Boss 0960

I have driven a couple of the S550. They drive nice. Very smooth, quiet and sophisticated. It's almost as if you aren't driving at all. You are just pointing the car in a direction and arriving at a destination. There's no visceral engagement, no feedback or feel for the road. It's just one more quiet, competent, sophisticated car in a massive automotive market of the same.

I previously had a C6 Corvette that I ordered new. It was an amazing car by any performance metric. Yet on the street, it was boring to drive. It's limits are so incredibly high that any stretch of it's performance is wildly illegal and perhaps dangerous on city streets. I've often said that if I wanted a sports car, I would still have the Corvette. I replaced the Corvette with the '13 Boss because the Boss is raw, visceral and almost rude. As one reviewer puts it, the Boss is like the drunken party guest. Even driving safe and legally, the Boss is an experience of sight, sound and feel. In short, that's what I want and expect from a Mustang.

That's just my driving perspective. I haven't even dealt with the S550's compromised looks, uncomfortable seating position for me, the poor quality of my past few Ford vehicles including the Boss, the terrible local Ford dealerships in my area, the absolutely frustrating and embarrassing experience I've had with Sync, the carryover size and weight of the new models and the wild price hike the Mustang has taken in Canada in order to pay for that "sophistication".

In my garage right now, waiting for spring weather, I have the '13 Boss and a '16 Mazda MX-5. I know whenever I take those cars out for a ride, I'm going to have a good driving experience. There's no room for a glorified appliance like the S550 in my life.

laserred38

Fair nuff. Were the S550s you drove modded? Out of curiosity of course...

kylerohde

The hybrid has already been announced, though not with any detail. I would be absolutely shocked if all wheel drive was added as an option, there's no need for it and have seen zero rumors to support that.

m05fastbackGT

Well personally, I'd much rather settle for an AWD Mustang over a Hybrid anyday.. Therefore if Dodge can offer an AWD option for the Challenger, so can Ford with the Mustang.. Being as the S550 has become more of an upscale sports car and less pony car/muscle car that's now competing globally, it's only going to be a matter of time before it becomes a reality anyhow !

Boss 0960

Stock '15 GT convertibles. One auto, one stick.

Mustang Freak

I would hope that the Mustang continues in rear wheel drive only as God intended.

m05fastbackGT

Gary ! I know that my Mustang will always be RWD, just as God intended lol. However if I had to choose between a Mustang with AWD and a Hybrid, I'd have to settle for the lesser of two evils and select AWD as my choice



-Rocky

Mustang Freak

THAT WOULD BE A HORRIBLE DECISION FOR ME TO MAKE!!!

m05fastbackGT

Thankfully neither of us will ever have to worry about having to face such as horrible decision to begin with anyhow

5.M0NSTER

I'd be ok with AWD as long as there is a mode where 100% of the power can go to the rear WAAAAAAAY before I'm ok with hybrid.

Look at the Hoonigan mustang from Gymkhana. 4 wheel burnouts!

laserred38

No offense, but that's entirely what I suspected. Well, I expected stock coupes. You're really basing your experience on stock convertibles?? Not a very fair comparison. Even my Track Pack GT stock was very underwhelming other than straight line speed.

I think you need to find a buddy with a modded S550 and give it a fair shakedown. I think you'd be quite surprised.

berzerk_1980

I have a mostly stock '14 GT with the TracKey. I feel the car is pretty primitive stock and with the TracKey I get pretty tired after about 1/2 hour of driving.

I rented a '15 Ecoboost (lol) and was really impressed with the ride and handling. If the GT handles the same (why shouldn't it) then it probably doesn't feel like it wants you dead. That excitement may be what's missing for the Mustang purist.

kylerohde

Except it's a V6 only option. You guys would be all bent out of shape that you couldn't get a AWD GT then and only the EcoBoost.

Winter tires are your friend.

Can't imagine it won't. Ford has no RWD-based car platform with AWD as an option, far as I know, so that'd be a helluva engineering investment that I can't think would be worth it.

m05fastbackGT

True ! it doesn't just yet, but by 2020 I wouldn't bet against it.. As for engineering investment costs are concerned ? Ford claimed the same about IRS prior to the S550 launch.. Now that Mustang is being sold globally, demand is only going get stronger for AWD in order to be more competitive with our European counterparts looking for alternatives to Audi, BMW, VW and so forth..

As I also mentioned in a previous post, If Dodge can offer an AWD option for the Challenger, then Ford can also do the same for the Mustang as well..

One way or the other, it's eventually going to happen no matter what lol.

Boss 0960

How is it unfair? Is it unfair that I compared it to my basically stock Boss 302 or is it unfair that I compared it to a BMW and AMG? Is it unfair that I considered the car exactly the way Ford presented it for sale?

What exactly is a fair comparison? If we are going to consider modified Mustangs, should we not compare it against modified versions of other cars as well? By way of reference, I could compare it to modding my Boss with a full Cortex setup and Hellion system for the same money as it would cost me to trade into an S550. Once the modding begins, all bets are off and there's a whole new world of cars to consider besides a Mustang.

I don't see any value in buying an expensive and underwhelming (your word) car just so I can spend more money and void the warranty by modding it. Then after all that expense and modding, I'm still left with an ugly car with a grill that takes it's inspiration from the Ford Transit Van.

Now if Ford ever comes out with a GT500 with a twin turbo 5.0L and a 10 speed auto, then we can talk. Unless there's a prominent XM wart, then it's a craps shoot.

Mustang Freak

Just because they can DOESN'T MEAN they should.

TheReaper

AWD will add more sophistication to the Mustang.

2k7gtcs

And now you can drive in the snow and stuff

Year round mustang

kylerohde

Already do

m05fastbackGT

I agree, but you know it's eventually going to happen, just like with the Hybrid that's supposedly going to be added beginning for MY2020

That's the price for competing on a much larger global scale, so it would appear the Europeans will eventually get exactly what they want

Well not my Mustang