Showroom Showdown
Ford Mustang Vs. Nissan 350Z
Dan Lienert

Ford Mustang Vs. Nissan 350Z

NEW YORK - The market is starving for cars like the Ford Mustang.

Ford Motor's (nyse: F - news - people ) recently released overhaul of its iconic sports car, which many Mustang fans believe is either the best one since the original or the best one ever, has been a runaway hit. Among Ford passenger cars, only the Taurus and Focus have outsold the Mustang this year, which is remarkable considering the Taurus and Focus are utilitarian, populist vehicles, required by many for daily transportation--while the Mustang is just for fun.

Muscle-car madness is gripping the Motor City. Ford's Detroit brethren, General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) and DaimlerChrysler's (nyse: DCX - news - people ) Chrysler Group, are rushing to prepare similar retro-mobiles that will compete with the Mustang.

Showroom Showdown: Ford Mustang Vs. Nissan 350Z
At January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, GM will show a Chevrolet sports car prototype that will either ape the 1969 Camaro or the 1970 Chevelle, and will bear the name of whichever classic it copies. Expect the vehicle to use a Corvette V-8.

The show car will use a new platform, or basic set of mechanical underpinnings, known as "Zeta light." Using this architecture, GM is planning to build a Chevrolet coupe to fight the Mustang. The idea would be to give the car a V-8 for muscle-car credibility, but also to have a more affordable V-6 version.

By the same token, Dodge is planning to revive its classic Challenger muscle coupe. In fact, when the original Challenger came out for the 1970 season, its main competitors were the Mustang and Chevy Camaro. At Detroit, expect also to see a Challenger prototype based on the architecture for Chrysler's 300C and Dodge's Charger sedans.

These cars are being prepared in the wake of the Mustang's success. To illustrate just how far above its current competition the Mustang is, the following slide show compares the Mustang with Nissan Motor's (nasdaq: NSANY - news - people ) 350Z sports car, which is for now about the toughest competition the Mustang has. But the Mustang is shredding the Z in the showrooms, illustrating the point that other automakers really don't have an answer for Ford's new darling.

In some ways, comparing the Mustang and 350Z is not fair. The Mustang is considerably bigger and can be considerably cheaper. But both cars have cheap thrills as their mission. Both are available as coupes and convertibles, and for people who want inexpensive sports cars with some degree of street cred, these two vehicles are about as good as it gets.

But the Mustang is in a class by itself. You can't get the Z with a V-8, and it doesn't matter that the Z's V-6 can, like the Mustang's V-8, put out 300 horsepower. Muscle cars come with V-8 engines, period. That is as welded into the American psyche as the idea that the 4th of July comes with fireworks.

We mean no disrespect to the excellent and desirable 350Z. But it just doesn't come anywhere close to capturing Americans' imaginations as the Mustang has. But the Mustang won't be alone it its segment for long.

http://www.forbes.com/vehicles/2005/...01show_ls.html

 

thank goodness. i'm happy seeing other z's only occassionally, and not 20 times a day like the stang. i'll take my z any day of the week for the rest of my life over a ford.

 

Mustang looks like a dog. I guess if you want to go blazing fast with little money mustangs are a good choice. But they're so big and unefficient feel to them. I guess im just partial to japanese cars cause of their efficient design and technology ect. Mustang just feels like a block on wheels with a big engine.

 

let em babble.... Of course you cant compare the Z to a muscle car, BECAUSE ITS NOT MEANT TO BE A MUSCLE CAR. im not a V8 fan anyways...Straightline cars like muscle cars blow.

 

I have seen articles that call the stang a muscle car and I've seen articles that call it a sports car. Semantics be d@mned – the Z is still getting lesser marks and that sucks @ss.

As for the comment about sales - I find it DISTURBING that the masses don't see what we see in the Z. We maybe missing something or maybe its the name "mustang" that attracts people.

I am for one will be VERY honest and admit that I am disheartened when I see the Z losing to the Stang and RX-8. Then I have never driven a new stang or rx – so I could just be ignorant of those cars and what they have to offer.

 

Mustangs are nothing but cheap speed. What do you get out of the mustang? Z vs mustang is a drivers race, mustang corners like a dumptruck, has bad gas mileage, and the highest insurance rates (cheap speed). The mustang is for punk high school kids who work 60 hours a week at macdonalds to afford the car. The Z is for people who have class, taste, and enjoy the finer things in life. The Z is much more of a connoisseur's car.

 

The more people buy Mustangs, the more our car gets more rare and exotic. It would be a nightmare if the 350Z got a spotlight somewhere and then everyone and their grandmother buys a 350Z.

 

Mustangs are weak. The Z has a lot more character.

I blow the doors off of the "ohhhh---I'm scared" V-8 that the mustang has all day, every day.

 

I just can't stand these domestic junks anymore...

 

Have you gone to a Ford dealer and tried to find a 2006 Mustang GT? Even the Ford faithful are getting pi$$ed about the lack of the Mustang GT selection at the dealers. The numbers that Ford sales are generating are based on the V-6 edition, of which there are plenty, and which are easy pickings on the street for a 350Z and a good driver on board.

I was a long time Ford Mustang 5.0/4.6L supporter, until I tried to buy a new Ford Mustang GT. I was blown off by 2 different dealers because Ford limits the percentages of Mustang GT's that can make up a dealer's inventory. Of those, only 3 out of every 10 can be 5 speeds. That and the fact that the dealers were generally clueless about the car and the available options.

Very different experience at the Nissan dealer down the street. Hence, the '05 Anniversary Edition residing in my garage.

 

hahaha.. apples and oranges people.

 

I see the new Mustangs all the time and they get more and more fugly to me. Have you seen that mint green color with the racing stripes? Makes me want to puke!

 

LMAO. I would rather have a Z over the rustang any day. Plus I would like to see the look of these American's who praise the stang so much in 3-5 years when I will still be driving my Z and their car sits in the junkyard. Besides it soo easy to walk away from them in the top-end and will outcorner them in a track event. Plus more people look twice at the Z more than a mustang here in LA. The Z is the exotic.. Mustang is cottage cheese.

 

1. I understand that Ford intends to produce 180,000 Mustangs in 2006. I wonder what percent are 6-cylinders?

2. Have you ever read a comparison between a Mustang-6 cylinder and a 350Z? I never have.

 

take the v6 model mustangs out of the equation then compare sales figures to the 350z. My money is on the 350z.

 

tats good news Keep the Z exclusive!

 

lol..
this is funny
The mustang still handles like ****...
Looks like ****
Goes.. well it goes...
I personally...
have never driven an American car in my life...
so...

 

HA +100. I test drove a 02 mach 1 and man... it felt slow. It did not pull at all. My old 96 Celica GT fell like it pulled the same. And that was a 4cyl.

 

you're not missing much, they handle like ****, ride like ****, look like ****, interior falls apart within 2 years, non stop problems with everything but the engine. I'm not talking about cheap american cars, im talking about the upper end ones too.

 

i'd imagine 80% of them are v6's. V8 mustang sitings around here are more rare than seeing a 05 vette. V6's are everywhere though, driven by yuppies and young high school girls.