2024 Mustang GT Driving Reviews! - Articles/Videos Compilation

[unfairslide]

I get what you are saying but at the same time I think you get what I am trying to say. I am assuming you have some tighter bond with Ford than what e.g. TH has, I'll leave it at that.

However with that said it's great if there is improvement on that front but listening to other reviewers that does not seem to be case in all aspects of the steering feel.

Let's see what the DH HP brings and also one topic that is easy to forget is the impact of alignment (to the extent possible with a stock GT)

I think what many reviews were doing is comparing it to mach1 and 350 steering, hoping it would be similar to that. In The Straight Pipes vid, their number one thing was how good the mach1 felt to them. If the 650 felt like that they'd call it perfect.

Question is what made it so good? Was it a different steering rack or something more simple like wheels and springs? If it's the latter, making those upgrades shouldn't be a problem for people who want it.

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[Face]

I get what you are saying but at the same time I think you get what I am trying to say. I am assuming you have some tighter bond with Ford than what e.g. TH has.

However with that said it's great if there is improvement on that front but listening to other reviewers that does not seem to be case in all aspects of the steering feel.

Let's see what the DH brings

Absolutely, I totally understand how that assumption would be made. But we're not exactly 'tight' with Ford in any way- I think they respect what we've done over the years and appreciate our reach to more of the enthusiast side of things as opposed to a general car audience like TH, Road & Track, etc.

I'll also admit that my reviews of the Mustangs, in general, will probably be more favorable than negative overall because I love what the Mustang is and genuinely enjoy watching the progression- for better or worse. Again, not a journalist- I'm an enthusiast and I don't make any bones about that.

But as I said earlier, I will not hesitate to call out Ford for some misses and the s650 is certainly not perfect in my opinion- the cumbersome and characterless, oversized screens, lack of physical buttons and doing away with the manual Eco- which are a few missteps in my opinion.

And I think the DH will only improve things overall.. To me the PP GT was an exponential improvement in feel over the Eco- I have a feeling the DH will take that even further.

 

[OppoLock]

Absolutely, I totally understand how that assumption would be made. But we're not exactly 'tight' with Ford in any way- I think they respect what we've done over the years and appreciate our reach to more of the enthusiast side of things as opposed to a general car audience like TH, Road & Track, etc.

I'll also admit that my reviews of the Mustangs, in general, will probably be more favorable than negative overall because I love what the Mustang is and genuinely enjoy watching the progression- for better or worse. Again, not a journalist- I'm an enthusiast and I don't make any bones about that.

But as I said earlier, I will not hesitate to call out Ford for some misses and the s650 is certainly not perfect in my opinion- the cumbersome and characterless, oversized screens, lack of physical buttons and doing away with the manual Eco- which are a few missteps in my opinion.

And I think the DH will only improve things overall.. To me the PP GT was an exponential improvement in feel over the Eco- I have a feeling the DH will take that even further.

Appreciate you chiming in, it sounds like you were also addressing some of the points I made regarding the validity of opinions and degree of criticism in these reviews.

Couple of direct questions about the steering if you don’t mind please:

Did they fix the ergos of the 9 and 3 grip? Was not a fan of the S550’s chunkiness that forced your hands into a Pac-Man C-clamp grip.

Do you feel like the shortened ratio was genuinely noticeable? Overall or mainly on turn in?

Did the steering load feel artificial and static, similar to the S550 GT’s? That was one of my main gripes (coupled with the S550’s lack of tightness, it led to a ton of mid-corner corrections, even on wide highway curves just to maintain a line).

I don’t mind light steering. I prefer it to fake “sport” settings which are artificially heavy (like in the standard S550s sport setting which just made things heavy for the sake of it). My concern is that the loads feel gummy, wooden, and non-linear. That’s what Thomas seemed to be expanding on in his review.

The summary I’m getting is that this sounds like prototypical post-EPAS era modern steering: accurate on-center, light in feel, refined from NVH and bump deflection to give the sense of refinement and perceived solidity. You know, like the steering in most modern German cars.

 

[BlackFerret69]

The shoulder obviously isn't anything Camaro specific, that's pretty much what all pony cars do. But the combination of all rearend styling element remind people of the Camaro and that's a very fair point since the Camaro surely was the more angular looking pony car and now the Mustang is doing a similiar approach to styling (which I really love and prefer over Gen 6 styling).

Look as this picture here. Even the trunk shape is pretty much identicial to the design line on the Camaro rear. The line continuing the diffusor horizontally is also on both cars. Even the doors now have the same design with the little wing shape on the bottom. I know some diehard Mustang fans just have to hate Camaro styling for any reason, but I think there's nothing wrong with copy some ideas from competitors that worked. Heck Gen 6 was a heavily inspired by the Aston Martin DB9 (the designers were actually related)

Good point. I agree with the borrowing of design elements from each other. Look at the cars from each decade, once one manufacturer does something popular, the rest follow up with something similar. The worst or best example of this trend are the cars of the '70's all were boxy and squared off.

I think that the last piece is the chase for these cars to be as aerodynamic as possible, there are only so many shapes that are the "most" aerodynamic.

