2015 Ford Mustang:
The Only Question that Matters
Is it cool?
No, really. Forget horsepower numbers, quarter mile trap speeds and lap times (especially Nürburgring ones); the only real question Ford’s development team should have concerned themselves with during the car’s gestation should have been: “How can we redesign this car and still keep it cool?”
To their immense credit, it looks like that question was affixed prominently atop the dry erase board in the conference room, because the 2015 ‘Stang exudes coolness in spades.
That’s really been the key to the Mustang’s enduring popularity in spite of periods of abysmal performance, hideous design choices and suspect quality control. Chevy fans scratching their heads, wondering why the often superior on paper Camaro has always nipped at the Mustang’s heels sales-wise have their answer. Young or old, rich or poor, it’s always been nearly impossible to drive a Mustang and appear—or at least feel—uncool. Sure, the Camaro, Firebird or whatever Dodge muscle car happened to be on sale that week may have been cooler to particular subsets of the buying public for limited periods of time, but arguably no automobile has maintained a durable coolness in the eyes of the general public more effectively than the Mustang. With occasional peaks and dips, capturing that intangible year after year amounts to something of a miracle given the average American consumer’s obsession with the new.
I don’t want to minimize the significance of developments like the long-overdue transition to independent rear suspension or the reintroduction of the turbocharged 4-cylinder to the engine lineup (the latter would have been much more contentious if the ’80s SVO hadn’t blazed a trail), but I think we can call the new Mustang a success even before its first road test or lap time. A casual glance at its proportions, detailing and overall image confirms its coolness is intact. Kudos to the powers-that-be at Ford.
Image credits: netcarshow.com
Glad to hear such a positive review out of you Matt! :) I can’t wait to see what SVT does with it.
Agreed. I just received the new C&D with the new Mustang on the cover and plan to sit down with it here shortly. I’m interested to see how well received the return of the 4-banger will be after their initial tests. With the power coming out of modern turbo charged engines, I expect it to retain it’s fun to drive factor and think it could be a fun little car…for what it is. And with looks like that, I bet the sales of the more ‘affordable’ models will be high.
I’m also very interested to read the reviews of the 4-banger Mustang. Apparently there are plans to offer a track-oriented “high output” version of the Ecoboost engine in the new ‘Stang. I’m trying to keep an open mind.
Somehow, though, I don’t think it will have quite the cachet of the SVO Mustang from the ’80s. Turbos had this exotic, geeky coolness back then that they don’t really have anymore, not to mention the fact that apparently the SVO had a completely different, more handling-oriented, quasi-European feel compared to the regular 5.0.
We’ll see.