One thing you need to know about press cars is that they typically come fully loaded. If there’s a performance package, the cars on hand usually have the performance package. If there’s an off-road package, chances are some of the cars on hand have the off-road package. If there’s a 32-way heated, powered, ventilated, massaging, sweat-wicking, body-hugging seat that offers words of affirmation and piping hot tea biscuits, that’ll most likely be specced too. However, in the real world, only a small portion of actual car buyers tick every box. Thanks to the launch event for the 2024 Ford Mustang GT, we already know that it’s a V8-powered slice of all-American machismo, But what’s it like when you strip away most of the fancy gizmos of a fully loaded model? Oh, and while we’re answering questions, should I have actually gone out and spent my own money on one?
Last July, I attended the media drive of the 2024 Ford Mustang and came away so enamored with the GT’s flavor of effortless, engaging V8 fun that I genuinely considered putting in an order for a minute. Seriously, I wrote, “Could I possibly, maybe just comb through the couch cushions and scrape up enough to put in an order?” Obviously, that didn’t happen, and a couple months after that, I ended up with my 25-year-old Porsche Boxster. But what if? What if I had a chance to do it all again? Time to spend a week in a 2024 Ford Mustang GT on the knackered streets of Toronto to see if my West Coast romance could work in a more hostile environment. Gather round, urban vampires and children of the night, this is gonna be a good one.
[Full disclosure: Ford Canada let me borrow this Mustang GT for a week so long as I returned it with a full tank of fuel and reviewed it.]
Dressed For Friend Requests
More than two years after its debut at the 2022 North American International Auto Show, the crisper styling of the seventh-generation Ford Mustang is really coming into its own. Everything new is just leaner than on the previous model, with a more assertive down-the-road graphic, wide functional hood louvers that emphasize visual width, and simple yet well-executed surfacing that cuts fuss. The smooth body sides draw attention to the crispness of the rear haunches, while the undercut character line starting on the front fender and terminating on the rear bumper does a nice job of breaking up the sheetmetal. Of course, it also helps that the Yellow Splash Metallic paint of my test car looks fantastic, although it’s been discontinued for 2025, which is a damn shame. Bring it back for 2026, Ford. There’s just something right about a yellow Mustang.
Out back, the diffused taillights don’t look quite as simplistic as they did in early press photos, and the deep V-shaped profile of the decklid casts a terrific shadow. Mind you, these new elements do have their downsides — both seem to encroach on trunk access, meaning you might need to do a little Tetris to pack checked luggage in the back of this Mustang. Overall though, I reckon the end result works. It’s a properly modernized pony car, and even in base GT trim without the staggered wheels, it still looks the business.
I Serve The Base
If you aren’t a fan of the massive ultra-wide monitor look seen in every 2024 Mustang interior press photo, this might be what you’re looking for. While Premium trims get their monitors placed under a single sheet of glass, base models make do with two separate screens. However, this isn’t necessarily a downgrade — you still get fast, fluid animations, impressive black levels, and high resolution. Although it takes a minute to boot from cold, it feels like this infotainment system will age well.
Speaking of base-model tech, despite the separate screens, you don’t get locked out of the fun stuff, like various digital gauge cluster skins recalling Mustangs of the past. I spent most of my time driving around with a tribute to the gauges from the New Edge Mustang Cobra because I am a child of the 2000s.
One thing that doesn’t come as standard on the base model is the available nine-speaker unbranded stereo on my test car, and do you know what? For what it is, it sounds perfectly alright. There’s enough bass to offer a bit of kick without seeming boomy, the mid-range seems pretty even, and while high frequencies aren’t massively crisp, this isn’t a shrill-sounding system either. Considering the package also includes heated front seats and dual-zone automatic climate control, I’d call that an option box worth ticking.
Admittedly, there are some parts inside this Mustang that aren’t so nice. Look, you have to microwave some reconstituted eggs if you want to offer a ribeye powertrain on a mechanically separated ham budget. Yes, the center console feels like it’s made from melted-down Cozy Coupes. Yes, the front seatback releases feel like they could snap at any moment. Yes, the door card plastics are as dour as a jaded headmaster. Do you want a chest-beating V8 or not?
