Tested: 2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Revises the Four-mula (2024)

From the December 2023 issue of Car and Driver.

Ever since a wheezy 88-hp 2.3-liter four-banger appeared under the hood of the much-maligned Mustang II, a Pavlovian recoil occurs whenever someone says "four-cylinder Mustang." But turbocharged 2.3-liter Mustangs are another matter—especially today. That formula got a rocky, carbureted 132-hp start in 1979, but things improved, and in 1986 the Mustang SVO made 200 horses. Cheap gas, better emissions controls, and stale CAFE targets put them to pasture as V-8s reasserted their dominance. But after almost 30 years on the bench, the turbo 2.3-liter four returned in the 2015 Mustang EcoBoost making a heady 310 horsepower.

That engine carries on in today's seventh-generation 2024 Ford Mustang EcoBoost, with a 10-speed automatic the only transmission available. Ford substantially revised the engine, which now features direct and port fuel injection, a smaller twin-scroll turbo, and an electronic wastegate. Output barely budges, with a small bump to 315 horsepower and the same 350 pound-feet of torque. At least fuel economy is up a tick despite a slightly heavier curb weight.

The optional High Performance pack doesn't net the slight horsepower increase it did last year but otherwise includes a similar list of desirable upgrades. Chief among the goodies are 19-inch Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer tires, a 3.55:1 limited-slip differential of the Torsen variety, and a performance-tuned suspension. You also get sizable Brembo six-piston front calipers and four-pot rears, a strut-tower brace, and an electronic pull-up parking brake activator that can lock the rear wheels using the hydraulic brakes to make getting sideways easier. Ford markets it as a drift brake—as if we need more Cars & Coffee getaway mishaps. At $3475, this stuff comes cheaper than last year, when you had to buy the $1995 Handling package on top of the $6150 High Performance package to get the Torsen and the Brembos. To make this possible, two features are now stand-alone options: the active performance exhaust ($1225) and MagneRide adaptive dampers ($1750, but the $5525 Premium package is also required).

This new EcoBoost is the quickest four-cylinder Mustang we've tested, with a 4.5-second 60-mph time that feeds into a 13.2-second, 103-mph quarter-mile. The Brembos and Pirellis do the business under braking, hauling the Mustang to a stop from 70 mph in 149 feet and from 100 mph in 293 feet. There's also plenty of stick on the skidpad, with 0.95-g orbits easy to pull off.

But 10 gears are too many. With narrow gear spacing and an eagerness to upshift, this gearbox acts like a wannabe continuously variable automatic transmission. Sport mode helps, but then the adaptive performance exhaust switches on too, turning the exhaust into an overactive kazoo. Get the High Performance pack, but skip the active performance exhaust to save yourself embarrassment and $1225.

If you're not trying to set lap times, the Mustang EcoBoost drives like a champ. It changes directions willingly, gives the driver useful steering feedback, and cruises the interstate serenely, with comfy leather-trimmed buckets courtesy of the $3000 201A equipment package. We beat the 29-mpg EPA highway rating in our 75-mph test, getting 32 mpg. With a 16.0-gallon tank, this Mustang has long highway legs that can outlast your bladder for 510 miles of range.

As we cruised along, some other 2024 Mustang developments started to gnaw at us. The huge curving screen feels like a mistake. While it's conceptually similar to those in newer BMWs we love, and we tolerate it there, this execution isn't good enough. Response times are slow, some of the operational details are strange, and the menu logic is obtuse. The physical buttons and knobs that remain are stuffed down below the A/C vents in an arrangement that lacks the cohesion of the previous car.

The digital cluster has a choice of five layouts, one of which is a reincarnation of the classic 1987–93 Fox-body gauges. We rolled our eyes when this Easter egg was announced, but sampling the options shows the imitation analog instruments are by far the best choice, likely because they come from a time when the design brief said: Be legible, day or night. It makes the contemporary idea of customizable gauges seem pointless.

At one time, the sting of the four-cylinder Mustang was its lame performance, but the 2024 EcoBoost gallops at a hearty clip. Today's drawbacks are the lack of a manual transmission, the automatic's overeager upshifting, and the unsatisfying exhaust note. If those are deal breakers, well, just across the showroom, there's a Mustang GT calling your name.