I’m all done with studio gear with the exception of maybe down the road in a year or so:
One microphone (not too likely but possible, about $500-700). I don’t actually need it.
Upgrading the already very excellent converters in the RME interface to state of the art for $750 (maybe within 2 years)
Within 3 years a 12 string bass guitar.
I have all the other acoustic, electric and bass guitars I want. Any other axes would be 5 years out.
After a year, about 200 a year for music software during Xmas time during specials, except for this coming Xmas while I’m super pinching pennies.
Technically I’m insane for wanting the Mustang. However it’s a once in a lifetime chance for something special, and I know for a fact that I’d kick myself in the ass forever if I don’t at least try to get it. Plus it gets rid of my jones for a 1968 442 as it’s a much better car with 90 more hp and better everything except for personal nostalgia.
If something too difficult happens during the wheeling and dealing for terms and whatever I have up for a down payment or trade in, then I can drop the price $6000 by getting a stripped Mustang, but still with the shiftable automatic.
By the way, if I didn’t already say it, I would get the wheels you saw as part of the car package. I would then get the standard plain Jane wheels for winter with likely Bridgestone Blizzaks, though there are maybe two other winter tires under consideration. There are no studded or even studdable tires from any brand available for that car, which is disappointing, but I can live with that.
That car was not altered as far as power is concerned, the one I’m getting will do all that. They might’ve altered the suspension so it wouldn’t get trashed so much so they could shoot more scenes. But unlike most movies or TV shows, I can tell you they didn’t have to boost the engine. That’s 420 hp!
Looks like I’ve completed major previous purchasing goals including hardware and software, and have earnestly started real penny pinching to save up as much as possible for a Mustang. I talked to my salesman and he’ll keep me advised so I can order a 2013 as late as possible. Mustang model years come out very early. The 2013 came out about April 2012! It takes 6-8 weeks to order. I’m hoping to order February or March, but want to be ready even if I have to order as early as December for some reason.
I’ve looked at all my installment loans. My car will be paid off in December, but will pay it off a month early so I can have the title about December.
I have my Newegg account which will be paid off in December as well. So the monthly payments for those I can factor towards car payments that will be a lot higher than my current ones.
I will also pay off a number of older Sweetwater charges about then as well. However a month or so ago I bought an expensive audio interface that was 10% off because it was a demo, which in the case of Sweetwater means identical to new. I saved $230. There’s more to that story, but suffice to say I was going to get the next lower model some time down the road, but got this top model for only $400 more. I have a year from now to pay it off. So after December I have no installment loans at all except this one.
I’m glad to have this interface, it’s over and done with. The Sweetwater card came in handy. This has been described as the Mercedes-Benz of interfaces:
I also found a company in Chicago that can upgrade the already great convertors to state of the art for about $750 which I can do way down the road.
Back to the car:
All of this plus my expected trade in value gave me pretty much what I can expect for monthly payments.
It’s really important to get the 2013 because that’s the end of the retro appeal. The 2015 will be a really different car and the 2014 is a transition to that. I like them both okay but am not interested. Ford wants to use the Mustang name to make more money, as right now their demographics are such that age of the average owner is 51! They want to make it a bit smaller and it will still be two doors, but will be designed so they can make it four doors if they want. There’s never been a four door Mustang! Suffice to say if I don’t do this car, I’m keeping the Buick, though a Nissan 370Z (smaller car with a 330 hp V6) would be entertaining for the same money, but not as desirable to me as a V8 Mustang. Otherwise it’s impossible to get over 400 hp for as little as $32k.
I have two options: A stripped model for $32k, or getting it with the minimum options that are useful to me for $38k. Which I get will depend on what happens at the time I’m doing a deal. I also want to incorporate a set of winter tires and wheels into the loan. Because you can’t use steel wheels, etc., this will cost about $1300 give or take a hundred.
Going to rear wheel drive with fairly wide treads means I want aggressive real winter snow tires, not all seasons or mud and snows. Ideally Bridgestone Blizzaks. I was hoping to pop on skinny steel wheels and studded tires, but that’s impossible on this car for technical reasons, and there are no studded tires available that I can find. But the Blizzaks and another I found look pretty good and have very good reviews.
Anyway, depending on how things work out I’ll pay at least $400 a month for the Mustang or up to $100 more, possibly. I’m going to be aggressive hunting down the best possible interest rate. I’d like to do 60 months but will likely have to do 72. As it stands now if I get the options I want at 72 months, it’s $479 a month including 4.9% interest. That’s for the car at $38,280, $2500 down with $6000 trade in.
