2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost: Misfit toy, or tuner's delight?

The 2015 Ford Mustang GT is about what you’d expect — smooth V-8, artfully evolved styling and a chassis that now feels ready for the inevitable forthcoming horsepower upgrades. The base V-6 is probably no riddle, either: a machine to put a Mustang in your driveway at a low, low payment. (Or low, low daily rental rate.) The new four-cylinder EcoBoost, though… that one’s a little bit of an enigma.

It’s the most interesting new Mustang, and during the Los Angeles launch Alex Lloyd and I ended up spending most of our time contemplating this curious new addition to the lineup. With most cars, the question is whether the intended job is fulfilled. The EcoBoost Mustang presents a deeper existential quandary: Why is it here?

You can see the EcoBoost conundrum right on the spec sheet. The base V-6 makes 300 hp while the EcoBoost generates 310 hp. The V-8 ups the ante to 435 horses. So you’ve got two motors that are almost identical, power-wise (though the EcoBoost beats the V6’s torque, 320 lb-ft to 280 lb-ft) vying for your Mustang dollar. Or, if you can swing $32,925, you could be rollin’ in a 5.0.

That last part is also relevant because it’s possible to option an EcoBoost Mustang into the upper $30,000 range, which is firmly in GT territory. Alex and I agreed that we’d forsake niceties like the Recaro seats and the Performance Package in order to claim an extra 125 hp. To do otherwise is to have your pony-car priorities seriously awry.

The EcoBoost with the Performance Package is a nice setup, bringing a 3.55 final drive ratio, the brakes from the GT (13.9-inch rotors up front), 19-inch wheels with summer tires, stiffer suspension and a strut tower brace. Ford also throws on a beefier cooling system, with the expectation of track days. The 2.3-liter turbo delivers low to mid-five-second 0-60 runs, which is pretty quick but likely no better than you’d get from the V-6 sitting in the Hertz lot.

So, if it’s more expensive than the V-6 (by about $1,500) and far less powerful than the V-8, who’s gonna buy this thing? The answer, I’d guess, is people who would’ve never bought a Mustang but are intrigued by the possibilities of a rear-wheel-drive turbocharged American pony car. If Ford is smart, they’ll immediately release their own warranty-compliant ECU tunes to take this thing to at least 350 hp and give owners a compelling bar room argument for a four-cylinder muscle car. If Ford can siphon away some of the 240SX and Evo import crowd, that could help build an entirely new fan base.

I can see that happening. When we were sitting at an LA intersection, a group of high-school kids nearby started eyeballing the Mustang. One of them stared hard at the front fender, where the “5.0” badge would be on a GT, and abruptly realized what he was looking at. “Yo, that’s the EcoBoost!” he shouted as the light turned green and I did my best to spool up the turbo and make some noise. Would that kid have been as excited about yet another V-8 Mustang? Good question.

The V-8 Mustang isn’t going anywhere. What remains to be seen is which of the lesser powerplants will triumph. Talking to people at Ford, they seem to wish they could simplify the lineup and just offer EcoBoost and V-8 (which will be the case in the rest of the world). That 3.7-liter V-6 is a pest, not least because it’s actually really good—smooth, high-revving, double-overhead-cam and respectable in its own right. Maybe they need to clarify this situation by bringing back the old 4.0-liter steamship boiler that powered base cars until a few years ago.

In the meantime, Mustang shoppers can prioritize price with the V-6 or horsepower with the V-8. I have the feeling that option number three, the EcoBoost, will attract a relatively small slice of the audience. But those that go for the turbo Mustang will be passionate about what they bought and why—less weight, better handling, boost-raising tuner potential. Yo, that’s the EcoBoost.