2015 Ford Mustang GT: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2015 Ford Mustang GT as our editors live with this car for a year.


Not too long ago, I had the great fortune to write up the full test of the new 2015 Mustang. In the piece, I briefly noted that the test vehicle with the GT Performance package and Brembo brakes were unusually sensitive.
Now that we've got our bright orange Mustang in the long-term fleet I wanted to see if the grabby brakes were an anomaly or if they're all like that.
Yes, they seem to all be like that.
It's not that big of a deal though, and even less of a deal if you owned one and drove it daily. As we jump into a new car several times a week, we're the weirdos that have to adapt.
It takes a very light step to apply the brakes without causing a lurch forward. After just a few miles, most drivers should be able to acclimate. Everything else about the brakes is just fine. Despite the initial sensitivity, I am still able to roll to an imperceptible limo stop. If I get to put this Mustang on track someday, I'm sure the brake upgrade will pay dividends.

Coupes with rear seats generally suffer from a common but minor annoyance, and that's placement of the front seatbelts. With a long door to allow passengers access to the back seats, the front seatbelt has to be anchored further back as well.
Some carmakers will put a buttoned strap on the front seat to keep the seatbelt from returning all the way back, preventing a long and awkward reach to grab it. Some luxury vehicles have a motorized seatbelt presenter that puts the belt within easier reach.
The 2015 Ford Mustang GT has this chunky plastic hook and it doesn't work very well. More often than not, the seatbelt slips out of the hook, forcing me to groan like an old man and fish around for it. Is it a dealbreaker? Of course not. I freaking love Mustangs and the joy of having one back in the fleet makes me positively giddy.
If I didn't think there'd be some sort of safety-related issue, I'd fashion some sort of simple fix for this. So unless I get the go-ahead to bodge something together, I'll just have to console myself with burnouts and powerslides.

Should we have bought our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang with the new EcoBoost turbocharged four-cylinder? I've heard that question quite a bit, and with virtually no reservation, my answer is a resounding...
NO! No. No. Also, no. This is a Mustang and unless you're renting it from Hertz in Honolulu, eight cylinders should be pumping under hood. It's as simple as that.
Sure, the EcoBoost is new and could tell an interesting story at first, but you can read about it in detail here, and after a few posts about the turbo-4, you'd get 64 additional ones saying something along the lines of, "This thing sounds like a Focus. We should've got the V8. Good grief, what have we done?" Mark Takahashi would be depressed, Mike Magrath would be angry, Scott Oldham wouldn't be able to treat neighbors to daily burnouts.
So no, dear reader, we should not have ordered the EcoBoost. A Mustang should have a V8.
Now, should it be orange? To that I'm open to discussion.

Our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang's shifter is great. Despite being responsible for corralling (har har) all the torque this big V8 belts out, it can be flicked from gate to gate with ease. The gates are very clearly defined and throws are reasonably short. It moves fluidly but doesn't feel flimsy — actually, it feels more positive than the shifter in our 2014 Corvette Stingray.
There's just a hint of notchiness in our (brand-new) long-term car that I didn't notice in the cars on the press launch. Maybe it's a break-in thing. We'll see if it changes over time.
I was never a fan of the stupid cue-ball short-shifter that was found in Shelby Mustangs. The one in the 2015 Mustang is not only more pleasant to use, it's faster through the gates than that high-effort silliness. Well done, Ford.

We started tracking fuel economy in our 2015 Ford Mustang GT in mid-December with 171 miles on the odo. Since then, it's been easy sailing as we nurse this big V8 through its break-in procedure. No hard driving. No high revs. Should be a slam-dunk to hit the EPA's 19 mpg combined (15 city / 25 highway) rating. Right?
Apparently not.
Worst Fill MPG: 11.6 mpg
Best Fill MPG: 14.5 mpg
Average Lifetime MPG: 12.3 mpg
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 178.4 miles
Current Odometer: 670.9 miles
It's still early, though. January's already got a trip to Vegas in the books and with no more restrictions on how hard we can rev it, I'm sure the fuel economy will only get better.

Our 2015 Ford Mustang GT is really quite entertaining, even though we're still breaking it in. But it's missing some of the theatrics that I've loved about Mustangs past.
Our 2015 GT is quiet. Too quiet. I was chatting about this very subject to one of my contacts at Ford and his was response was candid and enlightening.
According to him, since the new Mustang is a world car (on sale around the globe in pretty much the same configuration), it has to meet certain regulations for all markets. Surprisingly, he said that China is some of the more restrictive countries when it comes to noise.
Personally, I would welcome a beefier exhaust note. Maybe not on a long road trip, but at least when I'm having fun. As it is, I think our long-term Mustang is an ideal candidate for a cat-back exhaust system. I want the sound and fury back. Perhaps the F-Type has spoiled me with the selectable exhaust. The side exhaust on the outgoing Boss 302 would be amazing.

Our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang has this thing. It's shown above. Yup, it's a horse on the ground. More specifically, a horse is beamed from a little transmitter integrated into each of the Mustang's side-view mirrors when you unlock the doors.
I repeat: this car projects horse images onto the ground.
I don't even know how I feel about this. Actually, I do, but this is a family site. It's no place for an expletive-filled tirade that would give PTSD to anyone less than 16 years old. I'll only say that the fact that Ford willingly devoted not-insignificant engineering and budget resources to develop, test, integrate and produce this aspect — I hesitate to call it a feature because that would imply it has some inherent virtue — is embarrassing.
Here's the part where I acknowledge that the horse lasers are not new to the 2015 Mustang. They debuted in the 2013 Mustang. I realize this. Doesn't make them any less cringeworthy. Actually, the fact that the horse lasers survived the gauntlet of the 2015 redesign makes it even more cringeworthy, as it was something deemed worthy of perpetuating. Two years on, and there's still no hangover. It boggles the mind.
On the flip side, the same company greenlighted and put into a production a 500+ hp flat plane crank V8 for the upcoming GT350 version of this car...and in so doing, totally redeemed themselves.
If the GT350 comes equipped with horse lasers, I'm going to feel pretty conflicted.

