RE: Ford Mustang GT: Driven

[bridgdav]

Fartgalen said:

RossP said:

I was all for getting one but apparently the back seats are really small

They're small but they're not so bad. A couple of adults can cope with a short journey no problem, as long as they're not too tall.

The rear seats are pretty deep, so the gap between knees and the back of the front seats isn't as bad as it looks.
However, the head room when sitting in he rear isn't great, the fastback screen slopes down toward the boot lid, so expect your passengers to bump their head or leave a nice grease mark for you to wipe off.. Yuk.

The seats are very comfortable, with just the 2 in the back, they have an element of a Bucket seat about them.
Kids up to teens will be fine, 4 full size adults are a problem.

The getting in and out of the back is also somewhat of a challenge. I have the GT Premium, which has both front powered seats, the seat does not move forward when unlatched to access the rear. A real design flaw if you ask me. Maybe on the Non-powered seats they move on the rails. It is a case of powering the seats all the way forward.. But, once again, the GT Premium has 3 seat setting memory, so it's OK.

[DSLiverpool]

So can 1 memory be full front seat slide so you press memory 3 if someone wants in the back, how do they get out.

[bridgdav]

DSLiverpool said:

So can 1 memory be full front seat slide so you press memory 3 if someone wants in the back, how do they get out.

I haven't set mine, but I would assume so. Also, within the owner settings the seat can be moved back automatically to ease getting out, maybe it's the same for getting in the back.

I can check if you like.. But as others have said, it depends what is on the UK spec.

[daz05]

I just did 800 miles in the v6 rental spec. I really liked it, it's better than the car it replaces and I'm sure the v8 will be a hoot. Just a couple of points for anyone who has or is thinking of ordering one. Build quality is lacking in a few areas, door seals were loose, trim was coming loose, hopefully the UK cars are put together a little better. It's also quite large, it's not going to be as sharp as an m3 if that is what you're expecting. Very likeable car though I would have one, I'm just not sure what I would use it for.

It's not a brash car either, lots of positive attention and lots of nice comments everywhere we went.

[FezBob]

Old school thrills....considering we're celebrating 30 years of the BMW M5 and the stats for this mustang are so similar to the M5 E39:

5.0 V8- 4.9 V8
420bhp@ 6500rpm - 394bhp @ 6600rpm
391lb/ft @ 4250rpm - 369lb/ft @ 3800rpm
0-62mph: 4.8s - 4.8s
c1650kg - c1800kg
Manual transmission
RWD

It would be good to see Pistonheads write an article how it compares with a car that been out of production for over 10 years and is regarded as one of our favourite drivers cars.

[Burwood]

daz05 said:

I just did 800 miles in the v6 rental spec. I really liked it, it's better than the car it replaces and I'm sure the v8 will be a hoot. Just a couple of points for anyone who has or is thinking of ordering one. Build quality is lacking in a few areas, door seals were loose, trim was coming loose, hopefully the UK cars are put together a little better. It's also quite large, it's not going to be as sharp as an m3 if that is what you're expecting. Very likeable car though I would have one, I'm just not sure what I would use it for.

It's not a brash car either, lots of positive attention and lots of nice comments everywhere we went.

all good points but it's 33k for a v8. The trim etc will be fine. for 4k buy the supercharger kit developed by Ford/Rausche and you have 627hp.

[unsprung]

daz05 said:

Build quality is lacking in a few areas, door seals were loose, trim was coming loose, hopefully the UK cars are put together a little better.

Your rental Mustang was a rental Mustang. It is unlikely that the 4,729 drivers of said rental Mustang have treated that car with the same care as an individual owner.

1200 Mustangs have been pre-sold for the UK. Meanwhile, in the US, Ford currently sells ten times that number of Mustangs each month.

The entire allotment for the UK will be produced in mere moments. These cars will not be "put together a little better" just because they're being shipped to an uncommonly polite and patient island nation.

daz05 said:

It's also quite large, it's not going to be as sharp as an m3 if that is what you're expecting.

It's the same size as other cars in the UK. See the comparisons elsewhere in this thread.

Additionally, your V6 rental Mustang was not fitted with the optional performance suspension (no V6 rental Mustang is). Yet this upgrade comes standard on all UK Mustangs. Mustangs equipped with this upgrade are indeed "sharp" and will give an M3 a run for its money.

