Capsule Review: 2015 Ford Mustang V6

This is easy. We can skip the introduction. You know what this is, right?

Just in case, let's be clear. This is a V6-engined, sixth-generation Ford Mustang. Newly released for the 2015 model year, all Mustangs have fled their truck-like ways in favour of an independent rear suspension. That's just one of a number of factors that cause the new Mustang to feel more like a sports car than a traditional American muscle car, even in this basic form.

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• USD Price As-Tested: $27,505

• Horsepower: 300 @ 6500 rpm

• Torque: 280 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm

• Observed Fuel Economy: 19 mpg

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Much of the discussion surrounding the arrival of a new Mustang related to the availability of a mid-level four-cylinder EcoBoost engine, a turbocharged 2.3L with 310 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque which, when attached to a 6-speed automatic and drinking premium fuel, travels 21 miles per gallon in the city; 32 on the highway. This is not that car.

This 3.7L V6-powered car makes 10 fewer horsepower and generates 40 fewer lb-ft of torque. On regular fuel, it travels 19 miles per gallon in the city and 28 on the highway. In the U.S., upgrading from this engine to the EcoBoost costs $1500. The automatic transmission is an $1195 option.

Besides the 6-speed auto shifter, this car, loaned to us for a week by Ford Canada, was fitted with a couple grand in options: 18-inch wheels, a power driver's seat with power lumbar support, a block heater, a security package, and backup sensors. At USD $27,505  as tested, it's $5620 less than the least costly V8-engined Mustang GT.

In other words, a big monetary leap is required to earn the coveted 5.0 badge, enough of an increase in the initial outlay alone to think that the two ends of the Mustang spectrum – at least until special editions and Shelby models arrive – are scarcely geared toward the same buyer.

Therefore, resign yourself, as I did, to the fact that the car which showed up to replace a $50,000 minivan and $65,000 Audi in my driveway wasn't a $40,000 Mustang but rather a $30,000 Mustang.

Was I better off as a result? I won't go nearly that far, but the basic Mustang has a certain charm, a real-world affability, that rarely left me wanting more. Aside from, you know, a 5.0 badge, the accompanying 135 extra horsepower, and a 6-speed manual transmission.

But only on occasion. When did 300 horsepower become inadequate? A decade ago, one of my first reviews for my local paper's Wheels section concerned a 4.6L, V8-powered Mustang with, you guessed it, 300 horsepower. Both this V6 and the decade-old V8 accelerate to 60 mph in slightly more than 5 seconds. The new V6 Mustang is less than 50 pounds heavier than that early fifth-gen car, puts its power down more effectively, and makes a fairly decent noise of its own.

Everything else about the latest Mustang? Also better. And there's a part of me that wonders whether much of what makes the new Mustang so outstanding to drive is enhanced in this V6 car. It weighs nearly 200 pounds less than the V8, with much of that weight loss occurring at the front end. Would steering this delicious be so sweet when saddled with extra heft up front? I doubt it.

Keep in mind, the Mustang permits three different steering modes. The lightest Comfort setting is not in keeping with the car's twisty road capability and the weightiest Sport setting seemed slightly unnatural to me.

Normal mode, on the other hand, is anything but normal: most other modern cars simply don't offer up this level of connectivity, and while often precise and quick, they rarely allow your hands to comprehend just how precise and how quick their racks really are.

So the V6 is likely sufficient and the steering sets the Mustang apart, but does the car live up to its sporty billing? Undeniably. The Mustang V6 may even be aided by its dearth of performance add-ons – the performance packages available for the EcoBoost and GT aren't even on the options sheet here. The potential degradation of ride quality caused by track-oriented equipment never crops up. Oh, it's firm, but it's not busy or crashy or beholden to its unsprung weight. Moreover, the soft 235/50R18 Michelin X-Ice tires are of an aspect ratio too pillowy to cause any harm to the Mustang V6's ride.

Tied to a stiff structure, this is a suspension that copes with all that a road throws its way while also being tuned to accept inconsistent and even ham-fisted inputs from the driver. This basic Mustang isn't a track bruiser, but driven in a semi-aggressive style on a great road, it's engaging and capable enough to encourage further advancement toward its limits.

Dynamically, it's a positively European-feeling car; not unlike Ford's Fusion, Focus, and Fiesta in that respect. But there are undertones of American muscle that link this car to its predecessors and its most direct rival from Chevrolet. I give it credit on both accounts.

