2010 Ford Mustang Convertible (soft top.)
Rented from Alamo in Denver, Colorado at the end of February. Why did I rent a rear-drive convertible in winter? Why not..? I drove it around 1000 miles in 6 days, including two trips over the La Veta pass, without a problem save for a few fishtails on a packed snow.
While the Mustang is nothing spectacular in terms of performance, a fine sports car wannabe nonetheless, it is a nice car to look at, with pleasant and pretty comfortable interior. Ride was a bit on the “sofa on wheels side” (esp. in tighter turns) but bearable nonetheless. But... the fit and finish can be easily described as a piece of automotive crap. Literally, no interior component fits properly! Gaps and misaligned plastic parts are everywhere. A herd of Orangutans with screwdrivers would have put it better together! The convertible top would go down smoothly but got stuck during my attempts to put it back up (it was cold or perhaps it was my fault, these contraptions are sometimes finicky.) The trunk space with the top down was OK for a convertible (but miniscule comparing to an average sedan) but quite spacious with the top up. The ride was quiet – for a soft top convertible - with the top up, but noisy with the top down with strong wind buffeting above 60 mph. I didn’t use it with the top down for long, though – it was freaking cold!
Would I rent it again – perhaps, it’s a fun car to drive for a week or two with the top down. Would I buy it? Hell no!!! Judging from that rental, Ford in the US has a long way to go before their cars can remotely approach even the cheapest European and Japanese imports in terms of fit and finish.
Example (highlited in red) of "fit and finish by Ford" on the Mustang.
Photo credit, both photos: Copyright © 2010 Michael Liczbanski