I recently spent a week or so in our 2015 Ford Mustang GT just to keep Scott Oldham from driving it. During that week it got some attention. And by attention I mean follow-me-into-the-gas-station-and-conduct-a full-examination type attention. It happened twice.
People notice the new Mustang.
Part of the reason for this is that there aren't very many here yet. I'm yet to see a 2015 Mustang — besides this one — on the roads of Southern California. And that, as you can see, makes it a unicorn.

In the past month, our 2015 Ford Mustang GT's fuel economy went up by more than 2 mpg! Unfortunately, it's still pretty abysmal.
We brought the Mustang up to 14.5 mpg with a best of 22.8 mpg and a best range of only 264.9 miles. Apparently, driving it in L.A. traffic and on roads like those above is not great for fuel economy. Clearly road trips must be taken to give the Mustang a fighting chance of achieving at least EPA city.
For comparison sake, our old 2011 Mustang GT managed 16.4 mpg over the course of its 23,955 miles in our lead-footed care. Curiously, that car actually got better EPA estimates than the 2015 does, so I wouldn't hold out hope for us to do any better with the new version.
Worst Fill MPG: 11.6 mpg
Best Fill MPG: 22.8 mpg
Average Lifetime MPG: 14.5 mpg
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 263.9 miles
Current Odometer: 2568.7 miles

I'm on the fence on this one.
Sometimes I think the sequential turn signals on our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT are cool and then sometimes I think it's a cutesy detail that foolishly daintifies one of America's iconic performance cars, and I'm mortified Ford took the time and spent the money to design and engineer such a gratuitous gimmick.
Yeah, I know Mustangs and Thunderbirds had sequential turn signals back in the 1960s. But they didn't in the '70s, '80s and '90s. So there.
Please watch the video on the next page and tell me where you stand on the subject.

The 2015 Ford Mustang coupe earned an overall five-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The convertible has not yet been tested. But the coupe earned five stars in the frontal, side and rollover tests.
Here are some videos of the crash tests from the NHTSA Web site.
NHTSA 2015 Ford Mustang Coupe Frontal Crash Test
NHTSA 2015 Ford Mustang Coupe Side Crash Test

In the month of February we drove our 2015 Ford Mustang GT a total of 624 miles. It had a lengthy stay in airport parking and the remainder of the month limited to city driving. We still managed to set a record this month, however...
On February 8 we recorded a personal worst 9.5 mpg on a single fill-up. Congratulations, driver to remain anonymous.
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5 mpg
Best Fill MPG: 22.8 mpg
Average Lifetime MPG: 14.5 mpg
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 263.9 miles
Current Odometer: 3,041 miles

Ford pioneered the Easy Fuel Capless Fuel Filler back in 2008 (on the 2009 Explorer), and we've lived with a few Fords with it since, including our long-term 2009 Ford Flex, 2010 Ford Mustang GT, 2011 Ford Explorer and 2013 Focus ST. Our orange long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT is the latest.
Basically there's no cap to unscrew or hang while fueling. Just insert the gas pump nozzle and start gassing up.
Seven years ago I thought this was gratuitous engineering at its worst. An answer to a non-question. A dismissal of all that is holy.
Are we really that lazy? What's next, a car that drives itself?
Now I love it. It's one of those things that you don't know you want but you want it. And once you have it there's no going back.

If you're a long-time reader of Edmunds' long-term vehicle reporting, you might remember that we had a 2012 Ford Explorer. It was a likeable enough SUV. But click on the Audio and Technology link and start scrolling down. You'll keep scrolling, too. There are dozens of negative posts. The hapless 2014-15 New York Knicks aren't as much of a disaster as the MyFord Touch system was.
Then we got a 2013 Ford Focus ST, also with the MyFord touchscreen interface. It was better. But not by a whole lot.
Now we have a 2015 Ford Mustang GT with MyFord Touch (MFT). Go ahead, click on the Audio and Technology link. There is not a single update on MFT so far. It's like a Web page version of hearing crickets. No news is good news, right?
I'd say so, yes. Now, we're not even a quarter of the way in to our year-long test of the 2015 Mustang. Maybe we'll encounter some issues. But I'm optimistic about the latest version of MFT. Our Mustang's touchscreen hasn't crashed, locked up or rebooted on me. My iPhone pairs every time. Unlike our Explorer, there are physical buttons for the climate controls. There's even a tuning knob. The touchscreen has decent response times to my touches, so I'm not left wondering whether my button press actually worked or not.
There's still room for improvement. And, in fact, a few months ago Ford said it's going to soon ditch the whole MyFord Touch interface and replace it with a fully reengineered version called Sync 3. But from an ownership standpoint of our 2015 Mustang, the touchscreen interface no longer seems to be a major liability.

I really like what Ford has done with the newest 2015 Mustang. In prior years, Mustang GTs were plenty of fun to drive but you had to put up with a few negatives (like the ho-hum interior and non-independent rear suspension) that impacted daily driving appeal. This time around, Ford has polished off the rough edges but smartly maintained the car's core appeal.
Our Mustang reminds me of a BMW M3 or Audi S5 more than it ever did. Just like those cars, the new Mustang stands out with its dual-nature appeal. Got to slog home in heavy rush-hour traffic? The Mustang treats you to a pretty nice interior, a stout body structure and relatively comfortable ride quality, and the latest in infotainment options. Ready to hit up your favorite driving road on the weekend? The GT is at the ready with 435 horsepower, high levels of grip and confident handling.
Yeah, maybe the V8's stock exhaust isn't as loud as many of us would like, and maybe some people will view the car as being a little too far removed from its pony car heritage. But I really do like the latest Mustang GT. Compared to the current Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger, it has the best mix of performance, refinement and daily usability.

