The 2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Is A Lively Turbocharged American Pony Car Icon

When I think of an American muscle car, it doesn't get much more iconic than a Ford Mustang. This nameplate has been in the U.S. since 1965, and over the past nearly 60 years, the Mustang has drawn a very loyal base of enthusiasts looking to get into an American sports car at a more affordable price. Now for 2024, we are finally seeing an all-new seven-generation Mustang introduced. It's now known internally as the S650, and while some enthusiasts may bemoan of the fact that this is really just a heavy refresh of the previous generation, the fact of the matter is the Mustang remains the last gas-powered muscle car that you can buy from the Detroit Big 3. So this week, as you can see, Ford has loaned us this 2024 Mustang EcoBoost with the performance package and the big question I want answered. For those of you who are looking to buy an affordable American-made sports car, has Ford made enough changes to the all-new seventh-generation Mustang to keep people flocking to dealerships? Stay tuned to find out. So before we start talking about the exterior styling changes that Ford has made for 2024, I thought I'd pop the hood and remind you guys what's powering this thing. This is a Mustang, and you can take your pick between two different engine options, a V8 or this base engine which is a 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. Now if you guys are familiar with the Ford engine family, you'll know this engine quite well. It's basically an updated version of the company's tried and true 2.3-liter gasoline direct injection turbocharged EcoBoost four-cylinder. It now makes a little more power this year, up five horses to 315 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque. The torque output did increase pretty significantly. I think it's like another 25 more foot-pounds of torque compared to the previous generation. Ford says they have updated the internals. They've also put in a new twin-scroll turbocharger, pumping in more boost. I believe the max boost pressure for this engine is a little over 20 psi. That is my estimate. I couldn't find the actual max numbers from Ford, so I'll have to double check that at a later date. It all goes out through a one-choice only. It's a 10-speed automatic transmission. It has been revised, of course, for 2024. You used to be able to get the EcoBoost with a six-speed manual. Sadly, Ford has discontinued that, and you can only get it with the GT with the 5-liter V8, which I'll have to save the V8 for a different review whenever Ford decides to send me a GT or a dark horse, which I haven't had a chance to drive yet. Fuel economy for the EcoBoost Mustang is rated at up to 22 in the city, 33 on the highway. This model here with the performance package, however, does drop the MPG to 21 at 29. This has roughly a 16-gallon fuel tank, so you'll get roughly 350 miles of range on a full tank. That is on premium gas recommended. This vehicle with the performance pack should have a top speed of around 130 miles an hour, which is pretty decently quick. I think the top speed of the other Mustangs like the GT can get up to 155 miles an hour. The company doesn't claim a zero to 60 time, but as you can see, it is wet today, so I'm going to have to save the driving day for a drier day to see if we can get a more decent time. The last time I tested one in California, I got 5.9 seconds. I've seen the magazine say as quick as 4.5, which I think is a little too far-fetched. In terms of the curb weight, this new Mustang is a little bit heavier versus the previous generation. As this one sits, it weighs in at around 3,800 pounds. But let's go ahead and close up this hood, which I like how it's held up by a strut as opposed to a prop rod, and take a look at the exterior styling. Now, this exterior color that I'm showing you is called Race Red. This is actually a free color. Ford also offers a different, darker metallic red for an extra 500 bucks. But you can see my EcoBoost model has the premium package. That's an extra $5,500. The EcoBoost Mustangs have a slightly different front fascia versus the GT. But you can see here, all versions of the Mustang come standard with their full triple beam style LEDs, which I kind of stole that from Lexus. But you can see it's got sequential LED turn signals, LED daytime running lights, no fog lights on the vehicle. But you can see the EcoBoost's front end is slightly different, less aggressive. I don't like how this is not like a gloss black accent in the grille. You can get that, I believe, on the GTs, where it has like a different grille insert entirely. You can see it's got the running horse logo there. There's kind of an LED accent light there and over there that also acts as the turn signal. And then down here you can see there are some functional air intake openings. And overall, the front end of the EcoBoost definitely looks a little bit too rental car spec to me. The GT, I think, has a much better looking front end. So I suspect maybe some owners will swap out the EcoBoost front end for the GT front end, depending on if you guys prefer the look of it. But as you can see, moving around the side profile of the vehicle, this has the classic proportions of a Mustang, where it has a very long front nose area to make room for the V8. This is a rear drive architecture. It's still built on the same S550 chassis, but Ford did say they updated some of the mounting points, the