The 2015 Mustang isn't perfect. Although the rear seat is decent for a car of this type (we threw in a front-facing Diono Radian RXT child seat with little difficulty) and the driver's seat sits pleasantly low and is well-bolstered, front seat passengers couldn't get comfortable because of the bolstering (their arms aren't extended to a steering wheel but rather squeezed in the wrong places) and the small footwell. This basic Mustang's SYNC system, while relatively straightforward, doesn't use a touchscreen and isn't a paragon of modernity. The screen for the backup camera is tiny. The overall interior design that earned so much initial applause is less whelming in this lesser guise.

Worst of all, the downshift paddle was literally coming apart at the seams. I was the first auto writer this Mustang visited on its press tour and I hardly used the paddles. After all, they only serve to control a 6-speed automatic transmission that doesn't shift with the swiftness a sporty car deserves. Nevertheless, there it is, splitting in two. The upshift paddle remained in one piece but isn't made of high quality plastic. I can't imagine it will last.

Yet by a measure of many miles, I'd prefer to spend time in this Mustang than in a better-built Chevrolet Camaro, if in fact Camaros are more solidly constructed. The Mustang doesn't have visibility issues; visibility is the Camaro's achilles heel. The Mustang feels like it totes around 500 fewer pounds; it's closer to a 200-pound differential. The Camaro handles with grip and sheer force as though handling is work, like a 9-to-5 job. The Mustang handles with the kind of effervescence we typically encounter in lightweight cars with two-thirds the power, as though handling is Friday night fun.

With added refinement and improved dynamics, it's hard to imagine many ways in which the Mustang's appeal could be broadened. I suppose they could add all-wheel-drive availability – gasp – but after spending much of my time with the 2015 Mustang V6 on snow-covered roads, I sincerely hope that the Mustang owner base takes advantage of every opportunity for on-demand tail-out action. Eschew traction. Embrace oversteer.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

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Has Toyota's Styling Gone Too Far?

Hey Toyota, I'm very happy for you and Imma let you finish, but we need to talk about where the styling is going on some of your mainstream models. Perhaps it all started with the updated Camry, with its unfinished-looking grille, and we became slightly concerned. Maybe it was just a one time thing.

Related: How New Is the New 2016 Toyota Avalon?

Then the refreshed Prius c and Prius v showed up late last year, and we wondered about the Prius v's new nose job ... to say it was aesthetically challenging might be a little kind. But then, right around the Los Angeles Auto Show, we saw what had happened: The hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai was unveiled, and we realized that somehow this abomination had either infected the rest of the lineup with seriously unpleasant sheet-metal angles or it was the culmination of all those other designs.

What is it that gets our goat? It's the new vertical slats on the front of the 2016 Toyota Avalon, the Prius v, Prius c (above) and Camry. This element is permeating the lineup, and it needs to halt right where it is before things go too far over to the Mirai look, which is an utter mess.

Perhaps you're trying to prove that you can sell a lot of cars regardless of their aesthetic unpleasantness, in which case the road you're on is likely to end up at that destination. But the Avalon looked just fine the way it was, as did the Prius v — changing styling to ape the Mirai hasn't helped them in the slightest.

And hey, there's nothing wrong with the looks of your big sellers named Corolla, RAV4 and Highlander.

If you're really looking for inspiration for the rest of the lineup, may we instead suggest the FT-1 concept car? That has gaping grilles done right!

Cars.com photos by Evan Sears, Cars.com photo illustration by Paul Dolan

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While You Were Sleeping: March 2nd, 2015

This week marks the start of the Geneva Auto Show press days and February's auto sales data. Check back later for coverage of both events. Geneva's press preview will kick off at 8 AM Geneva Time tomorrow (GMT-6).

• Ten commandments for potential entrants to the auto industry (i.e. Google, Apple).
• Customers outside the Middle East can buy an Aston Martin Lagonda.
• Japanese cars – the next big thing in collector cars?
• Ford adding 400 more workers at its Oakville plant to help build the new Edge.

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Video: Track Day at Roebling Road Raceway

Cars.com and "MotorWeek" spent several days at Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, Ga., sampling some of industry's highest horsepower cars. Cars.com reviewer Kelsey Mays highlights the cars at the track, including the Nissan GT-R and … a golf cart? Check out the video for more.

Watch on YouTube

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Geneva 2015: Honda Civic Type-R Spied

 

Here it is, the first turbo Type-R.

The Civic Type-R will debut at Geneva's auto show this coming week, with an all-new (for Honda) turbocharged 2.0L VTEC engine. Honda claims it will be the fastest front-driver to lap the Nurburgring. Let's hope it comes to North America.

