The Bottom Line: The current Mustang sells itself on nostalgia, but only its V8 possesses a 1960's charm. The rest of the car just feels unpleasantly outdated. Wait for the 2005 model.
I recently attended the Ford Racing Innovation Drive event in Pasadena. It was held at Irwindale Speedway, and was essentially a showcase for Ford's new 2005 models--with the all-new Mustang as a centerpiece. After an awesome afternoon of hands-on contact with the new Mustang, though, I realized I didn't have much experience with the current model. So I went to the local Ford dealership to get a better sense of comparison. I drove two 2004 Mustangs there--a base V6 model, and a V8-powered GT. Both test drives lasted about half an hour and covered city streets, winding secondary roads, and the freeway. Incidentally, if you're interested in reading my 2005 Mustang review, it's available here.
Performance
I drove the base-model Mustang first, and while it felt more powerful than I expected, its 3.8-liter V6 is no charmer. It feels like a truck engine, revving slowly and deliberately, and making huffing, groaning noises as it does so. When you let off the gas to shift gears, the revs hang stubbornly, lending the drivetrain a slow-witted feel. Power is robust at low revs, so the base Mustang pulls away from a stop with surprising urge. But the V6 gets weak and breathless above 3000rpm--there's little point in revving it to its ultra-low 5900rpm redline. Car and Driver says the V6 Mustang will do 0-60 in 8.3 seconds. It feels more responsive than that figure suggests in gentle driving, but significantly slower when you hurry it. "Hey, don't rush me"--that's the attitude here.
The 4.6-liter V8, of course, transforms the character of the car. It's only with the V8 that the Mustang's muscle-car spirit really comes alive, and the engine alone makes the GT a rowdy good time. Its throaty roar permeates the cabin, and it echoes around your ears in hard acceleration. Driving with the windows down is a must--hearing that V8 rumble reflect off guardrails is an intoxicating thrill. In terms of raw power, though, I have mixed feelings about the GT. It's an undeniably quick car--0-60 comes up in about six seconds--but it sounds faster than it feels. Thrust was surprisingly ordinary below 4000rpms, and while the V8 pulled hard in the midrange, it never pinned me back in my seat the way I expected it to. Judging by the seat of my pants, I would have guessed that 0-60 took closer to seven seconds.
The Mustang's underhood refinement--if it's of any concern to buyers--depends greatly on which engine you choose. While the V8 makes a thunderous bellow, it's the kind of noise that's pleasing to the ears, so its volume isn't really an issue. The V6, on the other hand, makes plenty of noise but sounds huffy and strained--not so pleasing to the ears. The V6 also sends knotty vibrations up through the cabin, while the V8 is slightly smoother. The V8 revs much more freely than the slow-witted V6, and fuel economy is surprisingly similar--20/29 for the V6, and 17/25 for the V8. What it all boils down to is that, if you're going to get a current-style Mustang, go all-out and make the price jump to the V8. If you don't, you'll regret it the first time you hear a GT rumble by.
Transmission/Clutch
The current Mustang's shifter is, surprisingly, a bit better than the one in the 2005 version. It's not as loose and mushy-feeling, and it has more crisply-defined gates. But it's far from perfect. For one thing, the lever is oddly angled, jutting out of the console like a bent nail. This makes shifting a bit awkward until you get used to the skew of the H-pattern. And even once you've mastered that, you'll have to deal with the lever's heavy, laborious effort--another truck similarity. The notchy pattern means the gears are easy to find, but the lever's throws are on the long side, and its high-friction feel doesn't allow you to crack off quick shifts. The 2005 Mustang's shifter feels light and mushy compared to this one, but at least it doesn't get in the way of fast driving.
The Mustang's shifter felt identical in the V6 and V8 models, but their clutches felt very different--both were awful, incidentally, but for different reasons. The clutch in the V6 model is well-weighted, but its throw is very long, and its take-up is way at the top of its travel. Since the pedal is positioned way too close to the driver, this makes every gearchange a long-winded, knee-bending exercise. So changing gears isn't a real fun experience here.
It's even less fun in the GT, though, because that clutch requires Soloflex-heavy effort, and quickly becomes tiring for the left leg. Its stiffness also makes the clutch difficult to modulate--I found myself making jerky gearchanges because the pedal was too heavy to operate with precision. I can only imagine what a pain it would be in rush-hour traffic. As consolation, the GT's clutch stroke feels shorter than the V6's, and its engagements are firmer and more precise. Still, given the "dumb-and-dumber" choice of clutch feel, I'm starting to understand why so many Mustang owners drive automatics.