suspension, the steering rack, for example. But at 107.7 inches long for the wheelbase, that remains the same. It's now 189.4 inches long, so this is around an inch longer than the previous generation and about a half an inch wider. So again, the basic proportions are the same. You can see my test car with the performance package includes these gunmetal gray finish 19-inch alloy wheels. I love the double five-spoke design to it, which I think looks good. You also have upgraded brakes. These are 15.3-inch rotors at the front. That's nearly three inches larger than the standard brakes. You also get what looks like a six-piston Brembo caliper that's painted red. That's an extra $500. The rear rotors measure just under 14 inches. Again, that's about an inch and a half bigger versus a non-performance package. The suspension, my test car also has the adaptive dampers. This vehicle still has an all-independent suspension that Ford introduced back in 2015. So you have an independent rear, unlike the earlier renditions of the Mustang. You can see the mirrors. They look pretty basic. They are supposed to have an integrated turn signal indicator, but because my test car has the Recaro seats, it deletes that along with the memory. Sadly, you still can't get the Mustang with a sunroof. I kind of wish that Ford would offer that. But as you can see, backing up from this area, some people have said that this new Mustang kind of reminds them of a Camaro. Again, all muscle cars kind of have a similar silhouette, so I'm not surprised there. The rear of the car is definitely a point of controversy, especially when you look at the rear decklid area. You can see it almost looks like a karate chop was made to the actual rear where it has that kind of three-dimensional look to the taillights. You can see they are still that triple LED design where you have a sequential LED turn signal, which is nice. The rear decklid spoiler, that's included on the coupe versions. When you go for the performance package, I much prefer the look of this car with the high wing at the back. Again, it looks a little bit basic. My test car does, however, have the Ford active exhaust system. And when you get the active exhaust, it also rolls in the remote rev feature. And I'll go ahead and fire it up and show you guys how the remote rev works. But as you guys saw, you can do it from the key fob just by hitting those buttons and it will rev it up to around 5,500 RPM. The EcoBoost engine actually sounds pretty good from the back, but again, you can only get that remote rev feature if you go for the performance exhaust system. Now, looking at the cargo area, you can see this is still just a traditional trunk. The Mustang is a two-door and it has a pretty decent-sized trunk, especially if you're going to compare it to something like the Toyota Supra. This has around 13.5 cubic feet. You can see the seats do fold down in a 60-40, or I'm sorry, a 50-50 manner. At the rear area, you can see you have a subwoofer back here for the Bang & Olufsen stereo. Underneath the floor here, there is no spare. You just get a fix-a-flat kit and an inflator kit, which is a little disappointing. But the cargo area is certainly very useful. But remember, Dodge does have a new Challenger coming out later this year. That's to wait until sometime in the summer of 2025. So now that we've talked about the exterior of the new Ford Mustang, let's go ahead and hop into the interior and talk about all the changes that Ford has made. Before we get inside, however, as I stand here and get rained on, let's go ahead and take a look at the key fob. You can see this is the Intelligent Access key that comes standard on every version of the Mustang. This is an older Ford fob. You can see it's got the usual unlock, lock, remote start, pop open the trunk, and panic function. The key fob itself has the running horse on there to let you know you have a Mustang. And if you want to activate the remote rev, you have to hit the remote, start the vehicle, and then wait about a minute and a half to actually hit the unlock, then the lock button. That'll activate the remote rev function. It's just, I guess, computer software to let the engine know that it's warmed up, to let the computer know it's warmed up. Now you can see the door handle is traditional. It pulls out the traditional way. It has a walk-away auto lock feature. When you want to unlock the door, you just come up to the door handle and touch the back. That'll unlock the door for you. Now, my test vehicle has the optional for $2,000 Recaro bucket seats. These are also colored in space gray with the two-tone look. This is technically a leather material, I believe. You do lose the heat and ventilation function and the power seat with memory function if you guys go for the Recaro seats. These seats, they definitely look impressive. They hold you in place nicely, but I personally would skip them, save myself $2,000 and just go for the standard bucket seats because I don't want to lose the heat and ventilation function. You don't even get heat with this Recaro seat, which is annoying because you do have perforations here for heat and cool feature. So I just wish that Ford would have kept that feature. It would have made me want to add the Recaro seats if they did. Now, looking at the door panel material, my test car has the 201A upgrade package. So it has the Premier group with the upgraded interior trim with the leather stitching. You can see the door panel has a soft touch