A touch crude, the Mustang’s V6 has to go. Ford has done a fine job of updating it to have newer technology, but it’s torn between making power and delivering decent fuel economy.
As a result, the V6 has been saddled with a lazy six-speed manual transmission in our tester. Both sixth and fifth gears are excessively tall so as to reach a fuel economy goal of 29 mpg highway. The result is that with zero throttle response in either of them, you’re only left with four gears to actually drive the car with.
A new EcoBoost 2.3-liter 4-cylinder is a welcome addition with plenty of around-town torque and and fuel economy that should (in theory) improve.
