As happens on most weekends, my mind wandered to cars this past Saturday. I was in the same position as I was when I last talked to my car salesman. If I wanted to get out of Isabella and into a new car I'd have to eat the entire remaining value of my lease. Isabella just wasn't going to ever be worth more than what I owed on it. In case I didn't explain it before, the lease has a final value set for when I return Isabella in June of 2020. Just over $20,000. Her current blue book value is just over $17,000. If she holds that value (she won't), she'll be a $3,000 loss to Ford. So if I want out early I just have to pay everything I've agreed to pay. At that moment that was $6,444. That sucked, but it was at least comforting to know exactly what baggage I'd be bringing into a car purchase.
I could of course just wait it out, but every single time I switched between Isabella and the Ford Escape, I was bothered. Every little thing was getting to me. The cruise control was easily the biggest bother as Isabella has the Adaptive Cruise while the Escape doesn't. On several occasions I'd be quickly approaching a slower moving vehicle in the Escape and forget that she wasn't going to slow down for me. But even small stuff like where the buttons are located to set and resume the cruise. The throttle response of each vehicle. Riding high in the Escape or riding 'low' in the sedan. Sitting where my foot could rest comfortably. And of course the fact that when I took the Escape I was taking it from Mom. In an emergency she could always take Isabella, but she wasn't comfortable doing that.
I didn't even feel 'better' when driving Isabella most of the time as it was different from the day before when I was driving the Escape. In case you're wondering, yes the Escape has a name too but it's a variation on the name of my father so I'll just keep that private.
So sitting on the couch last Saturday I knew I wanted to get a new car and not just wait another ten months. I briefly considered what it would take to get a car from a manufacturer other than Ford or Lincoln, or even a used car. I'd have to take care of Isabella all on my own as the financing from any other manufacturer wouldn't cover the $6,444 I'd need. And even if it would, I'd still have to take Isabella in and go through the early lease return process. That process is a pain unless you're returning it and buying a new car, in which case the dealership glosses over it just to get/keep your business.
So I tossed out that idea. It would be possible, just not something I'd want to go through. That leaves taking it to a Ford/Lincoln dealership. Outside of the Mustang, there just isn't a Ford or Lincoln I really want. Damn Ford all to hell for getting rid of cars and moving full force into crossovers, trucks, and SUVs. Those vehicles just aren't as fun as cars. BUT... I want out of my car and into a new one so I had to compromise somewhere.
On the Lincoln side there really was only one option; the MKC. That's their luxury version of the Escape. You can trick it out with a lot of luxury options, but it just doesn't look all that stylish. AND it's being discontinued after this model year. Later this year it's replacement, the Lincoln Corsair, will be coming out. I know it's petty, but I hate the idea of driving a car that shows it's age. I got out of the Focus before it changed styles. I got out of the Fusion before it had a mid cycle face lift and now want to get out of it again before it ends its run. Getting a MKC would be committing to owning a 'discontinued' car for 4 or 5 years. Maybe if I loved driving the Escape around I could justify it, but I honestly don't. It's looks and feels small, even with it's elevated driving position. Putting a Lincoln badge on it isn't going to change that.
So Lincoln was out. For offers the Escape, the Edge, and the Explorer. There's also the Flex, the Expedition, the Ranger, and the F-150, but none of those were going to be considered by me. Flex was being discontinued, was too old since it's last redesign, and was too big. The Expidition was just too big. And I just don't want a truck (and feel that you overpay for a truck).
So... let's keep this brief and just say I eliminated the Escape. I actually took hours and hours to do so, but it's for all the reasons here. I've been driving one on and off for several months and I just don't like it. It's not bad, it's just not for me.
The Explorer has been redesigned for 2020 and there are now 2020 Explorers on car lots. But it didn't take more than a quick look to show me that it was too expensive. To get the option set I'd want would have it stickered at north of $60,000. $50,000 was punching above my weight class, so I just couldn't consider the Explorer.
That leaves the Edge. While sitting with Mom as she watched Live Rescue (I'd say I was watching TV myself... but no, I wasn't watching that crap) I grabbed my iPad, went over to Ford's site, and started specing out the Edge. There were two upper trims to consider and I immediately went with the Titanium as the ST just seemed silly (really? an ST crossover?). The first thing that became clear was that I wouldn't like any of the colors.
