Sam Smith, with CARandDRIVER, wrote...There we were, that Vapor Blue Ford Mustang GT and me, at a Pasadena stoplight, windows down, waiting to enter a freeway. A black Tesla Model 3 rolled up alongside. The driver, in his late 20s, smiled at the Ford through an open window. Nice, he offered.
Thanks, I said. Wish it were mine.
A pause, followed by a gesture toward the Mustangs dash, unsure. Is that . . . a giant screen?
I blinked, wondering whether this was a setup. The Model 3s touchscreen is famously humongous. Works fine, I said, shrugging.
A shrug of his own, a friendly nod at his dash. Yeah. Everyones doing it though, right?
Change comes for everything, even cars that rarely change much. When the light turned green, we waved goodbye. I made a hard left onto a tight on-ramp, and the rear tires slithered a bit on exit, and there was a deeply satisfying blast to redline in first gear, the 5.0 spewing torque and brap as the San Gabriel Mountains behind arced skyward under golden light, and I found myself thinking of why every person in America should want at least one V-8 Mustang and probably two or three, especially on blue-sky days in rolling land during what we are told is the time of the petro-muscle sunset.
Big changes matter with cars like this, but small ones can matter more. Months back, when Ford unveiled that glassy cockpit, with a 13.2-inch infotainment touchscreen and a 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster, loyalists scowledMustangs had never worn anything like it. Gone was the old double-brow dash, a family hallmark.
Pixel cancer, the faithful will grumble. And not a redesign from the ground upvalid complaints. But how many new cars of this ilk remain? How many do this well, with this much character and history for this price or less? A rear wheel drive, three pedal, four seat V-8 Pony car that is new and big of heat, attainable, at home in commute or canyon, and more than the sum of its parts. Yes, please- forever, all day long. Sign us up.