At over $16,000 as-tested, this '89 Probe GT cost more than a Mustang GT...almost as fast, too. I wish the 2-door sport hatch was as popular a class as compact CUV's/SUV's
@@Sanpedranoazul Took me awhile to figure out what you were talking about - cause they've never been on my radar. All reviews today are about cup holders and infotainment. It would be nice see what a vehicle could actually accomplish.
Rockwood Joe today’s car vloggers have zero knowledge about how cars are engineered or made. They have no idea what makes a good car different from a bad car. They are interested in what ten year old boys are interested in - the power windows, the power seats and the horsepower. A few are even clever enough to look at the dash plastic fit and finish.
@@777jones The slalom, brake, raceway, and 0-60 tests were always my favorite on motor week, because they showed what you couldn't really do on a test drive - to an ordinary car. I have no idea why today's vloggers just spout of specs that are easy to obtain on the web - or the viewer already knows!
This was back when no one really knew what the face of the future would be, but this car did age fairly well with its sporty aero design. Anything with pop-up headlights dates it though. No one has made a car that uses pop up headlights since the '04 Chevy Corvette.
My girlfriend had an '89 Mazda MX6... champagne exterior and luxurious dark red heavy weave cloth interior... I thought it was vastly better looking than the Probe... especially the Probes with the top extending back over the back window... like a '62 Chevy Biscayne... Seemed powerful, I thought it was a V6 to drive it, but opening hood revealed a DOHC 4... Weird that it didn't have self-adjusting brakes, just wore out one end of the brake shoes...
Well maybe if the market didn’t demand so many suvs and crossovers they wouldn’t make that many, it’s not the 80s anymore where the average joe could afford a sports car fresh out of high school. People are having family’s now and what will a family buy? A crossover... time’s change bro deal with it
@@ronaldmcdonald5292 "people are having families now" People didn't have families back in the 80's and 90's? That has nothing to do with why an average joe can't afford a sports coupe anymore. It's due to corporate greed and lack of salary increase to match the rise in cost of living over the years.
You and me both, a front wheel drive mustang? No thank you... and what the hell is that abomination called the Mustang Mach E?? (I know what it is, I just cannot believe it's a thing).
Honestly everybody would think the mach e was cool if it didn’t have the mustang name. I feel as if Ford is gonna do something stupid and branch out the mustang name into a performance division.
@@ronaldmcdonald5292 Agree with you. Putting the Mustang name and taillights on an electric SUV is cheap marketing. Maybe it will work though. I actually like the look, but Ford could have done that and said it was "Mustang styling inspired" or something, not slap the Mustang name on it.
People are so god damned stupid that the name of an otherwise nice vehicle would make them stay away from such a purchase. This is why as Americans we deserve what's happening to the car culture lol.
@@camberwellcarrot420 one example of a high mileage turbo engine doesn't really prove your point there bud lol. I don't disagree with you either but a good example is any diesel trucks they all pretty much have turbos and they last over a million miles pretty regularly with proper maintenance being complied with.
And back when that was what the market demanded. They aren’t gonna start making a shit ton of sports cars just to cater to boomers like you, and then go bankrupt because they spent more money on development and then got no sales.
@@ronaldmcdonald5292 I'm a Millenial and I love these sports cars, I don't need a crossover, they are still bigger than sub compacts which prefer to drive. Also, Millenials that actually have families are generally having smaller families now so if the Boomers and Gen Xers could live with this, Millenials easily could. The problem is Millenials in general don't care about as much about sports cars as previous generations so it does make sense for Ford not to bring this back. Another problem is that many Millenials also can't afford new cars.
Growing up, my neighbor had a red second gen Probe V6. I thought it was one of the coolest looking car in the mid-90s! It seemed legitimately spacey and futuristic back in the day.
Remember when you could put the word "anal" in front of any ford product and it would be funny... Probe, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion, Fiesta, Escort, etc. hehe
@@E_tiBEAMERBOY I was given a '90 LX with 3.0 V6/5 speed manual. I beat that thing like a red headed stepchild and it never gave me a problem. I sold it to some kids that wanted to enter it in a derby. Some decisions we make, we don't know are regrettable until it's far too late.
Well my girlfriends had an '89 Mazda MX6... champagne exterior and luxurious dark red heavy weave cloth interior... I thought it was vastly better looking than the Probe... especially the Probes with the top extending back over the back window... like a '62 Chevy Biscayne... Seemed powerful, I thought it was a V6 to drive it, but opening hood revealed an OHC 4... Weird that it didn't have self-adjusting brakes, just wore out one end of the brake shoes...
I bought one of these new back in '89, though mine was red. It had a great balance of speed, handling, braking, economy and styling. And having a sub $20,000 car in 1989 with 4 wheel disc brakes, ABS, a turbocharged engine and an adjustable suspension made it an incredible value. But I'm still relieved that it didn't replace the Fox-Body Mustangs, which had their own unique character.
