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Ecoboost Rental Impressions from a long time SN95 owner.

Kevin08

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This is long, only read if you're bored at work (that's actually why I'm writing this), or just that interested. There's TLDR cliffs at the bottom. This stuff is old news for pretty much all of you, but this might be a refresher to you all who drive these cars every day and might need a reminder about how nice they truly are.


*Some back story*

My girlfriend was coming back from a month long trip for class and wanted me to meet her and two friends in New Orleans and drive home with her, so I decided to rent a new Mustang. I currently have a 2000 V6 Mustang auto (my first car) with some fair suspension/brake/drive line mods, no engine stuff. It does not accelerate - at all, rides fairly rough (H&R super sports/Bilsteins), brakes okay (13" Bullitt/Cobra brakes - no ABS), and it's a product of the '90s so the interior is god awful and things squeak etc. It looked pretty much like all other modded SN95s- Mach 1 grille delete and chin spoiler, smoked clear corner headlights, tinted tail lights, gloss black deck-lid between the tail lights, FR-500 wheels. Clean looking car, and quite modern for its time, even today its design looks quite relevant (due in no small part to the cosmetic mods) and is probably why I liked the S550 design so much, it's kind of the SN95's younger, cooler brother.


That said, it's neither a comfortable or fun car to take on trips, so I decided to rent the S550.

I originally planned on ordering a 15 this past April (GT premium manual - (maybe PP) is my only consideration), but with the combination of moving into a house, and reading all of the 1st MY issues with the 15, I didn't want to get into a financial rough with a $38,000 car that was assembled worse than my 16 year old Mustang. Now I'm waiting for the MY2017 with hopes that QC will be improved. Anyway - onto the rental!

*getting the car & first impressions*

I was fully expecting it to be the base V6, but it turned out to be an Ecoboost Premium. Guy at the counter chatted to me while doing the paperwork, told him I had an older Mustang and planned to buy a new one so was anxious to test one. He asked if I wanted a Camaro instead. Lol. No, bro.

So now I've got my rental agreement that no one cares about and am walking into the garage, see a black S550 with premium wheels behind the booth, then a white one about halfway down the aisle. Now, I have a white car, and have had a white car for about 10 years now. I am done with white cars.

He tells me it's the white one, the black one isn't ready. Damn! Oh well, it's still badass. I hop in it, all giddy, and turn it over. This is where I encounter gadget overload. Now I have sat in an S550, World Ford of Pensacola had a yellow premium PP in their show room and I put my ass in that car as soon as it the cars were hitting the dealers. But sitting in one that you have temporary ownership of is a lot different than being in a showroom with 4-5 stooges staring at you, plus, now the engine was running, and I can do whatever I want with it.

Literally had no idea what to do. My car has 3 light sources inside - the gauges, my aftermarket head unit, and my HVAC controls. So many lights in the S550. I've been in dozens of 'modern' cars and driven several, including a 2013 V6 premium, but this just seemed so fancy in comparison. First thing I did - turned on the A/C seats "Let's see if the back works," well it feels cold for about 15 seconds then fades away. As I'm sitting there getting my swamp ass chilled, I start adjusting stuff so I don't immediately wreck the car coming out of the parking garage. Visibility looks good, hood is a bit massive compared to my new edge, but doesn't feel any longer. Damn I love those humps on it. Seats are very comfortable, Ceramic looks great, adds a bit more class. Leather doesn't feel cheap, no wrinkles in the seats, or loose-fitting bits. I look at the back seat - yeah that's useless, looks cool though. The bench seat in the SN95 is more practical, though - who cares.

I connect my phone, start the music. Sounds not terrible, bass is lacking, but it's clear. I have the Mach 460 but I replaced the four front speakers with Infinity Kappa, and added a 10" sub.

Toggles! Sport steering, track mode. Put it in reverse to finally get moving. Back up camera with trajectory is pretty cool, I'm not used to that shit, I turned my head to get out of the spot. Then put the shifter in "S" and start moving - hey it doesn't sound too bad.

