2026 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Fastback review

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It looks like a Mustang, feels like a Mustang, and goes like a Mustang, but is the EcoBoost really a Mustang?

The term “modern takes on Ford’s iconic muscle car” has long been synonymous with eight-cylinder power after all, which is not reflected in this base model of the vehicle.

The newer EcoBoost is largely powered by the same turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine in the old Focus RS hot hatch. If you ask me if I’m very Mustang-y, not really Mustang.

The Australian buyers tend to accept . A local sales of Mustangs make up just 10 per cent – where the Blue Oval’s popular pony car took its mantle of the nation’d favourite sports car in 2025, as freer supplies for the seventh-generation S650-series were available despite the lure of a lower price tag.

Nevertheless, it’s a slightly different story in the US – where the ‘Stang is from. The EcoBoost and GT are also in the same numbers over there, with young enthusiasts interested in ‘cheap horsepower’ and tuning potential.

And here I was, thinking there was nothing more blasphemous than a four-pot Mustang.

Is the Yanks right about something? Or should the EcoBoost be a niche player in Australia’s declining sports car market?

How much does the Ford Mustang cost?

Ford Mustang’s price has increased by $1000 for the 2026 model year, with the entry-level Mustang EcoBoost listed at $72,990 before on-road costs.

| Model | Price before on-road costs |
| — | — |
| 2026 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Fastback auto | $72,990 |
| 2026 Ford Mustang GT Fastback manual | $84,990 |
| 2026 Ford Mustang GT Fastback auto | $84,990 |
| 2026 Ford Mustang GT Convertible auto | $93,666 |

The $1000 increase comes after Ford Australia upped the list price of all Mustang variants by $5000 from July 1, 2025, when it pointed the finger squarely at the introduction of the federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) as a key factor.

Despite the loss of some minor features, the price rise is due to MY26 EcoBoost vehicles losing their monochromatic mirror and remote starting key – although it can still be used with the FordPass app.

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What is the Ford Mustang like on the inside?

The Mustang is the most basic and has more interior features than any other at this price point, but you’d never call it ‘premium’.

For starters, the Mustang is far easier to hop in and out of than smaller sports cars such as the Nissan Z, Mazda MX-5, Toyota GR86, and Subaru BRZ.

The ‘Stang’ is also a less compromised car to sit in, as it has dimensional differences. There’s a lot of room for two adults to co-exist up front, and an extra set of seats in the back for small children and excess luggage.

But don’t get me wrong, it’s hardly an SUV (unlike the Mustang Mach-E). You sit low down in the cabin, and a bulging bonnet is always visible from the driver’s seat.

Front seats are one of the most comfortable you’ll get in a budget sports car. Whether your armchair had heating and cooling functions, the pews are best compared to your favourite leather arm chair (widened by design) or wide. That’s a great thing for daily driving and long-distance cruising, but it’t so good for fun driving now something that many Mustang drivers love doing.

That’s where the optional Recaro sports seats come in… except they’re a GT-only option, and cost $2950.

The steering wheel is a chunky leather-trimmed item that feels fitably sporty, and there’s no complaint about it. However, the plastic shift paddles do not contain ‘s but are a part of the Plastic Shift paddle. Instead, they don’t have the tactility that passionate drivers crave and take some of the joy from putting on gears yourself.

The Mustang experience has also been obscured by poor build quality. Our test car was shown with a few poorly fitted interior panels, and that’s not entirely unusual in our experience.

Most high-traffic areas are still covered in soft-touch materials and your elbows rest comfortably on parts of padded leatherette. By the end of day, you’re buying a Ford and not an Ferrari at the very least.

Having said that, Ford’s infotainment technology is better than the best in the world. Some Mustang fans are rebuking the transition to an entirely digital cockpit for the S650-generation model, but there is no escape from the comfort and configurability it offers.

The 13 paraphrasing is the. We love all the functionality we have found in modern cars. 2-inch central multimedia is bright, vibrant and easy to use – with everything that has been our favorite thing about it. That means native navigation, wireless smartphone mirroring, connected services and, in the case of the Mustang, performance driving apps.

A physical ‘Pony’ button is a shortcut to customisation of the interior lighting, exhaust volume and drive modes which can be used for access to the latter. Furthermore, you could also name some auxiliary gauges of G-forces, battery voltage and oil pressure (and more).

Shifting across, there’s also a great deal of configurability that is built into the 12 in this way. 4-inch Instrument Display Paraphrasing 4. It may have been a long-held class of physical gauges that were lost, but Mustang owners can now choose from digital versions of the instruments of yesteryear first-gen dials of 1960s (the first green-tinted ones in the late 1980s Foxbody model), retro green–tin-themed dial models for the 1970’s and white-face ‘New Edge’ dial designs on the early 2000s SVT Cobra.

a 2026 kind of way. It’s all so cool, in… Why does the gigantic panoramic housing sit on the dash – it just looks slightly tacked up – isn’t so cool?

Regardless, the technology suite in the Mustang is head and shoulders above what you get in any alternatives at this price point, bar the BMW 230i.

Ford’s sporty coupe is also a high-end space per dollar car, and as has been suggested before, it ranks highly in the sports version of his . There’s a four-person (just!) room, but there are also storage solutions in the first row for drinks, snacks, sunglasses and other loose items. A wireless charging pad sits at the bottom of the centre stack, as well as USB-A and USB–C outlets.

The 376-litre boot is extremely deep and just about wide enough for two suitcases, so it can store large luggage items. Good luck In the back of a Z or MX-5, good luck.

| Dimensions | Ford Mustang EcoBoost Fastback |
| — | — |
| Length | 4811mm |
| Width | 2097mm |
| Height | 1407mm |
| Wheelbase | 2719mm |
| Cargo capacity | 376L |

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What’s under the bonnet?

The EcoBoost Fastback uses a turbocharged 2 in its ecoBoost fastback. At 5500rpm, 232kW of power and 475Nm of torque at 3000rPM are produced by 3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with a total output of 230kW. That’s only the 10-speed automatic transmission that it’s mated with, and is exclusively about .

| Specifications | Ford Mustang EcoBoost |
| — | — |
| Engine | 2.3L 4cyl turbo-petrol |
| Power | 232kW |
| Torque | 475Nm |
| Transmission | 10-speed auto |
| Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
| Weight | 1746kg |
| 0-100km/h (claimed) | 5.6 seconds |
| Fuel economy (claimed) | 9.4L/100km |
| Fuel economy (as tested) | 10.7L/100km |
| Fuel tank capacity | 61L |
| Fuel requirement | 98-octane premium unleaded |
| CO2 emissions | 215g/km |

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How does the Ford Mustang drive?

It doesn’t matter how you spin it, there’s something inherently wrong about a four-cylinder Mustang.

The 2. But 3-litre turbo just doesn’t fit that short.

It squeezes to life in a whispered manner – almost tone-setting and is relatively muted unless you turn the bi-modal exhaust into its angriest setting. Assuming that you increase the volume of a , it also increases your awareness about fake engine noise from inside speakers (resulting in ‘funny mishmash with four pot exhaust and piped-in V8 tones’).

The EcoBoost is a bit of slick, as it seems, but the Mustang’s celebrated 5 was not so much like that. 0-lite Coyote V8, and that charm is the heart of the Mustang’s appeal.

Unlike other modern sports cars, the Mustang isn’t as resolved because of its dynamically driven approach. This EcoBoost, which weighs in at 1746kg, is a bit of ‘porker-like porker’ and it shows how it takes corners. The GT’s front-end is lighter than the one that can still be slow to respond to steering inputs, while the steering itself varies in weight (depending on settings) but rarely truly satisfyingly does not satisfy.

This is also a problem, as it has to be the width of the Mustang on tighter sections of country tarmac and you’ll have just slack room to make if there’s u-turn. But the S650 and its closely related S550 predecessor – which was released as the first global Mustang in 2015 – are lightyears ahead of their predecessors, both dynamics and stability respectively.

But if you’re looking for agility, then it’s far better to buy an MX-5 or one of the Toyobaru twins. The 113kg lighter and 252mm narrower than the base Mustang, even a Z feels tighter.

However, if straight-line speed is more your thing, there’s something to be said for the EcoBoost.

While its lack of cylinders and displacement is still the only entry-level Mustang to feel truly quick from behind the wheel, it’s not really that fast. This will spin the rear wheels from a standstill, pulling strongly to the end of each gear – like the V8, but without the noise.

On that note, 10 gears is about two or three too many gear. If you’re driving with constant vigour on an back road, the Mustang is easily confused and often hunts for an unnecessarily high gear. Bear think of this as a performance car, not an environmentally friendly runabout.

In a way that is not the case with your average econobox, it’s an appropriate ‘manual’ mode and steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters for the Mustang. But a shift from auto to manual often requires several downshifts to get the meat of the torque band’s meat.

Each cloud is silver lining, as they say, with every cloud. In this case, silver lining is very efficient and highway refinement. The EcoBoost can sit at 1500rpm for longer hours of fast cruising, meaning less fuel consumption and NVH (noise, vibrations and harshness) are consumed by all those extra cog. In this respect, the automatic Nissan Z is similar to that of a who has said ‘It was an automatic version of it.

The touring credentials of the EcoBoost, and its choppy suspension setup, are somewhat disappointed by the tour credentials that it has. Astonishingly, I was surprised to see how even small flaws make the chassis shudder while potholes ripple through the bottom of the seat.

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I have driven Mustang models with Ford’s MagneRide adaptive dampers. Can you say they’re a good upgrade over the standard items? However, again, MagneRide is a GT-only option and costs $2950.

