I finally bought a car!!!

Parent Cafe
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<p>After starting like 40 car threads. Hee hee! Finally, at long last, picked it up today, after being locked in mortal battle with the dealer over the terms for the past week. I literally sat down in the finance office twice to sign and walked away after discovering some of the numbers developed mission creep between the sales person’s mouth and the final contract. Today they finally caved like 90% and I caved 10%. It’s way cool. Fast, black, sleek. Mustang. GT. Two exhaust thingys. Awesome car. I cannot stop running out to the garage to stare at it. </p>

<p>D told me I was actually petting it while I was driving it!!! We’re trying to think of a name for it. I was scared to park it in mall parking lots tonight so we’re in the unfortunate position of having ONE day left and almost ZERO shopping complete. Uh oh. Oh well hopefully tomorrow we’ll get through it all. Meanwhile, I am sooooo happy. :)</p>

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<p>Congratulations! Stick shift?</p>

<p>Don’t worry about coming up with a name for your car. Your car will make its name known to you all in good time.</p>

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<p>Very cool. Never run a black car through an automatic type carwash. Handwash only. Otherwise the paint will show every small scratch from the brushes.</p>

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<p>Many, or most, carwashes are brushless these days. I still remember when my older neighbor got her first car- a brand new model called “Mustang”, was it 1967?</p>

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<p>I never run ANY car through a car wash. Hand wash only.</p>

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<p>Awwwwwwww, LTS, CONGRATS on your new MUSTANG GT!!!
Now, however, you have absolutely <strong><em>NO</em></strong> excuse for not racin’ up here to Kansas, pickin’ me up, and headin’ out on the town, such as it is around here! <em>lol</em> Soooooooooooo…<strong><em>HURRY!!!</em></strong> ;)</p>

<p>love, ~berurah</p>

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<p>wis75:</p>

<p>The first Mustang was 1964 1/2. My second car was a 1969 Mustang Mach I (first was a VW bug - way too underpowered for me). I still have the Mach I as well as a 1966 Mustang convertible which I drive daily. </p>

<p>latetoschool:</p>

<p>I’m sure you’ll enjoy your new Mustang. Although I only have old ones, I like the new ones as well.</p>

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<p>Congrats! cool car!! 300 hp I believe. Let us know what options you have. It has been said that black isn’t a color, it’s a career!!! (ie, it is very difficult to maintain in top show condition) </p>

<p>But… but… I must be thinking of another car thread because that person as I recall needed something that would be good in 12 inches of floodwater, or something like that.</p>

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<p>Too cool LTS. Now you’ll have to deal with all the admiring glances and the shouts of “cool car”. Usually by teenage boys and 50 year old …uuhhhhh…boys. ;)</p>

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<p>My first car was a 1964- 1/2 Mustang. Hard top, V-8 260. Stick.
Paid $1400 for it – with rebuilt engine and fresh body work and paint. Drove it four years and 48000 miles … and sold it for more than I paid for it.</p>

<p>Loved my car. Hope it’s still alive in someone’s garage even now!</p>

<p>Enjoy your Mustang LTS!</p>

<p>(Our December 2006 car story is that we get to go buy my husband a new car this week after the dealer totalled his very nice Infiniti by parking it in a slightly low spot in the lot and allowing it to flood – and then letting it sit and stew and grow <em>things</em>. )</p>

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<p>LOL! I woke up this morning, made espresso, and ran out to the garage again. Car is very happy, I think it knows it’s home. My daughter is in shock - she was laughing, told the guys at the dealership yesterday she couldn’t believe I was buying this car - “my mom is WAY too conservative, I’m shocked she’s actually buying this”. I reminded her that I’ve been studying this and other cars for months and I’ve said all along that I wanted a Mustang. She said that she never imagined I would actually, really go through with buying one. She’s thrilled, still in shock, but not too shocked to miss every opportunity to pitch me for the keys. </p>

<p>Options - not many. I’m too conservative LOL. No leather, for example. Feels greedy and too much like tempting fate the wrong way. I already felt guilty last night - when I drive it home - a neighbor wandered over and said something like “you must make entirely too much money to be spending it like this”. So I walked in the house, feeling sort of funny. But then my daughter reminded me that I’ve been working ridiculously hard, rather like a dog, for YEARS, and I’ve earned this and deserve it, “besides mom the lady is a flake”. A few more years out, I’ll get another new car with leather seats and all the toys. (But I’ll keep this one forever.) Plus it’s automatic - I decided just don’t have the time to figure out how to drive a stick, and at the end of the day I still have to get to the grocery store, dry cleaner, bank, post office, meetings, airports, etc. efficiently and without a lot of extra concentration.</p>

<p>But it’s ridiculously, way cool. Berurah, I’m thinking I can be in Kansas in, say < three hours. I don’t know what to do about the high water problem - leave the state when the hurricanes come again I guess. And thanks for the advice on the car washes - I didn’t know that.</p>