Steering/Handling
The Mustang made a better account of itself than I expected in this area, but it still doesn't live up to its sports-car reputation. The fact is, the current Mustang handles more like a family car than a sports coupe.
The mediocrity begins with the Mustang's steering. Its ratio is slow, path control is vague around center, and its medium-light weighting does little to inspire confidence. I was also bothered by the numbness of the wheel rim--it made me feel disconnected from the road. Interestingly, the V6 Mustang has slightly better steering feel than the sportier GT. The GT's steering has a looser, vaguer sense of straight ahead, and it communicates even less about the road surface. This may have something to do with the V8's increased weight over the nose, or the extra width of the GT's tires. In any case, the current Mustang's steering doesn't suffer much in comparison to that of the new 2005. The 2004's steering is a bit less precise, but it feels more naturally-weighted.
When I hustled the Mustang around turns, it felt heavy, reluctant, and loosely-controlled for a sports coupe. I charged around a couple freeway on-ramps at full tilt, and was surprised by the heavy feeling at turn-in, followed by lots of understeer. The wide tires look like they should supply lots of grip--and they do feel secure when you're running under 6/10ths--but they're overruled by the understeer-prone chassis when you push harder. There's also a fair amount of body lean, and the old-tech suspension feels unsettled in the first inch or so of its travel. Combine all of this with the light, loose-feeling steering, and you have a recipe for discomfort in the corners. The Mustang felt more solid and well-planted than I expected from such an old design, but it still compares poorly with newer, more-modern coupes.
Ride
The current Mustang's ride quality isn't as bad as I'd been led to believe, but it's not great. The problem here isn't the conventional sports-car firmness. Ride motions generally feel mild and gently controlled, and bumps result in neither harshness nor undue body motion. The Mustang's structure even feels reasonably solid for such an old design.
No, the problem here is that the Mustang doesn't feel as tight or integrated as newer cars. When you hit bumps, the steering column jitters, the gearshift wobbles, and the dashboard squeaks and rattles. On rough roads, you can see (and feel) various interior bits buzzing at different frequencies. It's as if every Mustang comes from the factory with 60,000 miles already on it.
Noise levels, as I've mentioned before, are pretty high. Whether its the wheezing of the V6 or the burbling of the V8, the underhood volume knob is always on "10." I personally liked this in the GT. But road noise is also pronounced, wind rush is noticeable at high speeds, and the rattly interior trim is annoying. The Mustang's ride was more solid and comfortable than I expected, but this is not a refined piece of machinery.
Interior
Regardless of my opinions on the Mustang's driving dynamics, I imagine many buyers will forgive it because it "drives like a Mustang." The interior, however, is beyond reproach.
The current Mustang's interior hasn't been redecorated since its 1994 introduction, and it shows. Everything looks and feels like a flashback to the mid-1990s, with lots of generic-looking oval shapes and hard, thin plastics. I'm a bit of a stickler for interior ambiance, so maybe some buyers won't be bothered by this lack of style. The truly faithful may not even mind the brittle, cheap-feeling switchgear, or the mushy action of the column stalks. But these are more than simple cosmetic issues. The steering wheel, for example, has the same wimpy, thin-rimmed feel of that in a five-year-old Taurus. And the small, crowded-looking gauges are way too illegible for a sporting car. In a go-fast kind of machine, you need interfaces that inspire confidence.
You also need a comfortable driving position, and the Mustang bombs on that score too. The pedal layout appears to have been designed for Captain Bluebeard, or some other peg-legged pirate. Why else would the clutch pedal be a full six inches closer to the driver than the accelerator? I moved the seat back and forth in vain, but eventually accepted that you have two choices with the Mustang's driving position--either have the clutch at a comfortable height, and the accelerator buried deep in the footwell, or have the accelerator at a comfortable height, and the clutch jutting into your left leg. I chose the latter, and drove with my left leg bent up off the seat to operate the clutch. The brake pedal is halfway between gas and clutch, neither too close nor too far away, but its distance from the accelerator means heel-and-toeing is out of the question. In an "enthusiast's car?" Please.
