The Untrick Pony Trick

Written by Don Stewart | 31 August 2008

I usually talk about a mechanical topic or an historical subject in this column but this month I’m going to tell you a personal story that is neither mechanical nor historical. Buckle up.

I guess it was love at first sight. There we were in July 2004 at the (old) Charlotte Coliseum looking at the “new” S197 Mustang, up close and personal. It was a red pre-production GT and Ford had it on display as part of their Year of the Car Tour. I thought it was the best looking Mustang to ever come out of Dearborn and I wanted one. But when the production models hit the streets later that year, there was no space in the garage. That changed in May of 2006 after we sold our concours C-code ‘67 convertible trailer queen. It gave us an empty bay next to our Cobra so in July ’06, Mary and I bought an ‘06 Pony package to occupy the space.

We already had our performance car, in the form of the Cobra, so I wanted 6-cylinder power in the ‘06. But it had to have the Pony Package because the package had enough “good stuff” to rightfully make the car a 6-cylinder GT. Today the Pony Package is mostly cosmetic but when it came out in ‘06 it also had several desirable mechanical features, making it a great deal.

The car we settled on was a Tungsten Grey Metallic coupe with a dark charcoal interior. In addition to the pony package, the only other options were a 5-speed automatic and the interior upgrade package but that was more than sufficient because the pony package was so comprehensive. It included a suspension very similar to the GT, anti-lock brakes, traction control, 17” cast aluminum wheels with Z-rated all season tires, special grille treatment, rear deck spoiler, and dress-up trim.

Shortly after taking delivery and with less than 100 miles on the odometer, I removed all of the external plastic trim and hand rubbed the paint with clear coat polishing compound followed by waxing and total detailing. The engine compartment was also washed, the fender wells were cleaned, and the shiny tire dressing that Dale Jarrett Ford put on the sidewalls was removed to bring the tires back to factory-original appearance.

With the appearance up to my standards, it was time to drive the thing and get acquainted. As the miles accumulated, several quirks were discovered. Some of them were merely annoying but to my disappointment, others were irritating and intrusive. I could only hope that as I grew more familiar with the steed, the issues would eventually become part of an acceptable personality that I would enjoy as much as I liked looking at the car.

That seemed reasonable because in one way or another, I’d been involved with Mustangs since the first ones were born in 1964 and all of them had their own personalities and quirks. I’ve worked on a bunch of them and I’ve owned four of them: a ‘67 plain-jane 6-cylinder coupe, long gone; the ’67 trailer queen that was sold; the ‘99 Cobra Coupe, still in the stable; and the ‘06. Quirks were usually one of the pleasures of ownership; it was fun learning how to adapt to them. Along those lines, it was easy to get acquainted with the two ‘67s and the Cobra was a natural fit from day one.

But the ‘06 seemed to have an arrogant attitude. It fought with me and it aggravated me. It had nothing to do with performance because with 210 hp on tap and at least 90% of the 240 lb-ft torque rating available between 2400 and 5300 rpm, it performed very well. It wasn’t a handling thing, either. Handling and braking were good at all legal speeds and confidence inspiring at extra legal velocities on curvy back roads. I’ve already said how much I enjoyed the lines of the car so it certainly wasn’t the design.

Nevertheless, the lasting friendship that I had anticipated didn’t work out and the relationship came to an abrupt end when I sold the car with 1700 miles on the odometer. It was a very disappointing day and without a doubt, the ultimate untrick pony trick of my 44-year history with Mustangs. A lot of things short circuited the relationship but one in particular was the absolute deal killer. I’ll get to the absolute deal killer in a minute. But before I do, I’ll talk about the other things that might have produced the same result, when taken collectively.

For one , the front suspension was noisy. I mean really noisy. The noise wasn’t there when the car was brand new but with only a few hundred miles on the clock, I started to hear it. It was faint at first and it only occurred at low speeds over sharp bumps. But as the miles accumulated, the noise got louder and eventually became audible at any speed. It was a metal-to-metal hammering sound coming from the struts, as if the upper bearings were defective or maybe there were no isolators. The sound was like a severe case of what I remembered from 50 years ago when worn shock absorbers would rattle while driving over rough pavement. Because a majority of the S197s had the noise from the get-go or developed it early in life, Ford and most Ford dealers treated it as “normal”, refusing to attempt a repair. After a lot of customer complaints and many stinging comments on several Internet forums, Ford finally acknowledged that the noise was associated with strut bearing design and came out with a redesigned unit along with a TSB. For owners who still had their cars, that was good news but ours had been sold by then.

Although not a major concern, gas mileage was disappointing for a V-6. With a combined city/highway average of about 18 mpg, it compared poorly with the Cobra and an ‘06 GTO that we also own. Both of those cars get combined mileage of slightly more than 20 mpg. Yes, they both require premium gas but their higher mpg more than offsets the added cost of the premium.