As you can tell from my previous post, I want colors that will stand out. I want those Oranges or Yellows or Greens. The non-colors available here are Black, Gray, Magnetic (another gray), Ingot (another gray), and White. That leaves a dull blue (seriously, it looks like a blue that's about to die), Ruby Red (which I've had and currently see on the Escape all the time), Burgundy Velvet (ick), and Baltic Sea Green (double ick).
If I step back and consider the loss of a fun color as the price of getting out of my current car dilemma... well, I could take Black or Magnetic. And if there were no other options, I could live with Ruby Red (which sucks as barely living with a color shouldn't cost $395 more!). If I could eat the color, I could get every other techy package and feature I wanted. Premium sound, heated wheel and seats, cooled seats, auto wipers lights and high beams, remote start, LED lights, adaptive cruise, panoramic vista roof, navigation, 20 inch wheels, and the whole host of safety features I currently have on Isabella. The sticker prices would be just a touch over $48,000. Figuring a 72 month loan at 1.9% financing, with the abundant rebates they currently had, and adding in my $6,444 anchor of a trade, I was looking at monthly payments of around $750 a month.
Throw in a 6 year 125,000 mile premium care warranty (which thankfully another dealership lists the prices of!), and I was well under my maximum of $800 a month.
But this overall just didn't catch my fancy. If that's as far as I went, I probably would still have Isabella and would currently be wondering what my next car would be (and when I'd get it!). But on a lark I took a peek at the ST trim figuring that it was the 'fun' trim level and might have a color I'd be interested in.
Umm... YUP! Performance Blue is a striking color especially when highlighted with the red ST badging.
I know it doesn't look like a huge difference between the Blue above and the Performance Blue below, but when looking at images and videos and seeing both of them in various lights it IS a big difference. This is a color I could easily and happily live with. And surprisingly when I spec it out with all the options that the Titanium Edge has (minus the wireless phone charging mat) it comes out to only a few grand more. That put the payment around $780 a month and with the warranty still just below the $800 a month.
And that 'few grand more'? It doesn't just buy a color, it also gets a 2.7L V6 EcoBoost Engine pushing out 335 horsepower and 380 lb-ft of torque! The Titanium gets the same engine as Isabella, which with a larger and heavier vehicle means worse performance. I wasn't sure the Edge ST would feel more powerful than my car, but it would still be nice to say 'Hey, I have 335 ponies under the hood... you?'
Now, none of this is worth anything if there isn't any Performance Blue Edge STs nearby with the features I want/need. I checked my local dealership and my heart sank... they had 3 STs on the lot but none were in the Performance Blue and only one had the features I wanted. But my local dealership seems to be more the exception and not the rule in this case as I found 6 at 4 different dealerships that I've dealt with before.
I went to each dealership and printed out the material I figured I'd need for a negotiation including a build from the Ford website, the window sticker from their particular car, and a printout of their website showing all the deals that they were listing. I personally hate the 'Oh there aren't any current rebates on this particular build' argument and love tossing a sheet like that in front of a salesman. It not only proves their 'negotiation tactic wrong, it also shows that I've done my homework. I figured this would be quick negotiations with so many nearby. If the first dealer didn't want to get down and sell the car for what I wanted to pay, I'd just move on to the next one.
For shits and giggles I checked CarGurus.com as they can narrow new car searches fairly well and saw that there were 81 Edge STs in Performance Blue with the features I wanted in a 75 mile radius of my house. 81!!!! Yeah, these aren't exactly flying out of the dealerships, so I lowered my expectation of what I'd pay.
That was some of Friday night, all of Saturday, and a little bit of Sunday. By Sunday night I had a planned route and first dealership in mind. I had already got my younger brother to agree to ride along (negotiation with someone else there is always helpful), and started looking at the dealership websites to make sure nothing had changed. While I was at each dealership I also looked at the Mustang situation. I mean... they MIGHT have one on their lot that I would want. Right?
Right.
