Why did Ford rush the 2018 facelift?

[Chef jpd]

My only pic of my orange 16 that I traded for the green 20.
I like the 16 nose better, but love all the rest of the 20 in every way.

20200807_114612 by chefjpd, on Flickr

Butt comparison as well:

20200810_144243 by chefjpd, on Flickr

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[Lukas]

Is the rear fog light LED now? On my 2017, it's not, nor are the front fogs.

On my 2020, all 3 bulbs back there were incandescent. First mod I did was swap those to LED.

Front fogs, which are now part of the turn signal housing, are LED though.

 

[Elvis67]

My only pic of my orange 16 that I traded for the green 20.
I like the 16 nose better, but love all the rest of the 20 in every way.

20200807_114612 by chefjpd, on Flickr

Butt comparison as well:

20200810_144243 by chefjpd, on Flickr

Sexy Skittles

 

[JohnnyGT]

I think they everyone with an 18+ who's come out of the woodwork to tell me that they prefer the 15-17 front end is just really excited at the prospect that I might call them all unicorns

Please?

 

[-Armoured-]

So here is a picture of my my19. I think it looks a million times better than the 15-17 shape, but I guess I'm biased.

 

[Joe B.]

Some great info here, thanks @amk91 and a few others. I think I recall reading that the original design was shown to management and rejected, then revised to what became the 2015 in a short period, say 6 months. A huge consideration in the design is the global factor which could account for the sharply sloping hood and timeline on the 2018 refresh. I think the idea is for pedestrians to fly over the car when hit, not go under it.

 

[MisterZ]

So here is a picture of my my19. I think it looks a million times better than the 15-17 shape, but I guess I'm biased.

Why does every Mustang owner in Australia have to do something to change the appearance of the vehicle? It's fine as it is, I wish more people would just stick with the stock appearance. That said, that photo shows an angle you've chosen - we see almost none of the front, and you've lowered it as well.

Have you noticed most dealers selling used ones, don't take photos directly from the front with the facelift version, whereas they do more often with the pre-facelift?

The front of the my18 is totally dominated by that big grille. Not good. It's just too much... black. Wasted space. Most cars that have big grilles are trucks and SUVs, and they have chrome bars or other styling elements to make it look interesting. This is a big grille with nothing to make it interesting.
The turn signals on the side are enclosed in a very odd shaped triangular housing. The area underneath the grille is empty and pointless - we have one long uninterrupted bit of painted plastic at the bottom, with nothing in the black area above it. Looks boring and empty.
On the my15, the lower bumper complements the styling of the upper bumper, there's a connection there. There's no connection between lower and upper on the facelift - it's just a mixture of odd angles and shapes that makes no sense at all.
Now looking at the bonnet. Look at the windscreen of each car. On the pre-facelift, we can see part of the bulge of the bonnet in front of the windscreen. Looks muscular. When someone sees that in their rear view mirror, it stands out because few other cars have that. When you're in the driver's seat, you see it too of course.
Bonnet of the facelift? Not muscular. Aggressive, maybe. A bee can be aggressive, but not muscular. I'll admit, the intakes look good on the facelift, but we missed out on them in Australia on the pre-facelift. That's a separate issue. Other than that, there are no interesting design features of the new bonnet - it's just mostly flat and boring. It curves downwards too much at the front. Notice how in the my15, the whole front is more upright and "solid" looking, while on the my18 it all just droops downwards at the front.
Anyway, I could go on, but that covers the main points.

 

[pyrophilus]

THIS! I had my tire replaced yesterday (had my '19 for 6 whole days now), and when they were backing the car out, I noticed the back up lamp was incandescent!!!

I SHOULD HAVE KEPT MY LED's from my '17... I am sure they updated ALL of the bulb's to LED's I said...

And the stupid map lights! The interior looks decent and then the map light housing looks like something that they pulled from 1990's parts bin... with INCANDESCENTS!!!

 

[cmxPPL219]

Why does every Mustang owner in Australia have to do something to change the appearance of the vehicle? It's fine as it is, I wish more people would just stick with the stock appearance.

You're stating an opinion, which is fine, allowed, and you're absolutely entitled to. However, car enthusiasts from any part of the world, Australia included, have a right to modify their car as they see fit, and there is nothing wrong with that either. Styling is purely subjective, and if an owner sees any part of the original design they would like to tweak, customize, etc., there's nothing telling them should not, aside from an opinion from someone else.

The turn signals on the side are enclosed in a very odd shaped triangular housing. The area underneath the grille is empty and pointless - we have one long uninterrupted bit of painted plastic at the bottom, with nothing in the black area above it. Looks boring and empty.

