Test Drove a Mustang GT - drive review

[Upacurb]

I'm confused (nothing new here). People drive a Mustang then compare different aspects of a bunch of other vehicles to the Mustang to show areas that it lacks in comparison. If the other car(s) is/are so great why didn't the "reviewers" just they buy one of them? How is the Mustang (or any car) supposed to stack-up against options cherry-picked from a bunch of different vehicles and why is that even relevant. It seems this dumba$$ topic comes up regularly (too regularly IMO). The Mustangs aren't perfect but we aren't paying the kind of money for perfect. We get an iconic car that many can only dream of or can't use because it's a two-seater....hello - sports car? It has an absolutely amazing engine (fantastic technology 12:1 compression ratio best sound anywhere) Mine is super comfortable on long drives etc. etc. etc. My advice if you find the Mustang lacking in some area - either buy it and modify it or don't buy it. Do I sound cranky if I say this is a forum to celebrate our beloved Mustangs not one to rag on them .....and if you don't like them, then just shut up and buy something else and go on that forum? Yeah, I agree with myself - that's probably cranky - but I'm so tired of the frickin' whining.

first time on car forums huh?

come on over to the GT350 forums where we are told weekly our motors will be blowing up in the next week because they are oil burning vibrating junk lol but I guess no one tells us our cars understeer and have no steering feel so all is right in the world? lol

no car is perfect - not even mine lol no problem discussing short comings respectfully which I think OP was....Im more then honest with my own cars short comings (and no I dont think its the motor lol)

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[MAT1955]

@Upacurb ..... I hear you brother! Pretty much nothing is new to me or a first at this time of my life. I admit I do get a bit cranky late at night. I also could have expressed myself better. I probably should have phrased my reply thus: last summer there was a knock at my door. There was a neighbor's 11 year old grand daughter with two friends from England. "Could I take the cover off my car" (my 2024 Mustang GT Premium Convertible) as she wanted to show her friends. In easy sight of my 'stang were Corvette, Porsche, Tesla (a plaid for God's sake), a Charger and an older Viper and her grandfather's BMW 7 AMG. Every one of those vehicles could out perform my Mustang in one way or another. But those little girls didn't care. I took the cover off. Now I don't really like people running their hands over the curves of my cars - hands on the finish - but I bit my tongue as those little girls touched the lines and absorbed its beauty. They took pictures - even of the engine. They took turns sitting behind the wheel to have their pictures taken. They all sat in it as a group. I said, half as a joke, "you want to go for a drive in it?". I've never seen pre-teens move so fast to get permission. Dropped the top. Moved my seat waaaay forward. Wish I had a picture of me at 6'6" with my knees on the dash. Thank God for the new flat bottomed steering wheel or my nut$ would have been crushed ( I know tmi)...Drove around town on a loop. Found a deserted straight away and paddled through a few gears - nothing wild - just about 5K shifts to make it bark. Took them to a Dairy Queen. Listened to their comments - as usual with that age group they talked as if I wasn't there, clearly loved everything about the car. Got back, heard one compare it to a helicopter ride they had the day before - apparently the helicopter ride lost. They all intend to "get a Mustang, some day". My rambling point - a Mustang is waaay more than race inspired front-end caster/camber adjustments, road tracking, steering wheel precision or exactly where the best torque arrives on the rpm line. It is a gut check, visceral feeling of freedom and excitement that Ford somehow captured waaay back when they sold that 1 million units in a year and have IMO maintained ever since, to varying degrees. It's almost impossible to put into words - it's just a feeling of excitement and that "something is about to happen that's gonna be good". Almost every "professional" reviewer mentions something that could be improved but almost all have said it was the most fun they had had in a long time. If you want a track killing perfectly tuned racing beast there are plenty around - if you want that indefinable feeling of adrenaline rush that something great is about to happen when you start a Mustang up - then you get it.

 

[LouG]

So last night, I went an test drove a 2024 GT (and an EB) My impressions, based on the GT
1 - BIG issue - understeer. When entering a turn, it had a lot of understeer. Turned the wheel, front wheels turned, and then half a second later, I got grip and movement. It's not quite as surefooted as I would have liked
2 - lack of torque - t the torque seemed to be lacking in this vehicle, especially at the low end. This EB seemed to have this issue as well. I know that I am spoiled coming from a line of cars that had more torque than HP and most had good bottom end torque, especially my last one that had 450 from 2500 on up and my F350 which has 800 Ft Lbs even lower. I am aware that this engine needs to be wound up to produce power and torque, but even then...it just seemed lacking.
3 - Numb steering - this might be the new system or maybe there was a mode I should have activated, but it did not communicate the road back to me like most of my other cars have. The last car I had that had steering this numb was a Lexus GS. Again, this could be a setting issue

The purely subjective - The two below are just from my preferences. Others (especially here) will probably disagree and that's fine.

