2015 FORD Mustang

Back in a Mustang after 41 years

Comfort Rating: 4 Performance Rating: 5 Interior Rating: 4 Reliability Rating: 5 Safety Rating: 5 Technology Rating: 4 Value Rating: 5

My previous Mustangs were a 69 Shelby drag pack car, and a 70 Shelby GT-350. The 2015 GT Premium might as well be from another planet compared to those earlier cars. I bought this car used a few weeks back, and have zero complaints about the car itself. My plan was to order a 2017 model, however this car was offered at the right price for one pampered car. The quality, fit, and finish of the sixth generation Mustang is impressive! Being an old guy, it still seems strange to use the terms quality and plastic in the same sentence, however the quality, even the plastic pieces are very good! There is an abundant use of metal parts and the leather appears to be of good quality. I am a muscle car guy and have mostly owned Chevy's. I have spent a considerable amount of time in the fifth and sixth generation Camaro's which are some sweet rides in their own right. The Mustang has much better visibility and the interior of the GT Premium is refined compared to a top of the line Camaro. The previous owner of my car is the service manager for our local Ford dealership, and he took excellent care of the car. The car currently has 13K miles on it, and presents like a new car. A positive aspect of buying a car owned by a service manager is that he has likely worked out all of the bugs in the car during his ownership. Of course the negative is that he made some mods to the car. Some of the mods made the car better, and one mod did not improve it at all. The car has been lowered and leveled. This is a mod that I like, as the factory stance of these cars has the front slightly higher than the rear. It also has a BAMA tuner, and a cold air intake, both good for a few extra horses beyond the stock 435 HP. This is one wicked fast car. The car has so much power that it should be driven with lots of respect and a healthy dose of caution. We live near US 129 (the famous Tail of the Dragon) one of the most challenging mountain roads anywhere in the world. The 2015 GT Premium with the high performance package and a manual transmission is a whole bunch of fun, and this road brings out the car's touring capabilities! Of the two complaints that I have with the car one has to do with the previous owner and nothing to do with Ford Motor Company. The previous owner first removed the resonator and installed an H pipe in its place. Then he removed the mufflers and installed straight pipes. This car is loud! So loud that the neighbors probably hate me... Drone is so bad that it drowns out the Shaker Sync III stereo. Like I said this has nothing to do with Ford. I have ordered a S-Type cat back system from Borla Exhaust and will be installing this system in place of the straight pipe exhaust system as soon as it arrives. A friend owns the same model car except his GT has an automatic and mine is a manual. He is running the Borla S type exhaust and it makes these cars sound sweet! The stock exhaust is a little too quiet for the enthusiast. The other complaint is the overly complicated Shaker Sync III system. In order to connect via Blue Tooth to my Galaxy Note 4 smart phone the app has to be cleared and reinstalled each time the car is driven. This problem may be user error??? The other irritating thing about the Shaker system is the volume. Playing Sirius or the single CD and the volume is impressive! Playing Pandora from the phone through the Bluetooth or by direct connection and the volume is moderate at best. That is with the volume on the phone turned wide open. There are complaints about other makes of cars having the same issue, so this may not be a Ford issue. The last topic is about the six speed manual transmission. This is not a complaint, just an observation. The shifter has a very short throw and the ratios are close. The transmission shifts smoothly and really seems to make this car more of a blast to drive compared to an automatic version. It is taking me a while to get used to it. I have been driving two old F-series diesel powered trucks for several years with the typical long throw shifters. The precision of the Mustang shifter will take some practice. All things considered I am excited about ownership of a 2015 Mustang GT Premium.