I’ve been a MW fan since it started on public television. It’s the one show that never gets old. I may even cry the day John Davis and Pat Goss retire.
John Davis is awesome but I could do without pat goss. Any legit ASE certified technician could give much more useful and understandable information than that guy
@@JDMHaze so one engine that had a few issues and you assume they are all like that? Tell that to my XR6 Turbo with 600hp on stock everything down to the turbo.
Notice how a version of this wheel design is nearly the identical style used later on the '93 Mustang Cobra R and the 17" wheel upgrade option on '94-'95 Mustang GTs.....
Notice how nobody knows how to end a sentence or paragraph right? Stopped putting multiple periods. Use one period to end your statement. Doing so otherwise shows how many people in America failed basic English and writing classes.
@@DocR16 LOL... If you had paid attention in class, using an ellipsis is a form of leaving the lines of communication open(you know, for others to chime in?). Okay, sue me, I used more than the correct ... three periods to form an ellipsis, cheers!
I had a 90 Probe GT and the HP on that car was vastly underrated. Mine was completely decked out with all the available trim options. That car was lightning quick. Still, to this day, one of the favorite cars I've ever owned.
I had a 1989 model... bought it for $600 in 2002... the odometer broke a couple years prior with 250,000 miles on the motor i drove that thing for probably another good 100,000 living in Houston.. it was a standard..i drove it til the 3rd & 5 th gears gave out
I've heard they actually made a lot more than 145hp but Ford didn't disclose the actual number because it was too close or more than the Mustang and they couldn't have that.
@@artemusifasuenshuffleman8535 Yeah, I think it was closer to 175-180hp, going by the 1/4 mile speeds. I totally remember the outcry when Ford mentioned replacing the Mustang with the Probe. The redesigned '94 Mustang was the result, giving it a new lease on life for another 11 model years. Ford would've made a serious, bigger than Edsel, mistake had they used the FWD Mazda platform on the Mustang IMO.
It was always considered to be an underrated horsepower figure, I remember Car & Driver getting 0-60 in the high 6 second range and a 225HP Mustang GT at the time was like 6.3-6.4 seconds..... and even the Diamond Star turbo cars (Talon/Laser/Eclipse) with 190-195HP were only a few tenths faster, so definitely had atleast a few more HP than advertised. To have 190/lb ft torque would be strange to have only 145HP 🤔 And this car was NOT as light as a current Mazda Miata. 300-400 lbs heavier for sure
Since 1998 my commute cars is a Ford Probe 1991, it is a great car indeed, very reliable, comfortable, and nice car. Its design still holds today, and I love that sucker!
I ran across a 91 LX (the one with the V6 engine) a few years ago out in the middle of nowhere, I still kick myself for not having bought it. It was bright red in and out, with a digital instrument cluster...somewhat futuristic all the way around. The price was fairly decent, too, but I had no way to get it home and no nice garage to put it in when it got there.
Back in the day the rumor was that these made closer to around 180hp, but Ford rated it at only 145 so it wouldn't steal potential customers away from the Mustang.
Just chilling like two lemons in an ice lemonade (Because the word Citroen is derived from the french word Citron which means lemon (after they changed it after the family's arrival in France.)
Great video and channel. You motivated me to get my 1994 Probe GT running again. I have 26 years of history with my Probe. Check it out. I have started to document in small weekly videos. Thank you. (I miss the sweet high revving engine and crisp handling)
An absolutely respectable car from ford. I cant remember the last time I said that, but it sure wasnt in the last 2 decades. These little coupes were fun, easy to work on, and were meh as far as reliability goes. It was a joint venture with mazda after all.
If I remember correctly, the Probe was originally intended to be the next generation of Mustang. Because of the backlash from diehard Mustang fans, Ford scrapped those plans and thus this car became the Probe. The existing Mustang was updated and kept for several more years.
@@bilbobaggins4710 junk but there's TONS of them here and TONS of built ones too, turboed and all. Some even win autoshows here and audio competitions.
@@realazduffman why not? The Mustang was nothing more than an economy car in drag. Fists just a rebadged Falcon. Then Pinto. Then a barely stylized Fairmont hatchback. Theres nothing special about Mustangs mechanically, today you would be better off buying one of the many cheaper and undervalued cars that share its mechanicals than buying an actual Mustang. People who like Mustangs care more about looks than performance, that's why amont the early cars the demonstrably worse fastback holds all the value while the superior for a performance car coupe is ignored. At least with the Mazda platform they designed it from the beginning to be a performer, rather than a grocery getter that got dressed up in new sheetmetal to cash in on boomer idiocy.
@@DrewLSsix I dont even like mustangs but have to disagree. Sure, they had some lackluster years and models but you are forgetting about the 03 and 04 terminators, the cobra R and plenty else.
