Check it out, just don't buy it

 

I think they gave it away in the article... Mustang made the Top 10 list... GTO did not.

After runnign the numbers, the only way they could save face was to drop the "gotta have it" subjective factor just enough to give their Top 10 choice the win... otherwise, it's pie on their face.

 

I hate to break it to you guys, but the Mustang has a HUGE "gotta have it" factor. Everybody I know is talking about this car. Some people hate it, most people like it, a lot of people LOVE it and wish they had one. These are people from my age up to people in their 50s, they all are interested in the new Mustang, and very few of them dislike it.

The 350Z is also a popular car, but it doesn't have the emotional pull that a Mustang does with most Americans.

The GTO is a solid, complete package. But nobody wants one, and you can debate the reasons all you want, style, price, whatever, but the car isn't a head turner and isn't impressing the general public. My friends don't even notice the GTO when I point it out to them.

 

No one is saying that the Mustang DOESN'T have a strong "gotta have it factor". Nor is anyone arguing that the GTO has everyone drooling (though they should be). Obviously it was not very successful in terms of sales in its first year.

The point is that in a magazine test, supposedly intended to discern the better CAR, they had the better car all figured out, then chose the "winner" based on which car would be more popular when the owner drops his daughter off at school. The GTO handily won most of the performance categories, and tied or won most of the subjective ratings by enough that the combination gave it a six point lead over the Mustang. Yet the Mustang "won" the comparison. That is the point we are making; I'm not disparaging the coolness of the Mustang at all...

 

Exactly.

And they didnt even do a very good job at hiding it... having the Mustang pick up all 7 points it needed in one very subjective catagory. I don't even have a problem with Mustang winning a "gotta have it" catagory, but it smells like week-old schnook salmon that it got exactly the number of points to make it the winner.

Heck, even in STYLING, they gave Mustang a 10, but more telling, the GTO an 8... which is pretty damn high for a 1 to 10 scale!!

 

Consumer' Guide just gave the 05 GTO BEST BUY rating. The 05 Mustang didn't make it.

They were a little bit more objective.

 

While I have to agree that the Mustang will probably turn more heads then the GTO, saying noone wants a GTO and it isn't impressing the public is bs. Most of the people (nonenthusiasts) who have seen my GTO absolutely love it. I've had quite a number of people carrying on about how nice the car is and sleek. I even had some say they liked it better then my Trans Am .

It might not turn as many heads as my Trans Am, but I've caught quite a number of people staring at the car.

Chris

 

I'm a dyed-in-the-woll fan of the new GTO. I'm also the 1st to admit it's a very low keyed car, and only real car guys can identify one as it passes them by (just like the old GTOs).

That said, I can easily understand the Mustang's "Gotta Have It" win. After seeing them on the streets (a daily occurance now), they are cool. The Mustang's interior, though stylistically isn't quite in the same ballpark, seems almost on par with material quality. Also, you can get a base Mustang GT for $25,000 while the GTO comes only in Loaded or slightly MORE loaded flavors at $7,000 more. Mustang is a high volume performance car, GTO is a luxury performance GT.

BUT... it's MORE than a little suspicious that this "coolness" factor was added in, and Mustang just so happened to make up it's deficit to the PLUS the one point it needed to beat GTO.

 

Coolness factor is one thing. "Gotta have it" is another. Does that mean that if everyone else buys the car you should too? What's the point of the review in that case? You might as well look at sales figures.

But then again, comparing the two cars head to head is ignorant anyway. I think they are both leaders in their respective classes, which do not in fact overlap.