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The majority of Mustangs are sold in automatic, V6 form - the opposite of our test model. Folks who buy them this way will be glad to know that the Mustang traded its Ford Taurus V6 for a Ford Ranger V6, which is a little like upgrading your clip-on tie from polyester to silk. If the pressures of price, gas, or insurance make you settle for six, fine. But as Henry might say, a Mustang should have any engine you want, as long as it's a V8.
See that iconic horse on the front grille? 300 more now gallop behind it. That's 40 more ponies than last year and 85 more than when the Mustang first started using overhead cams in 1996. This long-running V8 has sprouted many variants over the years; this is a single-cam, aluminum, 24-valve version with a 6,250 RPM redline (the eight extra valves account for this year's power boost). Displacing the same 4.6 liters as all recent Mustangs, it still sounds like an American V8 - think basso profundo - and goes like one. Dual advantages of horsepower-producing technology and torque-producing size make the Mustang thrilling at high revs and just as fun getting there. Stomp the right pedal in just about any gear and rocket forward.
Wanna race? Just click off the Traction Control and do your worst; 60 MPH arrives in 5.1 seconds, say two sources. Not bad for a car that scores 20 miles on every gallon of cheap 87 octane. Chevy fans might laugh that this is the first Mustang GT that can beat a 93 Camaro Z28, but 5.1 seconds also has the Mustang beating every Z28 in history while still working with 1.1 engine liters tied behind its back. Who's laughing now?
Harnessing all the twist is a beefed-up 5-speed manual (supplied by Tremec, as usual) that conveys its beefiness to your arms. The shifter action is a little heavy and deliberate instead of gliding from gear to gear, it makes crunching noises, and the stiff clutch likes to show your left leg who's boss. Call these traits right or call them wrong, but don't call them out of character with the car. If you don't like it, buy the automatic. With 320 pounds-feet of torque underfoot, it's not like you'll have to worry about dull acceleration. And since the automatic is shared by both Mustangs, that should give you a clue about what it can handle. Hint: expect lots of hot-rodding headroom with the V6.
Basing the new Mustang on the Lincoln LS and Jaguar S-Type platform would seem to punt it right into the new millennium, but the petrified log that still suspends the back wheels (in scientific terms, a live-axle rear suspension) is a knee in the crotch of modern engineering. Ford claims Mustang street racers wanted it this way, but cost-cutting is the obvious suspicion. Is the Mustang doomed to being a graceless jock forever?
Nah. Take the Mustang for a three-hour freeway drive - almost no fatigue. So maybe you can feel bumps, there's some wind and road noise (the engine is at silent as you want it to be), and it starts shaking itself silly above 100 MPH. But at the end of the day, the Mustang honestly isn't that much harder on the senses than a Honda Accord, and this is the GT version we're talking about - 17-inch wheels, rear stabilizer bar, thicker front bar, stiffer shocks and all. Most road tests of pre-2005 Mustangs used "harsh" to describe several aspects of the driving experience. Personally, I can't find a use for the word.
Having a solid bar hold up your back wheels isn't the best formula for handling either, especially when those back wheels are also the powered wheels. Hit some bumps in the middle of a fast turn and the tail will step out. That's fact, not theory, and it will happen to the Mustang under the right circumstances. But since I stayed somewhat close to street-legal speeds, it was hardly an issue for me. The live axle got a full redesign anyway (a new Panhard rod keeps side-to-side movement in check), grip from the tires (now Pirellis instead of Goodyears or Firestones) is forceful, and the Mustang has some decent limits before understeering. It all goes to show how much of the former car's faults were due to its aging bones. With a 53% front weight bias, this is also the best-balanced Mustang ever.
Some say the steering's too quick. I side with the camp that finds it making the Pontiac GTO feel lumbering and slow. To be sure, the Mustang has grown to be a big, heavy car (not far from a Lincoln LS) so the quickness feels strange, but not wrong. There are benefits, like letting you drive fast without having to make hand-over-hand motions. However, it's not very communicative. Until Ford finds a way to put some steering feel into the Mustang (for the first time) and take the weight back down below 3,500 pounds, "muscle car" will remain the most accurate label.