injection molded plastic here. You have aluminum accents on the door handles as well, along with carbon fiber accents. However, I believe that they, I believe these are real, but they actually look more fake and plastically to me. So I don't love that. Contrasting stitching here, nice and padded here. And you have some more silver painted accent trim. And then you also get the 12 speaker Bang & Olufsen stereo. When you guys go for the 201A upgrade package, it's kind of worth it for an extra $2,000 along with the illuminated Mustang side sill as you enter the vehicle. Now getting inside, you can see the Mustang still has kind of a low step in height that requires you to duck your head. As I shut the door, the door, I will say, doesn't have the most solid sounding thunk. It sounds a little rattly. It just doesn't have a satisfying close noise when I close the door. Now starting the vehicle up, you can see start, stop button is located right here on the dash, on the lower part of the dash. And then when you turn the vehicle on, you can hear it has the updated Ford chime. There's no hybrid or mild hybrid. So it has a traditional starter noise. And then the vehicle will kind of default to it's either quiet setting in the exhaust if you have it set to that or the normal setting. If I switch the drive mode here, you can see it shows the nice little graphic, a video game graphic of what drive mode you're going into, which I love the way these look. Again, Ford actually partnered with NVIDIA, I believe, to actually get some of the graphics in here. And then in track mode, it actually has a really nice sound, but I will say that it sounds augmented inside the cabin. On the outside, it sounds a little bit more authentic and it just sounds a little bit throatier and just, you know, very unexpected given that this is again, a four cylinder. So I like the way that the engine sounds more so on the outside versus on the inside, but looking at the rest of the interior, you can see the cockpit layout, the twin cowl layout of the previous generation that has been replaced. That's a point of controversy again, with a lot of Mustang enthusiasts because a lot of people really prefer that look, but Ford had to go away with it if they wanted to introduce some modern screens. So if you guys go for the premium model that I'm showing you here for an extra 5,500 bucks, you basically get two displays that have a connection piece right here that makes it look like one continuous display, even though they are two separate ones. So you have a 12.4 inch display here in the instrument panel, and then you have a 13.2 inch display here in the center stack. This runs the latest version of SYNC 4, although it's not their Ford digital experience system that we've seen in the new Lincoln Aviator or Ford Explorer, for example. I was hoping that Ford would have introduced that as well, but perhaps they'll do that in the next model years through a software update and whatnot. But you can see there's my phone connected to the Apple CarPlay. If you want, I can also push that little button there. It'll take up the entire display, which looks fantastic. This is a huge upgrade versus the old S550 Mustang. So that's something to keep in mind. In terms of the material quality, you can see on the upper portion here, it is a soft touch injection molded plastic. You have more of that carbon fiber trim, although again, it looks plastic, but I believe it's real. You also have some leather with contrasting stitching along with the carbon fiber here and the badging. That all looks very nice. Again, that's all part of the Premier interior trim upgrade that you get with the 201A upgrade package. The steering wheel also gets upgraded with some more bright trim. I love the flat bottom look. You have paddles on the wheel to control the 10-speed auto. You have a manual tilt and telescoping adjustment for the wheel, along with some newer controls for the cruise control for your audio controls, the horn. It sounds what I expect, nondescript, but at least it doesn't sound puny. It sounds appropriate given the size of the vehicle. And then down over here, you can see you have these actual buttons, which they do have a panel that moves when you hit that. You can see if I push the pony button, it allows you to go to your My Mustang mode, where you can customize things like your track apps, your auxiliary gauges, your custom mode, your My Color. That's how you access the ambient lighting. Ford still allows you to basically change the color of the gauge font and the actual color in the screen here, along with the ambient lighting at night for this interior, which looks pretty good at night as well. Ford does a really good job with that. So if you guys want the My Color feature, you have to again spend that three grand to get the 201A upgrade package on the EcoBoost. The cluster theme, you can also, I have it set to match the drive mode. You can also just put it into a normal setting. That's what it looks like in normal. Again, I have the gauge color changed. That's what it's supposed to default to look like. Sport kind of gives you a different look to the gauge display, which also looks pretty cool. Track gives you the tack front and center, which is what you expect. There's also a calm screen. If you guys have too much information overload, you can kind of go to that. And then some people really like this, the fox body screen, which literally looks like, again, a Mustang gauge display from the 80s to early 90s. I personally just prefer it in the match my drive mode. I love the way it looks and how it completely customizes and changes based on your drive modes or based on the color you have it set to. So again, I love the fact that Ford is doing that. You can also go into here and change the exhaust mode. If you'd like put on the track exhaust mode there, you can also go to a normal. And then there's also the quiet exhaust, which really makes a big difference in quiet. You really don't hear much aside from the, you know, fake engine noise that you get playing through the speakers and whatnot. You can see down here, you can find your climate control setting. There's your dual zone climate control. You can also push that and go into your full climate setting. Again, my test car still has thankfully a heated steering wheel, which is included as part of the premium premier package. That's via a button over here, but you lose the heated seat function, which I really find to be annoying just because you, you know, spec in the Recaro seats. This is the embedded Ford GPS, which is fine. It works just fine. It's not super, you know, impressive in terms of the graphics. Most of you are probably going to use the CarPlay function anyways. If you go into the features here, this allows you to adjust your driver assistance. Go back to the Mustang mode here. If you want, there's your start stop defeat button, stability control off button. There's a favorites button here. And then your drive mode selector is located here on the steering wall next to all the cruise control controls. You can see you have a volume knob here, which is nice. And if I put the vehicle into reverse, you can see there's your backup camera with your trajectory and distance markers. You have front and rear parking sensors. And that, again, that quality of the screen looks pretty good. So I think people are going to be impressed with that. I think Ford mates, again, some pretty key upgrades to improve everything here. Really, in all honesty, I like the way Sync 4 looks, especially when you have it connected to the CarPlay, for example, especially when you can do that full screen. But I did notice at times, as you can see, as I cycle between different modes and menus, it is a little bit laggy and slow. And there was a couple of times where it froze completely and had to reset itself. So that's something to keep in mind. Ford, again, has a newer system in the Explorer. I would like to see Ford eventually add that here for the new Mustang. Down here, you can see there's a wireless phone charging pad. My iPhone 14 Pro Max fits nicely there. You have a 10-speed auto here. This shifter looks like it was pulled directly out of the S550 Mustang. You also have, of course, their drift brake here. This is included with the package. It looks like a traditional handbrake. If I pull up on it, that basically allows you to put the parking brake up. If I push down, that's where I want to actually put the parking brake down. Again, it's just electronic. It returns back to center. And then when you have it in its drift mode, where you can go into basically the drift function here in the My Mustang mode, that allows you to go into the track app here. That's where you can activate the drift brake, the line lock. That's where you can basically pull up on this and allow the rear wheels to lock, where you can actually get the rear to lock up and do some drifting and some slides. I had a chance to drive that or try that out in California. Watch my video in the link in the description below if you want to see how that works. You can see this area here also gets covered in leather. It's stitched, contrasting stitching. You can also see there's a nice center console area here where you'll find a 12-volt power outlet. Your two USB charging ports are here, as you can see, which is nice, along with the wireless charging pad. The seats for these Recaro seats, they do hold you in place nicely and the leather feels really high quality. I love the space gray look to them, but again, Ford should have kept at least the heated and cooled function. I'm okay with losing the power functions, but I would have liked to see the heated and cooled function. You can see the glove compartment is damped. It's not lined with felt. It's a bin style, which is fine. The Bang & Olufsen stereo also works pretty well, so for those of you who prefer that or an audiophile, I highly recommend going for that feature. I wanted to show you guys the back seat, but it's starting to rain, so I'll just kind of quickly show you guys back here what it's like. Now, Ford says there's around 29 inches of legroom back here, and my question is where, because headroom there is pretty tight. If you guys want to see me sitting in the back seat, be sure to watch my review from the drive from about six months ago, but again, the back seat is really reserved for kids, small packages, or just folding the seats down to increase the cargo area, but overall, the interior of the new Mustang certainly is very, very nicely done. The tech got a huge upgrade. The material quality is pretty average. Visibility in here is also pretty decent, but what I think Ford really improved, again, is just the tech interfaces, which really brings us into the modern era. I just want them to continuously improve the software behind it, so I would like to see them add their digital experience software from the new Explorer at a later date. So if you can believe it, it's been nearly 10 years, a decade since I actually have driven and featured a full review on the Mustang EcoBoost for the channel. The last one that I did was back in 2015. 