[Sangetsu]

I had wanted a muscle car of some type, and I first thought of getting a new Mustang GT. I spent a week going to different Ford dealerships looking at their cars, and trying to negotiate a better price. But the Mustang was a hot seller, so the dealers wouldn't budge on the price.

As luck would have it, there was a Pontiac dealership near one of the Ford places I went to, and I noticed that they had several GTOs on the lot when I drove by. I stopped in and noticed that the sticker prices were about the same as the Mustangs, about $34k. But, as it was late 2006 (almost 2007), the Pontiac dealer was willing to come down significantly on the price, I ended up giving $28k for it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much installment credit history, so my finance company (Chase) hit me up for 7% interest on the loan. Before I made the first payment, I transferred the entire balance of the loan to my American Express skymiles card. I got 1.9% rate for the life of the balance, flexible payment options, and nearly 50k miles to my Skymiles account.

Anyway, the car came with the LS2 6.0 liter V8, which makes 100 horsepower more than the Mustang GT, and it came with the 6 speed manual transmission (the Mustang GT only comes with a 5 speed or auto). I found the interior to be much more room and comfortable than the Mustang, and the ride quality was much better as well. One of the best things, however, was the insurance rate. The GTO cost about 25% less to insure than a Mustang. After taking a GTO for a test drive, I wondered why I ever bothered looking at the Mustang in the first place.