So good is the ‘anti-Mustang’
You have to dare to call the Ford Mustang Mach-E a muscle car. Yet Ford does roll its muscles with this model, because since its introduction in 2021, more than 5,000 copies have already had the well-known yellow plates screwed up. A number of owners took the trouble to describe their experiences. How good do they like their Mustang Mach-E?
Perhaps enthusiasts are right. Not only do you miss the – preferably – eight-cylinder sound with the electric Mustang, with 269 hp, the Mach-Es with 75-kWh battery pack are not even very powerful. The variant with 98 kWh does a bit better with 351 prancing plug horses, but the 487 hp and always four-wheel drive Mach-E GT is perhaps the only one that can really call itself a muscle car. This GT does not appear in this article: the vast majority of owners describe a 75-kWh variant with rear-wheel drive.
How does such an electric Mustang drive?
Even though the Mustang Mach-E has a five-door SUV body, its name suggests that sportiness is in its genes. “In the meantime, I have put the car through its paces,” says the owner of a rear-wheel drive Mach-E 75 kWh. “Driving this car is therefore the big plus. It corners hard, steers with feel and good feedback, as I’ve come to expect from Ford. You can break out the rear quite easily and keep it under control when the road is a bit wetter, but I didn’t dare push the limits. You feel that the car is very heavy and that when you cross the border there is probably no stopping it.” This cornering behavior does have a downside, because the owner makes a significant comment on the tuning of the suspension and damping. “You don’t get used to the uncomfortable. I would still leave the car for it, even if it still drives so well on smooth asphalt.”
The driver of a more powerful Mach-E with a larger battery pack also criticizes the chassis. “Actually, I can only name one drawback of the MME, the suspension. This is quite stiff and especially over speed bumps it is not comfortable. It bounces quite a bit if you take the threshold a little too enthusiastically.”
Although several owners endorse this experience, there is also a different sound. “Man, how buzzing it is”, writes an enthusiastic driver. “Noiseless, fast and so smooth. I have read another review about bouncy handling, but I find it very flexible springs. Much smoother than the X1 in any case, that BMW is really a bit stiffer. But then I thought: ‘could it be because of the high cheeks of the 18-inch rims and have I done the right thing by ordering an extra 19-inch?’ I can now say that the car springs just as smoothly at 19 inches. The other review had painted a fear image for me, but completely wrong. Just wonderfully smooth driving.”
What does it consume?
Now a question that a ‘real’ Mustang driver would regularly receive: what about consumption? With the Mustang Mach-E, we naturally look at the number of kWh per 100 kilometers. “My total consumption over the past few months is 18 kWh/100 km,” says the owner of a Mach-E RWD with a 75 kWh battery. He adds: “These are on-board computer numbers, but certainly not bad when I read the reviews of other electric cars.”
Another driver sees different values appear on the dashboard and draws a different conclusion. “The consumption of the car is good, not great. On average in the winter I drive 21 kWh per 100 km. A range of 300-320 km in winter is usually feasible, then I usually drive 115 km/h on the highway. Above 120 km/h it deteriorates rapidly.”
This 75 kWh RWD driver proves that it can be more economical: “My on-board computer indicates an average of 16 kWh/100 km. Practical range is 275-300 km in winter, 300-350 km in spring/autumn and 400-450 km in summer. Excellent values as far as I’m concerned.” He also shares a number of interesting figures: “It is nice to mention the consumption with a bicycle carrier and two bicycles. As soon as you drive 100 km on the highway, consumption goes from 16 to 19 kWh/100 km. However, after 19 hours I have driven 130 km / h with bicycles and then the consumption goes to 25 kWh / 100 km. So you notice that.”
And how practical is the Mustang Mach-E?
At this point we say goodbye to the diehards, because a Mustang and practical ease of use? Excuse me! Still, owners are glad Ford has thought of these features. “The seats are pretty good,” said one of them, but with a caveat. “If you drive sporty you miss some lateral support, but I can sit in it with my 1.81 meters. The row behind it has more than enough legroom. For really tall people, the seat in the back is less practical due to the sloping roofline, but with a length of 2 meters you should sit in the front.”
That is what a 1.98 meter tall driver does: “My children are spacious in the back. They are around 10 years old and fit comfortably in the back seat. The same goes for adults. I am also spacious in the front. I am 1.98 m tall, but have enough headroom and a good view of the road. The spacious cabin also gives me a lot of legroom in the front and there is still a lot of space behind the power pedal, so that I can stretch my legs on long journeys.”
Infotainment and controls
For the interior, Ford seems to have been inspired by Tesla. In the middle is a large screen, with which you can operate most functions. Apparently Ford has thought carefully about the interface, because users report no complaints about it. “The system itself actually works very pleasantly and intuitively,” writes one of them. “However, it is sometimes inconvenient to switch on the seat heating via the touchscreen, while driving you are sometimes just wrong. Then you spontaneously set the air conditioning to maximum instead of the steering wheel heating.” Although the system is equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, drivers are satisfied with the built-in navigation. “The navigation works perfectly,” writes one satisfied user. “There is really nothing to criticize about this. In the event of a traffic jam, it quickly calculates an alternative faster route.”
Disturbances and annoyances
We see it often in this section, especially in young cars: starting problems. Fortunately, while Mustang owners don’t have to deal with breakdowns on the road, not all cars are worry-free. “The software remains a special phenomenon,” writes this owner, “it looks like a magical car. One time the meters show miles, the other time they show kilometers. The audio constantly resets itself to factory settings, the screens sometimes freeze and my Android Auto sometimes stutters.”
Another owner also experienced software problems, his car no longer installed updates: “In version 1.7.1 my system crashed. Everything just worked, but the screen that indicates which version you are in indicated that I was on 1.7.1. But the notepad app you would get was not included and the OTA slider (slide that is colored blue when it is on) was grayed out. In other words, it stopped getting over the air updates (and it couldn’t be activated). So I contacted my dealer and then you notice that dealers are not yet used to a computer on wheels.”
In addition, several users report that the app with which you use a smartphone as a key does not work stably. “Furthermore, the car has to go back to the garage for a third recall. This time because the roof probably needs to be sealed again,” adds an owner, who is dealing with such a non-working mobile key.
Muscle language worth?
Will the Mustang Mach-E satisfy its owners and users? We seem to be able to answer that with a ‘yes’. There are still some challenges to overcome on an electronic level, but when it comes to range and energy consumption, the ‘Stekker rod’ does not make a mud figure. Also on a practical level, the car appears to perform sufficiently – and not just for a Mustang. Users are divided in terms of driving characteristics, according to some the chassis could use some fine tuning. When you look at it that way, the Mach-E seems like a pretty genuine Mustang: refinement has probably never been a reason to go for such a pony car to choose.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl