Mustang flexing its muscles
AFTER less than two years on sale in the UK Ford has facelifted the Mustang, probably setting a new record for the fastest midlife upgrade. But has it done enough to boost the American muscle car’s appeal?
Ford’s audience for the Mustang has changed little in the time it has been on sale. Most buyers have an affinity for the Mustang image and are looking for something a bit different to what else is available.
Mustang buyers are likely to be also looking at cars such as the quicker versions of both the Audi A5 and the BMW 4-Series. Ford executives also claim that buyers could be considering the Audi TT and BMW Z4 – particularly in the case of the Mustang Convertible.
However, the obvious rival this time round, which didn’t exist when the pre-facelift Mustang was launched, is the Kia Stinger.
Sales for the latest Mustang are not expected to change much from 2017 figures, which saw just over 2,200 leave UK showrooms.
Of these, three-quarters were powered by the 5.0-litre V8 engine, with the remainder going for the 2.3-litre turbo. There’s a similar split in favour of the fixed-roof fastback over the convertible.
Even before the 2018 updates, the latest Mustang had styling nailed. Designers had managed to combine the essence of earlier generations while maintaining a contemporary look. The facelift takes this on a step. The front in particular looks noticeably sharper thanks to a redesigned bumper with a more aggressive shape.
And the bonnet sees a change to the vents, again giving the car a meaner look. At the rear of the car the changes are more subtle. The lights are new and now LEDs while there’s the option of a boot-lid spoiler. Overall the new styling works well to keep the car up to date and differentiate it from earlier versions.
As with the previous version, there’s still a choice of two petrol engines; the more popular 5.0-litre V8 – which is now more powerful at 450bhp – and the lighter weight 290bhp 2.3-litre turbo. The latter has seen a 27bhp drop in power to help it meet upcoming emissions regulations.
Thankfully that power drop on the 2.3 has had no impact on either the 145mph top speed or the 0 to