Ford Mustang first impressions

[Grey One]

I was at the Wings & Wheels event today and had the chance to sit in a couple of the new Mustangs.  The good stuff:

- lovely manual gear shift/gate in the V8 I sat in

- the overall look style of the car

Not so good:

- really cheap (typical US) interior, the door cards, steer wheel controls/inserts, seats, switchgear all very low rent

Compared to the quality and fitting of the ISF I'd say there was no competiton.  For me the ace would be a stick shift V8, but only driving one would determine the real differences/benefits over an F.

So on first viewing I'd the ISF is head and shoulders above the Mustang.

Has anyone else driven a Mustang and can make more informed observations than me?

 

 

[Flytvr]

Hope you didn't test its crash rating!!!!

[Big Rat]

41 minutes ago, Grey One said:

I was at the Wings & Wheels event today and had the chance to sit in a couple of the new Mustangs.  The good stuff:

- lovely manual gear shift/gate in the V8 I sat in

- the overall look style of the car

Not so good:

- really cheap (typical US) interior, the door cards, steer wheel controls/inserts, seats, switchgear all very low rent

Compared to the quality and fitting of the ISF I'd say there was no competiton.  For me the ace would be a stick shift V8, but only driving one would determine the real differences/benefits over an F.

So on first viewing I'd the ISF is head and shoulders above the Mustang.

Has anyone else driven a Mustang and can make more informed observations than me?

 

 

@Grey One Nope not driven one but all that I've read on paper and on line pretty much says the same as you, would I buy and run an expensive Ford with my own money absolutely not.

Where as Mrs Rat's 1.0 litre 10 plate Fiesta is great 👍 

Big Rat

[bagpus]

Oh yeah, you definitely don't wanna be in an accident in a mustang. Your knees are officially the crumple zones!!Engine sounds good, interior is s***e! They are cheap for a reason and are not a patch on the 'ol Lecky! 

[J Henderson]

They also seem to have trouble leaving car shows in one piece. [emoji2]

 

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[Grey One]

Interesting feedback, thanks.  I have to say in the reviews I've read I didn't recall the low rent interior being a major criticism, but it is obviously 'out there'.

Maybe in a few years when prices have dropped there will be a few available with top spec interiors as ordered by current owners, we'll see.

Good to see though that the F stacks up so well against a newer competitor...

[Flytvr]

8 hours ago, J Henderson said:

They also seem to have trouble leaving car shows in one piece.

 

 

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Horrified by the state of the red car (no 1 in the top 5)!

[Spacewagon52]

On the subject of crashes - I was horrified by the state of the Minibus crash on the M1.

Interested to know the opinions of peeps here about how "safe" is a minibus based on a van chassis?

I do realise that a crash with two 40ton juggernaughts is not going to be good with any vehicle - but minibuses seem particularly vulnerable?

[Rusty Crobar]

The mustang is about half the price of a new rcf so it's no surprise that the interior and safety equipment is a bit lacking.

I've driven a rental mustang convertible V6 in the states and it was a lot of fun. All controls were nicely weighted and it handled well. I suspect the V8 is a real cracker. I see the appeal of them but they are a big car for UK roads and I'd rather pay extra and stick with Japanese build quality 😊

[Big Rat]

@Rusty Crobar Hey Russ have you got the reg number of the last one you hired so I don't get it when I go, as I'm guessing it's been spanked mercilessly within an inch of its life every nano second of the rental and was returned with less than 8bhp power left in the engine 🤗

Of course being a rental that's only as it should be 😋

🐀

[Odysseus]

The mustang is about half the price of a new rcf so it's no surprise that the interior and safety equipment is a bit lacking.

I've driven a rental mustang convertible V6 in the states and it was a lot of fun. All controls were nicely weighted and it handled well. I suspect the V8 is a real cracker. I see the appeal of them but they are a big car for UK roads and I'd rather pay extra and stick with Japanese build quality [emoji4]

 

I agree entirely. I drove a V6 Mustang for 1,500 miles around Texas and really liked it. It felt a bit cheap inside but that was ok since it's a relatively cheap car in the USA.

 

The UK comparisons between Mustang V8s and stuff like ISFs and M4s stem from the lack of obvious competitors to a relatively cheap powerful rwd sports coupes and saloons in this country. In the US I don't think people assume you'd put a Ford Mustang in the same category as a Lexus ISF or BMW M3 or M4, Mercedes C63, etc.

 

In five years time when there are some used UK Mustangs knocking about (at hopefully bargain prices) I can see myself being tempted, especially given the character and tune-ability of the V8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[MNMJ]

If you are ever in Las Vegas, take a couple of hours for a tour of the Shelby museum and factory. The history is fascinating, they have iconic cars on display and I found myself pondering a Shelby Mustang as a next car. They have also recently opened a site near London which can do any of the Shelby modifications.

I tried to rent a V8 Mustang in Colorado for a ady, but they had none. We had to make do with a V8 Camaro

[Linas.P]

On 8/28/2017 at 6:21 PM, Rusty Crobar said:

The mustang is about half the price of a new rcf so it's no surprise that the interior and safety equipment is a bit lacking.

I've driven a rental mustang convertible V6 in the states and it was a lot of fun. All controls were nicely weighted and it handled well. I suspect the V8 is a real cracker. I see the appeal of them but they are a big car for UK roads and I'd rather pay extra and stick with Japanese build quality 😊

Still it is quite expensive in EU for what it is, for $ 25,000 it is steal in US, but that is exactly the value of the car £20,000 new, nowhere £33,000+ they want. Golf GTi costs more in US than Mustang GT, because that is about the level Ford aims with it... and the level Mustang always been in US culture "pony sports car for youth to drive to college" it is not even considered "proper muscle". Literally, it is the car 17 years old would buy as a first car to do school drive in US..

Mustang not even pretending to be gentlemen GT car as RC-F... I just guess in UK we get the message little bit wrong - again cultural thing where 2.0L car is being called "sports" and Lexus IS is called "large", insurance position etc.