While looking at my last dealership I saw that they had 8 Mustangs on their lot. Sadly the sorting feature on their website didn't let you narrow it down by either engine size or trim, so I stared looking through all of them. The 2nd to last one came up with this:
Mustang in Premium Trim
Velocity Blue
The upgraded Premium package
10 Speed Automatic
Safe & Smart Package
B&O Premium Sound System
20" Wheels
Active Valve Performance Exhaust
Premium Floor mats
Perimeter Alarm System
3.55 Limited Slip Diff
That list is almost perfect. It has every feature I want and several that I don't care about and aren't deal breakers (summer tires are a deal breaker, extra $ for floor mats and an alarm aren't deal breakers). It was even in one of my selected colors. The only problem? It's not an Ecoboost. It's a 5.0L Mustang GT with 460 horsepower.
I had played around with the idea of getting the big version of the Mustang before but price had kept me out of it. Plus it's just not going to be a good daily driver with that much power. The price issue was settled by looking at the Edge STs and agreeing, internally, that I could move to a 72 month loan. With that pricing in mind for the Edge, this Mustang was now within buyable distance. As I already had a car that I could buy and plans to get one when I went shopping, I thought it was worth heading that direction and taking a test drive.
If it absolutely blew my socks off I could always wheel and deal on it. If I didn't like it, or didn't get the deal I wanted, I'd move on and get the Edge ST. The morning of the purchase didn't start off well. I picked shopping on a Tuesday as I didn't want to deal with a crowd. I had called ahead and got an appointment to look at and test drive the Mustang at 9:15 am. It was a shitty day at work the previous day and that made my sleep restless. It probably didn't help that I knew I was getting a new car when I woke up. Anyway, I had already cleaned Isabella out of all my personal gear and taken her to the car wash a couple days earlier. Well it turns out that some birds did some practice runs as I had several (bordering on many!) big purple blobs of bird shit on my otherwise beautiful white Fusion Platinum.
Grrr
I picked up my brother and we drove the hour to the dealership. We got there early and had breakfast so that we'd show up right on time. I had called for the appointment the previous morning so I expected to see the car out and freshly washed. Josh, the salesman, would want to make a good impression after all. Instead, I had to drive the lot a bit and found the Mustang parked back with all the other ones. And when I got out to look at it, it was dirty as all hell. I knew it had been on the lot for at least 30 days from CarGurus.com, but damn it, it didn't look like it had been washed in a week.
Well, that just told me that I wasn't dealing with the best car salesman, so the negotiating would likely go better. We hung out near the Mustang for about 30 minutes waiting for Josh to come out. Around 9:45 am I went into the sales room and asked where Josh was. I got a funny look and was told he wasn't there. It ended up it was his day off and he hadn't told anybody about me coming by.
Grrr
So I had to start over on a young pup of a salesman. I had to explain that I was going to be turning in my lease early and would therefore be carrying a debt with it. I had to explain that I was interested in the Mustang as well as the Edge ST. And finally I had to explain that I wanted to drive the Mustang first. It was about 10:30 by the time he pulled the Mustang up. I normally wouldn't be bothered by the wait, but damn it I knew this probably wasn't going to work and that I had to get moving on other deals. I hadn't told him about probably moving on to other dealerships, otherwise I'd think this was an overt stalling technique.
Instead it was just bad salesmanship.
When he brought it over... well, I fell in love with the soundtrack that car was playing. And I'm not talking about the stereo. I've never paid close attention to what V8 Mustangs sound like, but this was just glorious. Beefy and throaty and sultry all at the same time. This SOUNDED like 460 horsepower.
The test drive would be down the street to the highway, down to the next exit, down some country roads, and then back to the dealership. About 10 miles in all. The drive was surprisingly tame at first. I wasn't giving the car a lot of gas so that was to be expected, but on the other hand I kind of expected it to be too loud or to be too eager to move. Nope... I was just cruising in a car. On the highway entrance ramp I opened it up and gave it about half pedal.
OH MY FUCKING GOD!!
This car is FAST. I had to pull up while still on the entrance as I was already over the 70 mile per hour speed limit. After the car slowed quite a bit I gave it about the same amount of pedal while merging and by the time I looked down at the speedo I had already topped 85. And the car wasn't working hard to get that fast. It was doing it as easily as Isabella moves through a parking lot.
