Which car would you pick?

Davey

The Car & Driver guys can't even agree with themselves, so it doesn't really upset me too much one way or the other what they say at this point about anything. I mean, the first line of my post was ripping on them for awarding the "best handling car" to the car with the most electronic driver assist nannies, and my post was full of laughing emoticons, such as and in case you failed to notice that.

Maybe you should take a step back from that "Another Z fanboy bashing the Mustang" podium ask yourself why I'm upset that the Mustang doesn't seem to me to handle as well as the magazines say it does in practice, on the street.

As does mine.


No, no... I lied. I won't be doing that until later. But it's nice of you to...



Wait a minute...


I thought you were'n't going to continue this discussion! Well I guess we both lied.

No, I don't think I really can articulate what it is. It just "feels like" a SRA to me. I suppose it's the connection between the left & right wheels when hitting a bump with one wheel and not the other that is apparent, but I supposed you'll just say something about banana wine or dampers or snapping axles so does it matter? I felt it. Even if it was imaginary... Which I don't believe it was for a second... Does it matter to me? Not in the slightest. I buy and pay for a car to enjoy driving it, if I don't, then, why have it, for whatever reason?

The SRA wasn't the only thing I didn't like about the Mustang, anyway. Sure, a few thousand dollars worth of suspension mods could have taken care of some of it, maybe even most of it, and I probably could have lived with the rest of it, but I realized that I liked the Z just as it was, better than the Mustang as it was, and I'd rather buy a car and leave it "as it was."

In the end it doesn't matter what you think or what Car & Driver thinks, the guy asked for opinions and I gave mine. I've driven the Z and the Mustang pretty extensively on the roads I drive on every day, and I'm a much better judge of what I enjoy driving and what "handles better" to me on those roads. You can disagree all you want but there's really no point in changing my mind that the Mustang is just far less enjoyable to drive in stock form than the 370Z.

If you want to talk about track performance, take a look at the Z's numbers without the straightaways vs. the Mustang GT in that test. I can't find the PDF anymore, but I recall they were pretty much tied... So I think it really comes down to if more straight-line acceleration is more important to you and/or which car you think is more fun to drive.

Red__Zed

Well, sounds like you've got the car for you, which I never debated. Everyone has different wants/needs, and there are certainly a number of plusses to both cars.


It sounds like your stance and reasons have changed quite a bit since your original post. No argument here on most of what is in the above post.


Thank whoever has been lending you a Mustang for letting you drive it, and have a good day

Davey

Absolutely!

I gotcha. I think you read my post as more ripping on the Mustang than I intended, and perhaps I'm at fault for that at least partially, or even entirely, but I intended it to rip on C&D and actually car magazines in general IN LIEU OF actually driving the car yourself and deciding what is best for you, because their articles are always posting contradictory information. I used the Mustang as part of the example since I have experience with it and illustrated some negative traits I feel the car has, which I think C&D glossed over, to show that IMO you can't really rely on what any of these publications tell you.

Other mags have said "make no mistake, you can tell it's a SRA" and C&D says they can't tell. I sure as hell thought I could tell! Someone (Motor Trend?) said the steering on the Mustang was "precise and communicative" and C&D says "not a puff of smoke" as far as feedback; which is it? Well, I did think it was a little numb but it certainly wasn't over-boosted or anything.

And with respect to the other cars, other mags (and many enthusiasts) say that the Miata is the most fun you can have on two wheels, a true driver's car - And then C&D says, "Oh, except a car with more gyroscopes and electronic nannies than a black ops helicopter, that's waaaay more fun." I mean, come on.

So, that was supposed to be the point. Someone brought up C&D and how they ranked the cars and I think their rankings were ******** for the most part, and I think the only way to pick a winner is to forget what those C&D clowns say, and go drive the damn thing yourself.