Reviews
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First the good news: MOTOR has finally driven an Australian-spec, Australian-delivered 2016 Ford Mustang. The bad news? It’s not the one you or I will be buying.
Yep, our first taste of the latter-day Pony Car was behind the wheel of the 2.3-litre four-cylinder Ecoboost model, not the 5.0-litre V8 version that has created waiting lists of almost a year.
In fact, Ford is holding something like 3000 paid orders for the new ‘Stang, the vast majority – say, nine out of ten – of which will have eight spark-plug leads.
Is he right about that? Well, I’m with him all the way about the Ecoboost ‘Stang being a good thing, but I’m just not sure that anybody in the market for a Mustang will want one without that V8 soundtrack.
Sure, with 233kW (versus 306 for the five-litre) the Ecoboost does the biz, but it will never sound `right’ to a traditional Mustang customer’s ears.
I seem to remember Daihatsu telling the Australian distributor of the day that we couldn’t have any Pyzars unless we took our dose of the hideous little Move within the same shipment.
History, of course, records that we could have done without either of the wretched little Daihatsus, but that’s not the point; the point is that head office will always call the shots.
The inherent balance of a big car with a physically small engine comes through loud and clear and the Stang steers pretty faithfully and doesn’t seem to have any obvious vices.
If anything, though, I reckon the Ecoboost installation in the Falcon was a bit quieter and a tiny bit smoother, although the Mustang version has more herbs when you sink the spurs.
But while I reckon the Ecoboost version was the pick of the FG Falcon variants, the same simply can’t be said of the Mustang, purely because it lacks the theatre and emotion that a badge such as Mustang demands. And I haven’t even driven the damn V8 yet. But that’s hero cars for you.
Specs
Engine: Power: 233kW @ 5600-5700rpm Torque: 432Nm @ 3000rpm Weight: 1577kg 0-100km/h: 5.8sec (claimed) Price: $45,990
