Ford’s 2018 Mustang Gets Shapelier and High-Techier

Better aero, smarter computer.
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Ford

A week after busting out next year's F-150 pickup, Ford unveiled the latest riff on its other marquee player, the Mustang. Like the truck, it gets a crisp refreshing of the redesign Ford unveiled in 2013.

Rather than muck up a good thing, Dearborn opted for a touchup over a makeover. The 2018 car is a bit lower, a bit sleeker, and a bit shapelier.

Ford

The bigger changes are under the sheet metal. As with the F-150, Ford is giving Mustang owners a taste of all the driver assistance features it has cooked up in recent years. The latest version of a car that first hit the road in 1965 sports lane keeping assist, pedestrian detection, and a distance alert that squawks when you're coming up too fast on the slowpoke ahead.

A 12-inch digital instrument cluster (an increasingly common sight) lets you scroll between the speedometer and tach, lap timer, trip info, and more. You can even pick your own color scheme.

Under the hood, Ford offers the same four-cylinder "EcoBoost" engine (the marketing department's term for, "it has a turbocharger") and the 5-liter V8. Gone is the V6 that was less powerful and less efficient than the four-banger. If you insist on letting the car shift gears, you can get the 10-speed (!) slushbox. Of course you want the six-speed manual, because manuals are better.