This is a shame, because just about everything else in the EcoBoost driving experience can be set up. In the infotainment system, you can adjust steering weight, exhaust volume and traction control parameters (and even create a custom drive mode). if you can’t be bothered setting up your own, there are also preset drive modes.

In low-speed driving, the throttle pedal is sensitive to an extent that can make the EcoBoost feel a bit jerky around town because no fiddling. With the long overhangs, limited visibility and a grainy reversing camera that makes it easier for sports car to park either, it isn’t the easiest sports vehicle to do so.

Therefore, all versions of the Mustang are best suited to galloping the open road.

To see how the Ford Mustang lines up against the competition, check out our
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What do you get?

The EcoBoost sits at the bottom of the Mustang line, but doesn’t suffer from any high-tech equipment compared to its V8 siblings.

2026 Ford Mustang EcoBoost equipment highlights:

• 19-inch (19-inch x 9.0-inch front and rear) Carbonised Grey alloy wheels
• Brembo six-piston front brake calipers, four-piston rear calipers
• Limited-slip differential
• Electronic park brake with Drift Brake
• Track Apps
• Quad-tip Active Valve Performance Exhaust
• Automatic LED headlights
• Automatic high-beam
• Puddle lights with Mustang logo
• Leather-accented upholstery
• Heated and cooled front seats
• Six-way power driver’s seat with power lumbar, manual backrest adjustment
• Six-way power passenger seat with manual backrest adjustment
• Split-fold rear seats
• 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster
• 13.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Satellite navigation
• Wireless phone charger
• DAB+ digital radio
• FordPass Connect embedded modem
• 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system
• Leather-wrapped steering wheel
• Tilt and telescopic steering adjustment
• Leather-wrapped shifter and park brake
• Metal pedals
• Dual-zone climate control
• Electrochromatic rear-view mirror
• Colour-adjustable ambient lighting
• Proximity entry with push-button start
• Illuminated sill plates
• One-touch up/down front windows

Mustang GT adds:

• V8 engine
• 19-inch x 9.5-inch rear alloy wheels
• Pirelli P Zero tyres
• 6-speed manual variant
• Soft-top convertible roof variant
• Bonnet vents
• Static rear bench seat
• Auxiliary engine oil-cooler

To see how the Ford Mustang lines up against the competition, check out our
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Is the Ford Mustang safe?

The Ford Mustang has not been crash-tested by ANCAP and is therefore ‘unrated’.

Standard safety equipment highlights:

• 7 airbags, incl:

• Front
• Front-side
• Passenger knee
• Curtain (Fastback)
• Head-side (Convertible)

• Autonomous emergency braking

• Pedestrian detection
• Cyclist detection

• Adaptive cruise control

• Stop/go (auto only)

• Blind-spot assist
• Evasive steer assist
• Deployable bonnet
• Lane centring (auto only)
• Lane keep assist
• Post-collision braking
• Reversing camera
• Rear cross-traffic assist
• Rear parking sensors

To see how the Ford Mustang lines up against the competition, check out our
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How much does the Ford Mustang cost to run?

The Mustang is supported by Ford Australia with its five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty and service needs every 12 months or 15,000km – whichever comes first.

| Servicing and Warranty | Ford Mustang EcoBoost |
| — | — |
| Warranty | 5 years, unlimited kilometres |
| Roadside assistance | Up to 7 years |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Capped-price servicing | 5-year pre-paid service plan |
| Average annual service cost | $258 |
| Total capped-price service cost | $1290 |

Ford’s roadside assistance program is extended by 12 months after each service, up to a maximum of seven years.

Mustang EcoBoost The five-year service pack costs $1290 for the. Meanwhile, the Nissan Z – which is serviced for more than five years – costs $2495 to service; the first five services arecapped at $499 each and its service intervals are 12 months or 10,000km.

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childcareman.xyz’s Take on the Ford Mustang EcoBoost Fastback

You should definitely buy a Mustang… just not this one.

As good as the EcoBoost is still a decent car, because while it’s similar to the epic and truly iconic GT, this does not compare with the classic or epic.

It’s not everyone who spends $85k on a V8-powered ‘Stang, I get it now.” But, at $72,990 before on-road costs, the EcoBoost isn’t exactly ‘cheap’ either. For example, the cost difference is more like A$21,000 in the US for context; there’s an infinitely higher price tag than the EcoBoost.

And putting price aside, buying the four-pot just about guarantees ownership experience punctuated by regret and derogatory comments from strangers.

Rather, just scrape together a few extra pennies for niosy-Z or down to one of the relatively cheap and very cheerful Toyota G86/Subaru BRZ twins. If you’re looking for something less focused, the BMW 230i is also an option.

save that little bit longer to get behind the wheel of a Mustang GT, better yet than worse A loud and proud example of an endangered breed.

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