My friend had a 90 Probe GT,I drove it a few times fun quick little car,0-60 blasts were fast,on the highway in 5th gear at 80 mph put the pedal down in a few seconds your doing 110 mph when that turbo kicks in. Good times.
Love the car, and bonus info on the probe, if you're a fan of the back to the future trilogy, there is a ford probe in the second film, if you watch carefully
There was also the original concept for the Ford Probe in the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact. (Roy Scheider gets passed by one while jogging early in the film)
When I was a kid watching these shows I always thought the braking area signs 0 5 10 were feet. Like why did they say 100 feet? It was clearly only 10 feet 😄
1:55 I think it has aged very well, I like it better than the post Fox body Mustangs of the 90's. Still glad this didn't replace the Mustsng though, espically with it being FWD.
I had a 90 Gt. It was a fun easy to mod car that I could get into the 14s on street tires with just an exhaust and boost controller. I miss that car. Got 29 mpg to boot.
I'm no fan of Ford, but this car, when it came out, was so futuristic looking. I loved seeing this as a teen. It's so disappointing now to be in the future and have every car looking just about the same, with no one taking any real chances on something new or truly different.
Still looks rad AF in 2020. They are kinda whiny about the tourq steer. That's kinda what happens when you put 190ftlbs in a light weight FWD car. I guess they could turn down the boost if they don't want tourq steer. I call it "unintentional lane change" in my turbo escort.
Antwon Le’wang While I like these, I always thought the second gen Probes were a lot better looking than these ones were. The ugly bubble shape goes to the notoriously hideous ‘96-‘99 Taurus’s.
I rented one of these for a week back in the day, it seemed nice, then I later bought a Mazda 626. It was the same platform as the Probe but its ride and handling made the Probe seem really clunky and heavy in comparison. The Mazda had the same torque steer problem as the Probe but I liked the car better, kept it for 15 years.
At first it was a cracked radiator, I said fine, it could have happened to anyone, then ac compressor locked, fine I could live without ac for awhile, then headgasket blew, okay that cost quite a bit to fix, then clutch went out, ok probably time to replace it anyway then the turbo started making noises and then finally the motor crapped out
One of the best cars that I ever owned. I bought it used when I was a bachelor and I had to trade it in for a minivan when I started a family. I know that it was a long time ago, but I miss that Ford Probe !
Strongest 145hp that comes to mind. The newer Probe I don't think was faster. A great many of us here suspect that they were underrated. 15.3 and a 92 mph quarter and similar numbers from other tests make me believe this is true.
I really liked these cars. But what a “Name”? “I got a Probe!” DID you Now? lol! “Anal Probe?” A neighbor has a black GT like this one. Its been on jack stands for tears. I keep hoping he will fix it.
@@ragingbull94mtx Yeah they were rated only at 145 but all the magazines said it was more like 180 or 190. The rated torque was accurate. Why did Mazda call it only 145hp?
Nissan 240SX Silvia, Honda Prelude, Acura Integra, Toyota Celica, and Toyota MR2 vs Mitsubishi/Dodge Eclipse, Ford/Mazda Probe, Pontiac Sunfire, and Saturn S series.
My friend had one of these in high school. It was black with custom gold lettering down the side with the previous owners name. 😆 It was very fitting of the cars style. The cars power band was interesting with peak torque at 3500 and falling off from there. A really fun and unique car from a car era I will always love for its bizarre and sometimes gaudy styles.
I had a 89 GT. Fantastic car. Definitely felt faster than the 5.0 IROC Z I owned previous to it. HP ratings were severely underrated by Ford. The ridiculous amount of torque steer was my only complaint. All in all a revolutionary car for its time. Absolutely loved it.
Interesting that they mentioned the Camaro IROC-Z as competition but not the actual Mustang this was originally going to replace (before Mustang fans become very vocal and changed Ford's mind). A 1989 Mustang GT MSRP for just 14k base.
Love the simple driving with the manual transmission. So much better than today's 28 speed transmissions or CVT awefulness with "Adaptive Idiot Control", needed because everyone is distracted driving and looking at their phones.
pop up headlights are about the peak of the automotive arc...coolest feature and only came on sport cars..Ford and Mazda excellent partners, Subaru learned that and it really helped them up the quality and strength, though maturing the car a bit, though through promoting an active healthy lifestyle they maitained a youthful appeal, mazda really a innercity crossover suv company aside from the Miata/MX-5.
I had one of these in high school. Gutless below 3000 rpm but could punch above it's weight class above that. It was able to keep up with mid-late 80's era z28's and 5.0's.
Definitely had some Mazda DNA. Not only sharing the platform, engine, and drivetrain with the 626/MX-6, but also the same instrument cluster and controls as the FC RX-7. I actually miss the Ford/Mazda partnership because they actually did make some good cars not only with the Probe/626/MX-6, but also the Mazda Protege/Ford Escort and Mazda6/Ford Fusion.