Ford has been building the Mustang since 1964. It says so right on the dash of our 2015 Ford Mustang GT, just in case you forget. That's a lot of history. American history. Pony car history. Our long-term is the newest of the breed. But it's also a social magnet. Take a drive in a new Mustang and be prepared to have strangers come up to you and want to talk.
They will want to talk about Mustangs, of course. But what's interesting to me is that it's not necessarily about the automotive geeky stuff. Drive a new exotic sports car around and you'll hear a lot of questions like, "How fast is it?" or "How much horsepower does it have?" But there's no sense of familiarity because few people have actually driven a Ferrari, for example. But a Mustang? Just about everybody is going to have a story.
A few days ago I was out in front of my house mowing the lawn when a neighbor comes by. He hadn't expressed an interest in other test cars I'd parked on my driveway, but our new Mustang was different. He told me he used to own a 2003 Mustang Cobra but he had to sell it when his kids were first born. He said he loved that car and wishes he could have found a way to keep it.
On another day I was buying groceries at the supermarket. A young woman probably in her early 20s was bagging and out of the blue she said, "Hey, you're the guy with the new Mustang out front, right?" She had seen me park earlier. I learned that her boyfriend has a "Five-Oh," that she likes driving it, and her boyfriend is lusting after the new Mustang body style.
Then there was the early evening I parked in front of a restaurant with the Mustang to pick up some take-out food. "Nice Mustang," I heard behind me. Another older guy had just parked his F-150 Raptor. So we talked about the Mustang some. He owned several Mustangs through the years, he said. Next up for him could be the new GT350.
There are other cars that have sold in more numbers than the Mustang, and there could very well be a collection of owners who are more passionate about their particular make of car than the Mustang. But for a combination of two, I'd argue that the Mustang is right at the pinnacle of the American car experience.

I've noticed an odd aspect to our 2015 Ford Mustang GT's manual transmission. When shifting gears, there's often an accompanying "thud" or "clunk" like sound. This sound is not obvious, and I think it took me a few days of driving the Mustang before I picked up on it. But now that I know it's there, I notice it all the time. It bugs me, and I doubt it's "normal."
The situation is basically this: If I'm accelerating and upshifting normally in our Mustang, there is almost always a quick, physical-like "thud" right as I'm moving the gear lever into the next gear. This is with the clutch pushed in, obviously. It happens with the neutral-to-first shifter movement, and then the two-three and three-four upshifts. By fifth gear, it doesn't really happen.
If I've got the radio on or I'm really revving the engine during acceleration, I don't hear the sound. But even then sometimes I think I can "feel" it through the car. Sometimes it also seems like there is some related binding as I move the gear lever for upshifts.
Related to this, I've discovered a good way to replicate the issue. With the car at a stop, push in the clutch and move the lever from neutral to first. The "thud" will happen. But if you keep the clutch in, don't accelerate (the car is still stopped) and then move the gear lever around like you're upshifting, the lever's action is much smoother moving from gate to gate and there's no engagement "thud" sound whatsoever.
I've also learned that the sound doesn't happen if I slow down my shifts. If I pause while in neutral for an upshift, say a "one Mississippi" mental count, and then gently push the lever into the next gear, it's all good. But such slow shifting in a Mustang GT gets old.
Our car isn't the only one out there with this problem. I did locate this same issue on a sixth-generation Mustang forum. And apparently, the previous-generation Mustang had manual transmission issues as well. But it's something I hope we bring up with the service advisor next time our car goes to the dealer.

The very first fill-up of March was a lost cause. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but our 2015 Ford Mustang GT fuel logbook contains the simple note "pump issues" where the gallons-added entry should be.
I suppose we'll never know the fuel economy of those 227 miles.
And I think I should also exclude another 90.9-mile fill-up, even though no mistake was involved. It was a full fill, too. I personally added 15.363 gallons of premium with just three miles to go on the distance-to-empty meter.
How could this be?
I was at a track-day fundraiser at Willow Springs raceway that you'll read about in a future post. Near the end of the day, the car stumbled while cornering hard in Turn 5, whereupon I returned to the pits and drove straight out the gate to the nearest gas station. The in-car gauge read 6.3 mpg, but the math worked out to just 5.9 mpg.
Not a very representative activity, I must admit.
With the track day included, the stats work out like this.
Worst Fill MPG: 5.9
Best Fill MPG: 22.8
Average Lifetime MPG: 14.6 (6.8 gallons per 100 miles)
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City / 25 Highway)
Best Range: 263.9 miles
Current Odometer: 4,722 miles
Here's how it changes when I omit the track day.
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.1 (6.6 gallons per 100 miles)
Either way, our lifetime average rounds to 15 mpg, which is no better than the EPA city rating.
Some might say this is all down to journalist driving. That's not as much of a thing as you might think, but the allure of a Mustang 5.0 GT V8 with a 6-speed manual is hard for some people to resist. It sounds and feels fantastic when you toss a few revs and trundle around a gear lower than you should for maximum mpg. I bet you'd do it, too.
Also, the Mustang hasn't been on many long-distance road trips yet. I expect it can and will do better. Time will tell.

Just fewer than four months ago, we added a 2015 Ford Mustang GT to our long-term test fleet.
Last night, right on schedule, the odometer digitally rolled over to 5,000 miles.
During this time, I shot it through the American Southwest, Dan Edmunds managed to get 5.9 mpg during a track day, we’ve grumbled over the seats, laughed at the horse lasers, wondered why the exhaust was so quiet, praised the shifter, looked at how much it’s grown and generally enjoyed the composed attitude of Ford’s new pony car.
And of course, we took it to our test track to see what 435 horsepower and an IRS can do to a Mustang.
One-quarter of our time with the Mustang has passed, but we’ve still got 8 months and 15,000 miles of freedom ahead of us. What do you want to see/hear/read about?