I spent about 2 hours driving it around, going to my parents' place to let my dad drive it, and then off to my brother's to do the same. My brother's got a 2012 Jeep GC and was very impressed by the new Mustang. The S197, not so much. After playing with it in sport steering and track mode, he looked over and said "this would definitely pass the moose test" - for those of you familiar with the new Jeep Grand Cherokees, you'd understand the reference.

My dad's always had Mustangs, but never the nice ones. An '80s four-eye T-top 6 Cylinder and now a '96 SN95 V6 (he keeps cars for 20 years at a time). The man could buy a GT350R with cash but he insists on driving shitty cars. He liked the S550, but has old school doubts about turbos - "I hope they have improved the reliability of these over the years." I could see him getting the V6, maybe one day.

So after showing it off and enjoying it with the family, I go home, put it in the garage, get out and admire it. "Yeah it looks good in here." Those puddle lights! Man I have always thought they were cheesy, I'm a grown ass man and now there are illuminated ponies on the floor of my garage. The passenger side one has a scratch or something in the paint on the lens so it actually looked like a fuckin' unicorn. It's cool though, I could live with it. I notice that the rear glass is lower on the left side than the right, and Budget put some clear vinyl on the corner of the trunk where it hinges because it was rubbing the quarter panel. God damn union workers. Now it's about 1230 and I have to be on the road to New Orleans at 8, so I go to sleep.



*the trip*

I get up, get ready, and let my roommate take it for a spin. He works nights and just got home, dude's probably ready to pass out but all he wants to do is drive the car. He races motorcycles and is now a truck guy, but he too loved the S550. "I can't wait for you to buy yours so I can drive it". I tried to program the car with his garage door opener, but honestly I have no idea how to do that. Probably some combination of buttons but I didn't have the manual and didn't want look it up, so I just told my roommate to shut it and took off. Sport steering, track mode, 'S' shifter position.

Merging onto I10 was the first time I actually ran it hard, got it in boost and passed several cars on the two lane on ramp and was at 100 by the time I got on the interstate, it felt like I was going 50. At this point, my car would be falling apart, hell it can only reach about 110mph before it hits the limiter. It's so quiet, so comfortable, no rattles, no squeaks (no noise from the headlight switch). So nice. I set cruise for 80 then start playing with the gauge modes and cycling through all of the menus, load my phone book and call my girlfriend. "Hey, I'm on my way and I'm calling you from the car!" Yeah, this is a feature on pretty much every car now days but I got excited over it, go to hell. It was also the only thing I knew how to do through Sync. I use Spotify for my phone and it doesn't look like Sync can control that, so I just stuck with the steering wheel buttons (also so cool, damn my car is old!).

Now as I'm getting comfortable with the seat settings, I start admiring the build quality of the interior. It looks like everything had some effort or thought put into it. But wait, why is the mirror vibrating so bad? Everything is solid, feels good, and sounds good, and the god damn rear view mirror is completely useless. Not to sound like the worst person in the world right now, but the rear view mirror in this car shakes worse than Michael J Fox. Are they all like this? It reminded me that I was still in a Ford, after all. Another thing. On the SN95, the door panels have nice curves and have some sloping contours that allow you to comfortably rest your leg against it while driving (pic included at bottom). I don't like using the dead pedal, and especially on the interstate where your legs can get tired, I like to prop my knee against the door. "Why does my knee hurt?" Oh, because that metal door handle is jabbing right into a pressure point. Oh well, I'll take the pain (that area is still kind of sore from resting it there so long). Back is starting to feel warm from the seat cooler (oh the irony). Turned it off, bittersweet feeling. Really hope that fix is done before I have my car. What else can I play with?

Oh, the god damn head rest tilts forward so it can actually touch your head! Again, this may have been in Mustangs for years, I would have no idea. The head rests on the SN95 are more like resting blocks for the back of your neck before your head is chopped off. "How far does this go?" Pretty far, it took me a while to figure out how to tilt it back, but it was pretty cool being able to use the headrest without having to look straight up. These seats are so comfortable.

