The original “Pony Car” is still going strong, unlike its competition which stopped production for a few years, the Mustang has been continuously in production since 1964, which is quite a feat. The 6th generation Mustang started its life in 2015, we’ve reviewed a few versions of this car over the years, check out our reviews here. The biggest news with the 6th generation Mustang was the introduction of the independent rear suspension, the other big-ish news was the re-introduction of a 4-cylinder engine.
For the 2018 model there are a few major changes to the Mustang, which is what we’re going to focus on in this review. The biggest change is the look of the front fascia of the Mustang, which now somewhat resembles the GT350. The other change is the removal of the V6 engine from the lineup, now you can only have the 4-cylinder EcoBoost or the V8.
The Mustang Fastback has a very reasonable starting price of $29,599 for the base 4-cylinder engine, EcoBoost Premium starts at $35,875. The V8 powered cars start at $39,189 for the GT Fastback, $46,425 for the GT Premium Fastback, and there’s the special edition BULLITT, which has a starting price of $56,525. These prices are pretty good, but they can go really high once you start ticking the options boxes.
Our review car for the week was the 2018 Mustang GT Premium, with a sticker price of $62,438 CAD, which is a lot of money. Some of the options were $2,000 for the voice activated navigation system, $3,700 for “GT Performance Package”, which includes 19” painted wheels, blade decklid spoiler, and 3.73 ratio limited slip axle, $1,500 for the “Safe & Smart Package”, which includes adaptive speed control, blind spot warning, and rear cross traffic alert. $1,800 for the Recaro seats, $2,000 for the magne-ride damping system, $1,000 for performance exhaust, and $600 for racing stripes. The final price also included $1,750 for “destination and delivery” delivery charges.
The Mustang GT is powered by a V8 engine, which produces 460 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 420 pound feet of torque at 4,600 rpm. The 2018 Mustang GT has 25 more HP and 20 more lb-ft of torque over the last Mustang GT we reviewed in 2015. Power is sent to the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual transmission or an optional 10-speed automatic transmission.
The 6-speed manual transmission comes with rev-matching; however, I couldn’t get it to work. Maybe it was turned off, but I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on, I’m not a big fan of the new layout of some of the controls on the redesigned Mustang. The gauge cluster has also been changed from analogue gauges to a digital TFT screen, I personally didn’t like the look of it, it felt too much like a video game. The gauges do change with the different driving modes of “Normal”, “Sport+”, and “Race Track”, so some people might find them more interesting or useful.
Our review car came with the optional exhaust system, which can be put in “Quiet”, “Normal”, “Sport+”, and “Race Track” mode. In quiet, there isn’t much sound, and this mode can be programmed for startups, so you don’t wake up the neighbors. In all the other three modes, it’s very loud. Even the “Normal” mode is extremely loud, which I liked a lot but after driving around with this (and the higher modes), I really got sick of the loud noises. Maybe I’m getting too old for these types of cars? I personally prefer the regular exhaust found on the Mustang GT.
So these are the changes on the new 2018 Mustang GT, overall, I think the Mustang GT looks even better now and with the added power it performs really well and it does make a nice sound track. For me, the GT got to be a little too much of a car, I’m not saying I can’t handle the power, I just feel the car is too big and a bit too in your face. I personally prefer a more refined vehicle, I still like loud cars, the Mustang GT just didn’t do it for me or maybe I drove it too much (as my daily driver) and should consider it as a secondary/weekend car.
Back in the 1980’s, Mustangs were REAL muscle-cars. Stripped down, LIGHT (3200lbs versus about 3800 now) as long as they had the all-forged part V8, some didn’t even have radios, airbags. And they only cost $16,000. Now they’ve become leather-interior luxo-mobiles for fat old boomers to buy. Mustangs were the last of the real muscle-cars affordable to young people, not much any more. $62,000? Good-God!
Yeah, they’ve gotten very expensive over the years.