Fans probably don't mind.
No one under 40 was alive when this familiar face first bowed, but that hasn't stopped the new Mustang's immense popularity. Aside from the last-year's wheels, this is a total throwback to the 60s both inside and out. There's a big-diameter, heavy metal-ish steering wheel that looks like it's got no air bag (it does), old-style instruments, and splashes of chrome. The climate controls, radio, door handles, and center console are straight from the Ford parts bin while the vents were stolen from Mazda; none of them feel particularly refined. The speedometer's font is too skinny to read quickly and its off-center spacing lets the steering wheel block it from one of your eyes. And while the console and glovebox have decent pocketroom, the doors can't even hold one road map. The cruise controls are missing a "cancel" button. Get the GT's stunning double-spoke wheels (only $195) but pass on our test car's nauseating red leather.
I was able to get completely comfortable in this all-new Mustang - proof that Ford is learning. The seats recline upright enough for anyone's preference, they adjust for height, and there's max headroom above. A major limitation of the old Mustang was that the ancient stampings of its "Fox" platform screwed up the relationship between seats, steering wheel, shifter, and pedals. All that seems to have been cured, and though you still shouldn't throw anyone you like in the back seat, even that has improved. If legroom is pretty sorry, the seats are at least shaped right, and the ban on humans over 5'6" has been raised to 5'10".
The subwoofer from the Shaker 1000 stereo (whose awesome bass masks its average treble) takes up a quarter-piece chunk of trunk; without it, the Mustang's giant 13.8 cubic feet beats an Accord coupe's. Now you know where that legroom went.
Until the 450-plus-horsepower Ford Shelby GT500 thunders onto the scene in the next year or two, the factory Mustang is a world of two: base (V6) and GT (V8). The base Mustang starts at an inviting $19,840 but it's a $5,800 jump to the $25,640 GT, though the step-up throws in traction control, antilock brakes, 6-way power seat with lumbar adjustment, leather steering wheel, rear spoiler, 17-inch wheels, dual exhaust, and the GT's most distinguishing feature, giant grille-embedded fog lights. Both models are available under Deluxe or Premium sub-trims. To the base model, Premium adds a power seat, Shaker 500 audio (6-disc MP3 CD changer, 8 speakers) and chrome-spinner wheels for $825. To the GT, Premium adds the Shaker 500 plus leather seats for $1,180. Drop-top Mustangs cost $4,725 more on base cars; $4,425 for GTs. The 5-speed automatic is always $995.
You can get leather or side airbags on all models, the not-worth-it $1,295 Shaker 1000 system (10 Audiophile speakers) on most, and add or delete the spoiler. Ford really wants you to buy the $450 Interior Upgrade Package (you can't get side air bags, among other items, without buying this), whose MyColor display which lets you change the color of the instrument cluster 125 ways from Sunday. If all the other neon green displays changed with it, they'd almost have something here.
Mustang production no longer takes place in Dearborn, Michigan, but 20 miles south at the same plant in Flat Rock that has been eroding Mazda's quality record since 1988. This plant also made Ford Probes and the last Mercury Cougar, neither of which held up too well. This scribe has owned three Flat Rock-made cars that all suffered numerous, though superficial, body problems. Something to think about.
With the Camaro and Firebird gone, who does this revitalized pony car have left to beat up on? Common folk point to the Pontiac GTO, but $33,690 for a manual model puts that car $8,050 above a Mustang GT. Furthermore, the GTO is a German-Australian mutant offspring of a Cadillac Catera, a car that had different things in mind besides battling Mustangs. Ford-versus-GM fun aside, this comparison seems forced.
Coming closest is probably the $27,280 Nissan 350Z, whose 287-horsepower V6 is outgunned by the Mustang but offers a better suspension and is smaller and lighter. Mazda RX-8? Slower but revvier, and seems more interested in taking on Honda's S2000 or showing off its one-of-a-kind rotary engine. The only other entrant in this price range is the Subaru Impreza WRX, another beast of a totally different nature: four-wheel-drive, four turbocharged cylinders, four doors, five seats.
We'll just have to call the Mustang a class of one. We'll also have to call it the fastest car under $29,000.
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