<p>I am worried about something I read in the owner’s manual - for the first 1,000 miles it shouldn’t be driven at consistent speeds, in order to allow time for all the parts to work correctly together? But after the 1st I have to drive 350 miles straight, and 300 of those miles on the interstate. No way will I have 1,000 miles on the car by then. Hopefully this won’t mess up the car? If this is a serious issue, I’ll rent a car, make the drive and then fly back or something, and keep drying it locally until it’s to 1,000 miles. But that will really tend to mess up my schedule, so, just how important is it to pay attention to what the owner’s manual recommends?</p>

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<p>UCDS<em>UCLA</em>Dad, how did you take care of your 1966 so that you are still able to drive it daily? What did you do to it? It must be ridiculously, just over the top cool - I can’t imagine.</p>

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<p>I think one thing UCDS_UCLA dad did right was to live in California!</p>

<p>The salt on the roads here in a New England winter is a little tough on the body!</p>

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<p>Congratulations! :)</p>

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<p>^^Which also means that he’s still asleep, and so we have to wait, like, hours for the answer lol. I do though wonder if it’s possible to use a 2007 as one normally does - daily driving, etc., and still keep it maintained in exellent condition as is the 1966, considering the huge differences in how cars were built in 1966. Daughter and I were sort of looking it all over last night, saying things like “this feature is great though it will degrade and need to be repaired in three - four years”, and so on. We were sort of mentally cataloguing the things we thought might break or malfunction first, and factoring in time and cost of repairs. </p>

<p>I did upgrade to the best possible security system, and even though it’s recommended not to, got the extended warranty, which I thought was a very small amount of money in exchange for reasonable benefits.</p>

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<p>Break it in right. No hard starts, stops or high rpm’s. City driving or a nice long scenic drive in the country are ideal to vary the speed. Varying the speed will creat a vacuum which helps to lubricate the cylinders. If you need to take a long highway drive, take your foot of the gas occasionally, especially going down hill. After the first tank or two of gas, don’t worry about the breakin except for avoiding high rpm’s. Check your manual on the initial oil change interval. Many cars use a breakin oil which should not be changed for several thousand miles. To maintain an engine, almost every shop and car owner will recommend very frequent oil changes. They usually cite the manufacturers recommendations for severe use and then recommend even more frequent changes. Save your money. Tests have shown that modern oils last a long time – at least 5000-10000 miles. Oil deteriorates most rapidly when the car does not warm up long enough to cook off condensation. If most of your driving is 5 miles or longer, there is no benefit from frequent oil changes.</p>

<p>Enjoy that new car. Black is a really nice except in hot climates. I don’t think black is any worse when dirty than other colors. In fact I think white is the worst for showing dirt.</p>

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<p>vanity plate:</p>

<p>L82SKL</p>

<p>:D</p>

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<p>

NICE!! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :)</p>

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<p>late:
I’ve only had the '66 for the last 25 years or so - it was a classic when I bought it! It’s been driven daily since then - it probably has a few hundred thousand miles on it (the odometer only goes to 99999). It does help that I live in southern Cal. I also keep it fairly religiously covered which is IMO the single best thing that can be done to protect a car. It’s in the garage when at home and under a car cover when at work (unless it rains in which case I remove the cover). The cover keeps the sun off the paint, the top, the dash, the rest of the interior, helps the wax last ten times longer, protects against some door dings, and I think helps protect against theft/break-ins by making it more of a pain for the thief than the next car. It takes me less than 2 minutes to put the cover on or take it off. I also never park in the closest parking spot - I always seek out a more protected spot and don’t mind walking a bit further. I do most work on it myself so I’ve simply replaced the front-end steering/suspension after about a hundred thousand miles. I’ve also redone the interior once and will likely do it again sometime soon. It’s actually fairly inexpensive to do. One nice thing is that the car increases in value every time I drive it.</p>

<p>I’ve owned my 1969 Mustang even longer - since I was in HS and it was almost new. Cars can last if they’re well taken care of.</p>

<p>I’m one of those who believes in oil changes more frequently (every 3k-4k miles) than the owners manual states. It’s fairly inexpensive (especially for me since I do my own changes) and really does help remove contaminants from circulating.</p>

<p>I actually think newer cars are much better built than the old cars but the older ones have the benefit of being less complex and therefore easier/cheaper to repair and restore. I think that with some due diligence on your part and that fact that you care not just ‘for’ your car but ‘about’ your car your car can last a long time and provide the fun it should throughout. Keep a good wax job on it and go out and get a decent but not expensive car cover if you leave the car parked outside all day.</p>

<p>I love your enthhusiasm for the car. I think you made a great choice.</p>

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<p>berurah:</p>

<p>I like that plate idea.</p>