This October, I flew out to Portland, Oregon on business. Due to a mix up at a rental agency that will remain anonymous for the time being, I was given not a economy two door car, but a ‘sporty’ car… As I walked out to stall 401, I looked again at the key in my hand… the inscription read 2000 Ford Mustang V6. Sure enough, as I arrived at the stall, a shiny red Ford Mustang awaited me.
Right away I saw that there was a lot to love and a few things to hate with the car.

On the exterior, this car is simply sexy. It is just cries out ‘drive me’ with it’s aggressive styling that is aerodynamic and ‘boxy’ at the same time. Its one of those things you can’t really describe, you simply have to see it to know if you like it or not. Me, I found I did like it…
The hood is huge and sitting in it, you get the daunting feeling of a complete beast lurking beneath the hood, though to be honest, I never looked.
The color rocked my world, a good blend of red between cherry and bright red. Kudos to Ford for that.

Interior-wise, I sat down and found the seat to be moderately comfortable, certainly better than some sports cars of old that I’ve sat in, but still lacking in that ‘grab ya’ quality I love to feel in a sporty car. The controls for the seats were awkward and generally hard to use. I had to reach uncomfortably between my legs and feel around for a moment or so until I found the power seat controls. Honestly, I think they would have been better off with a simple lever to adjust leg room.
The trunk and back seat are nothing short of a bad joke. Although the trunk is large for a sports car, I couldn’t fit my luggage into it because the opening was far too narrow. So I was forced to put the luggage in the back seat, which also was a daunting task. I don’t know how a full grown person could actually fit back in that seat, much less two or three people, the seat itself is about four inches too short, and there is about 10 inches to put your legs/feet. Why do they even bother?
The stereo system was pretty decent. When I first turned it on, I was assaulted by sound from the back seat. I went to adjust the fader balance only to find that it was center balanced. Audiophiles will tell you, as I will, that you really want the rear speakers to simply fill in the sound from the front speakers. But I found this system hard to balance without completely losing bass response, annoying, but typical of factory systems. The stereo was a dual deck format, one with radio and cassette, the other with CD. The CD deck was placed right in front of the shifter, so actually getting a CD into the unit was a bit of a juggling act as well. However, at full freeway speeds with the windows down, it can be difficult to hear the nuances of the music. So Ford includes a ‘compress’ button on the CD player that activates a compression circuit to reduce the dynamic range of the CD for optimal sound at all levels. While this is fine on a great many CDs, (I found that rock and blues sounded just fine) CDs like Eric Johnson’s Venus Isle sounded out of place and just plain funny, because the compression makes all the levels on the track essentially the same. (If you have ever wondered why it seems like radio seems to sound better than CDs on the road with the windows open, it is because radio stations use compression circuits on their broadcasts.) So this feature was fine, I was just glad I had the option to turn it off when it got a little out of hand.
Rolling down the window and putting your arm out is surprisingly natural with this car, and I found myself wishing it was a convertible.

Now, navigating the city of Portland hardly allows for much performance testing. The moment you accelerate you have to put on the breaks to prevent hitting the car in front of you. In addition, I found that the automatic transmission was a sore disappointment in the city. When you put your foot on the gas a little, there is often an uncomfortable hesitation, then you are thrust forward as the transmission shifts two gears downward to accelerate. In a week of having the car, I never got used to the transmission. It was unpredictable and matched the V6 very poorly. I would hate to see what it would be like on a V8.

So this all brings me to the King for a Day story…
My duties installing the computer network on the steam vessel Baton Rouge was frankly getting me down. So I took Sunday off and went to the store, bought Eric Clapton and BB King’s album “Riding with the King”, popped it into the CD player, and pointed the big schnoz of this beast towards Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument to have my own private 20th anniversary ceremony a few months late. See, I always joke that the earth was so mad about my sister being born that it blew up a mountain… now I say that it got jealous and wanted to make something unique of it’s own, so it did some creative work in Washington state… (For those of you just catching up, Mt. St. Helens blew up in May of 1980)
Anyway, opening up the car on the freeway undaunted by traffic yielded what could have gotten me in trouble if I was being supervised by authorities at the time. I won’t say exactly how fast I was going, but I’ll just say the speedometer was well over two thirds and let you figure it out.
Though this car is slow accelerating from a dead start, it does do rather well at speed. I’m sure other sport cars do better, but compared to my Saturn (which cost about a third of what this car would) it was pretty darn good.
Just before going into the monument, I decided I would take my chances and take a back way in, hoping for some bodacious curves to ride on. To put it lightly I was rewarded. Taking a 25 MPH corner at 70 is really something to write home about. Or at least I’m sure it would be- I only took the corner at 50…
A more daunting curve taught me what the traction control features of this car do exactly, as I found myself going downhill very quickly and slamming into a hairpin turn… The brake pedal started bucking and it took me a moment to realize that it was the ABS system… more on traction control later.
Entering the National Park surrounding the monument was simply gorgeous, and as I took the corners around hills and mountains, the leaves falling gently on the road and then being swept up and away after the car barrels by. The air was crisp and flowing gently through my hair, the temperature outside was a moderate 66 degrees, and I was being serenaded by the masterful guitar work of BB King and Eric Clapton. The view cannot really be described in words, not even pictures- but rather experienced… Basically I can’t picture a more perfect scenario or day… I truly was King for a Day.
I think the most incredible moment was shortly after I changed the CD to Phil Keaggy’s 220 and entered the actual Volcanic Monument. The sight of what happened there forces one to simply feel what is around you, not just simply see it. And I was feeling it. But this review isn’t about the monument, it’s about the car.

The perfect day ended with a not so perfect trip to the gas station- needless to say, for a V6 this thing HOGS the gas. The minute I got back to the hotel it started raining (gee, rain in Portland???) and didn’t quit raining for some time…

This car is absolutely horrible in the rain. I don’t know how else to put it. The back end slides around wildly without traction control engaged, and even with the traction control engaged, I still found the results to be unpredictable enough to have several near-misses, and, sadly, even a small little accident on an interstate ramp.

Actually, I can’t legally go into too many details, but the car’s breaking system, even with the traction control engaged, could not respond fast enough to the crisis. Even though I was not at fault, I still feel that I could have easily avoided the accident in my car, or some others I have driven.

The light impact of the accident did surprising damage to the car’s front right quarter panel. I mean, the amount of shock the car actually had would have barely scratched my Saturn, yet this car’s front quarter panel was torn apart! It was sad, really. But a good thing I had full coverage insurance on the rental- I don’t even want to think about what it would have cost to repair the damage.

So here are my ratings for this Beautiful Beast:
Performance- 4 of 5
Handling (dry)- 4 of 5
Handling (wet)- 2 of 5
Safety- 2 of 5
Interior Aesthetics- 4 of 5
Exterior Aesthetics- 5 of 5
Comfort- 3 of 5
Fun Factor- 5 of 5 (hey, chicks DIG this car, man!)
Overall- 3 of 5