Realistically, with some work and/or practice, you can perform heel-and-toe downshifts on just about any manual transmission car. But some cars definitely make this soon-to-be-lost-art easier than others. There are two keys to heel-and-toeing, besides lots of practice: Good brake-to-gas-pedal placement and a responsive throttle.
The 2015 Ford Mustang GT has both.
In olden times, people really did the true heel-and-toe action, with the ball or toes of their right foot on the brake pedal and the heel blipping the throttle.
These days — and the Mustang is a good example of this — the pedals are arranged so that you do it more with the left side of your right foot on the brake pedal and the right side of your right foot on the gas, instead of a true heel-and-toe. We still call it heel-and-toe anyway.
You can see in the photo the Mustang's brake pedal is within relatively close proximity of the gas pedal, and that's key for making blipping the throttle easy to smooth out your downshifts. I'm not saying it's best-ever, but it's pretty darn good.
Interestingly, although I complained about the touchiness of the Mustang's brakes recently, that aspect never affected my heel-and-toeing. I think that's because the grabby brakes are more of a low-speed problem. Usually you're making heel-and-toe downshifts at higher speeds and with forceful brake pressure involved, like when setting up for a turn.
The Mustang's responsive gas pedal also makes it decent for heel-and-toeing. It's considerably harder to be smooth if you need to move your right foot dramatically to stab the throttle and get the revs to rise. The Mustang has none of that, the revs rise nicely as soon as you touch the gas.

I was doing a little spring cleaning on my phone, and I'll admit it took me a moment to remember why I took this picture. Then I did.
As if the rumble, vibration and exhaust didn't tip us off, the 2015 Ford Mustang GT offers this handy alert. If I had a friend in the passenger seat who took the time, and however many brain cells required, to point out to me that my 5.0-liter V8 engine was running, I might smack him. I'd certainly tell him to shut up and I would absolutely unfriend him on Facebook.

If you were to look at the shared spreadsheet that we Edmunds editors use to sign out long- and short-term cars ("The List"), you'd see line after line of our initials next to the cars we need or want to drive for that week. If you were to look at last week's List, you'd see a big, gray empty line across the spreadsheet cells for the 2015 Ford Mustang GT, indicating that it sat idle for the entire week.
Before we received our Mustang, I would've said it would've been one of our most popular cars, just as its predecessor was. Yet despite a few road trips keeping its mileage up, this week of inaction has not been uncommon. Why is no one driving it? Why is it, therefore, one of the least popular cars in our fleet? Sure, we have a lot of desirable cars in the fleet, but the Mustang should theoretically be one of them.
Well, I've certainly shared why I may want to skip it. These are also sentiments I know several other editors share. So did we simply order the wrong Mustang? Or are there inherent factors of the 2015 Mustang that our otherwise Mustang-loving editors are averse to?
It's curious. We'll see if this trend continues.

That 5.0 might just stand for its average mpg by the time we get through with it.
It's really not that bad, though. In April, the Mustang spent most of its time commuting our editors around Southern California, so it's hard to expect any kind of fuel efficiency heroics from our 2015 Ford Mustang GT's five-liter motor. That said, we did add another 1,200 miles onto our not-so-little pony (yeah, I went there) and managed a minor improvement in fuel economy.
Let's face it: You're never going to get stellar mileage out of a short-geared, 435-horsepower Mustang but we did increase the car's overall average by a couple tenths. With any luck, we'll get the Mustang back out on a race track and drop the overall lifetime average closer to single digits — right where it should be.
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5
Best Fill MPG: 22.8
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.3
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City / 25 Highway)
Best Range: 263.9 miles
Current Odometer: 6,007 miles

I'm usually not one for gimmicks. I don't like the horse lasers on our 2015 Ford Mustang GT. I think the pulse feature of the Jag's start button, its rising vent cluster and silly door handles are unnecessary. I don't get Lamborghini (except the Espada. I'm pro Espada).
That said, I'm really diggin' the hood-mounted blinker indicators on the 2016 Ford Mustang.
As a nod to its heritage (a totally underutilized tactic in today's sports-car market), the 2016 Ford Mustang gets turn signal indicators in the hood just like the 1967 Mustang. I don't know why, but I think this is very cool. According to Ford, "fans have been clamoring for the return of the hood vent-integrated turn signals for years."
Here's my speculative guess as to what these requests say:
"Dear Ford,
DON'T YOU KNOW THAT FUEL INJECTION IS A GOVERNMENT SPY PROGRAM TO TRACK YOUR FUEL USE? BRING BACK CARBURETORS. AND THE SOLID REAR END AND HOOD VENT BLINKY THINGS!"
AND WHY THE HECK DO I NEED AIRBAGS? I'VE NEVER CRASHED!
AND WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE?
Sincerely,
Some guy with a 10-second Fox Body"
Alongside the new blinkers, there's now an optional black-painted roof (EcoBoost or GT), a black accent package (GT) that rocks black "5.0" and pony log, and the California Special Pack. Read more details on the 2016 Mustang here.
Black logos and blinky things in the hood? Maybe I don't hate gimmicks as much as I thought. Except horse lasers. I still hate horse lasers.

In an earlier update, James wondered why no one was driving our 2015 Ford Mustang GT. Well, here's my reason. Scratch that. Here are my two reasons.
I'll get the obvious out of the way first: It's ORANGE.
Sorry, but if I can help it, I'm not driving an orange car.* And I can help it.
The second one is the ride. I'm not driving it on a race track. I'm driving it home, and my drive home takes me along the 405 Freeway and over all of its misaligned concrete slabs. I've driven plenty of stiffly sprung and thoroughly rigid cars, but there's something about the combination of this Mustang's substantial heft and the suspension tune that causes it to pogo from slab to slab and I'm not having it.
Your commute home, and what you're willing to sacrifice to clip a certain apex, will certainly differ, but for me, I'm done getting bounced around.
*various and assorted examples of 911 RSRs, BMW 3.0 CSLs and Lamborghinis not withstanding.