I’m also timing things so that my credit rating will be as optimum as possible. The ideal is constant use and payment with a remaining balance of 30% on an account. Higher than 50% or lower than 15% gives you a lower score. I’m shooting for at least one of the 3 credit agencies giving me over 800, which I’ve done once before. Right now they’re all floating around 785 or so. Long term I want them all over 800, but it might be too much to hope for by December. I hope that the fact there will be nothing left to owe on my Newegg card by December won’t hurt my score; I just don’t know technically. Same with no longer having car payments.
I’m looking hard again at the color called “Gotta Have It Green”. This is like some custom car colors that have been around since I was a kid. It’s a tri-color paint technique, so it has a lot of depth and dimension. However it’s also very flashy and super vivid. As much as I like it, I had to ask myself if I could live with it.
So I was inclined towards Deep Impact Blue. I happened to be on the local dealer’s site and saw they had one there in that color so I went down to look at it.
I’ve also attached 5 renders with it equipped exactly including the right wheels.
My salesman Robb was there. I liked the color a lot. The right darkness with very nice depth, and with the faintest touch of red in it. He happened to have a model from last year with the Kona Blue, which I had previously been inclined towards. It was very nice with the right darkness, but was a pure blue, and is no longer available anyway. So I’m definitely getting the Deep Impact Blue. It also looks better than however you see it on the Web.
This years model has 420 hp over last year’s 412. This car can use premium or regular gas. On regular, hp is still 402 (both this year and last year).
Two of you remember driving my 442. Back then it was rated at 360 hp. It was a bigger block than the Mustang so it had a lot of torque grunt though. By today’s hp ratings, the 442 would be about 330 hp and it had to use premium. I probably averaged about 14 mpg. Now compare that to the Mustang which is lighter with better aerodynamics, with 420 hp. And it’s supposed to get 25 or 26 mpg highway! I can expect to see about 24 highway probably and average about 17 including all my in town driving. My Buick is 31 highway and around town around 17, and for the kind of driving I do, I average about 20. If I remember right the Coyote engine shuts off 4 cylinders and locks up the torque converter to save gas when the conditions permit.
The 442 was 0-60 mph in about 5.4 to 5.8 seconds and quarter mile time of 13.5 to 13.7 seconds at about 103 mph. Top speed was said to be about 115 mph but I had mine up to 125 real mph (after adjusting for speedometer error) and it felt like it was good for 128-130. Keep in mind aerodynamics weren’t happening back then. Mine had a fairly short differential and a police grind camshaft, so it was in between a standard 442 and the special W-30 version.
If I looked for a 1968 442 (my favorite year), it would cost at least $25,000 for one that needs nothing. They are also hard to find (needing nothing). At any given moment you can find only one for sale in the U.S. Ten years ago you could find 3. If I was rich, I would have one for sure for nostalgia (and for the sound of that 400 block). But the Mustang is a way better car.
For the Mustang: I can expect 0-60 in about 4.9 seconds. Quarter mile would be about 111 mph in 12. 74 seconds. Top speed is about 170, but is factory speed limited to either 150 mph but more likely 155 mph.
Here’s a good spot for checking out what the car’s about, and it happens to be in Gotta Have It Green:
If you look carefully at the way the sunlight hits the paint, they did a great job with the dimensionality of the paint layers, etc.
There’s a heavy duty lime lemon green large flake metallic that was on lots of custom cars of the 60’s that is so bold it just makes your eyes pop. On the right car I think it’s cool. The green on the Mustang is not that kind of custom paint from years back, but has depth to it because of the way the paint was applied, and the way it bends light between surface highlights and shadow, so that’s primarily my reason for liking it. But I’m afraid I’d regret it after a while. The blue I’ll always like.
I’m just so bored with silver because I wound up with too many of those, or I’ve certainly spent too much time in silver cars, and again they’re so common. I don’t like Ford’s Grabber colors because they are too flat and vivid (non-metallic): Grabber Blue, Grabber Green, Grabber Yellow (or Orange, don’t remember but it’s like a school bus).
I don’t really care much about gas mileage because I drive so little nowadays as it’s 5.5 miles to work. I could drive a Lamborghini and the gas hit wouldn’t be much.
As much as the 305 hp in the V6 felt really good, I feel I should get 420 hp.
I really want to keep my Buick for the winter, but really need it for part of the down payment. I hate the idea of driving the Mustang in salt but have no choice.
I’m going to install my electronic rust killer, but have to find the right dielectric pads for it as they have glue on the sides and inevitably got torn when removed from my Saab some time back.
I’m seeing Steve Vai in concert in 5 weeks and that’s all I’ve got scheduled. I’m not buying any more tickets, software or whatever no matter how good the deal or the appeal. I’ve already encountered some recent temptations.
