Rental Car Review - 2016 Ford Mustang - bluh.

So it was 5 bucks extra to rent this beauty below. a 2016 V6 Mustang. Or 40 reasons why I'd be pissed that my 28k purchase brought me this gem. (not mine, but same thing)

So I'll start off with the very first reason why I didn't like it. When I'm in a new town, I want to be able to use my phone. I'd rather avoid trying to find a local radio station, so I want my music, and most importantly, I want google maps. Which brings you to this gem.

This same piece of garbage is in their 2017 model. Based off of a system that made its debut in 2007, they are still using sync. a 4.2 display of garbage, next to a ever useless number pad. That's right. 2017, and you include a number pad. For the first day, I could not figure out how to play my music through it. As it turns out, you have to hit that media button. It says USB not connected. Hit it again. It says USB 2 not connected. Hit it again. There it is. bluetooth connected.

Once you drive the thing, it isn't terrible. But, it's also not very good. Like most sports cars, the visibility kind of sucks. The humps in the hood help with reducing even more visibility. It took me a day to get a feel for where the car actually was. I normally don't have that issue when driving new cars. The steering is nice, and handld curves impressively well. The auto makes the 300hp feel like 200. It's just not that fun when you get into it. The transmission has the standard tree, but for some unknown reason, allows you to override in drive, by using the flappy paddles. There's no separate mode, you just use them in drive. So does it auto shift up after a certain rpm? not sure. didnt bother using them.

The comfort level again, would make me mad that I spent 30k on it. The seats had the ability to slide, tilt, and lumbar support. thats all. After a 200 mile road trip, my back was killing me. The build quality just seems cheap. The buttons feel like they should be in a fiesta.

I drove it 400 miles. It was more fun than a typical rental car I guess. The last car I had was a Yaris, so this wins. If I was buying an entry level sports car, I'd be pissed. I thought Ford was better than this.

I drove a 2016 manual v6 and thought it was great for the price. I didn't buy it because the dealer wouldn't match the $23k that I found it for from a Baltimore dealer. I didn't notice the issues you had but then I only put about 20 miles on it.

I like the number pad myself.

I absolulety can't stand the "infotainment" movement in newer cars. I have no interest in bluetooth, phone integration, satellite radio or navigation systems, yet some level of this is in nearly every new car. Its extremely hard to use, drives up cost (even when its in the "base" price) and just leads to more driver distraction. I'd trash that thing and stuff my $99 Kenwood from 5 years ago in there.

In reply to Gearheadotaku:

I'm in between. Connecting my phone is a requirement. I do think some of them can be over the top. Even if it's a basic system, it still needs to be user friendly, and done right. Ford sync tries to make a basic system seem complicated. It's the same thing as the 2007 system, with Bluetooth thrown in now.

mtn wrote: I like the number pad myself.

Why is it a phone layout instead of a keyboard layout!?!?

Gearheadotaku wrote: Its extremely hard to use

Agreed. Least intuitive thing in any new car. They are all different, and almost all are difficult. Every rental I get I basically give up and just listen to whatever is on when I get in it. I don't know why phone syncing is so difficult either. My Alpine head unit reliably syncs to my phone every time. Its super easy to configure & answer calls. Some rentals I get I need to go through 40 menus to sync the phone. Plug it into the usb port and it somehow overrides the audio of the head unit instead of simply charging the damn phone.

Early this year I had a Sonata rental, and could not figure out to just 'seek' to the next radio station. XM/Sirius seemed to be mixed in with local stations at random. Great.... now I have to press seek hundreds of times to cycle through 300 channels of garbage, one by one, in order to get to something good.

All radios should just have an 'NPR' button that auto-tunes to the nearest public radio station.

V6 stang vrs v6 cramit. Go.

Trackmouse wrote: V6 stang vrs v6 cramit. Go.

Can you translate that sentence to English, please?

stuart in mn wrote:

Trackmouse wrote: V6 stang vrs v6 cramit. Go.

Can you translate that sentence to English, please?