Knife Party
While even the base Mustang GT gets some beefy Brembo front calipers, the Mustang GTs I drove last year all had the Performance Package, a big bundle of upgrades including some pretty important hardware changes. In contrast, this base model had no drift brake, no Torsen diff, no sports suspension, no K-brace, no special electric power steering tuning, no upsized rear sway bar, and no strut tower brace. It didn’t even have summer tires, instead riding on a set of Continental all-seasons. So what effect does ditching all that have on the driving experience?
Well, it’s damn comfortable. You could be loping along at just past tickover in the right lane with your favorite music on and your back sinking into plush cloth seats, and wonder for a second if anyone really needs more GT car than this. In base spec, the Mustang GT is an effortless cruiser, stretching along the road like a 60 mph inchworm.
Introduce a corner into the equation, and you grow new awareness of the Continental all-seasons. Knowing you’re nearing the limits of adhesion comes from auditory cues, not reading grip on entry through steering weight. However, the rental-spec tires also have a brilliant side effect, and that’s how launch control doesn’t exactly work how you’d expect it to. In the interest of science, this important vehicle function was tested out with a low RPM setting and, well, would you believe it just dropped a set and wafted the scent of vulcanized rubber across an entire ZIP code? In the real world, less grip means more fun, and provided you don’t go full Cars and Coffee, the Mustang GT lets you be a bit of a hooligan and get away with it without much effort at all.
The undisputed star of this show is the five-liter quad-cam V8 under the hood pumping out 486 horsepower and 418 lb.-ft. of torque, with six of those ponies and three of those lb.-ft. being down to the optional Active Valve Performance Exhaust fitted on my test car. Even with the valves set to standard mode, the Coyote V8 makes an enormous crescendo for a cross-plane V8, from a kick-the-can burble at 2,000 rpm to a choke-chain bark at 4,000 rpm to a proper face-eating howl when the digital tachometer needle swings past 7,000. If biceps had mouths, this is what they’d sound like. It’s nothing short of addictive, and it’s even better when you choose the gears yourself.
The Mustang is one of just two new vehicles currently available with a six-speed manual gearbox and a V8, and even with the Getrag unit in the GT trim, you’d be amiss to tick the box for the automatic. Not only is the shifter slick and accurate without being excessively notchy, Ford’s fixed the clutch pedal for 2024. The old Mustang GT featured this weird compound action where the assistance spring really wanted to push the pedal toward you before you reached the bite point, but this one feels natural all the way through. There’s definitely some anti-stall software trickery working in the background because you can get rolling hilariously quickly without applying any throttle at all, but it never feels intrusive. Speaking of assistance, downshift rev matching is a nice toy to have when you’re feeling lazy, but you can just switch it off and intuitively match revs yourself. Call it freedom of choice.
Also, did you know that the MT-82 six-speed manual transmission in the Mustang GT has no-lift-shift? That means, with the valved exhaust set to full disorderly conduct mode, you can flat-foot the 1-2 shift down an on-ramp and splatter everyone with the sound of the ’60s. The more you know, right?
Add it all up, and you’ll quickly learn that the base Mustang GT is not a sports car, it’s just a powerful coupe with a manual gearbox, and there’s something brilliant about that. Hell, it’ll even happily run on 87-octane fuel. It’s definitely quicker on 93 octane, but the fact you can just bung in the cheap stuff if need be is reassuring. If the Coyote V8 is durable enough for the F-150 pickup truck, chances are it’ll last long here too. Plus, thanks to that V8, the Mustang GT still feels special when driving slowly. There’s something delightfully naughty about rumbling through town on a cushion of barely-stressed chest-beating V8 noises.
Any Last Words?