We put 1,371 miles on our 2015 Ford Mustang GT in May, using 84.7 gallons of 91-octane fuel and averaging 16.2 mpg for the month. This bumped the car's lifetime average from 15.3 mpg up to 15.5 mpg.
Our worst fill-up for the month was 14.0 mpg and our best was 20.5 (that's still less than our best-ever of 22.8 mpg, though).
A couple of our new staffers were eager to get into the Mustang GT. Josh Sadlier's first impression was that the car drives big, yet in the end he was still won over by the charm of the 5.0-liter V8 and manual gearbox.
Fellow new guy Carlos Lago was mesmerized by the Mustang's pretty interior lights and the side-view mirrors that beam horsey images onto the ground.
I spent some time in the Mustang this month, too, including an early morning strafing run up one of my favorite mountain roads. I came away impressed with its dynamic abilities, but more on that in a later post.
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5
Best Fill MPG: 22.8
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.5
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City / 25 Highway)
Best Range: 263.9 miles
Current Odometer: 7,339 miles

Somewhere between Los Angeles and Barstow on my round-trip to Sedona, Ariz., our 2015 Ford Mustang let me know that it's closing in on the 10,000-mile mark with this warning. Knowing I wouldn't exceed the milestone by much, it wasn't a concern.
Just in case, I checked the oil at the first fuel stop. The level was just above the sweet spot and the color was a nice, golden brown. No smell of sulphur or anything else. I'm good to go, for sure.

June was a big month for our long-term 2015 Mustang GT. We welcomed the summer with two road trips. John O'Dell took a tour of California's Wine Country and I took a few days to check out Sedona, Arizona
In the process, we managed a new best fill (previous was 22.8 mpg), gained almost a full mpg in the overall average (up from 15.5) and extracted a new best-range on a tank (previous was 263.9). The next several months look to be pretty exciting with some changes in store for the Mustang, so stay tuned!
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5
Best Fill MPG: 23.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.3
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 294.4
Current Odometer: 10,580

I fished out a 2015 Ford Mustang GT from the Edmunds long-term pool last weekend. It seemed nice enough at first glance. V8 engine, manual transmission - what's not to like?
Then I drove it in typical Los Angeles conditions, Friday evening, near the tail end of rush hour. My evening plan was to have dinner with a friend who lived nearby.
After 20 minutes of driving, I regretted taking the Mustang.
There was a fair amount of stop-and-go traffic and plenty of stop signs on the way to my destination. The Mustang's brakes felt too grabby and I couldn't seem to shift it smoothly, no matter what I tried. Then I started to feel the early stages of motion sickness, something I've never experienced as a driver. All the lurching back and forth was taking its toll.
After dinner, I decided I'd had enough. I didn't want to deal with this for two more days so I drove back to the office and signed out the Dodge Charger SRT8 instead.
I was really disappointed with this Mustang. The last one we had was such a blast to drive and I never had any issues with the brakes or clutch. I suspect the Performance package is to blame here. It might be great on the track, but for the other 95 percent of the time, you'll have to live with its potentially nauseating side effects.
I've yet to try a Mustang without the Performance pack, but from what I hear, the default Mustang GT is much easier to live with as a daily driver.

We put 1,678 miles on our 2015 Ford Mustang GT in July, using 110.7 gallons of 91-octane fuel. For the month we averaged just 15.2 mpg, which dropped our lifetime fuel economy from 16.3 to 16.1 mpg.
Our worst fill-up for the month was 11.0 mpg and our best was 19.9, neither one of them records.
As you should with a Mustang GT, we had some big-time fun during the month. Senior Editor Josh Sadlier took a two-day coastal drive to Monterey and back, putting 650 miles on the car. He even managed a new best range of 301.3 miles on a single tank of fuel.
The Mustang GT also served as the training tool to see if our boss, Edmunds.com CEO Avi Steinlauf, could do a burnout. Turns out, he can.
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5
Best Fill MPG: 23.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.1
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 301.3 miles
Current Odometer: 12,210 miles

The side mirrors on the 2015 Ford Mustang GT have seemed small to me from the first time I drove the car. Like overly so. But I thought, "Maybe I'm just crazy?" Don't answer that.
So I figured why not compare the size of the mirrors in the Mustang to ones on an even sportier car?
Such as the 2016 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe AWD. We happened to have one in the office the other day, so I got out my trusty measuring tape and the battle was on.
The Mustang's driver-side mirror (the actual mirror, not the housing) came in at 6-1/8th inches wide by 3-1/4 inches tall. The Jaguar F-Type measured 6 3/8th inches wide by 4.0 inches tall. A significant difference in the world of side mirrors.
This was not an exact science, mind you. I measured both dimensions at their respective middles, not necessarily at their widest or tallest points. That seemed most fair.
Bottom line: The sleeker, sportier and considerably more exotic Jaguar F-Type R Coupe has more useable mirrors.
All of which proves: I'm not crazy. But does it really?

The combination of the flat-faced wheel design and the color black make the wheels on our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT boring to a fault. They get lost in photos, they don't work with the car's bright orange profile well and, in my opinion, they just look way too bland. I'm not the only editor that feels this way, but there are a few voices of dissent in the office that like the black wheels and want to keep them.
This leaves us with a few options.
A: Find some different wheels we all like. Buy them.
B: Take off the wheels, buy some spray paint, paint them, see how long it lasts.
C: Leave them as they are and be sad.
D: Stark robotic reversion technology.
If I had my way, everything in our fleet would be riding on a set of Volk TE37SL's (yes, including the trucks) but that's not the only set of aftermarket wheels available. There are classic wheels like the American Racing Torque Thrusts (a personal favorite of mine for muscle cars) or several different wheels available from Ford that look pretty good too.
Painting the wheels is the cheapest option, but probably because it will make the wheels look cheap. With track use and the potential for curbing, it's likely that they'll chip or peel pretty easily.
We've got some modifications in the works for our Mustang and I just don't think we should leave the wheels out of that equation. What would you do?

