

well.. mustang people like lotsa buttons.
so stuff it.

and then they bitched about the 300C not coming with factory tire options.
who the fvk cares about the factory rubber. we all know factory rubber blows. the 300C is one hell of a car for very little dough.

[Rych232]

Thats a retarded comparison, and how much do japanese V6 cars cost??? $25-35K

And bitching about cup holders in the rear!??! Umm, is this a 4 door sedan we are talking about??? Hell my rear seat is just a place for me to throw my CD case. Surprised they didn't complain that it doesn't come with a factory rooftop luggage rack option... tards

[062stang]

Thats a retarded comparison, and how much do japanese V6 cars cost??? $25-35K

And bitching about cup holders in the rear!??! Umm, is this a 4 door sedan we are talking about??? Hell my rear seat is just a place for me to throw my CD case. Surprised they didn't complain that it doesn't come with a factory rooftop luggage rack option... tards

agreed

the "experts" are comparing apples against oranges

come on a amercian muscle car vs. a japanese car.

keep in mind the v6 mustang could be had for less then 20K.

and how needs cup holders in the back, if you do, buy a min van.

the 05 mustang is a 64 mustang, nothing less, and awhole lot more.

-umesh

[Nick D98]

Agreed. Those magazines like to compare apples and oranges, even though
its not in the same group. They're not. Jeeze a japanese V6, i should just
go out buy a Lincoln LS V8 for that much. Well close to 30 something actually.
But still, those mags are biased.

[pb_milan]

hmm, i dunnno, i've drove vehicles with the 4.0 sohc.. and its not that nice of an engine.
the 3.8L is pretty harsh

my 2.5L isn't bad in my svt.. but its still not on par with *some* of the jap and european engines.

just being realistic here.. i like the stangs.. and i wouldn't buy it for smoothness or refinement or any of that.. i wanna feel and hear things :D

[FR350]

What is the best thing about problems in a car is it gives us reason to redesign it, the imports call it tunner's and we in America call it HOT RODDING!

[Full Tang]

Cupholders for the back seat? You mean, people can sit back there?? :p Really though, if you want to see a TINY back seat, try squeezing into the back of a 911 some time.

C&D actually gave a really favorable review of the 05 stang in this month's issue. Considering their repetitively dour commentary on Mustangs for the past 10 years, I was shocked. They even said that it had "a blend of compliance and response worthy of a BMW." The only thing that disappointed me was the braking results. 13 feet longer from 70 than the 99-04 GTs. I guess the 10mm thinner tires (even though they are stickier) and weight gain hurt the numbers.

Oddly, their manual GT was .1 slower to 60 and .2 slower in the 1/4 than Motor Trend's automatic. Bench racing aside, could this mean that the gear ratios in the 5R55S are better than those in the T-3650, at least for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd? Regardless, I think it's safe to say automatic Mustangs will no longer be a full second behind the manuals to 60 and .5 or more in the quarter.

[hitmankb]

"...our sense is that the team managed to preserve much of the old 90° 3.8 liter engine's coarseness and thrash. Probably it's a big improvement, but no blindfolded passenger will ever mistake this for a Japanese six - unless perhaps the car is traversing a concrete freeway at 70mph and tire noise is drowning out the engine."

I dont know if its because Im American, but I want to feel/hear my engine!

[Mustang778]

truly, these magazines are going insane. Name how many cars you can buy with three hundred horses for 25k.

[j-lank]

totally agreed those mags complain about dumb stuff that nobody cares about just so they can fill pages
their just a bunch of guys driving cars fora living heck i could do that and then some. :headbang:

[ChrisB99]

they rate the cars on comfort and refinement a lot more than performance, what did you guys expect

[evil03mustang]

they rate the cars on comfort and refinement a lot more than performance, what did you guys expect

wrong. they rate them on the "how much better am I than the joneses" scale.

If you have a mustang and not a megabuck pretensemobile, you fall very low on their scale.

MT are the guys that snub their noses at anything that costs less than 80,000 dollars. Those guys need clubbed with wombats.

[BigPimpJK]

they rate the cars on comfort and refinement a lot more than performance, what did you guys expect

wrong. they rate them on the "how much better am I than the joneses" scale.

If you have a mustang and not a megabuck pretensemobile, you fall very low on their scale.

MT are the guys that snub their noses at anything that costs less than 80,000 dollars. Those guys need clubbed with wombats.

Wait...Are you saying they think a 80k+ car is better than a 20k car? Those bastards!

For less biased views from the rags, you gotta wait for when they're doing head-to-head comparisions.

[mschmoyer]

Don't you think they'd finally make the auto transmission equal the 5-spd in power so people would pay for this $800 upgrade?

