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Should We Have Gone EcoBoost? - 2015 Ford Mustang GT Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited December 2014 in Ford
imageShould We Have Gone EcoBoost? - 2015 Ford Mustang GT Long-Term Road Test

Should Edmunds have purchased an EcoBoost-equipped Mustang instead of the V8-powered GT? Editor James Riswick provides his answer.

Read the full story here


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Comments

  • 7driver7driver Member Posts: 145
    No, it shouldn't be orange. It should be white. With blue racing stripes. Also a flat plane crank, magnetic dampers and a GT350 badge. But I'm dreaming that you guys have an unlimited resources and a time machine.
  • grijongrijon Member Posts: 147
    edited December 2014
    Well-written and very funny post, but I completely agree with all that @rsholland, @bankerdanny, and @kirkhilles1 wrote (great comments, you three!). I really enjoy the Edmunds team and this blog, but the ball was dropped on this decision.
  • jstrauch81jstrauch81 Member Posts: 64
    No it shouldn't be orange, and yes you should have tested the eco-boost. As already mentioned numerous times, we are aware of the 5.0, not so much when it comes to the EB. This site is supposed to be for the readers, not for your staff.
  • throwbackthrowback Member Posts: 445
    It should be a V8, this is a performance blog, no? You can certainly get an ecoboost Mustang down the road.
  • thetruck454thetruck454 Member Posts: 11
    Is this Consumer Reports or an car enthusiast website? Consumer Reports would test an ecoboost, go read their review if you want to know how that would do. For the rest of us car enthusiasts, else enjoy the review of the only way a pony car should be ordered, with a V8
  • zimtheinvaderzimtheinvader Member Posts: 580
    What amazes me are the minimal number of posts about it regardless of what engine is in it. Only 4 in over 2 weeks. And one is just defending the engine choice not about actually owning/driving the car.

    If all your paid writers would be able to come up with about an ecoboost is ""This thing sounds like a Focus." then fire them and hire better people.

    I've had rental cars for less than a week that I could have come up with dozens of quick topics to post about.

    And @throwback, I think you are thinking back to Insideline. I don't think performance is anywhere in edmunds side of things.
  • misterfusionmisterfusion Member Posts: 471
    edited December 2014
    For everyone who wanted Edmunds to test the Ecoboost to see if it is something that might be recommended to buyers, I think that is the entire point here -- they're saying, "NO, don't buy the Ecoboost!"

    You may not *agree* with that judgement, but likewise there would be those who would not have agreed with Edmunds if they HAD recommended the Ecoboost over the V8.
  • agentorangeagentorange Member Posts: 893
    edited December 2014
    rsholland said:

    This is not about "floating the boat" of Edmunds staffers. It's about informing readers about products and various options.

    This x1000. If I want to hear about optioned up cars with the V8, I can can get that in any bar in Vegas... if I have a strong stomach. Buying the Ecoboost would have given the ENTHUSIAST reader an insight into the long term reliability and overall experience vs V8s and V6s with which most of us are all familiar. A missed opportunity, if I ever saw one. As for the colour, ANYTHING is prefereable to screaming orange, but maybe that's just me.;)

  • zimtheinvaderzimtheinvader Member Posts: 580
    misterfusion said:

    You may not *agree* with that judgement, but likewise there would be those who would not have agreed with Edmunds if they HAD recommended the Ecoboost over the V8.

    But why bother with long term tests then? If a quick test drive of each can tell them that they want to say "don't buy the ecoboost" then time to scrap the long term section and just give up front endorsements.
    misterfusion said:

    they're saying, "NO, don't buy the Ecoboost!"

    Interesting interpretation, but does that mean every car or version of a car they don't add to the fleet is one they are saying "don't buy"?

  • emajoremajor Member Posts: 332
    edited December 2014
    There is a strong argument for choosing the Ecoboost over the V8. A turbo four in a pony car sounds like pure sacrilege, and the way to find that out is to test it. The 3.7 finally made the V6 Mustang a viable option, perhaps the turbo 4 does as well. Or not. But I'm guessing the current GT will read a lot like the 2011 GT you had and be less informative as a result. We all know the V8 is the preferred engine in the Mustang. But is the Ecoboost acceptable or a complete mismatch for the car's mission?

    Thing is, you made this argument yourself: "Sure, the EcoBoost is new and could tell an interesting story at first, 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?" " That would have been more interesting than the inevitable "The V8 is loud and way fast and spins its tires in smoke" cliches that have been heard before and are to be expected.

    If you are a car enthusiast, buy the V8. If you are an enthusiast website, long-term the Ecoboost so we can know why to buy the V8.
    bankerdanny said:

    throwback said:

    It should be a V8, this is a performance blog, no?

    Actually, no, it's not a performance blog. You could argue that Inside Line mostly was, but whatever this increasingly irrelevant thing is, it's not a performance blog.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one around who feels this way. The question is why I keep coming back. Old habits die hard and I keep hoping for some of the previous flavor to seep through.
  • reminderreminder Member Posts: 383
    Let's keep 'hugger orange' with Chevy.
    If you have the means to purchase an 8-hole plant over the others, I'm all for it.
    If you are an automotive mag that spans the industry to inform their readership, it might not be the best choice.
    We are all fully aware of the capability of the v8 version, so I don't see how much new information can be gained.
  • gslippygslippy Member Posts: 514
    You should have gone Eco on the Hyundai Sonata also. The plain-Jane 2.4 you ordered is a well-known entity; the detuned 2.0T won't sell well, but the 1.6 Eco is the better - yet unknown - engine.
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    edited December 2014
    I've been following Edmunds Long-Term test blog off and on since its inception. The concept is strong: inform readers what's like to live with a vehicle over an extended time, and to help them make informed purchasing decisions by exposing "the devil is in the details" kind of stuff.

    I'd say Edmunds has done a fair job—not good, not great—but fair, and average at best. I've found that too many posts rely on fluff, and not substance. Sometimes I get the feeling that there is a post quota to be met, you know, just get something out there, even if it's just filler text.

    Some posts have been fantastic and really informative, just wish there were more of them.
  • allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    edited December 2014
    "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,"

    But you think we need long term tests of 3 VW products with the Turbo 4 and that can't possibly be boring. It would have been interesting to do a side by side comparison test of the Mustang Ecoboost 2.3 Turbo and the GTI 2.0 Turbo. If you ever get the new 2015 Ford F 150 don't get the new 2.7 Ecoboost V6 make sure you get the 5.0 V8. Because a big ole American truck is just supposed to have 8 cylinders pumping under the hood.

    You guys dropped the ball on this one and now you're trying to justify a bad decision.
  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    edited January 2015
    gas prices will be low for the duration of its 20k miles no doubt.

    but one analyst on cnbc said it best: the cure for high gas prices is high gas prices. the cure for low gas prices is low gas prices. the price of gas will go up at some point. ecoboost is here to stay. where else can you get a domestic longitudinal 4-cylinder turbo in a RWD sporty vehicle? it is the only of of its (domestic) kind.

    and now with the option to get a OEM performance tune? wow... edmund's missed out on a great opportunity.

    it is true you were damned if you do; damned if you don't. simple answer: take a poll! let the (registered) users decide!
  • oxmeadoxmead Member Posts: 79
    I would have preferred a long term ecoboost test.
  • bassracerxbassracerx Member Posts: 188
    i really wish this was the ecoboost with the performance pack and not many more options than that. that would be the actual enthusiast's pick and also it is the number one controversial feature of the new mustang "what that mustang has a four cylinder no way!" or "four cylinder mustang? eww"

    then you can film drag racing fox body mustangs v8 mustangs of different eras and smoking them. Plus the new mustang GT is no where near as fast as the Camaro so as smug as you can be about being one of the only people in your area who has a 2015 mustang GT just know that you will have a lot of miles behind camaro taillights.
  • fordson1fordson1 Unconfirmed Posts: 1,512
    bassracerx said:

    i really wish this was the ecoboost with the performance pack and not many more options than that. that would be the actual enthusiast's pick and also it is the number one controversial feature of the new mustang "what that mustang has a four cylinder no way!" or "four cylinder mustang? eww"

    then you can film drag racing fox body mustangs v8 mustangs of different eras and smoking them. Plus the new mustang GT is no where near as fast as the Camaro so as smug as you can be about being one of the only people in your area who has a 2015 mustang GT just know that you will have a lot of miles behind camaro taillights.

    What are you talking about? Any number of comparisons show the current Mustang and Camaro in a dead heat.

    I think anyone saying the longitudinal-engine, rwd Mustang "sounds like" a fwd hatchback Focus just because both cars have a turbo four is a dummy. Should have done the Ecoboost, probably.
  • arcticbluetsxarcticbluetsx Member Posts: 79
    Mustangs shouldn't even exist without a V8 and 3 pedals! It's a performance car!! If you want to read about a 4 cylinder car, look at the old long term tests of Accords and Camrys!
  • zimtheinvaderzimtheinvader Member Posts: 580
    I'm still shocked that 8 days have passed since any writeup about being in the car. Is everyone on vacation?
  • allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    arcticbluetsx said:

    Mustangs shouldn't even exist without a V8 and 3 pedals! It's a performance car!! If you want to read about a 4 cylinder car, look at the old long term tests of Accords and Camrys!

    And this kind of thinking is what kept American performance cars lagging behind the best performance cars for decades. In the mid 1980's Ford made a 2.3 Turbo 4 Mustang that made as much power as the V8 but was faster and out handled the V8 GT. The Mustang SVO was the top of the line Mustang at the time. After giving up the use of this engine in the Mustang they dropped it in the new Thunderbird Turbo Coupe in 1987. Imagine if Ford continued to refine and develop small turbo engines where they would be today. The Camaro and Corvette would probably just be a couple of paragraphs in history books.

  • zedoczedoc Member Posts: 1
    You should have gone with the EcoBoost or the V6. There's a million other GT reviews and tests out there. And what do you mean "No, no, no ... ." The GT costs $8K more. It's very expensive and impractical. Nice, but it isn't 1969 anymore. Hey, I want to know about the V6 nd the EcoBoost!
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