Between track days, road trips and general slipping and sliding around our favorite industrial-zone roads, the tires on our 2015 Ford Mustang GT wore out quickly.
So we hastened their demise.

Full disclosure: I've owned two Mustangs in the past. It can be said that I'm a "Mustang Guy."
Back in November I wrote up the full test on the 2015 Ford Mustang GT and noted that this latest generation has improved across the board. I still stand by that assertion, but I'd also like to add that I expected more.
I'd hoped the new Mustang would weigh significantly less. It doesn't. In fact, it's 132 pounds heavier than the last V8 Mustang we tested. I'd hoped that it'd be more fun to drive hard. It's not. It's more settled thanks to the independent rear suspension, but now it takes a lot more to whip the tail around. To me, that's fun.
It's really quiet, but I think it's too quiet. There's no theatrical payoff in stock form. If it has a V8, I think we should really feel and hear it. Yes, it's far more refined and easier to live with on the daily commute, as well as on a long road trip. Perhaps for most drivers and owners, the added comfort and easy-to-drive nature are exactly what they need. But I want more fun, a little more madness.
I like it, but I don't love it. I'd still pick a Mustang over the last Camaro, but that may change once I drive the next-gen Camaro. Maybe once we add a few performance upgrades, I'll get that old Mustang giddiness of our previous GT long-termer or the Boss 302. I'm confident the GT 350 will give me the appropriate thrills, but at $50k, it's in a different league.
Yes, the new Mustang is better. It's more sophisticated, mature and probably has a broader appeal. But if you're a meathead like me, you'll want more. Maybe a new trim level that yanks out some of that pesky refinement is the answer.

Yesterday, Jay reported on the new Ford Racing exhaust system on our 2015 Ford Mustang GT and encouraged you to provide your own exhaust sounds when reaching the end of the photo gallery.
Now, you can stop vroom-vrooming.
Click through the jump to see what our video crew put together comparing the acoustics of the stock exhaust to the new one. There's sound recorded of blipping the throttle outside the car, inside the car, and winding out the throttle on the road.
Leave a comment, let us know what you think of our pony's new sonic signature.

Step one of our performance enhancing campaign on the 2015 Ford Mustang GT is done and I am happy with the results. The new exhaust sounds great, replacing the far-too-quiet stock pipes.
Even better, it doesn't sound too obnoxious. It reminds me of our old long-term Challenger in some ways. A low, smooth burble at idle, a mechanical growl with some pedal and a fierce bellow when it's floored. The throttle overrun also sounds great and it doesn't have any startling backfires or crackles like our dearly departed Jag.
I do, however, expect our fuel economy to take a hit. I find myself holding gears and revs longer to enjoy the music.
In a somewhat related note, here's my short list of the greatest sounding cars I've heard/driven in person:
Porsche Carrera GT
Jaguar F-Type R
Chevrolet Corvette 427 (2013)
Ford Mustang Boss 302
Pretty much anything in the TransAm class at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion
Fuel Economy Update for August - Staying Thirsty

August added another 1,248 miles to our 2015 Ford Mustang GT's tally, and we pumped in 81.6 gallons of gas along the way. The math says that's 15.3 mpg for the month. Our lifetime average has dropped by another tenth, now sitting at an even 16.0 mpg.
Our thirstiest August tank came out to an epic 10.2 mpg, just 0.7 mpg clear of the all-time low. The Larry Lightfoot award goes to Editor Monticello, who threw down a 21.6-mpg tank and set a new range record of 321.6 miles while he was at it.
The Mustang's miles this month were relatively uneventful. We took it in for its first service, panned the tiny side mirrors and ruminated on the wheels and the Recaros (which really are fantastic, by the way; don't let anyone tell you otherwise).
Oh, and we finally put a decent exhaust on it. Sounds pretty mean at high rpm. I predict it will not inspire us to use less fuel.
Worst Fill MPG: 9.5
Best Fill MPG: 23.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.0
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 321.6 miles
Current Odometer: 13,696 miles

I finally got a chance to drive our 2015 Ford Mustang GT with the new Ford Racing exhaust (install, before and after). Allow me to briefly parrot everyone else's comments: It is rad. Super rad.
The new exhaust solves one of my two issues with the Mustang.
The other? The existence of the better-handling and more fun Camaro 1LE. This can't stand.
My chief complaint with our Performance Pack Mustang is the constant movement in the chassis when you settle down into a corner or transition to the throttle or brakes. It's possible this dive and pitch has been purposefully tuned into the car because someone at Ford thinks that's how Mustangs should feel. While it's acceptable in the standard models, you'd hope the Performance Pack would focus on, well, performance.
This chassis movement adds vagueness to the driving experience and makes it less fun. I want this thing hunkered down. The good news is that solutions are readily available. Ford Performance's Track Handling Package looks like a step in the right direction, with new dampers, springs, mounts, anti-roll bars, and links. After that, maybe we should take a page from the 1LE playbook and run equally-sized front and rear tires. Upgrading to a more serious summer tire should help a ton, too.
Fuel Economy Update for September - Track Day, New Exhaust Drop MPG Average

