Home » Mustangs Maketh The Car Guy: Members’ Rides

Mustangs Maketh The Car Guy: Members’ Rides

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Last week on Members’ Rides, we looked at Mithun’s amazing collection of German cars, with the only slightly broken Lancia thrown in for flavor. This week, I’m happy to introduce another fine Autopian Member, Drew. Drew is a civilian engineer with the Department of the Navy and lives in the DC area, and thanks to his wife, he’s a big car guy these days.

Welcome to Members’ Rides! This is where we share the cars and stories of Autopian Members. The potential to be featured here is a perk for Autopian Members of every level, from the ultra-affordable “Cloth” tier all the way up to “Rich Corinthian Leather.” Click that link and join today!

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How did you get into cars?

I didn’t grow up a car guy. They were appliances to get me from Point A to Point B. My first used car was a 2-door Mercury Grand Marquis. I loved that underpowered, floaty boat. My wife insisted I learn to drive stick, so when we got her a 2006 Scion xA for commuting, she forced me to drive it every day for months. Lo and behold, I started to enjoy it!

Then my old boss was selling his 2006 Mustang GT (to make room for his ’07 GT500) and offered it to me. Going from a 120-hp econobox to a 300-hp bright red manual convertible was “The Moment” for me. I can still distinctly remember firing up the ‘Stang for the first time in my old boss’ driveway. A year later, the GT500 fell into my lap, and it was too good a deal to pass up. Since then, I’ve had a smattering of various Fords as my daily drivers (including a 2016 Fiesta ST, a very close second favorite to the Shelby).

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That’s awesome. So what’s in the garage currently?

  • 2022 Ford F-150 Lariat
  • 2021 Mustang Mach E
  • 2007 Shelby GT500

What led to the F-150?

My wife grew up on a farm and rides horses, so pickup trucks were a foregone conclusion for us. She came into our relationship with a 1999 Ford Ranger. After that came a 2008 Ram 1500, which we kept for a few years, but the tow rating was abysmally low (around 6K).

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Drew’s trusty workhorse

Her current truck is a 2022 F-150 Lariat PowerBoost hybrid, which has been averaging 23 MPG lifetime. We had a 2019 that was fine and we intended to keep 8-10 years, but with the ridiculous trade-in values in 2022 combined with a ridiculously good deal on the 2022, we couldn’t pass up the hybrid. We’re addicts to the EcoBoost, and as soon as Ford comes out with their version of the EREV, we’ll be ordering that!

How is it?

In a word, amazing! Amazing MPG for its size and capability, a super-comfortable road trip car, and effortlessly tows a horse trailer and all the trimmings. It is my wife’s daily driver, and she’s absolutely ecstatic about it.

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How did you decide on the Mach E?

I wanted an EV and was driving a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid when this fell into my lap. I drove past my local dealer on a January morning and saw a Cyber Orange GT out front. Checked the website when I got to work, saw it was a GT Performance Edition. It was listed at MSRP, but “Call for Price.” This was when GTPEs were still going for $5K-$10K over sticker.

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I called my service manager friend and asked about the markup, and he said, “$10K, but for you…sticker!” That’s been a running joke for years, whenever there was a high-end vehicle in the showroom, but this time I decided to call his bluff. Drove there after work, confirmed the MSRP deal, summoned the wife to meet me there, and traded in the Escape on the spot. It was January 18, 2022; I had no charger installed in the house; and the GTPE comes with summer-only tires. Went home, scheduled an electrician to install an outlet, and ordered all-season tires that night!

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Did you want the orange or just what was available?

Oh I definitely wanted Cyber Orange! I prefer cars in the colors featured in the manufacturer’s promotional materials, and the Mach-E looks so good in orange! I would regularly build and price my perfect Mach-E on Ford’s website, and this one matched it exactly, right down to every option. It was fate! And I agree—the world needs more colorful cars for sure!

How do you like it?

Hands-down still my favorite car I’ve ever owned. Other than the GT500, I don’t usually keep a car for more than 2-3 years (I should probably lease, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m borrowing someone else’s car if I do that). My close second was my 2016 Fiesta ST, which was an absolute blast to drive, but the combination of Recaro seats with lack of adjustment and clutch pedal location/throw was murder on my knee, so it had to go (replaced the FiST with the Escape Hybrid, then to the Mach-E). By now, almost three years in, I’m usually bored and looking for my next daily driver, but I’m as smitten with The Great Pumpkin as I was the day I stumbled upon her and drove her home. It’s a good thing, too, since with plummeting used EV values, I’m gonna be upside down for a while yet!

