2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Convertible: Marketing Trumps Momentum
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It's not always easy to get people to try something new, and in the auto industry there are a few time-honoured strategies designed to ease people out of their comfort zone. The 2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost convertible goes with the tried-and-true premise of promising two things that at first seem to be at odds with each other - great power with no sacrifice in fuel economy - to curry acceptance amongst pony car fans who may be on the fence about its turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
Unfortunately there are a few stumbling blocks on the way to drop top bliss in the turbo 'Stang that might make it less appealing for the average buyer, not the least of which is the significant price premium Ford expects people to pay to get behind the wheel of this high-tech convertible. If the extra cash added up to a big boost in performance, perhaps it would be easier to stomach, but as I discovered during my week with the car there's not much about the Mustang EcoBoost's personality that would seem to justify top dollar.
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By The Numbers
The 2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost is actually the middle child of the Mustang convertible family, slotting in between the 5.0-litre V8 edition of the car and the entry-level V6. Although Ford has done its best to neuter the appeal of the most affordable drivetrain in the Mustang line-up (witness the elimination of any performance package gear for it since the EcoBoost's introduction), the 3.7-litre unit can still be counted on to produce 300 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque. This contrasts against the 310 horses and 320 lb-ft of the 2.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, numbers that place it close enough to the six-cylinder model that any difference in fun factor would seem to be tied to how power is delivered, and how the driver chooses to manage it.
Line them up side by side, however, and the extra weight of the convertible - about 50 kilos - appears to anchor the EcoBoost model to terra firma in a way that the V6 is able to simply shrug off. On admittedly cold pavement I wasn't able to best 6.6 seconds in the sprint to 100 km/h behind the wheel of my six-speed manual tester, which is significantly slower than the official 5.9 second rating for the coupe and not really any better than what one could expect from the V6. When underway the turbocharged convertible is a little more responsive, but I rarely found myself out of the first three gears around town and only used sixth during steady-state cruising above 100 km/h.
There's a similar lack of separation when it comes to examining the fuel consumption of both the EcoBoost and the V6 convertibles. Ford pegs the turbo at roughly 9.9 l/100 km in combined driving, with the six-cylinder skipping a half-rung to 11.3 l/100 km - not a significant difference, especially considering I saw closer to 15 l/100 km during my time with the EcoBoost 'vert. The sad reality is that if you want to take advantage of all 310 horsepower on tap from the 2.3-litre mill you've got to keep it on the boil, and in doing so you're going to kill any hope of respectable efficiency.
And The Rest Of The Car?
In addition to stripping the Mustang V6 of any available performance upgrades like bigger brakes or selectable drive modes, Ford has seen fit to deny buyers the chance to sample most of the convertible's upscale options should they stick with the six. The EcoBoost model, on the other hand, starts at the 'Premium' trim level, which means it gets the leather upholstery, the heated and cooled front buckets, the dual automatic climate control, the louder stereo system, the satellite radio, and the MyFord Touch infotainment interface that you simply can't order with the V6. Nothing in life is free of course, and this applies to the EcoBoost Convertible. To sample the good life denied to V6 customers you're looking at a $9,000 surcharge that ups the price of the drop top from its $30,349 starting point to $39,399 for the 2.3-litre motor.
Reverse Incentives Push The EcoBoost Agenda
I've been a fan of the EcoBoost engine family in a number of Ford vehicles, where the performance benefits are clear and the efficiency impact less of an issue. Unfortunately, with the 2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost convertible it's clear to me that Ford's turbo hard-sell relies more on the reverse incentive of the poorly-equipped V6 model than it does on the 2.3-litre's relative merits. The very competent, and respectably fuel-conscious 3.7-litre six-cylinder motor no longer fits into the company's EcoBoost narrative, and it's being written out of the story as discretely as possible while the automaker chases the higher profit margins and glitzier profile of its turbocharged future.