2015, that's when the first, or when the sixth generation first came out, so now we're here behind the wheel of this 2024 EcoBoost Mustang. Again, it is the last turbocharged modern muscle car that's gas-powered that you can buy. The Camaro Turbo is gone, of course. The Challenger is gone, although it's coming back as a fully electric vehicle known as the Charger, renamed to the Charger, and then there's a gas version coming. Sadly, I want to do a 0-60 test, but the weather has not been favoring me. It's been in the 40s all week. It's been raining as well. You can see the road is still a little bit wet. I'm on Pirelli P-Zero summer tires, and I've seen the magazine publications do a 0-60 in as little as like four and a half seconds. Sadly, I won't be able to test that out today, and I'll even show you with a quick demonstration. This car is not putting the power down very nicely considering it's in the 40-degree temps. It's been basically raining all week, and I'll just briefly show you really quick what happens if I just try to accelerate from a stop here. Again, the back starts to slide out, and I don't want to end up like the typical Mustang driver who's basically going to end up in a wall or hitting a crowd of people, but that's kind of the problem with these rear-wheel drive vehicles. I mean, the last time I tested a Ford Mustang EcoBoost, I was on the media drive with Ford. It was a very brief time, but I managed to get 5.9 seconds. Again, I really wish I could retest it now, but sadly, the weather conditions and just these tires, of course, and the fact that this is still a rear-drive muscle car, we won't be able to get an actual accurate time because I'm not going to be the guy that crashes the Mustang into a wall or basically runs it off the road because, again, of cold, you know, winter or summer tires and these kind of conditions. But what I will say about this new car is, you know, this model that we're driving has the, you know, exhaust package. It's got the performance exhaust. It's got the Magno-Rheological dampers. Let's just try it here, see if I can get a little better traction. Max literally just wants to slide. You know what? We just got 5.5 seconds there, and that's literally with me, like, backing off the throttle a little bit because I'm a little nervous about it, you know, stepping out. But the stability control does a pretty decent job of grabbing the car, but that already beats the time that I got in California by a half a second, considering the fact that we're not in the best conditions. This exhaust system that we have, this performance exhaust, I have to say, there are times where I like it, and there are times where I don't like it. First of all, there's some kind of sound amplification going on through the speakers that you can also hear, so it's kind of making it even louder than it is versus outside. We've got this 10-speed auto, which is the only transmission, and it has manual shift mode, obviously. You know what? It shifts pretty quick, and it's also relatively smooth, but I did notice at times, depending on conditions, it was a little bit, you know, undecided on what gear it needed to be in. So there were times where it got confused, and then it would also shift a little harshly, but it does, you know, it is well matched to the engine's power ratios or power band. It kind of is very quick to kind of shift gears and smoothly when you are, you know, driving more aggressively, and it just constantly is putting the engine back into the fat part of the torque curve. Remember, this is a turbo engine delivering 315 horsepower, 350 pound-feet of torque. I have no doubt this car would probably be able to do a 0-60 time in the low five-second range, even maybe even under five seconds if you have the conditions right, which again, that used to be GT territory for performance, so it's very impressive how the Mustang EcoBoost has gotten this quick. It really isn't necessary to go for the V8. The EcoBoost just delivers a lot of power and speed, and it also is going to be the more efficient option, but literally stepped out there, but you can feel it shifts harshly. I've been actually driving the car in drag strip mode. That's going to get you the best acceleration time. We'll try it a little bit later on in a different mode, but this is technically, you know, going to give you the track exhaust. It's got on the track exhaust. It's got on the stiffer steering suspension setting or the steering setting and whatnot, but I mean, overall, it feels properly fast. It feels like this thing can really just, you know, make you put a huge smile on your face, you know, during getting the right conditions here, but this thing literally, oh wow. Okay, we got 4.9 there, so there we go. I mean, that's going to be the best I'm going to get, and that's honestly impressive. That is seriously impressive, and I guess with the magazines reporting a 4.5 second run, that's theoretically possible if you guys use the drag strip mode, so bravo, Ford. You've seriously produced a fast Mustang with the base engine, with just the base engine, which is absolutely fantastic, but I switched into sport here, and see, the one thing I wish this exhaust made was more crackles and pops. I mean, when I start, you know, using the manual mode here, if it made more crackles and pops, I think the sound would