Grassroots Motorsports

2008 Ford Mustang V6

Better than: Mitsubishi Eclipse V6
But not as good as: Mustang GT
GRM Bang For The Buck Index: 66.13  

It seems like lately, every press vehicle that has arrived at our office has been served with an automatic transmission. You can imagine our delight when we saw that our latest test subject was equipped with a good old-fashioned clutch pedal.

As a sporty convertible, the Mustang works well for short trips and relaxed drives around town. The V6 provides enough power for commuting, and its engine produces a terrific note, especially considering that it’s two cylinders shy of its big brother.

Earlier Mustang convertibles are plagued with cowl shake when they encounter expansion joints and uneven pavement, and that issue hasn’t entirely disappeared from this car. For the most part, however, the Mustang V6 is an easy, comfortable cruiser.

If you can’t spring for the big, bad GT model, the V6 offers most of the look, sound, and feel for about five grand less.

Other staff views:

Here’s an interesting tidbit of info: The latest Mustang V6 engine makes about as much horsepower as the once all-mighty 5.0 V8. True, the Mustang has put on about 500 pounds since then, but that’s still fairly impressive.

Looking at this Mustang as a nice, fair-weather cruiser and not a Solo crown contender, the setup was nearly perfect. The V6 was capable, the five-speed quite nice, and the Shaker 500 stereo had plenty of thump. Throw in the convertible top and satellite radio, and it was the perfect car for a fall day here in Florida. I know most of our readers are more into go than show, but I also dig the Bullitt-style wheels and grille-mounted lamps.

Good or bad, the latest Mustang still feels like a Mustang.

After spending a few days (and a few hundred miles) behind the wheel of this Mustang, it’s easy to see why they are such big sellers. Great looks, a nice gearbox/ clutch relationship and decent torque make this Ford a pleasure in day to day driving.

The chassis isn’t the most solid with the top down, but it never bites you, and faithfully does what it’s told. The interior plastics seemed a bit cheap at first, but after a few miles of top down driving I forgot all about the parts-bin pieces and really started to enjoy the car. The V6 feels and sounds OK, as long as you are at 1/2 throttle or less.

At higher RPM’s this powerplant fails to inspire, but that’s why there is a V8 available. Sure $30K isn’t chump change, but this Mustang was pretty loaded up with heated seats, power everything, and of course those goofy dash and cupholder lights that you can change between 8 or so settings. This overall package is nice enough to inspire real car lust—for the V8 model.

Reader comments:

1. confuZion3: — Oct 28, 2008 3:43 p.m.
   

   I drove the V-6 Coupe when it came out in the 2005 model year. I really enjoyed it. I’m glad to see the convertible doesn’t let you down.

2. chknhwk: — Oct 28, 2008 4:42 p.m.
   

   Did I read that right? The rear brakes are bigger than the fronts?

3. BluEvo210: — Nov 6, 2008 12:14 p.m.
   

   I thought a V6 Mustang might be a good highway car, and I was thinking about taking one for a test drive. I was encouraged to see that Consumer Reports liked the GT and rated the reliability as average. Can’t fault Ford for that; “Average” is average. Then, I saw their reliability rating for the V6 and decided I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.

   I still haven’t found an explanation for how the V8 model can have average reliability, and the V6 can be the biggest peice of junk Ford makes. Maybe they got a lot of survey results from bozos who didn’t know to change their oil… Maybe that fate befalls more V6 Fords than I realized.

4. Tom Heath: — Nov 12, 2008 1:48 p.m.
   

   Yes, the rear brakes are slightly bigger than the fronts. My W.A.G. is that the rear brakes directly carry over from the GT, whereas the fronts are unique to the V6 car.

5. integraguy: — Nov 18, 2008 4:52 p.m.
   

   While I would like to own a Mustang convertible, the city I live in is too theft-prone for me to ever enjoy one. My sister had the previous model V6 coupe with a manual tranny, and I never heard her complain…except a little bit about gas mileage (she traded a 200 SX SE for the Mustang). I guess one reason why the V6 doesn’t merit even an “average” from CR readers is because buyers try to drive them like GTs and/or expect them to drive like GTs, but with better reliability. From (indirect) experience with Ford’s V6s, the transmissions (the automatics, anyway) are the “weak link”, tho on other forums, folks diss the Vulcan and the DOHC 4 liter for being “truck engines”….but with no real explanations of why.

6. rogerbvonceg: — Dec 19, 2008 11:54 a.m.
   

   On the brakes, are both pairs vented discs? I’ve seen some cars recently with big solid discs in the rear and smaller diameter vented discs in the front.