Again, there's subjectivity here, and to play devil's advocate, the turn signal on the MY18+ from an objective standpoint is brighter, longer, and each pulse of the turn signal or 4-way flasher (hazard) is more easily seen due to the LEDs, than the old incandescent bulb unit.
Integration of fog lamp into the turn signal unit, and what looks better, compared to the previous stand-alone lower fog lamp, is also subjective.
However, objectively speaking, the 18+ fog light, although smaller, is actually brighter than the previous stand-alone lower unit, as it is not only aimed, but bright enough to actually be a true fog light, as opposed to the previous design. In the previous design, at least in North America, the brightness of the fog lamp doesn't change from the brightness that it is as a daytime running lamp, which technically, it cannot be seen as a true fog lamp then. (many cars in general that have "fog lamps" actually aren't even bright enough to be considered a fog lamp, despite their lower fascia location. Many just end up as accent lights.)
On some models, the small black triangular piece functions as the air curtain inlet, on other models such as the PP cars, it's a blanking plate due to wider tires.

Bonnet of the facelift? Not muscular. Aggressive, maybe. A bee can be aggressive, but not muscular.

Again, a lot of this subjective, but this depends on the view of the car. The design and upper crease that flanks both sides of the bonnet/hood, and how they converge slightly as it moves away from the A pillar, adds a certain curvature and downward slope to the hood, making it less of a long straight board, which the 15-17 models don't have such a curve. In some pictures from some angles, specifically the front 3/4 on the 15-17, the hood crease is this long, straight line coming from the A pillar, which appears to not match the rest of the car's greenhouse, A pillar backward.
When looking at the side view, the 15-17 cars had an almost equal bonnet and rear deck height. 18+ up cars have the hoodline slightly lower, creating a slightly higher than hood rear deck, lending to a more sports car aesthetic, than muscle car.

Again, the styling we can go on all day about, they are purely subjective discussions.

At the end of it, I've seen almost equal enthusiasm for both 15-17, and 18+. Both have been popular in terms of sales.

I've also had a 17 GT, and I see elements of both cars that work, and some that don't.

 

[pyrophilus]

Please?

I have no problem if a 15-17 owner comes up to me and says that they prefer THEIR front end better. I have a problem when someone that doesn't even own a mustang comes up to me and says that I effed up because the 15-17's are so much nicer looking than my '19, and then they get in their paint-faded, white 1996 BMW 5 series with chrome door edge guards around door edges and gas cap, and a BIG BMW windshield decal and drive off.

 

[MisterZ]

I have no problem if a 15-17 owner comes up to me and says that they prefer THEIR front end better. I have a problem when someone that doesn't even own a mustang comes up to me and says that I effed up because the 15-17's are so much nicer looking than my '19, and then they get in their paint-faded, white 1996 BMW 5 series with chrome door edge guards around door edges and gas cap, and a BIG BMW windshield decal and drive off.

I'm pretty sure that in the US market, there was no such thing as a 1996 5-series. 1995 was the last year of the E34 in the US, while 1997 was the first model year for the new E39

 

[Fly2High]

Why does every Mustang owner in Australia have to do something to change the appearance of the vehicle? It's fine as it is, I wish more people would just stick with the stock appearance. That said, that photo shows an angle you've chosen - we see almost none of the front, and you've lowered it as well.

Have you noticed most dealers selling used ones, don't take photos directly from the front with the facelift version, whereas they do more often with the pre-facelift?

The front of the my18 is totally dominated by that big grille. Not good. It's just too much... black. Wasted space. Most cars that have big grilles are trucks and SUVs, and they have chrome bars or other styling elements to make it look interesting. This is a big grille with nothing to make it interesting.
The turn signals on the side are enclosed in a very odd shaped triangular housing. The area underneath the grille is empty and pointless - we have one long uninterrupted bit of painted plastic at the bottom, with nothing in the black area above it. Looks boring and empty.
On the my15, the lower bumper complements the styling of the upper bumper, there's a connection there. There's no connection between lower and upper on the facelift - it's just a mixture of odd angles and shapes that makes no sense at all.
Now looking at the bonnet. Look at the windscreen of each car. On the pre-facelift, we can see part of the bulge of the bonnet in front of the windscreen. Looks muscular. When someone sees that in their rear view mirror, it stands out because few other cars have that. When you're in the driver's seat, you see it too of course.
Bonnet of the facelift? Not muscular. Aggressive, maybe. A bee can be aggressive, but not muscular. I'll admit, the intakes look good on the facelift, but we missed out on them in Australia on the pre-facelift. That's a separate issue. Other than that, there are no interesting design features of the new bonnet - it's just mostly flat and boring. It curves downwards too much at the front. Notice how in the my15, the whole front is more upright and "solid" looking, while on the my18 it all just droops downwards at the front.
Anyway, I could go on, but that covers the main points.

agreed.

I also do not care for the smoothness of the front of the pre-refresh. Too smooth. Where is the bumper? Oh, it is seamlessly molded into the front of the car. The lights are also nearly perfectly smooth to the front too. Not much character. Reminds me of several 90's car styling. Reminds me of several econoboxes. I much prefer the angular lines and 3D look of the refresh better.

 

[Balr14]

If somebody hadn't posted images of the 2016 and 2020 side by side, I would never have known there was a difference. I always thought the A10 and 460hp was the only change from 2017 to 2018.

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