A Tale of Two Ponies

[15Pony]

My car is a '15 V6. But when I took it in for a warranty repair I was able to get a '16 EB as a loaner. Its the premium model. So I made sure to put some extra miles on it all in the name of evaluating LOL Now I can honestly compare two Mustangs. Here are some observations.

Quality is not Job One. I know a lot of people on here had body alignment issues, well this car had a very pronounced misalignment of the fender at the door edge. Also the windshield: cracked in two places. I'm on my 4th one. Now I'm convinced that there is something with the S550 design that is making them more susceptible to cracking. Maybe its the way the shape of the glass and the hood draws air and any debris in close, or maybe the glass spec is thinner than others. I don't know. Also....I've heard a lot of people complain about the dreaded driveline vibration. Well, this car rode AWFUL. Between 50 and 70 it was rough and loud. There was a seat-of-the-pants vibration plus steering wheel vibration. The wheels were stock 18" with stock tires and only 20k miles. Is this what the driveline vibration feels like? If not then whatever was wrong with it is another major quality issue - if it was MY car I'd give it back.

The pony projector lights. What the hell is this supposed to be? (see pic) It does not look like a pony to me. A blob of light. How useless.

Features I liked? Turn signals on the mirrors (one can never have too much light - a good safety feature); ambient lighting (I like the subtle light in the footwells and door handles); Sync system.

Power. Honestly, this Ecoboost felt faster off the line than my V6 and also faster at acceleration while at speed. In my V6, if I didn't hit the gas hard enough to cause a downshift right away it would sometimes struggle to gain power until it downshifted. With the EB, power to go was always there. Is this due to having more torque at lower rpm OR the fact that it had 3.31 gears and my V6 has 3.15 gears? Can someone explain what the difference would be in driving a 3.31 vs a 3.15 axle? As I understood, it would be quicker and I could feel it.

Gas mileage. This car sucked. The mpg according to the dash computer was significantly lower than my V6!

Drive Mode. What exactly does "sport+" do that sport mode ("S") on the shifter doesn't do?

Ford definitely has the edge on style but I did not expect this car to be in such poor condition, not to mention my own troubles with my '15. No way would I ever keep a new car with that kind of vibration, especially a $30,000 one.

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[ktp1598]

The pony light is busted. Mine looks like a horse. Panel gap and vibration could be due to a previous accident, same for the mirror projection light. As far as the glass, could be something from the original assembly or just coincidence. If the car is used as a rental/loaner by the dealer, it's had a hard life. I wouldn't take this car as an example of build quality as you don't know how it was used in those 20K miles.

 

[c-rizzle]

They might have turned a lemon in to a loaner.... ie: customer brought it back b/c of multiple problems. This might have been a car that was damaged on the transporter, always had a driveline issue.

Also, loaner & rental cars are abused. People don't care b/c they're not their cars. So the wheels might be out of balance from curbing the wheels, jumping curbs, who knows. It might have been wrecked & repaired, etc.

You shouldn't judge quality based on ANY loaner or rental.

 

[ktp1598]

Sorry about the grainy pic..

 

[Rough Hollow Man]

As an "Old Dufus", your second picture above^^^ is why I didn't want the premium A/C unit...that's too complicated and busy for this Old Dufus to use while cruising Texas Hill Country twisties. Einstein said it best, " Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler".

 

[15wile]

Funny thing about dealer loaners is that they are often turned into "certified used" cars, such that I'll never touch a certified car for fear that it might be disguised dealer car that's been abused to hell and back.

 

[15Pony]

Actually, by "loaner" I meant Enterprise rental. The window sticker says it was delivered to a dealer in Oklahoma, but it had a North Carolina registration and was in Mississippi. 20k miles in 6 months, as the build date says 02/16. So its been driven a lot.

I did look at things like paint overspray and under the hood as signs of prior wreck but there does not appear to be any. I really don't think that Enterprise takes their new cars back to the dealer to fix defects like panel gap and pony lights like a private owner would - is the warranty even valid for commercial rental cars? They apparently skimp on maintenance too - the "oil change required" notification popped up as oil life was at 0%.

The windshield had an oil change sticker from the Chevy dealer across the street that said it was due in 9/2016 and 14,000 miles. Now its September and it has 20k, somebody took that car on a VERY long road trip!

 

[Jdenkevitz]

I like the puddle light. This must be the Lovecraft/Cthulhu Special Edition Mustang.

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