Anything you don’t care for on it?

The one option I wish it had was cooled or ventilated seats. I will say, however, that whatever coating Ford put on the glass roof is amazing, as even in the hottest part of DC summers it never gets too hot. I also wish Ford offered more customizations between drive modes (let me create an individual mode to separately select pedal response, steering weight, and suspension stiffness), rather than the three stock offerings.

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How many miles have you put on it?

She’s sitting at 52,523 miles as I type this, which is way higher than my normal 12,000-15,000-mile-per-year average. Especially in the first year, I was looking for excuses to drive it, so I’ve racked up the miles pretty quickly.

When the Mustang Mach E debuted, people threw a fit with the Mustang name on an EV SUV. What are your thoughts on it?

I’m a die-hard Ford and Mustang guy, so when they first announced it, I was a little skeptical. but gave the Blue Oval the benefit of the doubt that they knew what they were doing. In my (biased) opinion, it’s paid off. As my local Ford dealer service manager put it, “It accelerates like a Mustang, it brakes like a Mustang, and it turns like a Mustang. It’s a Mustang!” All that said, I do hope they bring a performance-focused 2-door EV coupe to the Mustang family sooner rather than later!

Do you have any fun stories about driving it?

I’ve driven pretty ordinary cars and colors for most of my adult life. I figured a bright orange EV would be a bit more unique. Apparently I was wrong!

I usually get to work between 5 and 5:30 AM, but even then our small front lot is usually already full. One day it was early enough that I figured I’d risk it. Pull up to the guard shack and show my ID. The guard has a very confused look on his face, and as he scans my badge, he asks, “Weren’t you just here?” Now I’m confused, too. “No … ?” I say, hesitation in my voice. He pauses for a good five seconds, then follows up with, “Are you sure?”

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Now it is very early, and I haven’t finished my coffee yet, but I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I drove in, then out, then back in again. I frown and say, “Pretty sure, yeah.” He shakes his head and waves me through. As I’m wondering what the heck that was all about, I pulled into the parking lot … to find another Cyber Orange Mach-E GT already parked! Suddenly the guard’s confusion makes sense. A glitch-in-the-matrix moment for sure! What are the chances of there being two identical orange Mach-E GTs at the same work location? At that point, I think there were less than 40,000 Mach-Es sold nationwide!

Fast forward a few months, and another local Ford dealer had a ’23 GTPE in Cyber Orange sits unsold for many, many months. About two weeks ago, it disappeared from their site. Yay, sold! As I’m leaving the parking lot that afternoon, what do I see? A ’23 GTPE in Cyber Orange with that dealership’s sticker on the tailgate. So now there are three of us. Sigh.

People often complain that EVs have no soul, what are your thoughts on the matter?

I tell folks that it’s missing three very important things compared to the GT500: a manual transmission, awesome noises out the rear, and a zero loan balance. But it definitely has soul! The acceleration is biblical, and the low center of gravity more than makes up for its bulk, at least in normal commuting traffic. I know I’m lucky because I have the best of both worlds, but my daily driver will always be an EV from this point forward, and if I had to choose between the Mach-E and GT500 at gunpoint, I’d probably opt for the former!

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You said the GT500 fell into your lap. What’s the story?

My boss, for whom I worked throughout high school and college, bought a 2006 Mustang GT – convertible, 5-speed manual, convertible, fully loaded. Less than a year later, he ordered and took delivery of a 2007 Shelby GT500, so he was selling the GT. He asked if I wanted to buy it, and the wife okayed it – though I later learned it was because she thought it would be her car, not mine! I went to NY to test drive it, and I can still vividly remember getting behind the wheel and firing it up for the first time. It was an instant epiphany! I loved everything about it! The sound, the rumble, the power. I bought it and drove it home that night.

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The GT that started it all

A few months later, once my boss’ GT500 arrived, he let me drive it. On a deserted stretch of back roads on Long Island late at night, I gave it a proper dose of throttle and was giggling like a fool. I called my wife to brag, and she immediately said, “No.” “No, what?” I replied. “No, you can’t buy one.” I insisted that my GT was more than enough car for me, and I thought that was that.

