Ford Mustang cars

The style of the car

The Mustang is available as a two-door coupe or convertible. It has a classic sports car shape, with a long bonnet and much shorter back end. It’s sleek and powerful, a real head-turner. The interior looks great, too, with a blend of retro and modern details. The convertible’s fabric roof lowers and raises electrically. The styling was subtly updated in 2018, with some vibrant new colours introduced at the same time.

How it drives

Driving a Mustang is an exciting experience. It’s really fast with the 5.0 engine, though the less powerful 2.3 isn’t slow by any means. The 5.0 produces a pleasantly raucous exhaust noise, too. There are faster cars on a twisty road, but the Mustang is still a lot of fun. Manual and automatic gearboxes are available. Even the manual is easy to drive, but the Mustang is very wide and the view out isn’t great. That can make driving around town and parking difficult. Fortunately, all Mustangs have parking sensors and a rear-view camera to help.

The interior

The Mustang has four seats. The front seats have a lot of headroom and legroom, so even really tall people should be comfortable. There are Isofix mounts for two child seats in the back but there’s really only enough space for small children. The coupe has enough boot space for three medium-size suitcases, the convertible has space for two. All Mustangs have leather seats, climate control, sat nav and support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There are several special edition models, like the Shadow Edition and Bullitt, which have extra equipment and different styling details.

Running costs and reliability

The Mustang has a big enthusiast following so it holds value better than many similar cars. But it’s still very good value, with generous equipment and reasonably low running costs. The 2.3 returns official fuel economy of 31.7mpg and costs just £145 per year to tax. The 5.0 returns 25.7mpg. The Mustang could be costly to insure, though. The 2.3 is in insurance groups 42-45, and the 5.0 is in groups 45-47. Servicing will cost little more than a more mainstream Ford model, and the Mustang is generally very reliable and well made. A Euro NCAP three-star safety rating looks poor, but this is due to the absence of some high-tech driver safety systems rather than a poor crash test performance. Updated cars from 2018 on have a better rating because driver safety systems like lane departure warning were added.

How it compares with similar cars

The Mustang is a similar size to the Audi A5, BMW 4 Series and Mercedes C-Class coupes. All of these rivals are available with a wider choice of engines than the Mustang, including diesels. They’re easier to live with and the BMW is better to drive. But how the Mustang looks and drives creates an exciting experience that the Audi, BMW and Mercedes can’t match and that you might find very appealing.