2021 Mustang Ecoboost rental review + Houston mini take

[DAVIDO49]

My engine sounds don’t emit through my speakers

It's an augmented sound If that I meant. Ford engines sound just fine revving & running.. in our '20 Ranger XLT FX4 crew cab & Escape SEL AWD 1.5L GTDI. Not to mention all the F150s i’ve had. None ever gave me any issues! I love Ford. Can't beat em all around.

 

[DAVIDO49]

Went to Houston for the weekend for a wedding. My first time there. I decided to rent a Mustang to try a newer one out. I ended up with a 2021 2.3EB version pictured here:
View attachment 89921

Grey exterior with a black interior. Let's go!

Seating: Leather bucket seating was actually quite comfortable once I had it set. I see nothing has changed about rear seating. My seat was touching the rear seat while I was driving. It has no real function unless the driver is five feet tall.

SYNC: It's not the SYNC system that is good, it's how well the iPhone integrates into it. USB port was easy to access and it was program my destination, turn on the SXM app, and let's get to driving. The screen is in a great location and is very reachable and easy to read. Speakers were average. They are functional and probably plenty for most people.

View attachment 89922
Interior. Very well put together. You can see the control layout is small-ish, but is pretty easy. All of the steering wheel controls are easy to use. The tach and speed displays are easy to read. This also has the paddle shifters. I don't like them on the Edge, so I didn't try to use them. Speakers played sound loud enough.

Handling: It handles quite well. The suspension feels stiff and is very responsive when you weave. The brake peddle was extremely touchy. I had to get used to it.

View attachment 89924
Engine: Weird noise on startup. But once idling it sounds like a large lawnmower. A little bit of buzzing. No deep tones. The engine does a decent job and certainly has a market. Many people would be satisfied with it. Sometimes I thought "I'd like to see what the 2.7 could do", but there's no need to do that. This isn't one I'd buy (obviously), but I'm sure people like it. I'm surprised at the HP rating because it doesn't feel like it.
Other stuff: I still like push button starts and I know how to use the key fobs efficiently. I found the Mustang logo puddle lighting to be both awesome and creepy.
This is great choice for someone looking for an every day sports car look that performance isn't the #1 priority. I don't know MPG, but I didn't use a ton of gas.

Houston: May as well put a take on it. I found it weirdly similar to Chicago. It's a large, modern city with a huge traffic problem. The planning is "last 30 years" type of stuff to serve a population of 20 years ago. Expressway circles as you go out and bi-section of interstates in the middle. The 4-6 lane highways with 2-4 lane frontage roads allow for getting one place to another efficient and are really favorable to a lot of commercial development along to corridors. When on the main highway, staying left is your friend as the right lanes are used for entry and exit onto the frontage only, so there's a lot of adding and losing lanes over there. Another thing is that nearly everything is a ramp or an elevated highway. I've never seen to many ramps everywhere. Part of that is topography of which there is none. The entire area is as flat as an iron skillet and I use that analogy because (I'm told) that's what summers feel like. Another funny thing is all these dudes in the jacked up pickups with the wide tires. It's a thing I don't get. Is there a ton of off road driving around there? Here's a standard example:

View attachment 89937

Most of the people I met that live there are on the "don't like it" to "hate it" there (another similarity to Chicago). Small sample size I suppose. I have no reason to go back and I'd kind of like to keep it that way. No hard feelings.

I'm sure it's been beat bad bein that it's a rental SPORTS CAR. The newer one i drove & maintained for an ex- GF ran quiet, revved smoothly & had nice Lil growl to it for a 4cyl. It's no slouch w/310hp on tap! I bet the 6spd manual version be an absolute blast.