One of the previous Mustangs already ran successfully against an M3. And that Mustang was a live-axle car. Look it up on YouTube.

[Marcodude]

sealtt said:

And in the USA city centres are filled with homeless drug addicts with no access to social or health care. We pay a lot more taxes on things in the UK and that makes up a lot of the price difference - other than the obvious costs of R&D converting a car to RHD, shipping costs, admin costs, etc.

Just be pleased you don't live in Australia or worse Brazil, Russia, etc. Take a look at car prices there!!!

Well talk about a turn up for the books! It's actually cheaper in Australia. Cant quite believe it.

Mustang 2.3 4Cyl Turbo - $44900 - 23,000 pound
Mustang V8 - $53900 - 28,500 pound

[mnk303]

Long overdue, I don't want to hide it if I end up buying one, buy a focus of you want to hide, this is a car that should have come to the UK years ago in RHD.
Bloody excellent

[V88Dicky]

I really like it, and would seriously consider the V8.

But I already have an older heavier and bigger Monaro which I quite like

[5ohmustang]

I love reading about people talking st about Mustangs and other American cars. Surprisingly there is not much of it in this thread.

Mustangs in general are not big, while it drives more like a sports car than a muscle car.

My 2013 has been bullet proof so far, the only issue was a pinion seal leak which was replaced under the extended warranty. There easy to work on, though on the track pack it requires 9 quarts of 5w50 oil full synthetic, not sure how much that is in litres but here it is around $90 to do myself, expensive here as far as oil changes go. Every 20k miles I change the air filter, and oil/filter is around 10k miles depending on how you drive. Thats about it. The only expensive part of mustang life is having a massive aftermarket.

The weakest link of the s550 will be the mt82 transmission, however it is supposed to be much improved over the s97's mt82.

My fuel consumption is around 25mpg in uk mpg. Thats with heavy supersnake rims and 3.73 gears. It can run on either 87 midgrade or 91 premium.

No the engine is not stressed at all. There 700+bhp mustangs running around here with prochargers on factory running gear and no issues.

Yes the brz is sold here but not the toyota version, we have the scion version. A brz is expensive here in the U.S. for what they are. However they are quite popular here.

Ford dealers in the U.S. only warranty the ford racing and the roush superchargers that are fitted by dealers.

As for the homeless drug addicts, there are free charity hospitals, never been to one. Take a look at the UK, town centers filled with unemployed chavs. Same trash.

Mattharper hit the nail on the head, we earn dollars, not pounds. Going to the U.s. for holiday is one thing, but living here earning dollars your money does not go far. Would I ever go back to Manchester? Hell no.

I have an s197 track pack (live axle), I will confidently say it will destroy an m3 on a straight or corners with stock suspension. Europes best is no comparision to modern muscle cars.

[Hellbound]

Burwood said:

all good points but it's 33k for a v8. The trim etc will be fine. for 4k buy the supercharger kit developed by Ford/Rausche and you have 627hp.

THAT is the only reason why I'd look at one. The package is poorly thought out; Fiesta interior space but the size of an S-max, with plastics that are below par. The V8 part is fine, but why stop thinking when it comes to everything behind the A pillar?

However as much as it pains me to admit this, and I'm going to be pilloried on here for it, I'm more excited about the Tesla Model 3. The notion that we could all own a sub 4 second to 60 EV car that can be run off solar energy, with next to no maintenance costs just blows my puny mind. As lovely as a sonorous V8 is (and it ruddy well is, although it's no Ferrari 12cyl!), the techy nerd futurist in me is increasingly finding it all a bit... meh.

Not just meh, but dumb. Like horse and cart dumb. You know that feeling you get when you see a random 'traveler' yob on a wooden cart being pulled along by a dying nag in the daytime on a main road? It's sort of alarming and oldy worldy at the same time right? One day soon we'll all be pootling along enjoying 'the future' when some nonce will turn the corner in a loud, noisy stink bomb of a car that's slow as hell and leaking coolant.

I know, I need to wash my mouth out!

