Insanity’s fun right?

I appear to have totally taken leave of my senses Worse (better??) than that the spousal unit is on board.

With 2 kids, a dog, frequent need to transport 2 large dogs and three times a week transporting 3 kids (plus violins on some days) for the 25 min car pool journey, what do you replace a Lincoln MK X with as the main family hauler when the only other car is a Volvo C30? Why a 2013 V6 Mustang convertible of course!

Luckily I get a company car. Although it’s technically my car, my wife does way more miles than me so she drives the ‘company’ car and I drive the C30 that we own. Average mileage is 15k for ‘my’ car and 25-30k for the family car, hence she gets the car we don’t worry about miles on. The record was 41k miles (and I mean 41,000, not 40,999 or 41,001 when I turned it in )on a Taurus X. We’ve been through a Focus, Taurus X, Mariner and the MK X and it’s time to order next year’s car. We were planning on getting a new Escape but we hesitated too long over color choice (yes really, it’s her turn!!) and the allotment ran out. Not wanting another MK X or Edge we nearly selected a Focus, but in the end my wife has wanted a Mustang ‘vert for a while and this was the of berkeley it, let’s do it year. The final conversation went like this:

Spousal unit “You really want the Mustang don’t you?”
Me “ Yes, but this will be your daily driver and you’re the one who has to haul around dogs and kids so it’s up to you”
Spousal unit “But I want it too”
Together “berkeleyit, how bad could it be? Let’s do it”

So we’re getting a V6 Mustang ‘Premium’ for the leather, SYNC, Shaker etc. plus ass warmers and remote start for the winter. Assuming the car arrives in late May I’ll have a some fun autocrossing it over the summer. Come the fall when the school run starts again I guess I’ll get the Mustang and she’ll take the Volvo. Winter’s going to be fun

I forgot to add, the ‘Vert has more headroom in the rear even with the top up than the coupe so it is more practical honest

Sweet! It's funny when you see how us GRM'ers think. Our logic boggles most folks.

Awesome, congrats!

Waiting for solidification, but I hope to also have an unusually-fun-household-appliance-choice thread soon

Just don't try to do 135mph with it.

RealMiniDriver wrote: Just don't try to do 135mph with it.

On the school run ?

If you're dropping the kiddies off at school, they'll be the envy of their classmates.

My 4 year old twins are in pre-school. It's one of those deals where you drive up to the front and the teachers get them out of the car. Our nanny takes them, but I've done it when I have days off work. The line outside looks like this: Sedona, Sienna, Caravan, Explorer, Suburban (with just one kid inside), Murano, Edge, CR-V... Showing up in a Mustang 'vert would be awesome!

Klayfish wrote: If you're dropping the kiddies off at school, they'll be the envy of their classmates. My 4 year old twins are in pre-school. It's one of those deals where you drive up to the front and the teachers get them out of the car. Our nanny takes them, but I've done it when I have days off work. The line outside looks like this: Sedona, Sienna, Caravan, Explorer, Suburban (with just one kid inside), Murano, Edge, CR-V... Showing up in a Mustang 'vert would be awesome!

Truth!

My best day ever as an Elementary School kid was when my Dad picked me up in his 68 AMX. Complete with slicks and open headers as he was going racing that night. I was the coolest kid for about 2 months after that. Although, looking back, he may have done it to impress one of the single ladies that worked for the school. I'll have to ask him about that...

^I remember being envious of the kid who was dropped off in her Dad's Porsche 928.

Nice buy, Adrian. Did you get an auto or stick?

I went to a small private school, and I was regularly dropped off on the back of a Honda CB1100? (It was some sorta fast Honda bike with shaft drive, I don't remember exactly what). I had my own helmet and the works. I ALWAYS had kids jealous of me. I plan on making my kid the envy of all his classmates when he's old enough. I figure dropping him for the 1st day of school in a real race car (Or one of my street cars with my autox numbers on it.... they all tend to lose bits of exhaust "on accident" so they all sound fast) will be a good start. I support dropping kids off in good cars.

Klayfish / Javelin - It’s a small private school and the gamut of cars runs literally from to 20 year old rust beaters to brand new ZR1 Vettes. There’s a least one other Ford Manager here who drops his kids off in GT Vert so it won’t win as many points as you may think. I remember being dropped off at school on my father’s BSA Gold Star and his Mk II Jag’s, that was in the 80’s when they were already classics, I’m not that old!!

Luke wrote: Nice buy, Adrian. Did you get an auto or stick?

Autotragic.

While the spousal unit can and does drove manuals, she spends so much time in stop/go and around town traffic that she wants an auto for a DD. In truth the new 6 speed auto is actually really good. Having been born and raised the other side of the pond I grew up believing that the only reason to have a slushbox was if you were missing a limb. Living here and driving modern autos with cars that actually have some torque I’m not nearly as auto adverse as I used to be. 60hp and 70lb/ft was a powerfull car when I was young! Add an auto to that and you can time yourself with a glacier. The car that converted me was an 85 L98 Vette, all that torque is ideally suited to an auto, plus the old 4+3 manual was simply horrible.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I forgot to add, the ‘Vert has more headroom in the rear even with the top up than the coupe so it is more practical honest

Of course I think the rear seat is narrower to accommodate the foldie bits.
Congrats, it will be fun.
Convertible and seat warmers is likely to be an odd combination.

Way back when, my youngest son was in daycare. On a few occassions, I picked him up in this....got a LOT of stares.

Nice! Kids love 'verts. My kids loved my Miata when I had it though they couldn't ride in it ('96 with airbag doesn't play nice with car seats) and my b-i-l's Saab 900 convertible.

OT, but you're in the know - when does the new Escape hit showrooms? The in-laws Ranger lease (yeah, they don't ask me about the financials) is up next month and they need a replacement utility run about.

You'll be surprised how livable the pony really is. Although, my coupe allows dropping the rear seats and opening up to the trunk, and i don't think ther verts do, storage is really very good and they are comfortable cars.

Enjoy!

I'm looking forward to dropping off my little girl in my Daimler convertible - when the project's done - hopefully later this year.

(and when she reaches school age too, of course)

Picked it up last Wednesday. Then it looked like this.

Did a TSD School Saturday, after which it looked like this. This was at a friends house, my wife who drove in the school is standing next to the car, that’s my friend not me walking behind the car.

Cleaned it up once home yesterday and now looks like this again.

Man that mud was tough. I had to get the nozzle of my pressure washer within ½” of the mud to get it off around the back edge of the wheel wells.

Note, a Mustang is a crappy TSD car. Not for any of the reasons you might imagine, but because of its speedometer. Most cars have a speedo that reads 0 – 120ishmph on about 270 degrees. The Mustang one reads 0 – 160mph in 180 degrees. When you’re trying to judge an average speed that changes from 31mph to 35mph to 37mph then back to 33 mph it’s really really hard when the space between 30 and 40 mph is about ½” with no graduations between.