So, do I regret not pulling the trigger on my very own 2024 Ford Mustang GT? Well, let me explain. For some people, the base 2024 Ford Mustang GT is the sportiest thing they could see themselves in. For others at the other extreme of the spectrum, it’s the least sporty thing they could see themselves dropping new car money on. As a person, not a journalist, and not someone trying to maintain some semblance of objectivity, I’m very nearly in the second camp. It’s not snobbery or anything like that, it’s just that some of us have more extreme tastes than others. I don’t regret not financing a 2024 Ford Mustang GT instead of buying an older, sharper sports car outright, but that’s only because it’s ideally a case of and rather than or. Instead, if I were to get one, it would augment a more focused sports car, and I’d daily drive the crap out of it. Through snow, through sleet, through bumper-to-bumper traffic on 100-degree days, and I’d enjoy every minute of it.
Even without all the fancy optional performance goodies, save for the valved exhaust system, the 2024 Ford Mustang GT continues to enthrall, captivate, and elate. In base trim on all-season tires, it’s not the most serious Mustang out there, and that’s why I still adore it. It’s quick, easy, willing to unleash V8 power with impunity, and yet never grows uncomfortable, even as the grind of traffic wears you down. Best of all, at a base price of $44,455 including freight ($51,225 in Canada) and an as-tested price of $49,985 including freight ($57,870 in Canada), it’s solid value too. There really is a Mustang for everyone. If you already have a sports car in the garage and have to drive over awful pavement, this might be the one for you.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
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I stopped buying high performance summer tires for HPAS because they last longer, are more fun on a street car, and are more adaptable to New England’s fickle weather.
For the interior quality at the low end for the Mustang, who cares, but I think it does become an issue when up in Dark Horse pricing territory. At under $30k for my GR86, I think the commonly shit-on interior looks great and is certainly good enough in quality (and normal people don’t notice and universally rave about how much they love it), but if it were in the $40ks or even the mid-high $30ks, I wouldn’t be so happy with it (it also helps that I view it more as a vintage car with some modern touches that hasn’t had 40 years of bodged repairs rather than a new car). Also one of the reasons why I previously had a Focus ST, but no interest in the RS—about double the price with an interior still largely the same as what came in a base car that had to be profitable at about $17k.
With that written, I suppose it wouldn’t be that bad to have some of that ugly plastic upholstered over. Maybe even DIY.
Big fan of the Mustang.
Wish they’d have put taillights similar to the Mach-E’s on the new model, though. Especially because they have amber rear turn signals. They also don’t look as jarring as the new car’s.
For roughly the same money, you could have had a CPO Mercedes-Benz E450 Coupe with an extended maintenance plan.
Sure it’s down 100hp from the Mustang. Sure it’s not obnoxiously loud. Sure it’s “just” a twin-turbo inline 6.
But you can get actual people in the back seat, the interior quality and infotainment is immaculate, there’s far more trunk space, the drive is silky smooth, it has a massive sunroof and a wide-open pillarless body, you can still choose from different gauge displays, it’s probably got an AMG pack on it, the mpg’s are higher, and your insurance would likely be lower.
And people won’t pull out their cellphones to video you every time you exit a parking lot.
But one reason to pick the Mustang over the Mercedes… “European Quality”
There are a total of 0 people cross shopping Mustangs and Mercedes coupes. That Mercedes is also going to depreciate like a brick and will probably not even make it to 100,000 miles without a lot of very complicated maintenance…which a plan will not cover all of.
If there’s a German car that’s cross shopped it’s probably an M240i/M2. M2 or Dark Horse is a pretty interesting and conundrum that’s frequently debated in our sorts of circles. I’d personally go M2, but I wouldn’t fault anyone for going Dark Horse. That’s a serious, serious car, especially if you’re going to track it.
“There are a total of 0 people cross shopping Mustangs and Mercedes coupes” But there are folks cross-shopping Corollas and 20 year old S Classes & Panameras?
“That Mercedes is also going to depreciate like a brick ”
It already has – to the tune of @ 40% off MSRP – which is why it’s a smart move for someone who appreciates a fast coupe with build quality and usability.
“If there’s a German car that’s cross shopped it’s probably an M240i/M2.”
