My first Mustang can you help?

I am not a fan of Fords by any means, but I still have to wonder why the price is so low in the first place and they had to reduce it even more to get someone to buy it. Also, I don't know what the laws are in Canada but I CAN share that in Wisconsin, USA there are rather strict disclosure laws about the vehicle's safety and mechanical condition that apply to licensed dealers but do not apply to private sellers.

Dealers can sell a car with known problems but they must be disclosed on the window sticker. I would definitely find a different shop in the area to take it to for a detailed brake, steering, and suspension inspection before you commit a single dollar to it. If the dealer won't let you do that, find a different dealer. Ford has had a real big problem with steering parts that separate and lead to a crash, but to my knowledge that is not a big problem with their rear-wheel-drive products. I would not trust a Carfax report either. They only list known recalls and known crashes that were reported. They have no way of knowing the mechanical condition of the car.

Electrical problems are a real big nightmare on all brands of cars and the newer they are, the worse they are due to the insane use of many unnecessary, unreliable computers to do simple tasks. For example, Ford was the first to use the horn switch to send a signal to the smartest computer on the car, the instrument cluster, which interpreted that and sent another coded signal to the FEM (front electronic module), which turned on the horn relay to honk the horn. Yup; two computers involved in blowing the horn, and the typical repair bill for a dead horn is $800.00! I don't know if they were already doing that in '99 but in general, the older the car is, the less electrical trouble and the fewer very costly repair you will have.

You can expect that they pressure-washed the engine but if the car has been test-driven by a few people there will be signs of leaks if there are any. Look for wetness on the bottom of the engine. A little seepage is normal but it takes a pretty bad leak to spray fluid onto the floor of the car well behind the engine.

I can give you some pointers on looking at tire wear patterns too to see if an alignment is needed. Mustangs can have all the important angles adjusted. Ford is also famous for building cars that can't be aligned, and they have extremely bad tire wear, but that is because the tires tip out so much on top that they ride very smoothly compared to other car brands, so they sell a lot of them, but then people find out that 15,000 miles is about all they can get out of a set of tires. That too pertains to their front-wheel-drive cars, but it is one of the reasons I don't like their products and I don't like a company that would trick their customers that way. The only company that is worse and completely unapologetic about separating owners from their money is GM.

Needs body work? Mileage 290,000km.
Sounds like it's got one foot in the bone yard.

Do you always believe everything a salesman tells you, especially one you will never see again after the sale? I say run as fast as you can away from this guy. If you could have sold it, it would already be gone.

I think so too. Something doesn't feel right and I am the expert at having buyer's remorse. Besides that issue, remember I don't like Fords and I don't like new cars, but my opinions do not count in your decision. High mileage, ... Or "kilometerage", or whatever it's called in Canada, is not necessarily a problem if it was driven long distances on the highway regularly. Where I am, cars fall apart from road salt and rust long before engines give out. The fact that I'm still driving an '88 Grand Caravan means I don't care what my vehicles look like or where the wind comes sailing through, as long as I know it will get me back home.

From what I read here, I suspect you could look forward to fewer engine and transmission problems with this car compared to a lot of other models but you are still going to be putting money into it on a regular basis. I would feel better if you would keep saving until you find something you like closer to home. Many dealers will give you a 50/50 30-day warranty if they have faith in what they're selling you but you don't want to drive an hour to find out they can't get to the car for three days.

As for financing, keep in mind the monthly payments are just a tiny fraction of the cost of owning a car. Don't forget insurance, maintenance, license, repairs, etc. Too many young people spend every last cent on the car, then work to earn the money to make the payments. There's no money left to take Betty Lou to the movies and she don't like people with no money.

Now let me get into "teachur mode". A car loan is a nice way to start building a good credit rating but what you should watch for is the interest rate, not the amount of the monthly payments. Too many young people jump at the financing the dealer comes up with because they can afford that amount. Often the interest rate can be double what you would find yourself at a bank or credit union. Sometimes part of that interest goes right back to the dealer or salesman as a commission. No need for you to be paying that when it's easy to apply for a loan yourself. If a banker turns you down, (and they'll tell you why), but the salesman can get you financed, you have to wonder what extra cost you're paying.

It's also becoming more common now to find longer-term loans. That reduces the amount of the monthly payments, which looks great on paper, but it increases the number of those payments you're going to have to make. When they shove the paperwork under your nose, multiply the number of payments by the amount of each payment, then add in your down payment to get the total cost of the car. Don't be surprised if that $1000.00 car is going to cost you $1600.00, and you haven't put gas in it yet or paid for insurance.

If you have a secure job right now, you will be way better off in the long run if every month you stash your paycheck in the bank and save it toward a car. The excitement of buying and driving a car wears off real fast, especially when it comes time for that monthly payment, ... Again!

On the other hand, if you like your job, you will probably get a few raises along the way, but your car payments won't increase. Credit unions allow you to pay extra each month which lowers the total interest you will pay. You have to watch banks. This might not apply to car loans but with home loans, if you pay extra at a bank, you have to specify that it be applied to your loan balance right now, otherwise they can hold it in escrow, (storage), and apply it when there is enough saved up to pay the loan off. That doesn't benefit you at all.