Let me guess: that was not that

I was watching the insane market for 2007 GT500s at that time, and would periodically build and price my ideal model: Alloy Metallic with Tungsten stripes. It ooked like a stealth fighter! So imagine my surprise when a barely used one appeared on the TeamShelby forums. It had 50 miles for $50K. I showed my wife, who reaffirmed her “no.”

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After a week or two of pestering, she said, and I quote, “I don’t care, do what you want.” I’d only been married three years at that point, so I naively assumed that meant get a bank loan, take the train to Vermont, test drive it, pay for it, and drive it home. Dear reader, that was not what she meant! But it was too late: The Shelby was ours! I took her for an, ahem, spirited drive when I returned home, and while I wasn’t totally forgiven, she did say how much fun it was and that she understood why I wanted it so badly.

In less than two years, I went from a 120-hp commuter appliance to a 300-hp convertible to a 500-hp monster. I was hooked!

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What’s your favorite thing about the GT500?

The overall visceral experience. It’s a raw, analog monster. Solid rear axle, cheap interior, rattles galore, but a gloriously powerful engine, wonderfully beefy manual transmission, and the looks are just sublime.

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Anything you don’t like?

Solid rear axle, cheap interior, rattles galore!

Having gone from the GT to the Shelby, how big of a jump was that?

As big a jump from the 120-hp Corolla to the 300-hp GT! The instant-on button effect with the gas pedal, thanks to the supercharger, was addicting from the first launch.

How was it as a daily?

Once I put all-season tires on it, great! The gas mileage hurt – I used to joke with my co-workers that while most people my age are house-poor, I was car-poor! I was also concerned during winter commutes. Not because the Shelby couldn’t handle it, as it definitely could, and I never spun out or skidded. But more because the maniacs around me in their all-wheel-drive crossovers all thought they were invincible, and I couldn’t bear the thought of my poor GT500 getting creamed by an overconfident commuter. I very quickly bought a commuter car (2008 Ford Focus, manual, no options) to avoid that terrible fate.

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Any interest in the newer Mustangs?

I think the S197 Mustang was one of Ford’s best body designs, and the GT500 is the ultimate version of that generation. It’s got the best front end of any car ever in my biased opinion! It also has the cobra on the correct (driver’s) side of the grille, unlike the 2010-2014 GT500s!

I think an S650 refresh Dark Horse will be my next one, because I do like my modern comforts like independent suspension, heated/ventilated seats, and digital displays. I don’t see parting with the Shelby, though. Too many wonderful memories! I’ll just add to the stable. Though we are out of garage space…

Has this one ever given you any issues?

Over 17+ years and 80,000+ miles, oh my yes. The extended warranties paid for themselves multiple times over! First I had the clutch shuddering issue that plagued 2007s and some 2008s, for which Ford at least put out a TSB, but it took multiple repairs to complete.

I had the entire fuel system replaced as the vehicle wouldn’t accept any fuel from any pump. Had a few fender-benders, and an undesirable car-wall interface at VIR in 2011 ($19K in repairs to the front end—thankfully I got HPDE insurance!). Rattles and squeaks galore, from a combination of upgraded suspension and typical mid-aughts Ford quality. As far as overall reliability, however, it’s been great. The 5.4L V8 is a heavy, cast-iron monster, but reliable as heck, and hopefully will run forever.

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Any plans for it other than just driving it and keeping it nice?

Nope, just that! As I said above, it’s probably a forever car now, and while it’s outdated and lacking a lot of modern features, it’s just so gratifying to just hop in, fire it up, and go.

Favorite GT500 memory?

Thanks to TeamShelby, I was able to travel to Dearborn in 2008 and tour both the Flat Rock Assembly Plant where the car was made and the Romeo Engine Plant where the engine was hand-built, including meeting both my engine builders and having them sign both under the hood and on my leather manual cover. I also got to meet Henry Ford III on that trip, who signed my airbag cover and manual cover as well. I have over 80,000 miles on the GT500 now, and so many fantastic memories around driving it and meeting up with other like-minded enthusiasts.

Thanks Drew!

