Drove a Rustang convertable for a rental once. Man that auto tranny was conservative. I sure as hell wouldnt want one. I cant imagine the Camero is any better.

The Camaro is the better looking car IMO. However, I gotta go with the Mustang. Ford quality has come quite a long way in recent years. I dont see myself ever buying another GM product.

A friend has a 2009 Mustang with the 4.0L V6 and a manual. Pretty fun car to drive even with only 210HP. It would be really fun with 300HP.

Yes Camaros are ugly and the Mustangs are getting to heavy.

I went with a used Cobra. 01 w/ 45k miles and half the cost for 320hp. People store them in the winter. Half the cost of new 6cyl. Hopefully the depreciation factor has slowed down. Hard to tell about future cause there's a gazillion Mustangs but fewer Cobra 5 speeds.

Got 28.7 mpg bringing it back from St Louis, gas station to gas station. Haven't been able to duplicate it with all the stops signs I find.

I purchased a 2012 Mustang new in 2012. Got the V6, with 6 speed and sport suspension package. Loved the body style, engine and transmission. Good size trunk. However, the interior had unbelievable cheap plastic every where. Now I was expecting lots of plastic, but this was incredibly cheap plastic. Very easily scratched. And the back seat is so small, they should have just made it a parcel shelf. Kept it a year and sold it. No problems during that time, just not a car I enjoyed.

Comfortable, 30MPG, and around $20K (used with low miles)... point being I don't see anything out there that fills those three criteria and looks good... and I have always been a big believer in "you can't see what a car looks like from the drivers seat." If we were talking pickup trucks would looks be so high on the list?

Mustang on looks. Haven't driven either.

I'm sorta put off by the six cylinder thing. It'd have to have eight cylinders for me.

Driving a camaro is like driving around in a cave... Huge blind spots! The only mustang I've been in recently was a convertible, but it still felt huge and like it had blind spots. Overall not impressive.

We are talking 300 horsepower six cylinders.

For a driver's car/track car I would go with the Mustang. I am not a Ford guy either.

If I wanted a boulevard cruiser, I would get the Challenger with the 8 speed/Pentastar combo.

Guess no more Porsche for this lot.... It's a sad day. Better tell Wayne to shutter the windows.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/sad2.gif

I noticed that too... glad you said it... didn't want to offend the Porsche gauds by pointing out the beloved 911 is a six.

Attractive coupe with decent performance for $20k has a LOT of options. Especially after a few years of depreciation. Just off the top of my head:

FRS/BRZ
G37 Coupe
370Z
Genesis Coupe
987 Boxster
996
A5/S5
3-series
Z4
TT
SLK
CLK
C30
Corvette
XK8/XKR
Miata (new ones are much bigger)
GTI
GTO

Thanks for the help, the top five on your list are some of my favorites... but put a 30MPG filter on those and how many get through? Hate to sound like an grumpy old man but I am looking at retirement and living on a pension so I have to figure in operating costs.

If you look at the Pirelli World Challenge GTS standings, you should just forget Mustang vs Camaro, and buy a KIA Optima instead.

:)

Full disclosure, I work for Ford but I lurk here as a fan of oil cooled 911’s.

No experience with the Camero, but I’ve had a 2013 then 2014 V6 Convertible Mustangs as company cars. Moved to a Lincoln MkC this year only because the youngest daughter is now taller than my 5’8” wife so we simply didn’t fit any more. Have taken the three of us and the dog for weekend trips to Chicago previously so a family truly can fit a Mustang. My wife also used the car for the car pool to school, 15 miles and 25 mins away with three teenage girls, so again you can fit.

The convertible has more headroom in the rear with the top up than the coupe version. The V6 is without doubt faster than either a Miata or any 986 I’ve driven. The car is relatively quick in V6 auto form but is no stop light racer. My wife drove the car daily hence the V6 auto, for myself I’d have gone for a V6 manual or V8 auto as a DD. While the Auto is very very good, you do notice a little ‘softness’ off the line up until around 7 or 8 mph when it gets into its stride. If you get a coupe with the 305hp V6 you could also get the performance pack that added a 3.31 rear gear and more aggressive suspension. That makes for a really quick car, the only reason people don’t go gaga over that package is because the V8 existed alongside it. In 2011 when the 305hp V6 was launched, Car and Driver included it their ‘Lightning Lap’ shoot out at VIR. That car had an MSRP of $28K and set a time of 3:12.5. So what? That was faster than a Subaru Sti and the Mitsubishi Evo IX MR, two boost buggy performance icons.

And yes, if you use cruise control 30 mpg is easily achievable on the freeway, see the pic below.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-C...520mileage.jpg

I wasn't clear, even though we were NOT talking about Porsche. I'm not at all put off by six cylinders in general. Loved my M3 too. For me, Camero and Mustang and Challenger equals eight cylinders.

Throw out the XK8/XKR, and every car on that list will do either 30 MPG or upper 20s. 30 MPG isn't a pie in the sky dream number when a C5 Z06 will return 28 MPG on the highway. Some of the 4-cylinder models will return 35+. Bottom line, they're close enough that your driving habits become far more important than the car.