I guess my impression is that the reviewers that do the most comparison to the camaro think that the new Mustang is an "Inferior" camaro. But the Mustang outsells the camaro hands down, and the Mustang is still here!

That said, you can't please all the people all the time.

Back to our regularly scheduled program!

 

[BlackFerret69]

Looks like media drives for Dark Horse at a track

Oh, that's gonna be fun!!!

 

[BoostRabbitGT]

I don’t mind light steering. I prefer it to fake “sport” settings which are artificially heavy (like in the standard S550s sport setting which just made things heavy for the sake of it). My concern is that the loads feel gummy, wooden, and non-linear. That’s what Thomas seemed to be expanding on in his review.

The summary I’m getting is that this sounds like prototypical post-EPAS era modern steering: accurate on-center, light in feel, refined from NVH and bump deflection to give the sense of refinement and perceived solidity. You know, like the steering in most modern German cars.

I remember test driving a 2019 Honda Accord Touring that had a sport setting with even heavier feeling compared to the S550's sport setting. For the record though, what does gummy/wooden steering feel like (I'm not familiar with those terms being used to describe steering feel)?

 

[Bullit]

Any other questions fire away!

Then, the steering is the only noteable difference with S550?

 

[OppoLock]

I remember test driving a 2019 Honda Accord Touring that had a sport setting with even heavier feeling compared to the S550's sport setting. For the record though, what does gummy/wooden steering feel like (I'm not familiar with those terms being used to describe steering feel)?

Sure, I'm just using figurative language. Wooden implying unresponsive and stiff (weighting and feedback), and gummy implying mushy and lacking precision (lack of accuracy and excessive slack). If I had to explain in as few words as possible, I'd use those.

 

[rhstang]

It's gotta be glass.. no way they put a plastic screen on a $50k vehicle

Unfortunately it's plastic

 

[rhstang]

Someone may have already mentioned this but what's up with the yellow splash performance pack night pony package not having a black painted spoiler these videos show it in yellow?

 

[bnightstar]

Then, the steering is the only noteable difference with S550?

I own a 2017 GT PP and the improvements on a 2024 GT PP based on the videos are a lot:

1. Faster steering is clearly noticeable on most of this videos and it's exciting this will make huge difference in lap times on tide tracks and auto cross.
2. Brakes the rear brembo are a big deal this will also improve performance.
3. My GT doesn't have temp gauges for oil (it does but not with actual temp number), trans fluid and diff fluids again not with actual numbers on the dash.
4. Performance pack Auxiliary gages are now configurable and not on the front dash this as well would make big difference on track as all the info you need will be easy accessible.
5. Aero changes and lower CD according to Jim this is the Mustang with lowest CD ever this is a big deal.

However the thing is that the S650 is like an iPhone upgrade something that James from TH also mentioned. Is a lot of small improvements to the same chassis (case) so this doesn't justify an upgrade for me because I already spend a lot on mods and don't want to start again. However I'm looking forward to see how the Dark Horse will present itself as it's more interesting to me as a car will be closer to what I already have.

 

[Desmodeous]

I think everyone is overblowing the steering a bit too much.

Did anyone watch the American muscle review? Dude is the only one out of the bunch who actually owns an s550 and knows these cars intimately. You can't find a single part of his drive where he isn't grinning ear to ear and having a blast and saying good things about the car.

I'm not trying to discount the other reviewers, just trying to stay neutral until I actually get behind the wheel myself. I know I'll be smiling just as hard the whole drive home.

It's not as though his entire business is hitched to being an approved aftermarket company for this locked-down vehicle. No, no. He's totally honest. Maybe smiling ear to ear knowing he's about to make bank on this thing.

 

[unfairslide]

It's not as though his entire business is hitched to being an approved aftermarket company for this locked-down vehicle. No, no. He's totally honest. Maybe smiling ear to ear knowing he's about to make bank on this thing.

Why would he pretend to like it if his business relies on people buying upgrades to make it better? Makes zero sense. More like he just loves mustang and is happy to be in the new gen.

 

[marcekb]

Why would he pretend to like it if his business relies on people buying upgrades to make it better? Makes zero sense. More like he just loves mustang and is happy to be in the new gen.

I kind of agree with @Desmodeous. Aftermarket companies don't make money if people don't buy the car in the first place.

But, I also think that most of the media drives were trying to make a name for themselves by regurgitating stuff to appear credibly balanced, and nearly all of them got something or another wrong (usually minor stuff). Further (and not necessarily a criticism), at best, they were comparing the Mustang to itself (S550). Or they compared it to what they thought it should be. Some directly contradicted each other in their experiences.

If you look at the reviews on YouTube for Mustangs (S550) and comparisons against other cars over the last few years, the one thing that is extremely consistent was no matter whether another competitor was faster, better steering, better handling, etc., they almost universally said the fun factor belonged to the Mustang. You could see it in their faces as they drove. They enjoyed driving the Mustang more than the others.

 

[SINBUSTER007]

not sure i have to watch all of them but throttle house hit the head on the nail with (what i feel) is the biggest complaint.... SCREENS, SCREENS, SCREENS! as they say "gamified" it.
"looks" like a pretty "focused" focus group was used....and nothing else.
p.s. everything else about the car i like....and the ONLY reason i will not buy is stated above.....

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