THE wait is over. Confirmation has come today that the new 2018 Ford Mustang will arrive in Australia mid-year, with a more athletic look, improved capability, and technology inspired by Ford Performance’s Le Mans and Daytona-winning GT racers.
It will come with more power and more torque from the Coyote 5.0-litre V8, some 33kW more power and 26Nm more torque in fact, with a brand new active valve exhaust, and the option of MagnaRide suspension, previously only available on the Shelby GT350.
New Recaro leather sports seats and OTT striping on the fastback models will join a host of new technology and safety features, including a digital instrument cluster, autonomous emergency braking, pedestrian detection and adaptive cruise control.
Ford has also improved its lane-departure warning and lane-keep assist systems, and added auto-levelling headlights, automatic high beam and Ford SYNC 3i, its emergency assist system.
It’s designed to automatically calls emergency services for faster response times in the event of a road traffic collision. Also added to the new Mustang is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as an 8.0-inch full-colour reversing camera display.
The EcoBoost model will also gain more torque for improved drive, while a better tune will come for the manual gearbox, with the six speed automatic transmission being dumped by the Blue Oval as well.
In its place, a sophisticated 10-speed paddle-shift transmission will be available for both the Mustang GT and the Mustang EcoBoost models, with faster gear-changes and an optimised shift-pattern for performance and efficiency.
The base model EcoBoost Fastback (manual) will hit the road at $49,990, while the automatic is priced at $52,990 and the convertible is $59,490. All prices are plus on-roads.
For GT fans, the manual will cost $62,990, while the automatic variant will hit the tarmac at $66,259, with the convertible priced at $74,709. Again, all prices are plus on-roads.