You can almost hear Captain Obvious: "If you wanted better fuel economy from your 2015 Ford Mustang GT, you shouldn't have optioned it with a 3.73 rear end, installed a loud exhaust, and taken it on a track day!"
Our Mustang covered 1,706 miles in September and consumed 118.2 gallons of high-octane gas, making for a 14.4 mpg month average. That's the third lowest we've recorded in our 10 months of ownership.
What happened?
Mike Monticello took it up to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and drove it really fast. In the process, he netted both the worst and second-worst fuel economy we've ever recorded: 5.3 mpg over 81.2 miles on a Saturday and 9.1 mpg over 100.9 miles the following day. Good job, Monticello.
The new, wonderful Ford Racing exhaust has inspired the team to drive a bit more enthusiastically, compounding the "I need to rev more" effect our 3.73 rear end has had on us since Day One.
The average tank fill has settled at around 200 miles. Josh Sadlier noted the low-ish range numbers, a product of the aforementioned final drive, and wondered if enlarging the Mustang's 16-gallon fuel tank would be worth it. Travis Langness compared our GT to a Mountune-modified Focus ST that visited our office, comparing the performance deficit to the roughly $10,000 price difference.
I simply want our orange GT to handle better. Stay tuned: The Ford Racing suspension install happens soon. This also doesn't bode well for future fuel economy results.
Worst Fill MPG: 5.3
Best Fill MPG: 23.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.8
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 321.6 miles
Current Odometer: 15,530 miles
Noisy Shifter Reminds You That You're Driving a Machine

The short-shifter in our 2015 Ford Mustang GT makes noise. It isn't loud or annoying. Turning up the radio or rolling the window down mostly masks it. But the sound is prevalent.
You can hear the whine of meshed gears spinning and the clunk of the shifter engaging. Rest your palm on the knob and you'll feel vibrations, too. These are important sensations, constant little reminders that you're using a machine.
The car is the most complex mass-produced consumer good in existence. We often take for granted, as new cars require less and less from owners. They're better isolated than ever before, and need little care outside of fuel, tire pressures, and oil changes. Sometimes even less.
Despite this, there are countless things happening inside. Gears, springs, innumerable tiny and controlled explosions. Things are acting and being acted upon.
When you're cruising on the freeway to work you are riding on a machine comprised of humanity's understanding of applied physics.
This can be too easy to forget.

Something changed between our last Mustang and our 2015 Ford Mustang GT. Either the Mustang's pedal box grew further apart from the steering column or I shrank a couple of inches. Or I'm just imagining things.
Or it could be those seats.
Opinion is widely mixed here in-house, but I like the Recaros — once I'm in them, anyway. I don't especially like the solid piece of plastic between the cutouts for, ostensibly, shoulder harnesses, that the base of my skull bumps into when driving. But they complement the rest of the car's performance intentions, so I'm glad we got them.
But these seats clearly seem intended for taller drivers. And at 5-foot, 7-inches, that I can't claim to be. I'm pretty sure I was the same height when we had our 2011 Mustang, but in that car, I didn't need to slide the seat forward to reach the pedals, then aft to slide out of the car. Compounding the problem are the Recaro's tall thigh bolsters and my preference for dropping the steering column usually to the lowest setting.
All of which makes for an awkward entry/exit if I leave the seat positioned for where I need it to reach the pedals. Our old Mustang had standard leather six-way power seats, with lower, supple thigh bolsters that you could just slide over, and I don't recall needing to slide so far forward to catch the pedals.
I've grown accustomed to the rail slide during my stints with the Mustang and it's sort of an automatic sequence now. But I'd be bummed if I had to deal with it every day as an owner, and it's something you might overlook during a quick test drive.
Fuel Economy Update for November: Awesome Exhaust, Awful Efficiency

Our 2015 Ford Mustang GT's awesome new Ford Racing exhaust continues to be, well, awesome. I found myself driving in third and fourth on the highway this morning just to revel in the noises that so wonderfully enhance the big 5.0 V8.
When I told this to some fellow editors they all nodded their heads with a knowing smile as if to say, "Oh yeah, I do that too."
In related news, our lifetime fuel economy went down in October and November to 15.7 mpg. True, that's only one-tenth of an mpg, but it's still quite awful given the EPA rating of 19 mpg combined.
Worst Fill MPG: 5.3
Best Fill MPG: 23.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.7
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 321.6 miles
Current Odometer: 18,021 miles

About a year ago, I took our long-term Nissan Rogue on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest and encountered a problem with the rearview camera. Temperatures below 30 degrees compromised the camera's usefulness, basically making it pointless during an Oregon winter.
When things got foggy here in Los Angeles last week, I had a similar problem with a rearview camera, but this time it was on our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT.
The marine layer settled in while the Mustang was parked outdoors and the camera was nearly blinded. The photo above was shot is my parking garage, just after moving the Mustang indoors. I couldn't see the parking pole on my right, nor could I clearly make out the car parked on my left. I checked the lens, wiped it clean with the corner of my t-shirt and this was still the view out of the back. Apparently, the light mist had gotten inside the camera.
The next morning, the camera had cleared up completely and returned to workable condition so I doubt we'll have this problem again anytime soon. For the short period of time it took to back up in to my spot, it was easy to go old school and rely on the rearview mirrors, but if I theoretically paid for the camera on my Mustang, I'd want to be able to use it at all times.

If I had my way, most of the cars in our fleet would be lowered. Put some new wheels on the SRT8 and move it closer to the ground. Our M235i is cool, but put an exhaust on it and drop it, then suddenly you've got an infinitely cooler BMW. The Miata is great too, but who doesn't want wider tires and a lower stance on a car that does so well in the canyons?
It's about function first, but form doesn't hurt either and our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT is now a great example of the two living side-by-side.
The upgraded suspension is stiffer than stock, but feels better under cornering loads and it doesn't rattle the brains out of your head on bumpy roads. And it looks great. With about a one-finger gap all the way around, the Mustang stands out.
Instead of the way-too-tall, modern muscle-car look, it looks like a car that means business. This is no V6 rental car. I'm an adamant supporter of modifying cars to personalize them and this is a series of modifications I'd certainly do if a Mustang GT were in my personal garage.