Ford Vs Chevy

The 2016 V6 Camaro is a mid-level car in the Camaro line-up, and the 2016 V6 Mustang is the entry level car in that line-up. You can't even get an upgraded interior with the V6 Mustang.

I don't know what you guys have been doing but I had no problem syncing my phone with the Mustang or with a rental Jetta. And I've never owned a car with a system like that!

I have never connected my phone to a car. I just listen to the radio. If I could get the radio in my helmet I would listen to that so I wouldn't have to use my data plan listening to terrible music. I don't care about the fancy crap, give me an AM/FM radio and I'm good to go.

I liked the V6 Cramit with a manual. I'm sure and auto would have sucked some fun out of it but I can't compare. I haven't driven a new mustang but one thing that has held true in every single ford product I have ever driven is slow steering. If the Mustang has that then I want no part of it.

Gearheadotaku wrote: I absolulety can't stand the "infotainment" movement in newer cars. I have no interest in bluetooth, phone integration, satellite radio or navigation systems, yet some level of this is in nearly every new car. Its extremely hard to use, drives up cost (even when its in the "base" price) and just leads to more driver distraction. I'd trash that thing and stuff my $99 Kenwood from 5 years ago in there.

The problem you'll face is that you're in the vast minority. The overwhelming majority of people like and want those things in their cars. Wait, let me rephrase that....they demand those things in their cars. So the manufacturers aren't going to cater to the tiny portion of people who don't want it. I'm not a tech geek myself...I had a flip phone until the very end of 2014, I don't do any social media, I've never sent a text message (seriously), etc... But I love all those things you just listed. It's fairly rare that I talk on the phone while driving, but on the occasions that I do, it's awesome to be able to just hit a button on my steering wheel. I never have to move my hands off the wheel nor take my eyes off the road. I also like satellite radio because when you spend 4 hours a day in the car, it's nice to have. I can take or leave the navigation. I like it, but my phone will do just as good of a job, if not better. I really haven't found those things tough to use at all, they're fairly intuitive. The one thing I really don't like at all are taking away buttons/knobs for some primary controls. The two biggest for me are with the stereo. I hate cars that don't have knobs for volume control or buttons for station presets. The wheel buttons are great, but if I want to flip quickly, I like the buttons/knobs. I can do that by feel, a touchscreen requires me to look.

As for the V6 Mustang, I haven't driven the '16+ models, but drove a ton of the previous generation. I liked them quite a bit. Very tempted to buy one. Biggest issue I had with the V6 was that even though all the performance magazines listed the 0-60 time to be pretty quick (mid-5s IIRC), it just didn't feel that way. Power seemed lacking, especially at lower rpm. Interior was a bit cheap, but easy to understand and use. For me, the GT is worth the extra cost, especially on the used market.

Trackmouse wrote: V6 stang vrs v6 cramit. Go.

i havent driven the v6 stang but i did have a rental v6 camaro to drive from Phoenix to the San Bernardino area and i enjoyed it.

I want to say the radio was simpler then the mustang's shown above but its been several months since i drove it so its hard to remember. Usually for rentals i just need to know how to scan the FM stations and im good to go. I also figure if you buy the car you will get use to how the radio works within a week or 2 and it wont be a problem anymore.

It too had the flappy paddles that you could just bump to start using. It did hold each gear very well and had good fast clean shifts when bumped, i took to through several mountain road and it was nice being able to hold a gear instead of constant upshifts and downshifts. Also i thought the 300 hp came through to the wheels quite well. there were many 'scientific' tests performed with spinning tires and 80 to 120 mph pulls in the open desert. it handled pretty decent as well through the mountains for how big it was but had a tendency to push on sharper corners.

Comfort wise i think it was pretty on par with most the econo-box seats that i get in most rentals. I am 6'4" with most my height in my torso so if a seat isnt just right my back will start hurting within the first 2 hours or so.

like i said i havent driven the mustang so i cant vouch for a head to head comparison, but hopefully with all my travel i will end up with one eventually.