Mike

[ChrisB99]

they rate the cars on comfort and refinement a lot more than performance, what did you guys expect

wrong. they rate them on the "how much better am I than the joneses" scale.

If you have a mustang and not a megabuck pretensemobile, you fall very low on their scale.

MT are the guys that snub their noses at anything that costs less than 80,000 dollars. Those guys need clubbed with wombats.

if you drove lexus/porsche/audis/BMW/mercedes all day would you be impressed by an econoperformer?

these guys generally think a bmw m3 is the ideal car, shit, so do I
doesn't mean Im going to say a mustang is something it isn't, like refined compared to most of the jap cars

if they made the mustang at the level of those cars, it would be way more expensive than it is, pretty much making the mustang the opposite of what its intended purpose is now, and always has been

cheap car with power thats fun to drive

[Nick D98]

Don't you think they'd finally make the auto transmission equal the 5-spd in power so people would pay for this $800 upgrade?

Mike
Yeah Ford has one, its called the C-4. :D

[JohnLee]

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[JohnLee]

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[062stang]

yah but now your comparing apples and oranges here again.

those cars will cost a ton more then any V6 mustang

99+ turbocharged v6 mustang with all the goodies ( 4.2 crank, built block, tube k member and so on and so on)

will out run the any of those caddy's and will keep up with the vette

-umesh

[evil03mustang]

the point is... they trash the mustang.






anybody that trashes a mustang should be caned.

[JohnLee]

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[062stang]

but I still do not like seeing stock cars (other then mustangs) with so much power lol :evil:

wait till the new cobra comes out, you know it will have more the 390 "under rated" hp

-umesh

[JohnLee]

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[062stang]

i just came back from LA auto show, and the only thing i liked there where the mustangs, GT, the cobra coup concept, the saleen mustang, saleen S7, and saleen focus.

no cobra though

of they also had the convertable mustang there too :headbang:

-umesh

[Dutch]

"...our sense is that the team managed to preserve much of the old 90° 3.8 liter engine's coarseness and thrash. Probably it's a big improvement, but no blindfolded passenger will ever mistake this for a Japanese six - unless perhaps the car is traversing a concrete freeway at 70mph and tire noise is drowning out the engine."

Can't those prejudiced Calijapanese goofs ever say something complimentary about an American car? They also bitched about the angle of the dead pedal and bemoaned the fact that there were no cupholders in the back seat when they reviewed the new Mustang GT.

I've subscribed to Motor Trend for well over 40 years, and frankly, I'm getting tired of their worshiping at the altar of the rising sun.

You should go drive an '05, then you'll know what they're talking about. The engine really is that bad. If I bought one, my first mods would be aimed at making it quieter (at both ends).

[viper32cm]

Gee, I thought it was pretty smooth.

And that's not solely based on comparison with my car.

[JPRO]

"...our sense is that the team managed to preserve much of the old 90° 3.8 liter engine's coarseness and thrash. Probably it's a big improvement, but no blindfolded passenger will ever mistake this for a Japanese six - unless perhaps the car is traversing a concrete freeway at 70mph and tire noise is drowning out the engine."

Can't those prejudiced Calijapanese goofs ever say something complimentary about an American car? They also bitched about the angle of the dead pedal and bemoaned the fact that there were no cupholders in the back seat when they reviewed the new Mustang GT.

I've subscribed to Motor Trend for well over 40 years, and frankly, I'm getting tired of their worshiping at the altar of the rising sun.

You should go drive an '05, then you'll know what they're talking about. The engine really is that bad. If I bought one, my first mods would be aimed at making it quieter (at both ends).

I drove one, loved it, and bought it :)

I dunno, I like to hear my engine ....

[Dutch]

Well it was definately loud, and you can definately hear the engine. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but the '05 V6 just seemed way beyond the limits of good taste. My '00 with the GT takeoffs began to bother me before I sold it, and the '05 is louder than that.

THe real difference was that my '00 was quiet from the front end. I had the factory air box. The '05 has gobs of mechanical noise from up front.

I'm not trying to trash the '05, but it's definately not for me.

[V604mustangjoe]

They critisize the stupidest things. They complain about the car being too heavy! OMG! Sorry ricers, our cars dont break down and have to be carried by the ricer wing to the junkyard to be disposed of and therefore require being light to carry lol.

Its a SOHC 4.0 V6, name one jap engine that big, ford purposely under tunes there engines for two reasons, 1 you can always make it faster yourself, 2 insurance is cheaper when it only says 210 hp, 240 torque on the invoice. the fact its overhead cam is a huge improvement in itself, i'd take a 4.0 Litre SOHC over a 3.0 DOHC any day.