As my Spotify playlist continues I start to notice the overall mediocrity of the sound system. Shaker 500? More like Shitter 500. Oh well, the Bluetooth functionality is great, and it's very user friendly as well.

Looking through the track apps menus, appears a previous renter achieved .67G lat, 1.08G brake, .67G acceleration.

About 45 minutes from New Orleans, I text my girlfriend and tell her she's going to love this car. She knows I'm planning to get a new Mustang, "impractical" she always says. "Can't take the dogs in it, not a potential family car, I won't know how to drive it, etc". Hell with that, I can buy an additional car in six years. So yeah, I meet up with her and her friends at the hotel (about 11AM in Metarie). It's like 105 fucking degrees. Her friends are sitting in their rental Town and Country and my girlfriend joins me in the Mustang "we have A/C'd seats!" Yea, she loves the car. Show her the remote start feature "Mine won't have this..automatic only" and the gadgets, and the trunk space. She thought she wouldn't be able to fit all of her bags, ha! I can put like three dead hookers in this thing. Probably twice the volume as the SN95. The last person we were waiting for (one of the other girls' brothers) meets up in his Mazda 3 speed, and we all set off. One of her friends decides she wants to ride with us, so she gets the back seat. Hey, turns out it's not useless. Oh, your head is touching the window? I'll try to avoid the bumps. Drive it to downtown New Orleans, many gazes and looks. I didn't see a single S550 the whole time. This is a fantastic city car. We reach our destination and do the whole new orleans thing.

*last day*

Yesterday we got up and met my cousin and his wife for breakfast at Camelia Grill. My girlfriend's friends had left for Pensacola already and took the van, so now we can just relax and not worry about their crazy asses. Took a leisure drive to St. Charles, always loved that area of town and damn does it compliment this car nicely. Let my cousin drive it, he had never been a big Mustang fan, always leaning slightly Camaro, or European, but now he's married and drive a Mazda 6 Touring. Not a bad car, not a Mustang. Track and Sport mode, broke the rear end loose and hauled ass down Leake Ave (road that runs along the river). He loves it "Honey, we have to get air conditioned seats in our next car." Everything about it meets his approval, his wife says kind of jokingly - "Kevin, you know this car won't work when you have a family" I do what I want! My girlfriend sides with her. Y'all crazy, says me and cousin.

We got back around 5PM yesterday, still have the car for 3 more hours. Girlfriend and I take it shopping "you're driving it, babe" She's nervous about it, "it's so long!" I show her how the different steering modes feel, and the describe the driving modes. She goes with sport steering and normal driving. Now, the whole way back from Louisiana she was saying how she knows I'm getting one, but she hates it. I'm going to kill myself and she won't be able to drive if it she has to, and why don't you just get a Jeep or something? Jeeps are cool.

Yeah, Jeeps are cool. But this is Florida and I'm an impractical bastard.

As she's pulling it out of the target parking lot she starts grinning. "Dang, I like it. A lot" She looks happy and super sexy driving it. "What is are the faster modes like? I put it in sport and the engine downshifts and I tell her to gun it down a stretch of highway that runs along the bay. "Okay, that's fast, I'm going 60!" (She drives an '05 Mazda 3 4 cylinder).

We get to my parents' house, she grabs my Mustang and I take the rental, and we head to the airport to drop it off. I pull into the return area, do a master reset on SYNC/MFT, wipe all of the track apps data, etc. Hand over the key fob and walk back to my car. Averaged 27.5MPG for my trip, cruising @80 on the highway, a lot of spirited driving and some city driving thrown in. Ecoboost is a solid engine.

Back in the SN95

It's so god damn dark in here. Oh, I have to use the key to turn it on? My brakes feel like they don't work, there are so many rattles, the acceleration is pure shit, cloth seats are lame, and I have to plug my phone in to play music, and I can't control it from the steering wheel! FML. One more year. At least my rear view mirror is solid.

