Mrs. Ricci gets her Mustang
by Dean V. Ricci

Click on a photo above to enlarge

March 19, 2008 -- My wife Judy hasn't had a sporty car to call her own, since she gave up the keys to her 80s Dodge Daytona.

When Judy and I got married back in 2003, we purchased a couple of vehicles for ourselves. For Judy, a 2003 Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer to replace her Jeep Cherokee, which had well over 100,000 miles on the odometer, not to mention the wear and tear of some 12 years of use. The Explorer would be a suitable replacement for her Jeep as she wanted something that was good in the snow, as well as something big enough to carry her elderly father around. For myself, we purchased a 2003 T-Bird. I had wanted to get one of these cars, even though they did not come equipped with a 5 speed transmission. I bought the T-Bird with the intention of keeping it for a long time, only using it on warm weather days, just like the other 'toys' in the collection.

When Judy and I lost her father a couple of years ago, she had eventually been thinking about getting a new car. These thoughts grew in intensity especially when the lease on my 2006 Ford F150 was coming due this past January. Although she really likes the T-Bird, the fact they stopped production on them would mean having to buy a used one. But in actuality, because the car is so low to the ground, she did not think it would make a good daily driver for her, especially with her back problems she has to deal with.

Knowing the only convertible Ford offers in the U.S. is the Mustang, we had been looking at them. She liked the new body style and really liked the feel of the bucket seats.

She had a good long sit in the GT500 convertible that was in attendance at the retirement party from Ford held for our club  President Tom Greene, and was starting to ask if we could get a Shelby. Well, I told her that if we bought a Shelby it would mean selling the T-Bird and that it wouldn't really be a practical every day car.

What I did for her over the summer was go to the local Hertz rental place and rented a Mustang Convertible for a week in August. She came home from work on a Friday and saw the Mustang sitting in the driveway. She asked me what was going on and I told her it was hers to drive for the week and if she liked it, we would buy one. Well, to make a long story short, once the following Friday came along and it was time to turn in the rental - well I hadn't see her look that sad in quite some time. We knew a new Mustang was going to be the car of choice for her.

We had talked about colors, powertrain, stereos ... everything we could think of. She really liked the California Special Mustangs, especially in Grabber Orange. She also liked the Black and the other color that resembles Gun Metal Gray. But when we found out that Ford was introducing Candy Apple Red for 2008, the decision was made.

In November of 2007, I went to my Ford dealer and ordered a new 2008 V6 Pony Edition in Candy Apple Red. It was hoped it would be ready for Santa to put the keys under the tree, but we took delivery towards the end of January.

Judy has been very happy with the car since it arrived, and has even been able to navigate the snowy roads with it. Although, when it was snowing really hard, I was able to drive her to work in the old Explorer, which is my daily driver now.