2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Remixes a Hit


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

The Mustang stays the one true automotive in Ford’s lineup, the lone holdout in a spread of crossovers and vans. The outgoing era, which Ford known as S550, ran from mannequin years 2015 to 2023. The brand new automotive, S650, is principally the outdated automotive beneath a reasonable makeover. It appears completely different, with a nicer inside, and the brand new sprint screens are sufficiently big to eat Milwaukee. In case you’re uninterested in studying, that is actually all that issues. However you in all probability wish to know extra—the world is all the time interested by a brand new Mustang.

For 2024, Ford’s well-known pony appears sharper and cleaner, besides up entrance, the place it has a mouth like a toothy carp. The bottom automotive, 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 non-obligatory hot-rod pack, which gave it 330. That choice is now lifeless, which stinks. In different smelly information, a 10-speed computerized is now the one transmission, with the six-speed guide axed for the EcoBoost. Boo hiss.

The brand new engine is optimized for effectivity, largely by way of lowered 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 are usually not but public, however final yr they lagged a minimum of 2 mpg behind the coupe’s. As on S550 EcoBoosts, there’s an non-obligatory 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 commonplace), 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 style flyoff, telling the brake software program to immediately lock the rear wheels, which might snap them right into a slide. This function is neat and giggly, and it really works effectively.

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 filled with pixels. There is a 12.4-inch show above the steering column and a 13.2-inch touchscreen over the middle console. The software program interface is clear and largely intuitive, which is good, as a result of the inside holds few bodily buttons. Nonetheless, gross finger smudges and mud collect rapidly, and within the Mustang’s calmly retro cockpit, all of it wears like a cringey toupee.

2024 ford mustang ecoboost

Ford

2024 ford mustang ecoboost

Ford

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 purple Premium-level convertible for a jaunt by close by mountains. The Efficiency pack would have been good there, although the trim we tried is usually extra vital.

The bottom EcoBoost is the amount play, how most Mustang drivers will meet the identify. Like its predecessor, this can be a high quality automotive, in the best way that Chipotle makes a high quality burrito: not nice, not horrible, however adequate, given worth and magnificence. The seats are comfortable and decently supportive. The inside is a pleasant uptick over the outgoing association, with much less arduous 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 suggests it beats the business commonplace.

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 case you get the non-obligatory efficiency exhaust, fill the glovebox with Advil, until you are indulging within the goofy Distant Rev operate that means that you can 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 non-obligatory shift paddles.

Remarkably, for all the above, the tally right here is nice, with a way of sunshine event. Freeway habits 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 possible imply shedding some consolation and mass attraction, 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 beneath the value.

The revised four-banger Mustang is simple to stay with, inexpensive if you happen to squint, and greater than the sum of its components, as base Mustangs have all the time been. Plus, it has that intangible draw, the pull of the unique pony automotive. 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 in all probability makes a number of patrons very blissful. With a reputation like this, that may be all that counts.

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Specs

Specs

2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost

Automobile Kind: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe or convertible

PRICE
Base: Fastback, $32,515; Fastback Premium, $38,040; Convertible, $40,615; Convertible Premium, $43,540

ENGINE
turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port and direct gas injection

Displacement: 138 in3, 2261 cm3

Energy: 315 hp @ 5500 rpm

Torque: 350 lb-ft @ 3000 rpm

TRANSMISSION

10-speed computerized

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 107.0 in

Size: 189.4 in

Width: 75.4 in

Peak: 54.8–55.0 in

Passenger Quantity, F/R: 55/27–30 ft3

Trunk Quantity: 10–13 ft3

Curb Weight (C/D est): 3600–3750 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)

60 mph: 5.0–6.0 sec

1/4-Mile: 13.6–14.5 sec

High Velocity: 121–155 mph

EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)

Mixed/Metropolis/Freeway: 23–26/20–22/27–33 mpg 

Headshot of Sam Smith

Contributing Editor

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

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