*Final thoughts*

I'm blown away by the S550, for all of the quirks and minor issues mentioned here, such as the seats, the panel alignment, etc. It's awesome. Driving it was awesome, looking at it was awesome, sharing it with people was awesome. It felt like I belonged in it. If I didn't have some kind of irrational desire to must have a GT after 10 years of having one of the slowest Mustangs on the road, I'd go with the ecoboost. It sounds like a hair dryer, but drives completely the opposite.



added:
I should clarify that the in cab sound of the EB is quite nice, but the outside noise is very underwhelming. It does not sound like a car that makes 320hp. But of course, that's irrelevant when you're effortlessly flying by a 328i who's trying to overtake you because you sprayed him with wiper fluid while he was behind you with his hand sticking out of the sunroof. Hilarious.

I'm looking forward to driving the GT, my girlfriend thought the EB was 'too fast' and when she asked "so your car is going to be faster than this?" She thought I was nuts. The EB is definitely "enough" car. I don't see them as a compromise, I'd even go so far to say that it's the smartest choice. Good on gas, good performance, and will still best many of your coworkers' daily drivers. The automatic, even, great transmission. It's sensible, yet fun. I just have this...itch, I want see what it's like to have "too much car" and an archaic manual transmission. I'm too young to be complacent with an auto in a sports car. When I'm older I'll go for the 'smart' choices.

TLDR cliffs:

- Everyone who saw and drove the car loved it
- Ceramic looks awesome, wish it was available in the premiere trim (but it didn't feel cheap in any way)
- Rear view mirror vibrates like crazy, almost useless (common?)
- Ecoboost gets incredible gas mileage with spirited driving
- The drive modes are definitely not a gimmick
- My girlfriend has warmed up to the idea of me getting a new Mustang (wouldn't affect my decision either way)
- Ecoboost sounds like a hair dryer
- I didn't see any issues with MFT, sure it has a tiny delay. Who cares? You have a fucking touch screen in your car you bastards
- I don't have much personal use for SYNC
- Shaker 500 should be called Shitter 500
- Them panel gaps
- Super comfortable ride, yet a bit bouncy
- IRS is so graceful compared to my live axle
- Going back to the SN95 was super depressing
- Can't wait to own one, the little stuff doesn't matter in the end, I'd definitely go with an Ecoboost if I wasn't set on a GT.
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50hhh

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Just imagine going from an sn95 to a s550 GT...
 

EcoSwag1990

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Nice review, hopefully all the little quirks will be worked out by the time you get yours. Just Imagine the look on this guys face when your modded EB passes his stock 5.0 :D (cue argument)

Just imagine going from an sn95 to a s550 GT...
 

Desmondo

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Nice review, hopefully all the little quirks will be worked out by the time you get yours. Just Imagine the look on this guys face when your modded EB passes his stock 5.0 :D (cue argument)
Yeah, but then imagine the dude with wife, kids et al. in an E63AMG passing the slow modded Ecoboost and GT, who then gets passed by the single studmeister in his 911 Turbo S, all of whom get smoked by the guy in one of these: http://www.prideaircraft.com/flanker.htm :headbonk:
 

richmo

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You should write for Jalopnik, lol. Great write-up sounds like you enjoyed yourself.
 

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plc268

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Yep, my rear view mirror bounces like crazy, but I always figured it's because I have my radar detector attached to it. The radar bounces even more (Passport Max 2), but that's because of it's terrible mounting system.

As long as I keep it below 80, it doesn't shake much.

And yep, the Shaker system sucks. I can't speak for the system with the sub, but the onen without has almost no bass at all. My 2012 Ford Fiesta easily had more bass than the mustang with stock speakers. I'll eventually replace the ones in my Mustang when the temperature isn't 100 degrees outside, but I dread replacing the ones under the back glass.
 

Ecoboosted

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Good review. The EB has plenty of power with great gas mileage. I ended up getting a pretty much loaded EB for less than a base GT.

I don't think the engine sounds like a hair dryer but it's not bad overall. You really don't hear anything while driving. The exhaust is probably my only thing i regret about not getting a GT but good power and great gas mileage was my main concern.

