This week I have a Ford Fusion rental, very low mileage and unsullied by the hardships of its life as a rental car. Since we're comparing the upcoming M3/M4 with the upcoming Mustang, my impressions of the Fusion might be relevant.
In terms of design, the Fusion is gorgeous. This one is a sort of mineral grey with black interior. My current BMW is an F10. It's a better looking car than the Fusion, but not by much. The lines on this car make it look like a million bucks. It appears the Mustang will be similarly excellent this way.
The interior design is well done also. The flow of the dash is attractive, although there seem to be a lot of buttons. The seats look strangely minimalist, almost like the way I remember seats looking in 60s-era Mustangs. But they are surprisingly comfortable. I can't tell whether these are low-grade leather or high-grade vinyl. It might not matter.
This Fusion says "Ecoboost" on the back, but since it's a rental car I assume it's the base 1.6L four. It really isn't an issue - it sounds pretty throaty and it has enough power for most people. I've driven gutless cars (my 1987 Audi 4000 was powered by hamsters) and this is not a gutless car. People should set aside their predispositions about 4-cylinder engines because there are some good ones now.
The transmission is disappointing, and here might be where we get into true Mustang versus M4 territory. It responds slowly to input and the shifts themselves take too long. I found the transmission to be a real tell-tale that I was driving a Ford and not a BMW.
Despite an attractive design, the interior materials were of a substantially lower grade than we find even in entry-level BMWs. For example:
- There is too much of that flat grey plastic. It's used as trim around the console controls and as accent elsewhere. It looks and feels cheap. Possibly, one could select an option package that would replace it with wood. But, base would probably be aluminum at a different price point. I expect similar execution in the upcoming Mustang.
- There's a lot of hard plastic on the lower half of the door trim. The upper half is a spongy layer covered by thin vinyl. It did not feel upscale.
- The headliner feels like it will deteriorate over a long ownership period, or that it would snag easily if you accidentally jammed a ski into it or something.
- The shift lever is trimmed with chrome plastic, which is surprising as it's the only place in the car where this plastic appears.
The user interface for the Sync system (or MyTouch or whatever it's called) is, in a word, terrible. The screen is tiny - maybe 4" by 3" - the graphics are crude, and I had to push too many of those buttons I mentioned above to get anything done. The car seems to default the Sync input to "line in" each time I start it, and I have to navigate the menu to switch it to stream Bluetooth from my phone. Truly a poor interface, and here's betting we'll get the same one in the Mustang. Perhaps with a navigation option, the screen itself gets bigger, but the current basic version of iDrive is worlds beyond this system.
Elsewhere on the dash, the graphics seem less elegant than in a BMW. There are a few too many colors (although my F10 is getting close here too), the font choices aren't quite right, and the organization of the data on the dash isn't as good as any current BMW.
Although beautiful to behold, the car does feel a little hollow when I shut the door and when I drive over a train track.
In summary -
At its price point, the Fusion is an excellent car. If someone handed me the keys to one as a company car and told me to drive it free of charge for three years, that would be a happy day. I like it more than I liked the Sonata I had recently.
But it is a Ford, and Ford builds cars pointed at a different price point than BMW. The more time I spend in it, the more little places I can see, feel, and hear the difference. I don't think I would buy a Fusion with my own money, rather I might buy a CPO 3 series for similar cash.
I think we will find all of these conclusions manifest in the 2015 Mustang as well. It will be much improved and excellent for what it is, and will provide performance numbers that threaten the M3/M4. Ownership experience being about somewhat more than 0-60 numbers, the Mustang will appeal to many people, but many others will prefer the M3/M4, even at its dramatically higher price point.
I hope this has been helpful.