just too small for so big a car. Don't get me wrong, the front seat is the perfect size, great seats, good headroom, plenty of room for my feat, but for car that big, it felt smaller on the inside than it should be...like a reverse TARDIS. The trunk opening could be a bit better and that would help out quite a bit

Too loud - it will attract the attention of every police officer in the area, or at least dirty looks from every neighbor, even if you are just using a light foot. For reference, I had a 5.7L boat that did not have mufflers and exhausted above the waterline that I feel was quieter. Combined with the fact that you need to be in the upper part of the rev range to start moving and I start seeing "displays of power" citations. As my wife said, it seems like this vehicle is the Huskey of the car world..."I must sing the song of my people" - FYI, I was on "quiet mode" of the active exhaust. Again, this is a preference I have, but I can see why some people woudl love it.

Now, it did have a number of very good things

• The suspension was firm, but not punishing. The sway bars kept it flat in the turns when it wasn't understeering. I could probably travel 3-4 hours in this car without having issues, but I am not sure a 12 hour drive would be feasible
• The accelerator had good travel and communicated where I was
• Transmission shifted quickly, but without jolting like some other "sport" automatics. It also downshifted to get into the proper rev range extremely fast without a lot of "gear hunting"
• As I noted above, the driver and front passenger had lots of room up front. Hips, feet, head room were all great
• Cockpit like interior. Driver controls are oriented towards you and makes it easy to check while still driving and paying attention to the road. It does lack a heads up display when I find extremely useful though.
• Touch screen layout - While it's different the mechanical switches and buttons I am used to, I feel like it was designed by someone who knew about cars instead of a computer engineer just designing another interface. Of all the "touch screen layouts", this one ranks number 1 or 2 IMO.
• Seats were good and supportive (leather), and felt good to sit in. While I miss a power recline and some other adjustments, I feel the inclusion of a mechanical recline to keep weight down a bit was the right call.
• for all the lack of communication back to the driver, the steering was still very precise and did not feel floaty. I felt the wheels turned when I turned the wheel, it was just missing that feedback of a mechanical connection.
• The steering wheel itself is probably the best one I have used in my test drives, and I've driven about 15 vehicles over the past 2 weeks.

It may be a personal thing, but I don't feel that it understeers to any great degree. bearing in mind that our roads a generally narrower, slower and twistier than in the US.
I have a favourite stretch of road crossing the Kaimai range south of the city, very smooth, very twisty and an awesome testing ground on a bike (traffic permitting). My GT had way less understeer and sharper response than my last car, a Cupra Ateca LE. That's a VW Tiguan R in the US but with better wheels, tyres, brakes and suspension set up.
For the GT's size and weight, I don't think it gives away too much to my Toyota GT86

 

[GrabberB]

OP - Any vehicle can exhibit "understeer" to a certain degree in certain situations. Yes, this can run the gamut from minor to major. This happens in every NASCAR race on every track. They don't call it understeer they call it "Tight". I'm referencing NASCAR vs. another form of Motorsports due to the weight of a "Cup" car and the fact there is a V8 engine residing in the front. Cup car is about 500-600 lbs. lighter (w/driver) than a 24' Mustang however it's still heavy in context i.e., race car.

I think the expectation you set may be to high for heavy front engine V8 car. You basically stated a complaint that is heard on radio "chatter" every weekend in NASCAR. Those cars are setup to do one thing and they still struggle to find perfection. As a matter of fact, many times they're far from perfect. Half a million dollar car far from perfect - How can that be?

 

[Stonehauler]

OP - Any vehicle can exhibit "understeer" to a certain degree in certain situations. Yes, this can run the gamut from minor to major. This happens in every NASCAR race on every track. They don't call it understeer they call it "Tight". I'm referencing NASCAR vs. another form of Motorsports due to the weight of a "Cup" car and the fact there is a V8 engine residing in the front. Cup car is about 500-600 lbs. lighter (w/driver) than a 24' Mustang however it's still heavy in context i.e., race car.

I think the expectation you set may be to high for heavy front engine V8 car. You basically stated a complaint that is heard on radio "chatter" every weekend in NASCAR. Those cars are setup to do one thing and they still struggle to find perfection. As a matter of fact, many times they're far from perfect. Half a million dollar car far from perfect - How can that be?

My car history - 72 thunderbird, 81 LeSabre (with the olds diesel), 85 Toyota Cressida (only 6 cylinder), 97 Thunderbird with the 4.6, Lexus GS430, BMW 550...only one had a 6, every other one was with a heavy V8 engine sitting in front. Here is the thing, you can create a balanced car with no under or oversteer with a V8, you just have to want to.

