2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Remixes a Hit

Not everybody can afford to tick all of the packing containers; some people merely desire a piece of a beloved story. With new Mustangs, meaning EcoBoost: the bottom mannequin and fleet star, the four-cylinder discovered at Hertz counters coast to coast.

The Mustang stays the one true automobile in Ford’s lineup, the lone holdout in a spread of crossovers and vehicles. The outgoing era, which Ford known as S550, ran from mannequin years 2015 to 2023. The brand new automobile, S650, is principally the outdated automobile underneath a average makeover. It seems totally different, with a nicer inside, and the brand new sprint screens are large enough to eat Milwaukee. In the event you’re uninterested in studying, that is actually all that issues. However you most likely need to know extra—the world is all the time interested in a brand new Mustang.

For 2024, Ford’s well-known pony seems sharper and cleaner, besides up entrance, the place it has a mouth like a toothy carp. The bottom automobile, whether or not coupe or convertible, will get a model of Dearborn’s EcoBoost turbo 4—2.3 liters, 315 horsepower at 5500 rpm, 350 lb-ft of torque at 3000 rpm. The outgoing EcoBoost Mustang made 310 horses, until you obtain the elective hot-rod pack, which gave it 330. That possibility is now lifeless, which stinks. In different smelly information, a 10-speed computerized is now the one transmission, with the six-speed handbook axed for the EcoBoost. Boo hiss.

The brand new engine is optimized for effectivity, largely by way of diminished friction and mass. The coupe’s EPA fuel-economy rankings have risen 1 mpg mixed and on the freeway; they’re now 26 mpg mixed, 22 metropolis, and 33 freeway. EPA numbers for the 2024 EcoBoost convertible usually are not but public, however final yr they lagged a minimum of 2 mpg behind the coupe’s. As on S550 EcoBoosts, there’s an elective Efficiency pack. For $3475, you get wider wheels and tires, an engine-bay brace, a Torsen limited-slip differential with a 3.55:1 final-drive ratio (as earlier than, 3.15:1 with a clutch-type restricted slip is normal), MagneRide adaptive dampers, fixed-caliper Brembo brakes, and a “drift stick” hand-brake lever on the middle tunnel.

That lever is a gimmick however enjoyable. In sane driving, the lever gently engages the digital parking brake. Punch a button within the sprint menus and it turns into an old school flyoff, telling the brake software program to immediately lock the rear wheels, which may snap them right into a slide. This characteristic is neat and giggly, and it really works nicely.

About that sprint: Some glass cockpits are simply try-hard, even if you happen to love screens. This one stands proud like a sore thumb stuffed with pixels. There is a 12.4-inch show above the steering column and a 13.2-inch touchscreen above the middle console. The software program interface is clear and largely intuitive, which is sweet, as a result of the inside holds few bodily buttons. Nonetheless, gross finger smudges and mud collect shortly, and within the Mustang’s barely retro cockpit, all of it wears like a cringey toupee.

Ford let journalists strive new EcoBoosts on Los Angeles roads and a easy autocross course. We ran the latter in a Efficiency-package coupe, then took a crimson Premium-level convertible for a jaunt via close by mountains. The Efficiency pack would have been good there, though the trim we tried is usually extra necessary.

The bottom EcoBoost is the amount play, how most Mustang drivers will meet the identify. Like its predecessor, this can be a effective automobile, in the best way that Chipotle makes a effective burrito: not nice, not horrible, however adequate, given the worth and elegance. The seats are snug and decently supportive. The inside is a pleasant uptick over the outgoing association, with much less laborious plastic. Cowl shake is current within the convertible however not annoying. The electronically boosted brakes are slightly grabby at parking speeds, however the electronically assisted energy steering a minimum of suggests load on the entrance tires, which implies it beats the trade normal.

Does a Mustang desire a V-8? Certain, however the inline-four gives first rate and prepared torque, largely within the midrange. Sadly, the 10-speed computerized is perpetually in a rush to shift up, dragging the tach needle down the dial, the place the engine moans and drones. (In the event you get the elective efficiency exhaust, fill the glovebox with Advil, until you are indulging within the goofy Distant Rev operate that permits you to blip the throttle from afar with by way of the important thing fob.) The gearbox has a Low mode however in any other case can’t be shifted manually until you pay for the elective shift paddles.

Remarkably, for all the above, the tally right here is nice, with a way of sunshine event. Freeway conduct is all-day chill however will not put you to sleep. The trade-off is dowdy manners on again roads, the place the physique is managed however floaty. Sharpening these reflexes would probably imply dropping some consolation and mass enchantment, and that is not what base Mustangs are about—not how they discover garages in center America, how they outsell base Camaros and a lot else at or under the worth.

The revised four-banger Mustang is straightforward to dwell with, reasonably priced if you happen to squint, and greater than the sum of its elements, as base Mustangs have all the time been. Plus, it has that intangible draw, the pull of the unique pony automobile. That is no V-8, however proximity to energy is the next-best factor. The EcoBoost nonetheless appears like an attainable chunk of a grand outdated line, and that most likely makes numerous consumers very pleased. With a reputation like this, that could be all that counts.

Contributing Editor

Sam Smith is a contract journalist and former government editor at Street & Monitor. His writing has appeared in Esquire and the New York Instancesand he as soon as drove a Japanese Dajiban round a monitor at velocity whereas being purposely deafened by a recording of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” He lives in Tennessee along with his household, a small assortment of misfit automobiles, and a spaniel who’s frightened of squirrels.