Speaking of very complicated maintenance….
Actually by German standards the B58 and S58 are rock solid. It’s not going to be a Lexus ownership experience or anything, but they’re really well sorted. As long as you keep up with the maintenance religiously they’ll treat you well.
It’s that pillarless hardtop part that gets me—love it for that alone.
I wonder if my Grandfather went through similar thought processes in the early 1930s.He had decided on a Bentley , the next question was, which one? The choice was mindboggling even before deciding on which coachbuilder would put a body on it. I think you would have gone for the short chassis, but to supercharge or not. 3Litre, 3.5 or 4.25? Or the 6 litre, maybe the 8? All available in different performance levels and no electronic options.
Like so much Ford product today, there is much done right. But I cannot condone their constant “tablet glued to dashboard” interiors.
Ford does things right?
Since when?
1903, at least with the current company.
Well said! I’d take any of them with a manual, anyday.
The pony car dilemma is real and I don’t believe there’s a single enthusiast out there who hasn’t had the “can I make a Mustang work?” inner dialogue with themselves at least 5 times. You can claim you’re one of those folks all you’d like, but you’d be lying. Ripping one is a rite of passage as far as I’m concerned and if you don’t find rear wheel drive and a V8 appealing you should consult your doctor.
(Partial) kidding aside, I’ve wrestled with this for the better part of the last 5 years. Pony cars appeal to your inner child. They’re the equivalent of going out to eat at a nice restaurant and ordering the most decadent burger they have on the menu. Is it the most sophisticated or nutritious choice? Of course not, but it’s damn good and it’s on the menu for a reason.
The issue is that they’re tremendously impractical. The back seats are useless, the doors are basically the size of a Miata and weigh even more, the trunk openings are hilariously small, they’re hard to see out of, have massive blind spots, have a footprint larger than a lot of mid sized SUVs, and they cost an absolute fortune to run. Insurance rates on them are sky high regardless of how good your driving record is, and that 15 or whatever MPG that’s advertised?
If you’re driving as god intended you won’t even touch that. I know we’ve got folks here (V10emous comes to mind) who will regale you with tales of when they hyper miled their V8 car and got 30 MPG or whatever, but unless you’re driving solely in the country or burbs you won’t come close to that. In read world driving you’re probably gonna get low teens, if you’re lucky. I know people with them who average single digits in DC.
All of that really adds up, unfortunately. I’ve had Mustangs and Camaros as rentals several times and by the end of my trip I’m almost always thrilled to give them back. They’re super goddamn fun for a couple of days, but reality always sets in sooner or later. If you’re going to be using your car to do…well, car stuff, they’re really bad at it.
My conclusion remains the same. They’re amazing weekend cars/toys, but for my use case they’re just too compromised to daily. If you’re single or it’s just you and a partner and you live in a place with great roads then sure, you could make it work and probably have a blast. But as soon as you add kiddos, furry friends, traffic, parking garages, etc. to the equation they really can’t work even if you try.
IN CONCLUSION…bring us the Mustang sedan, goddammit. Make it a liftback too. There’s 0 reason at all why everything that makes a Mustang GT great can’t be given to us in a more practical form. You wouldn’t even need to change the platform…look at what Dodge did with the Charger/Challenger and are about to do with the upcoming Charger. Hell you could probably make it work with the exact same wheelbase and just make the overall design less stupid.
The time is right for it, especially since lots of the younger folks who got into this stuff around the S197/5th gen Camaro are now having kids…not to mention Dodge had to nix their V8s. I certainly can’t make this Mustang work, but if you add usable back seats and two additional doors? I’d buy one tomorrow.
You just described why they made the Mach-E. It’s just the form factor changed from a sedan that everyone used to want to now a crossover that everyone wants. And Ford thought (as everyone did at the time) that electric drivetrains are going to be everywhere in just two years’ time.
You’re not kitten about insurance rates though. I guess because of the type of drivers that typically buy Mustangs when compared to the type that buy Boxsters or M3s or whatever, those luxury performance vehicles cost almost half on insurance rates if you’ve been responsible in your past driving (officially!).