So yes... it was fast. I knew it was fast as the damned thing has a 0 to 60 time of like 4.4 seconds (You'll hear 3.9 seconds a lot but that's with the performance pack and summer tires). And yes, it sounded wonderfully obnoxious when it was over 3000 rpm. But that didn't exactly make this a dream come true. In fact I looked at it as a harbinger of doom. You see, one primary concern of mine was how it would drive in winter. It's been since my 1990 Lincoln Town Car in 2005 that I'd driven a rear wheel drive car. And there is NO car that I've driven in the winter that can actually be called a sports car. And this Mustang IS a sports car. It even says so on the window sticker!
Anyway, my biggest concern was how easy would it be to lose control in the winter. Obviously there's no surefire way to find that out while driving on warm dry summer roads, but I figured out a little test. If I could make the car lose traction and rely on the traction control to avoid danger, then I could trust it would be difficult to NOT do that on a slick winter road. I had tried it a bit while getting on the highway, but that was smooth sailing without even a bit of wheel spin, let alone traction control saving me. Then I came to the intersection. This was two major country roads, each with left turn lanes. Three lanes total in both directions and no cars nearby. Here was my chance. I floor it while making a 90 degree turn and see if I can break the tires from the pavement.
The tires actually broke from the pavement faster than I even imagined. When it lost control it spun out the back end violently fast and the traction control stepped in to save the day faster than I could even get my foot off the gas. I'm sure my heart went from a happy to be driving 90 beats per minute to around 170 beats per minute. I'm sure of that because 5 minutes later when I found an empty parking lot to park in it was still beating that fast. That scared the living shit out of me. Watch the first bit of this video (which I had seen before!) and you'll know what I was fearing:
Sitting in that parking lot, waiting for my heart to slow down, and talking it over with my brother it became clear. If I could scare myself that bad on damned near perfect roads, it would be pretty hard to NOT do so on wintery roads. Nope... the Mustang would just have to remain a dream. Maybe 5 more years when the Edge is paid down enough to warrant a trade in.
So I drove back to the dealership and told him it just wasn't going to work. The salesman(boy) was happy enough to get the Edge ST up for me to drive. I almost... ALMOST... didn't test drive it as there's really nothing that could make me not want it. I mean, there's just no other option that could happen that day.
While the salesman didn't grow or become any better at his job, I will stop making fun of him for his age as that test drive turned out to be very important. You see, the ST line of cars from ford have all been small sporty versions of their hatchbacks. The recent ones here in the States have been the Focus ST and the Fiesta ST. They gave them an aggressive aero package, they remapped the throttle response, they were all manual transmissions, and were bascilly made to be race cars. But this was a big hulking Ford Edge. I'd heard in several reviews that this crossover didn't deserve the ST badge and should instead be called the Edge Sport. Yes, it was faster, but it just wasn't hard core as the previous ST cars.
Well, one way they kept it as aggressive as before was the seats. These aren't Recaro racing seats by any set of the imagination, but these had very harsh bolstering to help you sit in place. You... not me. While the side bolsters were fine, snug but not uncomfortable, I just didn't fit into the seat bolsters. I was more or less sitting ON the bolsters. I thought it might take a few minutes to just 'sink in' but that didn't happen. It was one of the most uncomfortable drives I've ever taken.
I was heartbroken. All that research and hope was out the window. The Edge ST wasn't going to work. I was at square one, but AT the dealership with a salesguy waiting to sell me something. We talked it over and he tried to move into the Edge Titanium, even though he didn't have one in stock. I had him put a pin in that as I didn't want to surrender and compromise on the color just yet. And it wouldn't be just the color. The Edge ST didn't drive any faster than Isabella and that's with 335 horsepower. What happens when I drop to the 2.0L turbo engine with only 220 horsepower? But it still might be the only option.
The sales guy tried to push the Mustang again but I shut that down. I just wouldn't drive a car that scared me that bad as a daily driver. I confessed to him that I hadn't ever really been looking for a GT and was far more interested in an Ecoboost. He did some computer magic and found an Ecoboost for me.