 

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Volkswagen LT: Crabspirits Vs. Reality

Last year, our own Murilee Martin found a Euro-market Volkswagen light-duty commercial van during one of his many junkyard adventures. As often happens here at TTAC, we had a brilliant contribution from one of the B&B, fictionalizing the story of the van's final days. Then, just two days ago, the van's last owner showed up to tell the true tale.

The Crabspirits tale of the VW LT van was depressing, hilarious, earthy, and insightful all at once:

Hermann was burning.

Hermann scratched at his full, grey beard. Beads of sweat lay within. He could feel it running down his chin, down to his neck, forming streams on his naked chest. It had to be 100° in the van, even with all the doors open. He had to pace himself. The sweat merged himself and Susan into one cohesive being. It was erotic in the extreme. The waves passed through him, and he collapsed over her back briefly before sliding off onto the disheveled twin mattress. "That was a nice romp, love.", said Susan with her thick British accent. "Yah.", replied Hermann, admiring what now resembled a hippo in the prone position. "You imagine they're done yet?", she asked. A short wind blew through the open van, and the smell of butt reached the man's nostrils, delaying his response. "Well..if I know my wife well, they were done ten minutes ago." He bit his tongue at the end, but it was too late. The Brit diverted her attention from the burners pedaling by outside, and twisted her head around to face the dirty-looking Santa. He was surprised when she laughed, and said "What are you saying?". Susan put her shoes on, saying coyly "I think I'll go for a little stroll.", then walked buck naked out into the desert.

Hermann's phallus blew in the breeze, while he put his pants back on. He could feel the dust stuck to his sweat beneath his tattered shirt. He felt…natural. The exodus was already well underway, and a line of RV's kicked up dust in the distance. His wife Julie appeared, resembling a rag tag whore of olden times. Her blouse was unbuttoned, exposing her breasts, and her face paint was smeared. She said nothing, kissed her husband on the cheek, and then rummaged in the back of the LT28 for her leather pouch of luke-warm water. "Should we go?", she asked. "Yah."

Hermann queued up behind a Winnebago, and shut off the engine. When it was time for the pulse of vehicles to move, the VW was left in the dust. It wouldn't restart. Hermann knew what to do. He lifted off the engine cover and allowed it to tumble out of the passenger door. Julie happily conversed with a few good samaritans who had stopped to assist the stricken van. While Hermann worked the intake tract off of the carburetor, he overheard one of them saying "Yeah, I used to have one of these." Hermann scrunched his face with sweat stinging his eyes, thinking to himself, "No. You didn't." punctuated with a "Hrmpf." Hermann placed his palm over the open throat of the carb, which scalded a perfect crescent into it immediately. "Scheisse!" He then angrily walked stiffly to the rear, retrieving the best thing he could find to shield his hand, a pair of his dirty briefs. The underpants were sealed over the mouth of the carb, and he twisted the key. After a few laborious cranks, it fired, resulting in applause from the small crowd outside. Hermann held his foot to the pedal to keep it alive, while replacing the intake tract. He watched in horror as the worm screw fell off the hose clamp, and made the 2″ plunge into the maw of the running engine in slow motion. The man was puzzled on what to do next. He looked into the carb, not finding the foreign object. Just as his brain fired "Turn it off!!!!", he had to shut his eyes in response to the sound of metallic cataclysm inside cylinder #3. "Gooooo!!"

It was finally time to leave this dreadful place. The burners were almost gone, replacing their intrusion into the desert with piles of trash, and abandoned "art". Hermann managed to get the 3 working cylinders online, and he immediately put it in gear. It was then that he realized that he hated Burning Man. The commercialization, the expense of entry, the effort, and most of all, this new generation of burners really did him in. "The end.", he said to Julie. The engine shook as it climbed to 45mph in what seemed like an eternity at full throttle. It's three cylinders dragged their fallen man along while pushing the ox cart. "You say that every year.", she yelled over the troubling valvetrain clack now emitting between them. "No, really, this is the end."

The van limped down the 580 into Berkeley. The engine's pleas for mercy were ignored as it's crankcase drowned in fuel from the spent cylinder. "Can't we just…?", Julie asked. Hermann yelled in frustration, "Nein! It's wasted! (unintelligible German)"

"You can't be driving that here.", said the CHIP as cars whooshed past. "But we're almost home.", Julie pleaded. "This vehicle is NOT roadworthy guys. Come on. You've got smoke pouring out of the back of this thing." Hermann overheard the officer mumbling to himself, saying something to the effect of, "What the-hell is this thing?". It was followed by "Just stay put guys.", as he walked back behind the van.