probably be more to my liking. I mean, you definitely hear the enhanced engine sound. You do hear some of that rumble from the exhaust. It can get a little droney at times, but the manual shift mode works nicely. The adaptive dampers in this car, when you have it in its sport mode, it really stiffens things up, although it's still not overly stiff to where it feels like I'm driving like a Hyundai Veloster N or like a really, you know, riced out hot hatch or something like that. It still feels properly like a Mustang, which means you've got a big vehicle that's wide, that's still relatively comfortable to drive. Visibility in this car also kind of reminds me of the previous generation. It really, you know, doesn't have very big blind spots. You've got this big, you know, pronounced hood, obviously. The view out of the back is not bad, which I really appreciate. And overall, I like the new steering wheel in this car as well. It's got a flat bottom design. It has nice leather. You know, the steering in this car, you can see, is super quick and responsive. The car actually just changes directions so quickly. The suspension has a little bit of body lean in this mode. When you turn it into the track mode, it stiffens things up a little bit more. But overall, I'm impressed. I'm impressed with the overall package, especially if you guys are going for the performance package with the EcoBoost Mustang, because, you know, the EcoBoost just is kind of underrated. It gets a lot of hate from the enthusiast market because, again, it's not a V8. You've got to have a V8. The Mustang's not the last one, the last muscle car that still offers a V8. And I have to say, the V8, I'm looking forward to getting one for a week to test, but that doesn't mean you should discount the EcoBoost. Now, if you guys are coming from the previous generation, that's also another question that people have been asking me, should you upgrade? Now, obviously, you're going to upgrade for several reasons. You're going to the additional tech. I mean, the tech in this car is good, although the SYNC 4 system still has a tendency to freeze, which I don't love. But I love the modern screens and how good they look and how, you know, big the displays are. It's got, you know, wonderful video game style graphics. The handling of this car definitely has improved. You don't really feel too much the 3,700 pound curb weight that the Mustang kind of lugs around. It does a good job of hiding its weight. And I think that's important, again, for, you know, people who are, you know, looking for this vehicle to be kind of like their more affordable rear wheel drive sports car. The Mustang does a really good job there. And the transmission, there are times where, again, I wanted it to shift a little smoother, but when it does, when it is on its game, it's good. It's just when you find it sleeping or a little confused, that's where you notice it shifts a little harshly. This is, remember, a Ford 10-speed design transmission. Should Ford still offer a manual in this car? I mean, yes, it would be nice, but the take rate was just too low. Enthusiasts want the V8 and they want it with a stick. So that's the reason why Ford, again, offers the V8 with that manual transmission. The EcoBoost is for a slightly different market, but I think that if you guys, you know, don't have the money for a V8, you don't want to spend the gas, you shouldn't discount this car. In terms of fuel efficiency, it's rated at 2,129. In my weeks worth of testing, I got around 19 MPG in mixed driving. On the highway, the best I got was like 26. And that's because I'm on these summer tires, they're cold. It's just not the best time for fuel economy testing, but I think it could do well. This car had roughly around 330 miles of range on a full tank, which isn't bad. It's not bad at all, but let's just try it here one more time and see if we can get something similar to the 4.9. This time I kept my foot into it. We got 5.1 seconds there. So pretty consistent. We're a little more going uphill. So 4.9, we'll take that as our best time, which is again, very impressive. That used to be GT levels of performance. In fact, the GT that I tested in California, the best I could do was 4.7 because it couldn't put the power down very well. So overall, I'm pretty impressed. I think the Mustang EcoBoost is definitely still worth a look. If you guys are upgrading from the previous generation, really consider it. The 10 speed, I'm hoping mine's just a pre-production model because it could be smoother. But let me know if you guys have bought this car and if it's a better partner for you and your experience. But overall, I think the EcoBoost Mustang, especially with the performance package, is definitely a car that you shouldn't dismiss because it definitely still has the kind of performance handling and acceleration that I think most enthusiasts are going to expect, especially if you don't want to spend too much money on this model here, as you guys will see, is definitely on the pricier side. So after finally getting a chance to spend a full week with the all new seven generation Ford Mustang, it's pretty clear to me that the company didn't want to mess too much with the successful formula of the Mustang. As you guys know, this remains the best selling pony car that you're going to find worldwide because Ford has continuously kept this vehicle in production. In fact, last year for the old previous generation, Ford managed to sell a little over 53,000 units