newbie, lots of questions

[Unit 5302]

Cripes, nobody has responded?

Though I haven't been out looking, I don't remember seeing these cars with rust on them a couple years ago. That being said, many people choose not to drive the Mustang in winter weather.

The most common areas to see rust on previous version, and just about every other car I've looked at is at the bottom of the door panels. Open the door and look at the bottom of the inside. Also, the fox body cars from 1987-1993 had some real issues with rust just above the rear wheel wells on the quarter panels.

True undercoating is an option, but I don't believe it's commonly applied.

Here's the scoop on the Mustang GT. The 4.6L V-8 makes quite a bit more torque off idle than most of the cars you're going to have easy access to. In fact, in very icy weather, you may actually want to start the car off in second gear. The factors that combine to make the Mustang GT a real handful in snow are as follows: Short wheelbase, 55-60/45-40 weight distribution, a limited slip rear differential, a torquey lower rpm engine, tall gearing, and higher performance street tires. Snow tires should be mandatory for anyplace that receives frequent snow and blizzards (every week). I would highly recommend replacement of the factory Goodyear Eagles with a better tread for M+S use for anybody that drives in inclement weather.

The Mustang GT can be driven in bad weather (we average 150cm+ of snow annually here). I've done so with the 5.0 fox bodies for years, and they are much more likely to misbehave than the SN95 cars and later 1994+. The body styles are 1987-1993, 1994-1998 (5.0 1994-1995), 1999-2004, 2005.

The V-6 equipped models are pretty much like any other rwd car. No limited slip, shorter gearing, narrower tires, and less power.