The Mustang's seats are also a hindrance to comfort. The leather buckets in the V6 model I drove weren't awful--flat, slippery, and lacking in lateral support, but not awful--but they sat too high off the floor for my tastes. I've always read that the current Mustang makes you feel like you're "sitting on the car, not in it," and that's absolutely true. It gives you a perched-up-high sensation that accentuates the Mustang's body lean and general reluctance in corners. Another thing: to any prospective Mustang owner, I recommend the leather seats as a must, not an extra. The GT that I drove had cloth seats, and they really were awful--foamy, lumpy, unsupportive, and uncomfortable. And this was just a half-hour test drive. Longer trips would necessitate an emergency supply of Advil in the glove compartment.
Finally, I was surprised by the complete lack of quality control in the Mustang's interior. I'm not just talking about cheap materials here, I'm talking about shoddy construction and a general lack of "sweating the details." In the two Mustangs I drove, there were huge variations in panel fit and build quality. The GT had a rattly door panel and loose-feeling column stalks. In the V6, the gap between the glovebox and dashboard was wide enough for the "hidden" trunk-release button to peek through. In both cars, the top half of the dashboard wasn't properly aligned with the bottom half, and both had lots of plastic flashing around the headlight switch and visor mirrors. Newer Fords are making great leaps in quality, but the Mustang shows how far they've had to come.
Practicality
The Mustang has never been known as a practical car, so I wasn't expecting much in this department. But the Mustang's interior is even less efficient with space than I imagined. For example, the rear seat is cramped and uncomfortable, even by sports-coupe standards. It's not very often that I simply do not fit in a coupe's rear seat, but that was the case in Mustang. I couldn't get my knees behind the front seatback, and there wasn't enough room to move them to the side. Headroom was also limited, to say the least--my head was pressed firmly against the rear glass.
Trunk space was also less than I've come to expect in the sports-coupe class. Most of the Mustang's newer rivals use a hatchback design that provides a deep, long cargo bay when the rear seats are folded. Not so in the Mustang. A traditional notchback trunk seriously limits the Mustang's cargo capacity. It's reasonably wide, but so shallow that you'd have a hard time fitting grocery bags in it. I talked to one Mustang owner who said that, when you get a flat, you can't even fit the stricken tire in the trunk. "Gotta keep a towel with you," he said, "because otherwise you get tire crap all over the seats." Food for thought.
Reliability
Here's one of the advantages of a really old design--the manufacturer has had plenty of time to work the bugs out. In spite of all the build quality glitches I noted, the Mustang receives an Average reliability rating from Consumer Reports. Not bad, all things considered.
Overall
I drove these Mustangs to find out just how urgently needed the 2005 redesign was. The answer, or course, is "extremely." The current Mustang's basic chassis architecture dates back to 1978--it uses the same Fox platform that originally underpinned the Ford Fairmont. It's been heavily updated over the years, so I'm not suggesting that the Mustang drives like a wheezy late-'70s sedan. I will, however, argue that the age of this car is instantly obvious, from the trucklike interfaces, to the awkward driving position, to the inefficient use of interior space.
Loyal fans of the car might say "well duh, that's the point," but aside from the GT's roaring V8, the current Mustang is also surprisingly short on '60s-muscle-car character. The interior is awash in generic '90's blandness, making you feel like you're driving a really uncomfortable Taurus on steroids. The exterior styling may turn heads, but there's no sense of occasion inside.
Plus, contrary to the Mustang's reputation, it's not even a standout for cheap speed anymore. For less than the Mustang GT's $23,675 base price, you can get a Dodge SRT-4 that does 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, or--for a little more--a Subaru WRX that does it in 5.4 (both figures courtesy of Car and Driver). The Mustang still offers a lot of go for not much dough, but there are a whole slew of less-expensive cars that are almost as fast, and are much better machines all-around. So the Mustang no longer exceptional in the affordable-performance arena, either.
The real draw here seems to be the tradition of the Mustang badge, and the nostalgia of a rumbling V8 under the hood. But the new 2005 model does the misty-eyes bit far better than the current one. It looks retro, it feels solid and substantial, and it offers the same howling V8 thrills without the flimsy feel. It's also faster, with marginally better handling. So, if you've got the muscle-car bug, I'd strongly recommend waiting for the 2005. It feels like something the designers of the 1960s would have built, had they been given access to the technology of today. The current model, by contrast, possesses very little muscle-car magic beyond its V8 engine.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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