Base vs Premium?

[Khyber]

I went with base PP because I don't like touch screens in cars and don't care about heated or cool seats. I wanted 3.73s and didn't want to pay 45k for a mustang getting the PP and the premium.

where you get your numbers wrong lol. 38 otd for gt pp premium back in jan and my car has it all but adaptive cruise control.

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['Merica]

I had a Base and ended up trading it this weekend for a Premium. I had never sat in a Premium until this and wow the seats are a million times more comfortable. The cooled seats are awesome and I never saw value in that before. I did it because of the 0% and my payment only going up a few bucks, but yeah coming from someone who has owned both...go ahead and get the Premium, and try your best to find a Performance Package car as well. They are getting really hard to find right now, but it's worth the extra effort, even if you have to drive a ways for one.

 

[Excelerater]

There is no place in North America that new roads are being built so fast that a nav system would be obsolete in 2 years, even Google wouldn't keep up if it was.

I have a 7 year old TomTom I use when I travel for work. I have been all over the US and have never not been able to find where I was going.

Plus with the Ford system the map data is on an SD card which Ford updates annually and can be bought for less than $100 if you shop around.

The built in system is far superior to cell phone and most standalones

Funny I use a Garmin and it was 5 years old but I wanted to help a bud out
and I gave it away and bought the latest and greatest garmin....I was blow away by the jump in speed , technology and features of the new model.
Like a Cell phone if yuo dont get a new one every few years you get left behind

Go get a new TOM TOM balla and you will be surprised how much faster and sharper the new unit is... Just because you made a something last and work for you does not make it have value...its worthless.

How is that relevant to the base vs premium argument? Also, you can get premium without nav (and nav won't be obsolete in 2 years).

All im saying is the Mustang aftermarket,quite possibly the largest market of any single model car on the road
does a lot of stuff better than Ford does IE" tires,shocks,suspension,GPS etc.. Why spend it twice
if you already plan to slam the car,add rims and make it faster


good luck

 

[e30og]

I'm looking at two cars currently which couldn't be further from each other on the spectrum. One is a base with PP and the other is a Premium ...Am I missing anything else on the 300A package?

Cannot speak to the cost of adding heated mirrors but I have to admit that is pretty important. That being said, I have mixed feelings towards the premium model for the following reasons:

- What cooled seats? this is a big sore spot for everyone with the premium because they do not actually cool the seat backs, it is a defective design and Ford has yet to address it. This includes 2016 models. Drive around more than a few minutes and after an initial cool back, it actually get warm! Seat bottoms are fine.

- Do not get a 15, the 16 has a snappy new infotainment system that can be upgraded for some time to come, while the 15s make do with MFT, which is useful and functional but slow to use and has software that hasn't been updated in a while (and probably never will be anymore). I use it everyday and its fine, but for the money and lag its a let down. **(If you do get a premium and get a 16 for the SYNC 3 infotainment, get Navi. Its convenient, you will regret this. I still use my phone navi for better traffic info but nothing beats freeing my phone up from navi)

- Leather wrinkles very easily, its not anchored to the seat as well as I have seen in cheaper cars (first one that comes to mind is a buddy's Accord with higher miles but less wear). I personally like the feel and texture in stark contrast to previous ford leathers, but the loosening/wrinkling issue remains.

- 'Zachmd1' or something like that is a V6 owner who is a crackhead for upgrading his base car. Not only did he create (and currently sells) working toggles for the base model driving buttons, he also just retrofitted MFT in his base...he bought the components separately and has a nice writeup. It works, and I believe he didnt spend more than $500-700, stock dash, although the bezel surrounding the screen is clearly not stock. Leather is relatively easy to do (as far as projects go) and there is at least one writeup of a full seat breakdown, step by step. I have taken a mustang seat down before and its not as hard as you think! Heated seats can certainly be added and the cooled seats dont fully work anyways so no loss.

I am trying to give you a more honest and wholesome picture of the premium cars and their setbacks so you have no surprises whichever direction you go, given the premium is $4,000 more.