This was a Mustang Ecoboost Premium
Kona Blue
The upgraded Premium package
10 Speed Automatic
Safe & Smart Package
Active Valve Performance Exhaust
It didn't have ANY features I didn't want and was only missing the upgraded audio. And yes, it was even in a color that I liked. But the car was in Chicago. The salesguy made it clear that they'd drive their flatbed down to Chicago and get it and even deliver it to me back home so I wouldn't have to come back to the dealership. But I still didn't pull the trigger. I could probably buy a car site unseen, but now I was curious about driving the Ecoboost. I mean... could I do the same thing in that? Could I lose the tires and scare the living shit out of myself? It's a rear wheel drive car with about 100 more horsepower than I've ever driven after all.
At that point I felt that I had little cars flying around my head, so I took my brother over to a restaurant and we sat down to talk it out.
The Edge: Obviously this would have to be a Titanium. I'd be sacrificing on the color and probably on the speed too. AND I'd have to find one and not be prepared for the prices or rebates available on it. All the Edge research I'd done had been on STs.
The Chicago Mustang: I'd HAVE to test drive an Ecoboost before I could commit to that. Yes, it was close to my perfect Mustang, but the GT on their lot is actually closer. I've gone on and on about how I listen to music, so having the premium audio system is important to me. And even if I decided to go with that one... what's stopping me from heading back to MY dealership and talking to MY salesman and have him get it for me. I'd further a good relationship I have with him and still have to wait until the weekend for it.
The Scary GT Mustang: I was now about an hour away from the incident so I could look at it closer. Yes, it WAS scary. I won't diminish that. But when would I EVER try a maneuver like that? I mean, I'm smart enough to know that any car can lose it's traction in that situation if theres loose dirt/stones on the road and especially in the winter. I can't recall the last time I used full pedal while on anything other than perfect roads in winter. I think the last time might have been with my Escort! This was as close as I was going to get to a 'perfect' Mustang. I hadn't ever seen one in my dream color (Orange Fury if you'd forgotten!) with all the options even in the GT version (yes, I'd looked at ALL Orange Fury Mustangs I'd come across). I'd even watched a video of a Mustang owner in Sweden (yes, they now sell Mustangs in Sweden!) and he gave examples of how to drive a 460 horsepower car in wintery conditions. According to him it came down to two things; don't drive like an asshole and put winter tires on it. He even showed the mustang go through snow deep enough to come up over the front lip and almost make the Mustang into a plow.
And then my brother brought it all together. It's not just here on the blog that I'm constantly talking about Mutangs. I talk to EVERYBODY about Mustangs. This isn't just a car I want, it's become a dream car. The Ecoboost is sure to be nice, but this V8 and it's glorious sound made me smile wide enough that he was worried because the salesman had seen it. And the final nail in the coffin... would I even want a Mustang in 5 years? I'm 45 now and will be 50 then. I grunt sometimes when I get out of my sedan and know damned well that I'll be doing that more and more in a sports car. I know I know, 50 isn't exactly old, but it does make sense. 5 years ago and I couldn't think of a reason to NOT get a sports car beyond money. Now I'm hedging myself back and forth as it just isn't as comfortable as my current sedan. So if I don't get a Mustang now... I may never get one.
I brought my brother along to help me negotiate (just by sitting there... it wasn't like he was going to play the 'bad cop' role) and instead he helped me make the ultimate decision. Buy the damned Mustang GT!
I won't bore you with the full negotiation. I'll just say that the sales guy was not good at it and I lead the entire thing. I blew past his excuses and kept sending him back to the manager to either check a number or get a new set to work with. He more or less had to hand it off to the manager when I got up to walk out (and yes, if they hadn't stopped me, I would have left!). I know there's people out there that insist on getting the exact lowest price on any car purchase, but I prefer to put a value on it (either full value or monthly payment derived from a full value). In this case I valued this Mustang like I did the Edge STs. I would pay up to $800 a month so long as that included all the license fees and taxes and also included a 6 year 125,000 mile warranty. I'm going to have this thing covered for as long as I'm paying on it! And I walked out with exactly that. $800 a month.
Realistically that should be far closer to $700, but I'm bringing to much debt to the table again. But she's mine. She's home. I am now the proud owner of a 2019 Mustang GT Premium in Velocity Blue.
It didn't take long for her to tell me her name. And it's a name that makes perfect sense as it come from one of the best and sexiest singers I know and my mustang sounds so good all the freaking time. My Mustang's name is Nina.
And Nina Sings!
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