 

[Jim Bob]

My car history - 72 thunderbird, 81 LeSabre (with the olds diesel), 85 Toyota Cressida (only 6 cylinder), 97 Thunderbird with the 4.6, Lexus GS430, BMW 550...only one had a 6, every other one was with a heavy V8 engine sitting in front. Here is the thing, you can create a balanced car with no under or oversteer with a V8, you just have to want to.

Agreed. That's why God created swaybars and adjustable shocks. Want to loosen up a car...fit a bigger front swaybar. Most modern streetcars are set up by their chassis and handling engineers to understeer a bit for safety reasons...manufacturers don't want their new cars swapping ends in the corners when enthusiastically driven by inexperienced drivers. A little plowing is the trade-off for a bit of forgiveness in handling.

 

[Stonehauler]

Agreed. That's why God created swaybars and adjustable shocks. Want to loosen up a car...fit a bigger front swaybar. Most modern streetcars are set up by their chassis and handling engineers to understeer a bit for safety reasons...manufacturers don't want their new cars swapping ends in the corners when enthusiastically driven by inexperienced drivers. A little plowing is the trade-off for a bit of forgiveness in handling.

And maybe that’s why. I am sure many have seen the memes about mustangs doing what mustangs do, with seeing a mustang spinning out, rear tires smoking as some idiot pulls out of a street at full throttle, crashing their car and wrecking it…by setting it up for understeer, maybe they are hoping it will be easier for less talented drivers like me to control.

 

[young at heart]

Agreed. That's why God created swaybars and adjustable shocks. Want to loosen up a car...fit a bigger front swaybar. Most modern streetcars are set up by their chassis and handling engineers to understeer a bit for safety reasons...manufacturers don't want their new cars swapping ends in the corners when enthusiastically driven by inexperienced drivers. A little plowing is the trade-off for a bit of forgiveness in handling.

Likewise for staggered tire setups.

These are big reasons why over the last period of time I’ve kinda changed philosophies about mods. I try to buy the most car I’m likely to be able to use going in then leave it alone. I may be smarter than a fifth grader but I’m not smarter than a Ford engineer. And besides I’d like to meet the guy who legitimately runs out of grip on the street (where I play) in a HP Dark Horse. Hint: it ain’t happening, or at least I’d require proof that it had.

 

[BoostRabbitGT]

I try to buy the most car I’m likely to be able to use going in then leave it alone.

I like this mindset, it's the one I intend to have if I ever upgrade to a GT/Mach-4 (if they make that one).

(Tangent: I wonder if there are people who buy supercars/hypercars as their daily driver or solely because they enjoy the drive, and not just for the power/status symbol affirmations...)

 

[young at heart]

I like this mindset, it's the one I intend to have if I ever upgrade to a GT/Mach-4 (if they make that one).

(Tangent: I wonder if there are people who buy supercars/hypercars as their daily driver or solely because they enjoy the drive, and not just for the power/status symbol affirmations...)

Of course that has a lot to do with it.

How many folks (myself included)can even use all that a GT, Mach 1 or DH has to offer, much less a supercar?

 

[LouG]

One of the things that made me take a long look at a Mustang was a review by a Dutch guy on Autotop NL. He drives all sorts of exotica, and loved the Mustang because it was fun. He thought too many cars are just so good they're not that much fun for normal drivers on normal roads
So I drove a demo and was sold. It's not perfect, but it makes me feel like a teenager again.
It also helped that it was $10K less than the car I thought I wanted.
It's a performance bargain down here.

 

[Dave2013M3]

I had a similar experience with my test drive of an S650 GT manual. My current car at the time a 2020 S550 with the Ford Performance Power kit, full catback to include a Borla Switchfire and FP by Borla muffles and a set of 4.09 gears. Not to mention lighter wheels and tires and brake rotors freeing up some 70lbs of rotational mass. The S650 felt lethargic compared to my S550. Also in the handling department where my S550 had a FP Trackkit along with 19X10 and 19X11 wheels with 285/305 rubber. So I knew when test driving the S650 that it would be at a disadvantage. Then it hit me I am going to have to put $6-7K into this already getting expensive car to get it where I want it. I passed and moved on.

 

[BoostRabbitGT]

Of course that has a lot to do with it.

How many folks (myself included)can even use all that a GT, Mach 1 or DH has to offer, much less a supercar?

I certainly don't use all my EcoBoosts power, but I prefer having more than sufficient power getting onto and passing cars on the highway than straining every last drop of HP just to do either one of those two tasks.

I just asked that question because the closest I've seen to it was a GT350 doing a grocery run at Costco. I would love to see that with something more exotic, you know?

 

[Upacurb]

I certainly don't use all my EcoBoosts power, but I prefer having more than sufficient power getting onto and passing cars on the highway than straining every last drop of HP just to do either one of those two tasks.

I just asked that question because the closest I've seen to it was a GT350 doing a grocery run at Costco. I would love to see that with something more exotic, you know?