With a credit union, if your payment is $500.00 and $50.00 of that is principal, you can make a second payment on the same day by paying only another $50.00. If you do that every month, you cut in half the total number of monthly payments you have to make.

Didn't mean to get into all of that, but these are things that came up every year in my classes. I taught Automotive at a community college, and my students were in your age range. Too many of them had to do rent, diapers, food, text books, tuition, electric bill, and car payments, and they couldn't do them all with their part-time paycheck. The kids who waited a few years for all of these things always had the best cars and clothes later and seemed to have much fewer worries. Very often someone would show up with their new "ride" and brag about the deal they got thanks to our class discussions. No one in high school ever teaches personal finances.

So, to get back on topic, be sure to get an independent inspection that you have to pay for. Some shops will pick a car apart mercilessly because it's being sold by a competitor so you might get better results from a shop that isn't affiliated with car sales. If the selling dealer doesn't have their own service department, they have to farm the inspections and repairs out to another company. Try to find out which company that is so you don't go back there. Even if they find a problem, they might not want to admit that they overlooked it the first time, or if they did find it and the dealer elected not to spend the money to fix it, the inspector might keep his mouth shut to avoid "tattling" so to speak. Anything that is found should be listed in writing on a checklist or on the invoice when you pay the bill. You can use those items too to negotiate the sales price with the dealer. They always have a little "wiggle" room built in. It sounds like they're having trouble selling this car so if you're really "emotionally-involved" with it after seeing it, don't be afraid to offer less than they're asking.

You're welcome. I should mention too, since you asked about sticking in a different engine, that is probably not the best way to look at it unless you are specifically buying a car because of the engine problems and you want to fix it. You never know what you're getting with a used engine unless you can hear it run.

You are expecting to buy a car with a good drive train that you don't have to stick more money into. You might consider asking the dealer for the name of the previous owner so you can ask them the history of the car and why they traded it.

Holler back and let us know how you made out.

I'm not into obnoxious and rude loud stereos so I would think if the car turned out to be a clunker, at least you could sell the stereo.

Wondering again why someone would sell it for less than the cost of the radio.

Sorry to take so long to reply. The site stopped working with Mozilla Firefox so I have to borrow a different computer with Internet Explorer and the list of aggravations is huge!

Keep in mind that all I deal with are problems. People don't ask me about what's good about a car. GM is the worst company as far as being customer-friendly, but their real downfall in that area began in 2002. All through the '90s they have had a 100 percent failure rate with their cd players. Since 1993 I am not allowed to buy radio service manuals or parts. That means you have to have the dealer remove the radio and send it to one of their grossly over-priced repair centers. Most people ran to Best Buy to get a higher quality, less expensive replacement. To prevent people from being able to do that, they started building the Body Computer into the radios with the 2002 models. If you replace the radio, you won't have cruise control or power windows. Since the Body Computer is the master computer that all the other computers get their start-up instructions from, the engines on many cars won't even start if the radio is removed. Luckily that doesn't apply to a 2001 model.

One thing GM is famous for is their Security Systems are the best at keeping owners out of their cars. That's a common topic on this site, but there are some procedures you can do yourself to reprogram the system when necessary. The most common one takes a minimim of three 10-minute cycles and possibly a battery charger, so while you might be able to get the car going without needing a tow to the dealer, it can be real frustrating if you're late for class.

You might want to verify it has a V-8 engine. I thought they came with V-6s. Either way, replacing spark plugs will be kind of miserable, but it doesn't have to be done often. There are no tire wear or alignment issues I'm aware of. You might want to test drive the car before you buy it. With 20" wheels it is going to have real low profile tires. I'm not sure what the attraction is as they are not pretty and there's no sidewalls to absorb road shock. You might ask about getting the original wheels and tires. Those wheels create a reason to suspect, or at least look for anything else that was done to change ride height. As a former alignment specialist, I know how ride height affects other suspension parts, stability, comfort, and liability issues. Even when you're sitting in a courtroom because the other guy ran the red light, a good lawyer can convince the jury you are partly to blame for the crash because those modifications affected your ability to avoid the crash. I've heard too many stories about peoples' financial lives being ruined by some of the things we used to do years ago. If the ride height is stock, that is a big point in favor of the car.

Nothing else jumps to mind about this car. I think you'll find it has a comfortable ride. If you like searching for needed parts in a salvage yard, it will be a little more difficult to find these cars as there were fewer sold than say a Grand Am or Celebrity. All of those smaller GM front-wheel-drive cars are "killer" cars if you're in a crash of 45 mph or more. The Aurora is much more substantial and to my knowledge does not have that reputation.

Thank you for making a donation but don't worry about adding to it. We answer questions without even knowing how much you donated. Too many people buy cars with problems we know about, then blame their problems on the mechanics later. No matter which car you buy, it's smart on your part to ask about them first so you can make an informed decision. I'm just sorry I spend so much time on the negative stuff, but afterall, not many people complain about the good things about their cars.