The rear seats in the Challenger are quite large and comfortable once you get back there. I’ve had four adults in mine and between the generous leg room and the shape of the roofline, I actually got a lot of pleasantly surprised comments.
You can’t be too physically impaired as you still need to get in and out. And don’t ask me about car seats, my wife and I are childless by choice.
PS – The trunk is cavernous as well.
Sure, but the challenger is essentially a 2-door charger. It’d better be roomy back there.
“I know we’ve got folks here (V10emous comes to mind) who will regale you with tales of when they hyper miled their V8 car and got 30 MPG or whatever”
My friend, you do not know me well if you think I’m going to spill a word of digital ink on hypermiling or justifying any V8 car on mileage grounds.
My stance was and is that paying a bit more for gas is well worth the thrill and that “”slow car fast” people probably haven’t experienced “fast car fast”
I had this argument with both myself and my dad three months ago. Having driven a couple of these over the last 12 or so years (none of them mine, some family and some dealership cars), it just didn’t make sense as a daily for me. Do I wish I had a car that I can’t comfortably get four people in? Yes. Do I wish I had a manual so nobody would ask to borrow my car? Hell yes. But at the end of the day it was too impractical for what I needed.
Maybe because I’m not heavily steeped in cylinder count giving my vehicle a sense of self-worth, but if Ford got rid of the 5.0V8 in favour of a 3.5TT Ecoboost with similar output as the ‘new’ GT, I’d be quite OK with that (in fact, I might think more highly of it).
The reason people feel they’re missing out on the 5.0 by getting a V6 is simply by virtue of the V8 being that ‘top model’.
False. There are plenty of turbo-6s to be had. At this point the V8 is a unique proposition.
I don’t think this is the case at all. Even many “normies” enjoy the sound of a rumbling v8, and no Turbo 6 can compare to that. They are audibly different and notable for that. And its not just about more cylinders. A big rumbly v8 sounds better than a v10 or v12 doing the same thing.
There is literally nothing that can replicate or replace the experience of a V8. I’m not even some no replacement for displacement type either…I’ve daily’d two turbo 4s in a row.
But that’s just the way it is. I’ve driven plenty of six cylinder engines, and some are amazing. But a V8 at idle or wide open throttle? There’s nothing else like it. Hell, your average car person can probably tell you when a car has a V8 just by listening to it.
Fuck. Guess I’ll go look at IS500 listings again…
I’m in the same boat. I have been dailying 4 cylinder imports since Dom was boosting big rigs in black Civics. But I still love the heavy lope of a lumpy V8. My wife drives a first gen Durango with the 5.9, headers, and 3 inch exhaust through an aftermarket muffler. She is NOT in to cars, but she loves the way her Durango sounds (so do I).
This. Engine configurations make a difference.
Just on audio qualities alone the Lexus V10 in the LFA justifies its purchase price.
The market agrees because LFAs are worth a fortune. If I won the lottery an LFA would be on my short list along with a Carrera GT….although if I had both I’d probably just drive the LFA and be terrified that the CGT would try to kill me haha.
Yup nothing like a good old V8 in the sound department, even if there are turbo 6’s that can make more HP. That is one of the reasons why Miata was not the answer for me when I decided I needed a Convertible.
I like my 2004 Mach 1 so I will stick with that. I read an article once that described it as “the last analog muscle car”. There is a certain feeling to it that just makes it more raw versus the newer Mustangs I have driven. There is little in the way of electronic assistance and it has a sound that the 3v and Coyotes never quite replicated. That, and I believe the 90s and early 2000s are peak automobile since they are incredibly reliable, but not drowning in creature comforts and nannys.
I still don’t understand putting two screens in the base model. Doesn’t it actually cost more to do so? Do they need that visual reminder to show you that you can’t afford the Premium? If I could justify the money, I would own one.
it probably costs ford the same amount of money to give you either solution but they have to entice consumers with SOMETHING to convince them to spend the more money on the “premium” trim level. They can’t make the base model TOO good otherwise that’s all people will buy.