When I took our Corvette Stingray to Monterey for the weekend, I couldn't hide from all the enthusiastic Chevy owners and admirers that wanted to talk about the car.
When I drove our SLP Panther Camaro, there was some very specific praise, but not a lot of love from other Camaro owners. And after driving around for a week in our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT, I noticed there was plenty of love to go around.
A '67 Fastback and a late-90's Cobra Mustang passed me on Pacific Coast Highway. They both waved and smiled. Naturally, I waved back and gave the car-guy nod.
Later in the day when I ended up at my favorite fish spot on the coast, Neptune's Net, there was a group of Mustang owners already there. They all waved, gave head nods and, most importantly, the car-guy thumbs-up.
More than a stand-alone anecdote, I've had this kind of experience in the Mustang several times, especially now that it sounds so good. Even M4 guys like it. Are people just friendlier when you own a more iconic car? Maybe it's just the nature of driving a bright-orange muscle car, but this thing gets a lot of attention, most of which is positive.
If the approval of other drivers is important, driving a Mustang might be the right choice.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the optional 3.73 final drive in our 2015 Ford Mustang GT. It makes the powertrain more exciting and rewards you for using the shifter more frequently, so we drive it harder.
The primary downside is fuel economy: Our lifetime mpg is hovering around 15 (!!) mpg. The other downside is that the frequency with which you want to shift actually slows the Mustang down when you're leaving from a stop light. The windows of useable acceleration in first and second are tiny, such that it seems you spend more time engaging and disengaging the gear than actually using it for acceleration.
When hurrying away from a stop light, let's say at "street-plus" speeds, you might be surprised to see an automatic-equipped car or SUV with decent power keeping pace. They aren't working as hard and they're making less noise, so clearly they aren't having as much fun. Still, this phenomenon is slightly irking.
What I've learned to do is skip second gear. The short gearing combined with the amount of torque means going from first to third doesn't hurt anything. As a bonus, you get more acceleration time in third gear, and time spent accelerating is more fun than time spent doing, well, much else.
The Corvette Z06 provides a more extreme example. It has a 7-speed manual, but with 650 pound-feet of torque, you can choose either the odd or even gears. The last time I drove one, I would go from first, third, to sixth. The car didn't care.

I was skeptical. When the idea of modifying our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT originally came up, I figured the Ford Racing suspension would wreck its ride/handling balance and that the short-throw shifter would suck.
I was wrong on both counts.
Our Mustang is better than ever.
The suspension in particular surprised me with its compliance, as it retains good bump absorption even with a noticeable amount of additional roll control. This is absolutely key when it comes to road cars. Also, the fore-aft pitching endemic to all Mustangs (even this new car does it, though to a lesser degree than the stick-axle ones) is reduced, too. Its lower ride height hasn't resulted in irksome bump steer like I expected, either.
To be sure, this suspension isn't something that you'd select for a dedicated track car running slicks. It's too soft for that. But for daily driving and/or dual purpose use, it's totally fine. I'm really impressed by it. I never thought I'd say this, but I prefer it to the stock suspension. Unlike many aftermarket suspensions, you'd never regret installing it on a street car.
That goes for short-throw shifters too, which normally introduce so much effort to the gear change that it just makes the process annoying. The Ford Racing shifter is only a touch higher effort, but not so much that it's totally out of whack with its other controls. Balance is the key. As an aside, this matching of control efforts and linearity is something that Porsche does better than any other automaker, and it's a significant factor in why their cars are so rewarding to drive.
Thanks to the metallic shifter bushing included in the kit, the Ford Racing shifter slots into its gates with more precision, too. This bushing also transmits more noise than the plastic bushing it replaces, which is why you hear a smidge of gear whine through this new shifter, along with some endearing clicks as it moves through the gates. But the noise is never too prominent or insistent or annoying. More like a little bit of character thrown in to remind you that you're piloting a machine.
Fuel Economy Update for January - Ready to Say Goodbye

Time is winding down for our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT, signaling my long slide into depression. It'll be leaving just as things were getting fun with the suspension and exhaust upgrades.
Since the last update two months ago, we've logged another 3,000 miles, but it had no affect on the results. I had bets on the lifetime average taking a nosedive because of the performance upgrades and the way they encourage more spirited driving.
Besides the usual commute duties, the Mustang hasn't seen any big trips. I drove it a few hundred miles back and forth to Palm Springs, but a long stretch of bumper-to-bumper traffic kept me from getting anything better than average fuel economy results.
Thanks for the memories, Mustang, I'm sure we'll meet again.
Worst Fill MPG: 5.3
Best Fill MPG: 23.5
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.7
EPA MPG Rating: 19 Combined (15 City/25 Highway)
Best Range: 321.6
Current Odometer: 21,255

Our long-term 2015 Ford Mustang GT recently crossed over the 20,000-mile mark. This signaled a reminder in the car that another service was needed. Thankfully, the Mustang only requires an inspection, tire rotation and oil and filter change at the 20,000-mile service, so I hoped we could get in and out of the shop in just a few hours.
I dropped off the Mustang at Santa Monica Ford around 10:30 a.m. I didn't make an appointment, so I was quite pleased when I was immediately greeted by a porter and directed to a service advisor who helped me right away.
I asked for the 20,000-mile service and mentioned the fact that our car was equipped with staggered wheels. I didn't want another situation where the wrong wheel was installed on the wrong corner with the correct tire.
The service advisor didn't try to sell me any dealer add-ons, so I was checked in and ready to leave in just a few minutes. I was given an estimate of three hours and hitched a ride back to the office.
Around 2:00 p.m., I received a call from the service advisor letting me know the car was ready. The inspection turned up nothing more than slightly low washer fluid. In total, I might have spent 10 minutes at the dealer during the drop-off and pick-up. I even received a follow-up phone call the next day asking about my service.
Maybe because some of my recent dealer visits have been less than stellar I can honestly say this was one of the best service center experiences I've had.
Eight quarts of synthetic 5W-20: $60
Oil filter: $4.99
Hazardous materials charge: $3.11
Labor: $39.95
Sales tax: $6.47
Total: $114.52
Total Days Out of Service: Zero