Errbody seems to be on the money with the Performance Package. I feel a bit cheated buying a premium, however the PP is a solid buy. I could write a whole separate post praising it. Find one with the PP

I think you will be happy either way, but if money is less of an issue, go premium

 

[Kahboom]

Base GTPP and love it. Didnt need all the other nonsence. But to each his own. Honestly think heated mirrors should be standard by now on most cars.

 

[dgc333]

Funny I use a Garmin and it was 5 years old but I wanted to help a bud out
and I gave it away and bought the latest and greatest garmin....I was blow away by the jump in speed , technology and features of the new model.
Like a Cell phone if yuo dont get a new one every few years you get left behind

Go get a new TOM TOM balla and you will be surprised how much faster and sharper the new unit is... Just because you made a something last and work for you does not make it have value...its worthless.






All im saying is the Mustang aftermarket,quite possibly the largest market of any single model car on the road
does a lot of stuff better than Ford does IE" tires,shocks,suspension,GPS etc.. Why spend it twice
if you already plan to slam the car,add rims and make it faster


good luck

No doubt a new GPS will be an improvement but my wife's 14 Dodge and my 15 Mustang both have built in GPS and my TomTom is only used when I travel. Just like a 4 year old cell phone it gets the job done just fine.

 

[willmkent]

My next one is going to be a base with cloth recaros. My only fear is that the radio will suck terribly... That's the only thing that makes me enjoy my premium now, the screen is ok but this is my first car with an actual touch screen display so I wouldn't really miss it, I know I can upgrade the speakers and add my own small sub if I wanted some better sound, but I will only miss the sd reader for all my music, that is super convenient. All the modes I could care less, the ambient lighting is fun but unnecessary and I just keep it on the white setting anyway... I purely love the connection between the car and driver in its simplistic form.. So here is how I feel, both the base and premium are nice, no doubt and there is always something for everyone but if I buy the car this time around, I'm not wasting my money on the premium, the leather is too soft and it marks up with the slightest pressure, the cooled seats don't work, and everything else is just not needed to enjoy the car

 

[foghat]

All im saying is the Mustang aftermarket,quite possibly the largest market of any single model car on the road
does a lot of stuff better than Ford does IE" tires,shocks,suspension,GPS etc.. Why spend it twice
if you already plan to slam the car,add rims and make it faster


good luck

Right. But I am saying that argument is irrelevant when talking about base vs. premium. The premium does not come with different tires, wheels, suspension or performance bits than the base does. So you are not spending anything twice. In fact, there is very little you can do aftermarket on your base to get the premium equivalent.

Your argument holds more water if you are arguing PP or not. But even then, the cost of buying and installing PP brakes alone after the fact will likely cost you as much as the PP did - or at least close to it.

As I noted, GPS is not included with premium, so you don't need to pay for it if you go premium. No matter how much better an aftermarket gps may be, it still will not be displayed on the nice big screen and integrate as well in terms of voice control. Plus a garmin or tom tom stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[Syracuse315]

Base GTPP and love it. Didnt need all the other nonsence. But to each his own. Honestly think heated mirrors should be standard by now on most cars.

Also just picked up a GTPP. As a side note, my old 1986 Mercedes 190E had heated mirrors.

 

[sauerkraut]

Base all the way.

I'm probably biased, but for the price increase, the premium just wasn't worth it to me.

-I hate leather seats, always have. The last time I had them was all the way back in a 98 Taurus; never again I said and I've stuck to that.

-Heated Mirrors; I've had cars that had them and cars that didn't (my last car had them). In all honesty, they never warmed up quickly enough as far as I was concerned. If I parked outside during the winter months, I'd still have to somewhat scrape them off before I left as I refuse to warm my car up for 15-30 mins before I leave.

-Infotainment system; MFT is almost a joke and since I bought a 2015 it was a an easy decision to forget about it (I'd feel differently had SYNC 3 been around then). Also, the Shaker system is seriously lacking. The audio system in my previous car, 2013 Fusion, was far superior when I did test drives.