The officer's rather pleasant demeanor had vanished when he reappeared at the driver's door. "Okay, your registration is coming back as an '82 Vanagon, and this is not what that is. I know. I used to drive one. Is there an ID plate on this thing anywhere?" Hermann's clever plan to use his dead Vanagon Synchro's tag had been foiled.
"N-no."

When the van's actual last owner showed up (with a very enviable email address that, this being the post-TTAC Homecoming era, we've kept confidential) he told a less erotic but no less interesting story:

I'm the last owner of that 1976 Mk1 LT35. It's actually a Mk1 LT was first manufactured in 1976. The previous owner managed to register it as a 1973 model, no doubt to circumvent smog check rules. He passed away and the vehicle was abandoned in a storage garage. His landlord got his GF to sign the van over to him and subsequently sold to me. It's a long story how it ended up in a wrecking yard. Rest assured, it was too far gone to save. Cheaper to bring another on in from Europe.

Anyway, the LT's which came with gasoline engines used the same 2.0 inline-4 which Audi also put in the first generation Porsche 924 which they were also building. The LT versions were tuned for torque. Anything over 50mph is a struggle. I couldn't do 40mph trying to drive this guy back from Burbank, CA. BTW, the stickers are from 2 owners ago. I never got around to peeling them off which pissed off my neighbors to no end.😉 I still have two of the wheels which the junkyard didn't even want. They are 6x205mm which is the same as MB Unimogs and the dually MB Sprinters. Really useless in the US unless you have one of these bigger LT's.

It might interest some to know that later models had a 5-cyl diesels & turbodiesels which found their way in Volvos of the same era.

I hope this has answered some of your questions.

Ah, but there's one question that we still don't have the answer to: Who goes to Burning Man nowadays, anyway?

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The Finally Defunct Bugatti Veyron’s U.S. Sales Run: By The Numbers

Finally. The Veyron is done.

Bugatti reportedly sold the last Veyron, a car which will be displayed at the Geneva auto show in March, to a customer in the Middle East.

Volkswagen-owned Bugatti's 450-unit production run comes to a close after nearly a decade of delivering cars to customers. Although the cars routinely sold for more than $2M, Bloomberg referenced Singapore-based analyst Max Warburton who believes VW lost €4.6M per car, more than USD $5M.

Unlike the detailed sales reports we see each month from Volkswagen of America's namesake brand, Veyron-specific numbers were never formally reported. Automotive News reports that approximately one-quarter, or 113, of the Bugatti Veyrons produced ended up in the United States.

It would be easy to rib Bugatti for its sales struggles. But rather than critique the French hypercar, let's do ourselves the service of placing its numbers in context.

If there are 113 Bugatti Veyrons on America's roads – or more likely, locked in hyperbaric, anechoic chambers – how do such figures align with the sales numbers (circa 2014) for the vehicles you drive?

671 – the number of seconds it takes for Americans to buy 113 SUVs and crossovers.

79 – the number of minutes it takes Ford to sell 113 F-Series pickups in America. Ford sold more than 2000 F-Series per day in 2014, a slightly slower year for the F-Series, America's best-selling vehicle line.

9 – the number of hours Ford needed in the final two months of 2014 to sell 113 Mustangs.

5 – the number of days required for the Chevrolet Trax to find 113 new owners in its first month of availability, December, when a twin of the Trax, Buick's Encore, had already been on sale for nearly two years.

1 – the number of days required for GMC to sell 113 Yukons. The Yukon is the third-best-selling nameplate off GM's full-size SUV platform. On an average day in the U.S. in 2014, GM dealers sold 697 Escalades, Suburbans, Tahoes, Yukons, and Yukon XLs.

2 – the number of weeks required for Mercedes-Benz USA to sell 113 G-Class SUVs. At the moment, the G-Class has the highest base price of any SUV sold in the United States.

4925 – the number of minivans sold in America during calendar year 2014 for every Bugatti Veyron ever sold in America.

35,619 – the number of Toyota Camrys sold between 2005 and 2014 for every Veyron ever sold in America.

130 – the number of $845K+ Porsche 918 Spyders sold in the United States in its first eight months of availability.

51 – the number of miles one must drive from the Smart factory in Hambach, France – from which 10,453 Fortwos were shipped and sold in the United States in 2014 – to Molsheim, France, where the Veyron was assembled.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

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