My rear view mirror doesn't shake at all.

I got white because my last 3 cars were black and if your OCD black will drive you crazy.

I think the sound system sounds great but then again i'm not a audio system expert by any means.

I really haven't experienced anything bad as far as panel alignment, fit and finish or rattles compared to other members here on the forum.

I have the performance pack and i think it drives great. A little on the bouncy side but not much.

I've had plenty of Mustangs and Camaro's from the past from various years and generations and i think the 6th gen. Mustang is the best of the bunch.

Like i said good review of the EB Mustang.
 

CJ4life

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My rear view mirror has never rattled, so I'm thinking it might be a rental car thing.
 

50hhh

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Nice review, hopefully all the little quirks will be worked out by the time you get yours. Just Imagine the look on this guys face when your modded EB passes his stock 5.0 :D (cue argument)
never said anything negative about the EB. Better have a lot of mods and $$$$ to pass a stock 5.0...:thumbsup:
 
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Kevin08

Kevin08

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It is quite the car. I should clarify that the in cab sound of the EB is quite nice, but the outside noise is very underwhelming. It does not sound like a car that makes 320hp. But of course, that's irrelevant when you're effortlessly flying by a 328i who's trying to overtake you because you sprayed him with wiper fluid while he was behind you with his hand sticking out of the sunroof. Hilarious.

I'm looking forward to driving the GT, my girlfriend thought the EB was 'too fast' and when she asked "so your car is going to be faster than this?" She thought I was nuts. The EB is definitely "enough" car. I don't see them as a compromise, I'd even go so far to say that it's the smartest choice. Good on gas, good performance, and will still best many of your coworkers' daily drivers. The automatic, even, great transmission. It's sensible, yet fun. I just have this...itch, I want see what it's like to have "too much car" and an archaic manual transmission. I'm too young to be complacent with an auto in a sports car. When I'm older I'll go for the 'smart' choices.
 

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Syracuse315

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Just imagine going from an sn95 to a s550 GT...
Oh I can! Started in a 2000 Mustang GT Manual (rear ended) to a 2009 Pontiac G6 Automatic, now waiting on a 2016 GT PP to come in. What a difference this is going to be.
 

oilfieldtrash

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I liked your review. I have a loaded ecoboost premium auto with the shaker sound with the sub. It's a better system than the standard shaker which doesn't include the sub. I'm guessing you had the standard shaker? It sounds good to me but of course a custom sound system is going to sound better.
I don't have any of the issues that supposedly plague the s550. I guess I got lucky because I didn't even research the s550. I just bought one on a whim. Now that I know about the "widespread issues" I looked my car over and found none of those.
I am a little older (probably) than you? I'm 34 and like having a drivers license and cheap insurance. Call me crazy. So to me it wouldn't matter if it made 310 hp or 420hp. I drive the speed limit 99% of the time. I think the ecoboost has plenty when I need or want it.
After having read so much here about the GT being the greatest car ever I test drove one recently. I've owned my ecoboost for about 10 months and know the power well. So getting into the GT I was expecting a ton more power. It was louder and sounded better. Then again there's the age thing coming back and I realize I don't want a louder car. It was faster. But it wasn't that much faster. I was expecting a lot more. The ecoboost makes a ton of torque down low so where the gt does shine in the top end you never really get to enjoy it unless you like speeding tickets. So for day to day stoplight to stoplight the difference is very small. And also I had been babying the ecoboost since the last reset on the trip odometer. I was averaging 30mpg and when I got to the lot and saw the epa ratings for the GT I wanted no part of that.
 

50hhh

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Oh I can! Started in a 2000 Mustang GT Manual (rear ended) to a 2009 Pontiac G6 Automatic, now waiting on a 2016 GT PP to come in. What a difference this is going to be.
Yep my brother has an 02 GT and when I drive that and get back in my car it pulls like a train compared to the 02
 

Carzzi

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My rear-view mirror drives me nuts.
 
 




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