Who killed the muscle car? (or pony car, whatever…) and I’m not just talking about how the Mustang is the only one left. They used to just be cheaply made things with a huge engine and great styling. The Mustang and the most recent Camaro and to a lesser extent the Challenger(R.I.P) were not just basic cars with too much power in them. Too expensive, too refined, too nice. Better cars no doubt, but perhaps a worse muscle car. At some point it was decided they needed to compete with M3/M4s and I think they lost something on the way. I have 2 theories. The 1st is that the CAFE hit they would take on these large engines necessitated higher prices to offset and thus the higher priced cars needed more features/refinement. The 2nd is that every single review for the longest time mentioned how shit the interiors were on mustangs and camaro, they weren’t wrong but that was also kinda the point. What I’m trying to say is I’d love to see the return of a cheap car where it seems like you are just paying for the powertrain and getting minimum viable car thrown in for free.
Blame journalists for that. The old school recipe of shoving a giant engine into a stupid consumer car is gone. Now with all the shoot outs, ring times, camisa-drag war things, people are obsessed with having ‘the best one’.
This was also why I argued that the SRT4 WAS a musclecar. It was completely unrefined, it was an economy car (neon), and they shoved a powerful engine into it. It didn’t really have enough traction, the interior was garbage, but it went like stink and punched way above what it cost to purchase. IMHO that is musclecar, not necessarily V8/RWD.
I agree and said the same at the time. The problem is that there aren’t volume RWD sedans to base muscle cars on. So things like that – and in a more refined way, the WRX STi and Lancer Evo were spiritually similar, but the Neon SRT-4 really fit the bill.
If Toyota and Lotus would pair up to put the supercharged Toyota V6 in a Camry, that’d qualify, too.
I’d agree the Evo, STI, and SRT-4 were the closest thing to a muscle car the younger generations got. They were compromised, unrefined, relatively cheap cars that got powerful engines and didn’t worry too much past that. The interiors were cheap and made no attempts to hide the econobox roots. With a little bit of work could be made much faster than they came.
Front wheel drive vehicles and unibody construction. when the original mustang came out every car was rear wheel drive body on frame. once front wheel drive and then unibody construction came out there just isn’t a “cheap” way to build a rear wheel drive unibody construction platform. If you are on a budget you will go with a front wheel drive based platform.
If I had to guess, you’ve probably got a multi-factor thing (in addition to the other elements listed). Cars are lasting longer, which means you’re more likely to factor future life developments (like car seats) into your purchases, the increase in leasing means there’s a healthy supply of reasonably affordable 4-series or Q60’s for anyone looking for something sportier, and a lot of young guys swing towards pickups if they want something with a V8 (and of course, if you live in a big city, you probably can’t even afford a car *and* rent).
This is the second Canadian review in a row where it seems like you hosers are getting quite the discount compared to the actual exchange rate. What gives?
$44K is more like $60K CAD by a strict conversion.
Alternatively, $51 CAD is more like a $37,000 USD base price. Much more palatable.
This could be a signal that the exchange rate is not accurately depicting the value of the currency. But this would take an actual economist to analyses. Also exchange rates change all the time Also the exchange rate has been volatile lately so who knows man!
I had the same dilemma after getting some wheel time in a ’93 Mustang Cobra press car. It didn’t have all that many miles on it, and as far as I could tell, had not been hooned to the ragged edge by some of my more, well, energetic compatriots. I loved it.
Sadly, when it came up for sale, the ask, though pretty friendly in reality, was beyond my means. I should have robbed a bank or something. Instead, I walked away from a nice deal.
The newer ‘Stangs, better in every respect for today’s buyers and enthusiasts, don’t grab me as much as that little red beast did.
I’ve owned 2 Mustang GTs, a 1990 and a 1991. To me the only good-looking Mustangs since then are the S550.
The looks of the 2024 are maybe growing on me, I’d still like a different headlight design though. What has not grown on me is the price, $42,000 minimum for the GT is not going to be in my budget.