At this point, the Ford Mustang is the last V8-powered muscle car left on the market — fitting given it was the original muscle car. The Chevrolet Camaro exited production a few months ago, and the new Dodge Charger has either straight-six or EV power. So unless you spend big money on something British or German, the Mustang is the only way to go for two-door, V8 power.
Full Disclosure: Ford finally let me get my hands on the new Mustang, dropping one off at my house with a full tank of gas. A week of launches and canyon carving convinced me that even with some flaws, it’s still the best Mustang yet.
This new seventh-generation Mustang, codenamed S650, is a heavy update of the S550 that debuted in 2013. Its design is evolutionary, and the carryover engines have been reworked. EcoBoost Mustangs are still powered by a turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-4, now making 315 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque, but the one you want is the V8-powered GT like what I tested.
Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote V8 now makes 486 hp and 418 lb-ft of torque, an increase of 36 hp and 8 pound-feet of torque over the S550 Mustang. It’s the most power the Mustang GT has ever had — if you need more than that, the new Dark Horse is your ‘Stang. Both engines get mated to either a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic, the latter of which my test car was equipped with.
The downside to all of this is the price. The 2024 Mustang GT starts at $43,555, only a couple grand more than before, but that rises quickly. With options like $1,000 for the Yellow Splash Metallic paint, $1,595 for the 10-speed automatic, the $5,000 Performance Package and a $2,900 High Equipment Group package, this GT cost a Dark Horse–like $65,270.
To some, it may be worth it. Getting to hear one of the best sounding stock exhausts ever on startup is a treat. Don’t worry, it’s not all bark and no bite, either — there’s legit performance here. Using the on-board timer and launch control mode, I slammed the throttle and was able to hit 60 mph in just under four seconds.
Every new Mustang GT is quick, but adding the Performance Package enhances everything else. It includes 19-inch wheels with summer tires, heavy duty front springs, a K-brace and strut tower brace, a larger rear sway bar, a 3.55 axle ratio, a taller rear spoiler, and unique tuning for the chassis, stability control and ABS systems.
The chassis tuning is excellent too. The Mustang stays planted when thrown into a corner, and its Magnaride suspension does a good job of adjusting based on inputs and driving mode. Little touches like an actual mechanical e-brake with a handle and the active valve exhaust make the driving experience even better. Unfortunately, the Mustang is let down by steering feel that’s so dead it may as well be a steer-by-wire system. There’s no communication whatsoever between the wheel and what the front tires are doing. Even changing drive modes doesn’t help; Ford’s engineers seem to think that heavy equals sporty, because the steering weighting is all that changes when you switch between Sport, Sport+ and Track modes.
Another major downside to the Mustang is the interior. Visually it looks modern enough, but it’s not the interior of a $65,000 car. While dash materials in some places are soft to the touch compared to the previous gen, nowhere does the interior match the price tag. Give us real metal or carbon fiber or something, Ford!
The centerpiece of the new interior, and the biggest change over the S550 Mustang, is the massive 13.5-inch touchscreen that dominates the center dash on every trim; upper trims have a unit of the same size paired with a digital gauge cluster. It runs Ford’s latest Sync 4 operating system, which has great graphics and is decently quick when it’s not sputtering out. The system routinely hiccuped when I was using it to do simple tasks like changing the A/C fan speed or trying to switch to Apple CarPlay. It’s made worse by the fact that nearly all controls are buried in this system, as there are hardly any physical buttons for things like the climate control and radio. It’s also annoyingly slow to boot up. On multiple start ups, after the car had been sitting for at least an hour or more, I sat with a timer and found it took nearly two minutes for the whole infotainment system to fully turn on. Hopefully an over-the-air update remedies this.
While the Mustang remains a two-door coupe (you can go get a Mach-E if you want a crossover), and its backseat is still mostly just a throwaway area, its 13.5-cubic-foot trunk is actually decently sized, as I discovered after buying a bunch of pizzas for a school event. I was able to fit 27 large pizzas in the trunk. That should be impressive enough for a J.D. Power award or something.
Even with downsides like the price, an over-reliance on touchscreen controls and lifeless steering, the Ford Mustang is still damn good. It’s up against some tough competition, both new and used, and it’s an endangered species in its segment overall and because of its V8 power. For its newfound rarity and lovely V8 alone, the Mustang is more than worth it.