My brother is considering buying my Buick. I told him:
I’d be trading it in when taking delivery on the Mustang, which would be February to April best guess. As I said, later means easier winter driving until the following winter to give me time to pony up for winter tires. Driving that car in a blizzard with the standard pontoon tires and rear wheel drive would be a trip even if only going to work! Of course I could do it, just not nearly as easy as with the right tires, or using front wheel drive with one of the heaviest front wheel drive cars ever made (my Buick and my previous Olds, which are actually the same car, really). What I’d really like to do is get winter tires and wheels from Grappone from the start to make it part of my car loan! In which case an earlier purchase might be feasible for winter driving, yet the money part of it would be better the later I waited.
I did some research for winter tires. If I got the same size everything including decent sipe tires, compatibility with the brakes, nice looking wheels only $5 more than the cheapest alloys, tire pressure monitors, mounted, balanced and shipped from Tirerack.com, it’s about $1500. What I’d like to do is go minus 1 or minus 2 on the sizes for a narrower tire and if such a thing exists for compatibility, cheap steel wheels, though I suspect that might not be the case. But I’d really like to have Grappone do it all so I can make it part of the car loan. Also have to decide on a car cover which is an option for the car.
It’s gonna be impossible for me to keep my Buick for the winter, I have to trade it in. I hate that thought, but it’s that or no Mustang. Maybe in a year I could get a crappy very old used Jeep Liberty cheap for the winters. To keep the Buick I would’ve had to start saving one or two years ago.
Including trade in value and cash saved, I have to come up with $8100 to keep the monthly payments around $400, which I can do. But that does NOT include snow wheels/tires or cover. What this means is I have to save $600 a month for the rest of the year. Tough, but theoretically possible. By December my Buick will be paid off anyway, so that’s done with before I trade it.
Last year I called Allstate to find out how much my insurance would go up with a 2012 and it’s not too bad at all, really. I think I might’ve called city hall to find out about the first year of registration cost and it was manageable.
I’m likely to get Kona Blue. I wish they still offered Lava Red, which is kinda the red version of Kona Blue as far as darkness and classiness. But at least this year they brought back Sterling Silver which is the darker silver that I like. They also have a new tri-coat green called Gotta Have It Green, which is pretty cool, does nice things with light hitting it. All the other colors don’t interest me so much. Black is cool, especially on a Super Snake because the whole car is blacked out and the style is super tough and I saw one in person. But black and regular silver and red are so freaking common. I read somewhere that nowadays something like half of all cars sold in the U.S. are white, silver or black.
I really like the styling of the 2013, more ballsy than the 2012. The 2012 standard headlights were optimum for getting the max retro look, though. But I have nothing against the 2013 headlights, plus the 2013 taillights are better than the 2012.
I know it would be a challenge driving with the standard tires in heavy snow, would really try to get narrower tires for winter. But I successfully drove winters in the 442. Part of that time was skinny tires on steel rims, later was BF Goodrich all seasons the first year they came on the market. They weren’t as “all season” as tires are today, but I made it work okay, and they were fairly wide, about as wide or nearly as wide as the Mustang tires.
I grew up in the ’60’s so winter driving is not such a big deal.
I could probably get away with no winter tires the first year if I couldn’t make it happen while buying the car, especially if I was taking delivery in March or later.
With the Mustang I would not be able to drive to the Worcester in a slushy blizzard to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra like I did the night my brother and his family blew off their tickets because of stormy slush concerns. It was work at times with the Buick, but I could make pretty decent time. With the Mustang I would likely have turned back after 30 miles that night. The 442 would be after 40 miles, 50 miles with skinny tires. The Buick is front wheel drive and heavy, though it has only one real drive wheel. Not as heavy as the original Olds Toronado with front wheel drive, but still heavy by today’s standards.
Summary:
I gotta plan carefully and watch myself to get up the down payment with not an awful lot of time remaining. It takes about 6 weeks to get a car after ordering. So I wouldn’t have to drive it in snow or salt as I wouldn’t have it until almost April. I would then have 6 months to prepare for the following winter.
When you stomp on it, Ford designed a valve to open so that the sound goes into the cabin. I found out that the way it works is that it doesn’t open until you’re in second gear or higher, and are doing at least 25 mph. This makes good sense when you think about it, and seems consistent with my test drive of the V8. There’s a YouTube vid showing how to take the foam out of the sound tubes to make the cabin noise louder. Not that I’d likely do that!
It looks to me like most dealers do what Grappone does: wait until they get only 1 or 2 on the lot, then order 4 or 5 more. They always seem to have between 0 and 6 cars on the lot, usually about 2 or 4. I had to do about 3 or 4 visits to get 2 test drives in the right car at the right time over 2 or 3 months. Though I should say one visit was just to see how a bass guitar case fit in the car. It fit amazingly well, I was surprised. I could even fit it in the trunk as well as the rear seat. Also, the rear seat flips down so the trunk space expands into the interior.
MONDO BUZZ 
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