[Burwood]

Even at 40 k it's a steal. I'm sure plenty of outfits here can fit, tune this kit

[Matt Harper]

swerni said:

Burwood said:

daz05 said:

I just did 800 miles in the v6 rental spec. I really liked it, it's better than the car it replaces and I'm sure the v8 will be a hoot. Just a couple of points for anyone who has or is thinking of ordering one. Build quality is lacking in a few areas, door seals were loose, trim was coming loose, hopefully the UK cars are put together a little better. It's also quite large, it's not going to be as sharp as an m3 if that is what you're expecting. Very likeable car though I would have one, I'm just not sure what I would use it for.

It's not a brash car either, lots of positive attention and lots of nice comments everywhere we went.

all good points but it's 33k for a v8. The trim etc will be fine. for 4k buy the supercharger kit developed by Ford/Rausche and you have 627hp.

Assuming you mean Roush, it will cost you circa £6k to buy plus fitting

Nah, that's all bks, you just buy it for a few quid and 'slap it on'.

[PanzerCommander]

daz05 said:

I just did 800 miles in the v6 rental spec. I really liked it, it's better than the car it replaces and I'm sure the v8 will be a hoot. Just a couple of points for anyone who has or is thinking of ordering one. Build quality is lacking in a few areas, door seals were loose, trim was coming loose, hopefully the UK cars are put together a little better. It's also quite large, it's not going to be as sharp as an m3 if that is what you're expecting. Very likeable car though I would have one, I'm just not sure what I would use it for.

It's not a brash car either, lots of positive attention and lots of nice comments everywhere we went.

The bits falling off is just typical rent-a-wreck stuff, I have coming up to 82,000 miles on my 2006GT (60,000 of those were mine) and it has a full racing suspension setup, and poly engine mounts that rattle your fillings out at certain RPMs but I have no loose trim and the rattles are the same as they have been from day one (there are probably a few more here and there due to the extra vibration).

So to those purchasing, or thinking of purchasing or those that bang on about the same Clarksonist American car bashing points (size, fuel economy, handling, build quality) don't worry, it will be a solid car.

[daz05]

unsprung said:

It's the same size as other cars in the UK. See the comparisons elsewhere in this thread.

Additionally, your V6 rental Mustang was not fitted with the optional performance suspension (no V6 rental Mustang is). Yet this upgrade comes standard on all UK Mustangs. Mustangs equipped with this upgrade are indeed "sharp" and will give an M3 a run for its money.

One of the previous Mustangs already ran successfully against an M3. And that Mustang was a live-axle car. Look it up on YouTube.

Very defensive response considering I liked the car, I was very clear that this was a US rental spec and also aware of the differences.

The car in question hadn't been in circulation very long these were quality issues missed at production. I
was hoping that the UK cars will be built a little later and so production processes may be more mature, later builds tend to be better in my experience.

I'm familiar with your comparison and I've driven lots of variants of the older model but i still don't think it will be as sharp having also driven BMWs latest offering, it feels bigger and wider than the e92 I currently pedal, whether or not that is the case in the real world I'm not sure but it feels larger and positioning on our roads may be less than ideal.

[daz05]

PanzerCommander said:

The bits falling off is just typical rent-a-wreck stuff, I have coming up to 82,000 miles on my 2006GT (60,000 of those were mine) and it has a full racing suspension setup, and poly engine mounts that rattle your fillings out at certain RPMs but I have no loose trim and the rattles are the same as they have been from day one (there are probably a few more here and there due to the extra vibration).

So to those purchasing, or thinking of purchasing or those that bang on about the same Clarksonist American car bashing points (size, fuel economy, handling, build quality) don't worry, it will be a solid car.

I felt the previous cars were built way better than this one. The last GT I had was solid in comparison with way more rental usage!

[croyde]

mnk303 said:

Long overdue, I don't want to hide it if I end up buying one, buy a focus of you want to hide, this is a car that should have come to the UK years ago in RHD.
Bloody excellent

That's why I've ordered mine in Orange

[pSynrg]

Subjective, but these things are F-ugly.

Give me a Kia pro_cee'd GT any day!

(Agreed, irrelevant, but so is this eternal chest wig)

[kambites]

Fabulous to see something a bit different finally on the market in the UK. It's far more desirable to me than the M4 or RS5 let alone the German cars that it actually competes with on price.