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sgo1960 · 03-28-2018, 08:05 PM

So I'm new here.. 58yo looking for my midlife crisis car. I've been wrenching cars since about 1972 and my cars rarely see the dealership except for warranty items. So I currently own a 2003 Mustang GT Vert Centennial version with a few mods, tune, subframe connectors, Magnaflow exaust, strut tower brace etc... I have about 160k on the car and it's been good to me. Biggest problems were poor seam sealer on floor plans which lead to leaks and horrible, I mean horrible, rust protection. Front strut tower corrosion which I think I mitigated with some welding and POR15, Eastwood frame encapsulation stuff.
My major complaint with Ford is that these are all items that go back a generation or so in Mustangs and that Ford never fixed. Frame rails that rot. Ford knows it. Rear ends that whine and clunk. Again Ford knows it.

So, fast forward to the present, I'm between Camaro and Mustang for my next car. I grew up with American iron and I love it.... However, reading the boards I'm getting scared... Mustang with evap problems? Yea, I've done evaps in Fords and Chevy's and it almost always requires major surgery to the dash. Why the heater core and evap core aren't easily accessible via a removable panel is a mystery. I'm an engineer by trade and this seems easy to do, at least to me. Still it seems to be a problem for Fords. And then the Camaro has it's own set of problems although my research seems to indicate the problems are less than the Fords... So, where does this leave me? I'm scared. Honestly. I'm thinking of buying a Boxster instead. My daughter's had Jettas and they were easy to fix. For the record I am leaning toward a Camaro SS but not going near anything with magnetic shocks.. Paying $400 for a single replacement shock is not my idea of fun. Same for all this electronic differential, electro magic this and that.. Just more stuff to break.. And expensive to fix... Am I a solitary man with this line of thinking?
Thanks for listening.

03-28-2018, 08:05 PM	#261
sgo1960 Drives: Soon to be Camaro Join Date: Mar 2018 Location: NY Posts: 22	So I'm new here.. 58yo looking for my midlife crisis car. I've been wrenching cars since about 1972 and my cars rarely see the dealership except for warranty items. So I currently own a 2003 Mustang GT Vert Centennial version with a few mods, tune, subframe connectors, Magnaflow exaust, strut tower brace etc... I have about 160k on the car and it's been good to me. Biggest problems were poor seam sealer on floor plans which lead to leaks and horrible, I mean horrible, rust protection. Front strut tower corrosion which I think I mitigated with some welding and POR15, Eastwood frame encapsulation stuff. My major complaint with Ford is that these are all items that go back a generation or so in Mustangs and that Ford never fixed. Frame rails that rot. Ford knows it. Rear ends that whine and clunk. Again Ford knows it. So, fast forward to the present, I'm between Camaro and Mustang for my next car. I grew up with American iron and I love it.... However, reading the boards I'm getting scared... Mustang with evap problems? Yea, I've done evaps in Fords and Chevy's and it almost always requires major surgery to the dash. Why the heater core and evap core aren't easily accessible via a removable panel is a mystery. I'm an engineer by trade and this seems easy to do, at least to me. Still it seems to be a problem for Fords. And then the Camaro has it's own set of problems although my research seems to indicate the problems are less than the Fords... So, where does this leave me? I'm scared. Honestly. I'm thinking of buying a Boxster instead. My daughter's had Jettas and they were easy to fix. For the record I am leaning toward a Camaro SS but not going near anything with magnetic shocks.. Paying $400 for a single replacement shock is not my idea of fun. Same for all this electronic differential, electro magic this and that.. Just more stuff to break.. And expensive to fix... Am I a solitary man with this line of thinking? Thanks for listening.