-Drive modes; seriously???? Rain/Snow mode is called knowing how to drive. Those nannies will not overcome shit tires; winter tires are the only true snow mode.

-Random gimmicks; Pony lights, ambient lighting, mirror mounted turn lamps. These are all complete an utter gimmicks and serve absolutely no purpose. I'm sure someone is going to say mirror signal lamps serve a purpose, but I would disagree. At least on modern fords, you can barely even see them light up unless it's pitch black out.

OK, I'm done ranting

 

[rgingo]

"I'm probably biased, but for the price increase, the premium just wasn't worth it to me".

While I might have agreed with you on some points (voice control sucks, some lights are gimmicky), I disagree about the drive modes. They are quite useful and increase the enjoyment driving the car.... especially the sport+ mode for me (this is even more true with the automatic xmission). My wife also likes to drive our Mustang (not an expert driver!) so she uses normal or wet/snow mode effectively. I wanted the 50-yr package also because my wife and I are keeping this Mustang to the end (we'll leave it to our kids). I have grown to appreciate the interior comfort, the excellent driving experience and even some of the "gimmicks" (my wife, kids love the lights). I particularly grew to like the radar warning when backing out of a parking spot. The heated mirrors aren't powerful, but do make for a difference between a hard freeze and a loose freeze on the mirrors (quicker scrape-off of ice). The heated/cooled seats are not such a big deal however (maybe mine needs look at by Ford service). In my opinion, overall for most, the premium is a good upgrade (especially with the auto). For racer-types with 6sp manual and racing mods, maybe not.

 

[skeeter]

Premium is for the waxers! lol, i aint starting sheet. :ford:

Everyone has their own needs and budget. I am a waxer, no track time yet but I still think the base gt pp is the best buy for a Mustang.

 

[rgingo]

Premium is for the waxers! lol, i aint starting sheet. :ford:

Everyone has their own needs and budget. I am a waxer, no track time yet but I still think the base gt pp is the best buy for a Mustang.

Agreed... However, the best bang-for the buck has to be the base 6cyl. The beauty of the Mustang is you can option/mod it to great extremes to make it what you want. :ford:

 

[Spartan]

Base all the way.

I'm probably biased, but for the price increase, the premium just wasn't worth it to me.

-I hate leather seats, always have. The last time I had them was all the way back in a 98 Taurus; never again I said and I've stuck to that.

-Heated Mirrors; I've had cars that had them and cars that didn't (my last car had them). In all honesty, they never warmed up quickly enough as far as I was concerned. If I parked outside during the winter months, I'd still have to somewhat scrape them off before I left as I refuse to warm my car up for 15-30 mins before I leave.

-Infotainment system; MFT is almost a joke and since I bought a 2015 it was a an easy decision to forget about it (I'd feel differently had SYNC 3 been around then). Also, the Shaker system is seriously lacking. The audio system in my previous car, 2013 Fusion, was far superior when I did test drives.

-Drive modes; seriously???? Rain/Snow mode is called knowing how to drive. Those nannies will not overcome shit tires; winter tires are the only true snow mode.

-Random gimmicks; Pony lights, ambient lighting, mirror mounted turn lamps. These are all complete an utter gimmicks and serve absolutely no purpose. I'm sure someone is going to say mirror signal lamps serve a purpose, but I would disagree. At least on modern fords, you can barely even see them light up unless it's pitch black out.

OK, I'm done ranting

Agreed on most points, but the rear diffuser is pretty sick looking on the premiums.

 

[Spartan]

Agreed... However, the best bang-for the buck has to be the base 6cyl. The beauty of the Mustang is you can option/mod it to great extremes to make it what you want. :ford:

And yet Ford doesn't want anyone owning a V6 premium...yet Chevy is allowing all 3 engines to get base or premium trims. + to Chevy to not forcing people into a model.

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