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Payne: Five things about the 2024 Ford Mustang
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 18, 2022
The Ford Mustang created the US muscle car segment in 1965, and it looks to be the last V8-powered muscle car standing after the 2024 model year. Both the Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger are packing it in.
Credit Ford with shrewd product planning to keep the regulatory vultures at bay. Though some Mustang fans have pooh-poohed the Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle as “not a real Mustang,” Where the V8-powered Challenger and Charger are racking up significant government fines, Ford insiders say the Mustang EV’s credits helped save its V8-powered sibling sports car’s from regulatory jail.
“Investing in another generation of Mustang is a big statement at a time when many of our competitors are exiting the business of internal combustion vehicles,” said chief motorhead and Ford CEO Jim Farley, an accomplished racer.
Product planning innovation aside, the seventh-gen Mustang continues the successful formula of the sixth-gen car with convertible, manual, and turbo-4/V8 cylinder power. But the new car is hardly mailing it in.
The ‘24 promises significant upgrades in technology and styling that should please long-time fans and a new generation of buyers alike. Here are five notable things about the new pony:
1) Style. For the sixth-gen car, Mustang went international, selling in over 140 markets. To appeal to its new audiences, the Ford got a more international style – less American muscle, more Ford sedan model line with softer edges and a cowl-less grille. The car was a huge hit – but the muscle-car faithful at home derided the car as the “Mustang Fusion.”
While maintaining the last gen’s modern design cues, the 2024 model leans into its muscular American design heritage. Take the steering wheel, for example. The sixth gen’s hub was round – the seventh gen’s is rectangular, like the Hulk’s pecs. The theme is repeated throughout the vehicle.
The grille is more squared-off, less ovoid. The headlights (the three rectangular beams) are set back in the bodywork like the 1969 Boss 302 – a horizontal line running across the grille’s brow, emphasizing the cars low stance. Indeed, the whole front clip is different for the GT and standard Ecoboost cars, a Mustang first. Other signature pieces are strong rear hip lines, and a functional GT hood sccop that pulls air through the front grille for downforce and to cool the radiator.
2) Interior. Welcome to the 21st century. While not as radical as the Mustang Mach-E’s screen-focused, Tesla-like interior, the 2024 has a modern interior like no Mustang before it.
Rather than the Mustang’s classic double-bubble dash, the new car gets twin, hoodless 12.4-inch instrument and 13.3-inch console screens running across the dash. A single button on the console operates volume.
The Mustang comes with six Drive Modes: Normal, Sport, Track, Drag, Slippery, and Custom. Thanks to state-of-the-art graphics from Unreal Engine 3D – the same gaming engine found in the hit video game, Fortnight, and the GMC Hummer EV – the screen display changes with each mode. Select the track mode and a map for Grattan Raceway in Grand Rapids – where Mustang underwent extensive testing – appears
The infotainment system is run by Ford’s latest SYNC 4 which allows wireless Apple CarPlay/Andriod Auto.
3) V8 power. The dual-overhead cam Coyote engine makes one of the auto kingdom’s most distinctive sounds and it is back in the GT model. Expect more capability thanks to dual throttle bodies which driver’s will want to show off at the Woodward Dream Cruise with the hood up.
The engine breathes through twin snorkels attached to the twin nostrils on either side of the front grille. The standard, turbocharged, 2.3-liter 4-banger is no slouch either making more than 300 horsepower.
4) Tricks. This being a muscle car, it has some cool tricks up it’s sleeve. The sixth-gen model debuted line lock – so that, dude, you could smoke your rear tires while stationary at stoplight. The 2024 model introduces Electronic Drift Brake for drifting.
The Mustang comes standard with a handbrake, then the e-Brake option (when actuated via the screen) encourages drivers to slew the rear end out and wow your friends – and melt your rear rubber to the cords. Ford developed the feature with professional drift racer, Vaughan Gittin, Jr.
Remote key fob tricks have become hip – think Tesla’s remote park feature. Mustang owner’s can use their key fob Remote Rev feature to rev their steed remotely. Vroom vroom!
5) Customization. Owners have always had a lot of choices to make the Mustang their own. The 2024 is no different. The car options 11 colors including new Yellow Splash and Vapor Blue. Brembo brakes – optioned on the Performance Pack – will also be available in three different colors. And there is even a Bronze trim option – part of the Mustang Design Series – with Sinister Bronze alloy wheels and a bronze pony logo on the grille.
In the screen display’s Custom driving mode, the ‘Stang’s current setup is displayed on the center stack as real-time graphical renderings. Settings can then be adjusted – gaming style – by simply swiping the graphic to rotate the car virtually.
The Mustang begins production at Flat Rock assembly in the summer of 2023.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.