Speaking of gasoline, we all know that an engine won’t run if gas isn’t delivered to it in a reliable fashion. The ’06 6-cylinder cars had an acknowledged problem with fuel delivery that sometimes caused them to stumble during acceleration from a stop. That was annoying enough by itself but how about stumbling and then stalling in the middle of an intersection? Mine stumbled from time to time and it also stalled occasionally, creating a scary safety situation. Ford had a TSB for the problem and it called for replacing the fuel pump. But there was a fly in the ointment: In order for the warranty to cover replacement, the dealer had to duplicate the problem. That’s standard practice for warranty repairs but random problems can be hard to duplicate and so it was with our car. It sat at the dealer’s for several days while we discussed (argued about) what should be done. Finally, even though the stumble hadn’t been duplicated, the pump was replaced. The repair corrected the problem and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

With several hundred miles on the odometer, the rear gear developed a nasty whine. Ford also had a TSB for this problem. It specified a comprehensive repair that included replacing all the guts in the third member: gears, bearings and all the rest. Mine got the treatment and came back much worse than when it went in. The whine was no longer nasty. It was obnoxious. So the gear backlash was readjusted and the whine became merely annoying. Compared to what it sounded like before the TSB was executed, it was better but not by much.

Inside the car, the gauge cluster was virtually invisible on a bright day. With the gauges recessed in dark tunnels Ford recognized the visibility shortcoming and, to their credit, they designed the cluster with backlighting. But the backlights weren’t bright enough and the intensity wasn’t adjustable. Visibility could be improved slightly by adjusting the cluster rheostat to maximum and driving with the parking lights turned on but it was still nearly impossible to quickly glance at the gauges on a bright day and get a meaningful reading.

Ok, you say, “Stop picking nits and get over it. Nothing has been described that couldn’t be adapted-to or corrected (except maybe the struts).” And you’d be right. After all, the S197 was a success for Ford in a world where they definitely needed a winner. So by and large, the car was desirable and appealing to a large number of owners. Maybe I was just being too picky.

Picky is one thing but unfortunately, there are times when irritating and intrusive features rule the day and defy an acceptable resolution. The ‘06 suffered from three such afflictions, meaning there were serious issues keeping company with the nits. That probably made me more sensitive to the nits but it didn’t lessen the serious nature of the other conditions. At least, the other conditions were serious to me and they were the things that solidified our decision to sell the car. The absolute deal killer was in that category.

First, I found the car to be very uncomfortable. The driver’s seat just didn’t work for me. There were numbing pressure points in the cushion. In addition I couldn’t find any adjustment combination between the seat and the steering wheel where the relationship to the pedals was comfortable. The poor comfort synergy would become intolerable to me after about an hour in the saddle.

Second, the rear suspension was almost devoid of compliance over transverse ridges and pock marked pavement. I’ve always appreciated a well controlled suspension but “harsh” is not a synonym for “well controlled.” The Cobra is well controlled but the ‘06 was harsh.

But when all was said and done, the third item was the absolute deal breaker in this tale. It was a peculiar harmonic generated by the car’s suspension. The frequency of the harmonic was incompatible with my pacemaker.

Say what? Did I read that right? Yes, you did!

It’s hard to believe but my pacer reacted inappropriately to the ride characteristics of the car. You see, the pacer adjusts itself to my activity level by sensing motion and the speed of that motion. The suspension in the Mustang seemed to never settle down enough to prevent false signals from being sent to the pacer. The signals were misinterpreted as a high level of activity on all but the smoothest of road surfaces. It sounds crazy but when I was doing nothing more than sitting behind the steering wheel and driving the car, the pacer thought I was running in a marathon or something similar. It “saw” a high level of activity and reacted by setting a pace that caused an unacceptable heart rhythm. And that became the absolute deal killer.

The Mustang had to go and I was disappointed more than I can say. I offered to keep it for Mary but even though she liked it, she didn’t want to hold onto it if I couldn’t enjoy it too. I even thought about keeping it so I could stand in the garage and admire it. But that didn’t make any sense so the Mustang stable was reduced to just the Cobra.

The Cobra is a horse of a different color. It can be rude and crude or it can be good over-the-road transportation. It definitely has a Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde personality but that’s a good thing and it’s very addictive. The car is comfortable; it fits me well; it’s a pure joy to drive, hard or easy; and in case you were wondering, my pacemaker is best buddies with its suspension characteristics. It may have been built half way through the SN-95 iteration of the ancient Fox Body platform but it suits me just fine. I only wish that some of the Fox personality had rubbed off on the SN197. Had that happened, it’s an even bet that the ‘06 Pony Package would still be keeping the Cobra company.