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Parsko
Parsko
18 days ago

DREW! This was a great read. I love that it was your wife that got you to drive stick, she is a saint and the human version of your forever car GT500. Thanks for sharing.

Mr E
Mr E
20 days ago

Nice garage, Drew! My wife and I also have loud and quiet Mustangs – ’22 GT Coupe and ’22 Mach E Premium – although both of ours are white (not the first choice, but we couldn’t pass up either deal). In the FordPass app, I labeled the GT “Whitey Ford” and the Mach E “White E Ford.” Not very imaginative, but still.

Stick axle aside, the GT500 is the only S197 Stang that I like from a styling perspective. I’ve driven a few at work and they’re hilariously dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m sure you do, though!

RustyJunkyardClassicFanatic
RustyJunkyardClassicFanatic
20 days ago

Nice! Despite it being a Mach-E (Machiatto?) at least it’s in a great color and you enjoy it. I have no experience w/ horses (There’s a couple TV shows I like) but have always thought they were amazing. Cue my corny pun joke: That GT-500 has a ton of “horse”power…
I’ll see myself out…
(Seriously, that car sounds like a ton of fun and glad you enjoy it! Reminds me of a version of Eleanor)

Box Rocket
Box Rocket
20 days ago

This was very enjoyable, and nice to see an enthusiast be open-minded an putting thier money to their word.

I agree with the assesemt of the 2007-era GT500’s design. It’s just so good. I recently did a visit and tour of Shelby’s Las Vegas factory and met the VP of the company, who is also their designer, and told him so. Got to see a prototype of the new Super Snake, too. Shelby can definitely make some special vehicles.

JurassicComanche25
JurassicComanche25
20 days ago

Love the mustangs!!! That era GT500 is on my list. So cool looking and sounding.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
20 days ago

And still somewhat attainable! One of the last truly sketchy Mustangs. I’d love an S197 GT500 or Boss 302.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
20 days ago

For me, the Boss 302 has the (somewhat) stealth factor – Shelbys are fairly well known among the general public, but it takes a true enthusiast to know about the Boss.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
20 days ago

This is gonna get a resounding (said with affection) HELL YEAH BROTHERRRRR from me. I have nothing but respect for grown ass adults that are willing to let their pony car freak flag fly. Pony cars are rad and everyone should experience them in excess.

VanGuy
VanGuy
20 days ago

Cool fleet, Drew!

Nice to hear from people supporting Ford’s use of “Mustang” Mach-E. I’m personally ambivalent but I’ve heard more people angry than not, when I think it was just a decent marketing move at heart.

George Talbot
George Talbot
20 days ago
Reply to  VanGuy

It’s a fantastic car.

Benjamin
Benjamin
20 days ago
Reply to  George Talbot

Agreed. Just picked up a 2024 Mach-E Premium AWD with the panoramic roof and extended battery. It’s so quite that it’s easy to keep a conversation with our toddlers’ little voices even at highway speeds.

Great family hauler and dangerously fast 0-60mph in 4.1 seconds.

George Talbot
George Talbot
14 days ago
Reply to  Benjamin

Yeah I have the same car. Fast enough that they shouldn’t let me have it. Hilarious with the kid in her car seat when she goes “Daddy 1, 2, 3!”

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
20 days ago

Great collection Drew (and as always, Brandon’s writing really makes things crackle) – it always makes me happy to see other Mustang enthusiasts here in autopia. I know they’re the antithesis of brown Euro manual station wagons or something else rare n’ quirky that we enjoy here, but Mustangs offer perhaps the best great bang for the buck FUN out there, which is what I love about them.

Mine’s an ’02, so it’s even more primitive than yours, but I think your one-word description of visceral is perfect. There’s a raw immediacy to these cars that just isn’t available much anymore. And Mustangs from this era represent the perfect balance of that plus with good safety features. What’s not to love?

Last edited 20 days ago by Jack Trade
Space
Space
20 days ago
Reply to  Brandon Forbes

Someday you will find the member with the trifecta:
-brown manual diesel wagon
-Mustang
-Miata

Space
Space
16 days ago
Reply to  Brandon Forbes

Hey the autopian accepts all vehicle types, a steam powered vehicle might be more autopian.
I suppose a Mach E could count if you consider it a Mustang.

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