I'm thinking about getting back into a '05-'09 S197 GT. My favorite S197 chassis body style. I had an '05 GT for a bit, but when we bought our house almost 10 years ago I sold it. It wasn't all puppy dogs and ice cream. I wasn't upset or sad to see it go.
Reflecting on my ownership my bitches from my time with it include:
1.) Throttle by Wire. Hated it. Laggy, lazy feeling. I want what I command at the peddle, not what the ECU thinks I want based on other data it's collecting. I want a 1:1 action.
2.) Hanging idle at shifts. I found this really annoying AF.
3.) The remote mounted shifter setup. Shit idea. Shit design. Shit execution.
4.) Saggy door panel trim. WTF Ford?!?!? How did you not know that shitty glue was going to fail?
5.) Fuel fill issues. Unggghhhh!!! What a hassle.
The sum of these complaints kinda spoiled my enjoyment of my car when I had it. But since then I've had two Foxbody cars. And I love the Foxbodies, but let's get real. They are not great cars. Easy to work on. Relatively cheap. Visceral. But not good cars. They don't have good brakes. They don't handle well. They don't ride well. They're crampt inside. Given a choice for a trip across country in a perfect Foxbody or a perfect S197? S197 no contest. The S197 is 10X better if any better at all. And they are better.
I found a contender not far away. Just under $10K, race red, tan/black interior, manual trans, upper mid-70K miles.
Reflecting on my ownership my bitches from my time with it include:
1.) Throttle by Wire. Hated it. Laggy, lazy feeling. I want what I command at the peddle, not what the ECU thinks I want based on other data it's collecting. I want a 1:1 action.
2.) Hanging idle at shifts. I found this really annoying AF.
3.) The remote mounted shifter setup. Shit idea. Shit design. Shit execution.
4.) Saggy door panel trim. WTF Ford?!?!? How did you not know that shitty glue was going to fail?
5.) Fuel fill issues. Unggghhhh!!! What a hassle.
The sum of these complaints kinda spoiled my enjoyment of my car when I had it. But since then I've had two Foxbody cars. And I love the Foxbodies, but let's get real. They are not great cars. Easy to work on. Relatively cheap. Visceral. But not good cars. They don't have good brakes. They don't handle well. They don't ride well. They're crampt inside. Given a choice for a trip across country in a perfect Foxbody or a perfect S197? S197 no contest. The S197 is 10X better if any better at all. And they are better.
I found a contender not far away. Just under $10K, race red, tan/black interior, manual trans, upper mid-70K miles.