Here you go.....one of my buddies neighbors - 50K miles on this Ford GT when he sold it and he has an 04 Ford GT with well over 100K miles on it (he replaced the one he sold with a new one)

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2017-ford-gt-8/

My buddy just sold his 19 NSK with almost 20K miles on it and averages about 5-6K miles a year on his Huracan Tecnica and another 4K a year on his NSX Type S

I drive my R all over the place- but there is a guy on the 350 forums with an 18 supercharged R with over 70K miles on it

Im only at like 17K miles on my R

Edit - from the seller of the Ford GT on the auction.....

This is a driver’s car. it was my 80% good weather daily driver. the other 20% driver is my 140,000 miles 2005 Ford GT. My 110 mile weekday round trip commute is mostly highway driving. Looking at the trip computer picture, the last 5000 miles was basically commuting, at 20+ miles per gallon!

 

[IFFV68]

So last night, I went an test drove a 2024 GT (and an EB) My impressions, based on the GT
1 - BIG issue - understeer. When entering a turn, it had a lot of understeer. Turned the wheel, front wheels turned, and then half a second later, I got grip and movement. It's not quite as surefooted as I would have liked
2 - lack of torque - t the torque seemed to be lacking in this vehicle, especially at the low end. This EB seemed to have this issue as well. I know that I am spoiled coming from a line of cars that had more torque than HP and most had good bottom end torque, especially my last one that had 450 from 2500 on up and my F350 which has 800 Ft Lbs even lower. I am aware that this engine needs to be wound up to produce power and torque, but even then...it just seemed lacking.
3 - Numb steering - this might be the new system or maybe there was a mode I should have activated, but it did not communicate the road back to me like most of my other cars have. The last car I had that had steering this numb was a Lexus GS. Again, this could be a setting issue

The purely subjective - The two below are just from my preferences. Others (especially here) will probably disagree and that's fine.

just too small for so big a car. Don't get me wrong, the front seat is the perfect size, great seats, good headroom, plenty of room for my feat, but for car that big, it felt smaller on the inside than it should be...like a reverse TARDIS. The trunk opening could be a bit better and that would help out quite a bit

Too loud - it will attract the attention of every police officer in the area, or at least dirty looks from every neighbor, even if you are just using a light foot. For reference, I had a 5.7L boat that did not have mufflers and exhausted above the waterline that I feel was quieter. Combined with the fact that you need to be in the upper part of the rev range to start moving and I start seeing "displays of power" citations. As my wife said, it seems like this vehicle is the Huskey of the car world..."I must sing the song of my people" - FYI, I was on "quiet mode" of the active exhaust. Again, this is a preference I have, but I can see why some people woudl love it.

Now, it did have a number of very good things

• The suspension was firm, but not punishing. The sway bars kept it flat in the turns when it wasn't understeering. I could probably travel 3-4 hours in this car without having issues, but I am not sure a 12 hour drive would be feasible
• The accelerator had good travel and communicated where I was
• Transmission shifted quickly, but without jolting like some other "sport" automatics. It also downshifted to get into the proper rev range extremely fast without a lot of "gear hunting"
• As I noted above, the driver and front passenger had lots of room up front. Hips, feet, head room were all great
• Cockpit like interior. Driver controls are oriented towards you and makes it easy to check while still driving and paying attention to the road. It does lack a heads up display when I find extremely useful though.
• Touch screen layout - While it's different the mechanical switches and buttons I am used to, I feel like it was designed by someone who knew about cars instead of a computer engineer just designing another interface. Of all the "touch screen layouts", this one ranks number 1 or 2 IMO.
• Seats were good and supportive (leather), and felt good to sit in. While I miss a power recline and some other adjustments, I feel the inclusion of a mechanical recline to keep weight down a bit was the right call.
• for all the lack of communication back to the driver, the steering was still very precise and did not feel floaty. I felt the wheels turned when I turned the wheel, it was just missing that feedback of a mechanical connection.
• The steering wheel itself is probably the best one I have used in my test drives, and I've driven about 15 vehicles over the past 2 weeks.

Lack of torque is by design.
They don’t want some young kid to punch it & get killed.
Did your test drive the GT Mustang include 315 gears, 355 gears, or 373 gears?
My 2020 F150 Limited ,450 horse, 510 pounds of torque has 355 gears and I believe Off the Line It will take my 2024 GT Mustang with 315 gears . But after 107 miles an hour the governor will turn the big Limited off & restart.
i’ve never had it over 90 something but my 2014 F150 Lariat would turn off after 107 miles an hour , driving to Vegas. Then it would restart
The GT Mustang is governor to 155 miles an hour!
The Dark Horse is something like 168 mph.
You mentioned you have test driven about 15 vehicles over the last two weeks.
Number 16 should be a School Bus.
They’re very roomy. Seats are very large.
Just Kidding.

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