I’ve been driving a 2010 Mustang Convertible for the past week, a covered rental while the BMW is at Sublime finally getting a new rear bumper after the accident way back in April.

After requesting something cheap, I was surprised when Enterprise dropped off the Stang, and even a little excited. Sure the V6 has some power and the rear wheel drive is enjoyable, but it is amazing just how far corners can be cut to make the affordable American pony car.

The automatic transmission is by far the worst I’ve driven; it takes several seconds from flooring the pedal to gear catching and eventual acceleration. Brakes are extremely soft and mushy with no precision. Steering slightly better than a pickup truck. Suspension feels like an old mattress, bucking and diving drastically even at slow speeds as you operate the pedals.

The most disappointing is the chassis. Apparently Ford has managed to build the whole frame out of 100% American rubber. Though the queen bed suspension absorbs an initial shock, the whole car ripples afterwards like Jello. Massachusetts’ signature crappy pavement blurs your vision and vibrates your arms.

However, it is a great-looking Mustang, and the first opportunity I’ve really had to drive a convertible. The 55-degree temperatures didn’t stop me from driving home with the top down on the first day. After all, it has a powerful American heater.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve had the BMW over a year now. As a reminder, BMW sent a nice 1-series concept sketch print. Not quite the tons of fun stuff that MINI sends you, but still a nice thought.

Our drive from southern France to Nürnberg Germany was long and tiring, but I was able to fully experience the Autobahn. Which is to say, sitting at a dead stop in construction traffic more often then driving over the standard 120kph. We were able to just reach 200kph a few times in our rental Ford Mondeo wagon. I used MotionX’s free GPS app to precache the maps and track the route which you can view here.

The BMW is in for its first service—first oil change at 16800 mi, as well as new pads and rotors as mine were a little warped. In BMW of Peabody’s extensive service bays, it sits next to a Ferrari. Thankfully there is a window above where I can watch. Also got to chat and catch up with Vinny and look on the almost-completed new building for MINI.

Now for the iPhone geek talk. This photo is actually twelve exposures. Using ClearCam’s Enhanced mode, six shots are quickly taken and merged to reduce noise and increase resolution. I do this twice, exposing for dark and then for lift areas. I then use ProHDR to blend these two composite images to produce a result with the dynamic range and quality of a camera much larger than the iPhone.