of the Mustang. And I suspect with this new one continuing to ramp up production, they probably will do that if not better. Because again, this remains the last muscle car standing, at least until Chevrolet decides to do something with the Camaro or until Dodge decides to bring back the Challenger, which they already showed the electric version coming later this year, late this year, and then the gas version, which I consider more of the competitor to this coming sometime in the summer of 2025. After spending some time with the EcoBoost Mustang, even though again, most people are going to be salivating over the V8, there is still plenty to like about the EcoBoost, especially with the upgrades that Ford has given it. With the new powertrain, the increase in power, the performance package that my test car has, you should be able to expect to do zero to 60 times in the five seconds and perhaps even the high four second range, which is pretty impressive for the base model Mustang. There was a time where that performance number was reserved for a GT model. Again, I'll have to wait until I get a GT to test for a full week to actually see what we can get in terms of performance figures, hopefully on a not so cloudy and rainy crappy day. In terms of the interior, the interior did get some nice tech upgrades. I love the way how modern the screens look, although some enthusiasts may not like that. I do find that Ford's SYNC 4 system continues to be a little bit buggy. There are times where the system would freeze, it would crash, I'd have to reset it. But once it's actually working, the graphics look good, very video game inspired, of course. I love the customizable display in the instrument panel, the big display for CarPlay, which finally looks a lot more modern. It's just a huge upgrade versus the old sixth generation Mustang. The Recaro seats, I probably would skip because, again, you lose the heated and ventilation and the power functions along with the memory function. Unless you plan to track the car regularly, I think the standard seats are going to be just fine for most people, especially if you guys plan to use it as a daily driver, which is how Mustang drivers tend to actually use their vehicles. The rear seat, while it's nice that it's there, is literally reserved for small children. The trunk is a decent size. The ride quality is about average, what I expect. The vehicle isn't the most quiet, so if you guys plan to use this as your only vehicle on road trips, you will be dealing with a lot of tire and road noise and, of course, the exhaust noise, which I think sounds pretty good. Again, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a GT and a dark horse at a later date so we can test out what the V8 is like in the real world to actually drive. The 10 speed in this car, I did notice at times it shifted smoothly and then other times it also shifted a little harshly. So I'm not entirely sure if my test car is an early pre-production vehicle, but I'll have to wait until I get one maybe next year where I can retest it again because I didn't find the transmission to be the smoothest in day-to-day driving, which again could be isolated to just my particular test car in general. Now, if you guys are looking to get your hands on the new Mustang, this vehicle is on sale, of course. It's been on sale for a few months and base pricing is going to start at just under $31,000, around $30,920 for the base EcoBoost. You're going to add around $5,500 if you want the premium package that rolls in the Bang & Olufsen stereo, the upgraded infotainment display, the leather upholstery with the heated and ventilated seats, of course. So that one's going to start at around $36,900. If you guys want the GT, the GT will cost you at least $42,000. So it's about $12,000 more versus the standard EcoBoost model. My test car here with the 201A upgrade package, the performance package, of course, and the Recaro seats comes in at just under $50,000 for this particular race ride that I'm showing you. Almost $50,000 used to be the same price of the GT Mustangs, although the GTs are going to cost you at least $50,000 with mid-level options going up to over $60,000, almost $70,000 for the Dark Horse. So it just kind of shows you how expensive Mustangs have become. But again, that's kind of the case with everything. So if you guys are looking to buy a Mustang, I highly recommend looking at the EcoBoost still, but going a little bit light on the options to get some all here approaching $50,000 is a little bit too much. I think the sweet spot for this vehicle will probably be in the low to mid $40,000 range. Again, that would put it right along the Toyota Supra, but the Supra is going to be less practical. This has more power, although the Supra might be quicker and better handling. So really you can't go wrong with the other two. It's just this vehicle is going to be a little bit easier to live with on a daily basis versus some of the other smaller sports cars like a Z or the new Supra. With all that said, I hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new 2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost. If you're also looking to see the latest cars I'm testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at redline underscore reviews, like us on Facebook. And as always guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all the latest reviews. Thank you so much for watching. I'll catch you all in the next video. Transcribed by https://otter.ai