We've just had a Mustang for a tour of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, 3,700 miles in three weeks. Roof down most of the time but with hearty dollops of industrial strength sun cream. By now we have both got very fond of the Mustang, it was nearly ideal for such a trip: LA, Pacific Coast Highway, three nights in San Francisco, Yosemite (including Glacier Point as you folks suggested), King's Canyon, Sequoia NP, Death Valley, Las Vegas (yukk, but, well, it was on the way) Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Lake Powel Dam, Horseshoe Bend Canyon (not its proper name, but it's by Page and Antelope Canyon), Monument Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, and, as suggested by many others on here the Angeles Crest Highway, over sixty miles of superb road and as good as the Route de Grande Alpes, and a visit to the Mount Wilson Observatory just off the Angeles Crest, and, finally, today, up and down some of the canyons between the PCH and Highway 101. And breathe!
We enjoyed every single one of them with the exeption of Joshua Tree NP which wasn't our cup of tea to be fair.
So, the Mustang: nearly all good, but with one drawback for my wife, the passenger seat was so low and without any adjustment to raise it that she was very low down in the car, and I seem to remember a picture on here by Sven showing his wife seeming to have the same problem. Anyone else had this problem? We did speak to some other people in Mustangs, and there were a lot because they were very popular, some said that their passenger seats had adjustment for seat height but they all said they were low. Other popular convertibles were Camaros, the one couple we spoke to said that their passenger seat was a bit low but not too much of an issue. We'll have a look at some Camaros tomorrow when we return the car to see how they compare.
Another thing I have reservations about was the automatic transmission, it was fine cruising on the freeways but annoying on twisties, forever changing gear when you didn't expect it and kicking in on corners, it was sometimes difficult to drive it smoothly. Clicking up or down through the gears with the flappy paddles was slow- ponderous, even- it seemed to scratch its arse and have a think about it before actually responding and changing gear. Fine in towns and cities and the open road of course. Handling was surprisingly good on the road, but it did surprise me once when pissing about in a deserted car park with the way the back swung out on a tight turn (well it is a big bugger) but I don't suppose that's really relevant in the real world.
Boot/trunk capacity: it takes one large suitcase, one small suitcase and a couple of squashy pieces of luggage which was plenty for my wife and myself for three weeks. This did mean that we didn't have any luggage on the back seat and so out of reach of any opportunistic thieving bastards. The Mustang does have four seats, but, practically, it's a two seater as we had our front seats pushed all the way back leaving virtually no legroom in the back.
Having just read the above again it does sound rather negative, but the truth is that as I said by now we are both very fond of the car, my wife took a while to get over how big it is but all is forgiven on that score by now as she wasn't called upon to actually drive it herself.
Will we get another Mustang the next time? Reluctantly, probably not, but only because my wife finds it big to drive it herself. As I said she loves it as a passenger. She didn't need to drive it this time, indeed driving anything through LA Downtown traffic could be daunting for a lot of people, so the next time I try to find an Audi A3 convertible, I did see one on offer when I was trawling for a good deal on a Mustang but couldn't find it again. I may start looking earlier next time.
Oh, and we paid around £820 for the three weeks from Rentalcars.com with pick up at LAX.
PS, see also Sven's thread, "A bit of inspiration" at:
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/378858-A-bit-of-inspiration
We enjoyed every single one of them with the exeption of Joshua Tree NP which wasn't our cup of tea to be fair.
So, the Mustang: nearly all good, but with one drawback for my wife, the passenger seat was so low and without any adjustment to raise it that she was very low down in the car, and I seem to remember a picture on here by Sven showing his wife seeming to have the same problem. Anyone else had this problem? We did speak to some other people in Mustangs, and there were a lot because they were very popular, some said that their passenger seats had adjustment for seat height but they all said they were low. Other popular convertibles were Camaros, the one couple we spoke to said that their passenger seat was a bit low but not too much of an issue. We'll have a look at some Camaros tomorrow when we return the car to see how they compare.
Another thing I have reservations about was the automatic transmission, it was fine cruising on the freeways but annoying on twisties, forever changing gear when you didn't expect it and kicking in on corners, it was sometimes difficult to drive it smoothly. Clicking up or down through the gears with the flappy paddles was slow- ponderous, even- it seemed to scratch its arse and have a think about it before actually responding and changing gear. Fine in towns and cities and the open road of course. Handling was surprisingly good on the road, but it did surprise me once when pissing about in a deserted car park with the way the back swung out on a tight turn (well it is a big bugger) but I don't suppose that's really relevant in the real world.
Boot/trunk capacity: it takes one large suitcase, one small suitcase and a couple of squashy pieces of luggage which was plenty for my wife and myself for three weeks. This did mean that we didn't have any luggage on the back seat and so out of reach of any opportunistic thieving bastards. The Mustang does have four seats, but, practically, it's a two seater as we had our front seats pushed all the way back leaving virtually no legroom in the back.
Having just read the above again it does sound rather negative, but the truth is that as I said by now we are both very fond of the car, my wife took a while to get over how big it is but all is forgiven on that score by now as she wasn't called upon to actually drive it herself.
Will we get another Mustang the next time? Reluctantly, probably not, but only because my wife finds it big to drive it herself. As I said she loves it as a passenger. She didn't need to drive it this time, indeed driving anything through LA Downtown traffic could be daunting for a lot of people, so the next time I try to find an Audi A3 convertible, I did see one on offer when I was trawling for a good deal on a Mustang but couldn't find it again. I may start looking earlier next time.
Oh, and we paid around £820 for the three weeks from Rentalcars.com with pick up at LAX.
PS, see also Sven's thread, "A bit of inspiration" at:
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/378858-A-bit-of-inspiration