My mom rented a Boostang while we were in Florida for the week. It kicked ass, but I never drove it because rental. Here are my impressions as a passenger.
Disclaimer: Enterprise graciously provided us this 2016ish Boostang with like 26000 miles on it for the week. It was beat to shit when checked out, and returned just as beat. We got this when our rental with another agency got screwed up. My mom is still mad about that. That left us with the choice of renting a droptop whatever (thank God she didn’t see the Cascada) or an Elantra. Elantras are not full size cars, Enterprise! We got the ‘Stang with a full tank of gas and returned it empty. It’s okay, we prepaid for fill-up upon return.
What is it?
Come on. You already know. It’s the base model, but with pleather seats. 2.3L of turbocharged goodness. In an earlier post, I described the noises it made as a mix of grunts and whistles. It was great! Despite not being particularly fast (they have like 310 HP per Ford for 3600+ lbs. of American Pride), they are a wonderful cruiser that you feel cool in.
Who is it for?
You. Your mom. Your dad. Your siblings. Anybody, as long as you live where it’s warm. Who is it not for? People who need to regularly carry more than one passenger. The back seat is better than most coupes (more on that later), but is still a joke. Getting in or out is also a challenge without some acrobatics.
Things I liked
I am 22. I have never been in a convertible before, except for a yellow something, probably a Celica, when I was in preschool and my neighbor picked me up in a midlife crisis that was sold less than a year later when neither of my parents could make it. Drop top life was incredible in the 70s-80s with blue skies and no rain we enjoyed for the week. We drove from Ft. Lauderdale (where we landed and stayed for a night with family) to Daytona Beach and drove top down on the highway for about an hour. 80 MPH in the wind was doable, but we finished the drive with the top up. This was the only time we drove with it closed all week.
Bucket seats! All four seats in this car were buckets, and probably the bucketiest buckets that I’ve ever sat in in a bone-stock car. They hugged better than in my mom’s BMW 335i xDrive, but adjusted only up/down for front and back of the seat, forward/back, and recline. I think real auto journalists call that “8 way adjustable”? Who cares. It beats my Golf’s forward/back and recline. It’s a level of L U X U R Y I am unaccustomed to. Seats also featured heating and cooling in the fronts, each with three levels.
The stereo featured both Apple Carplay and Android Auto. Hot take: both of these systems suck. By day two, we had stopped trying to use them, instead opting for a normal bluetooth connection or the radio. The speaker system was fantastic.
What I didn’t like
Getting into the back seat. I am only 5'8" per Ohio’s BMV (realistically only 5'7") and smaller than the average adult male. I’m also decently physically fit and more flexible than average. Getting into the back with the top up was nearly impossible. I’m glad we didn’t rent a hardtop. When sitting in the back, I did, however, have ample headroom. In the low bucket seat, my head did not touch the ceiling. The same was true for my brother, who is a full three inches taller than me. With the top open, entering the vehicle is much easier, but must be done from the passenger side, as you can only operate the power soft top with the vehicle on. I guess the driver could get in, open it, get out, tilt their seat, load a passenger, then put the seat back, but come on.
When you sit in the back, you are greeted by a tombstone-looking lever, which you pull to release the front seat so you can egress correctly. This lever also allows you to mess with your brother if that’s really how you want to spend your vacation, come on, leave him alone.
You can also ingress and egress incorrectly, if that’s your thing. With the top down, it is both tempting and much easier, if a little more dangerous, to sit up on top of the windowsill and swing your legs over it. I wouldn’t do this on a normal car, but on a beat up rental, it’s a vastly superior option. Plus, you look cooler doing it this way.
Luggage
Ha, good one. This is what the trunk looks like.
The most cargo we carried all week was three backpacks, and that just about filled it. I suppose you could stow two or three carry-on size suitcases, but that’s about it.
Weirdest thing I noticed
The back seats appear to be straight up and down, but if you sit in them, you’ll notice that the bottom of the seat is tilted so the inside edge is lower than the outside, and the bolsters of the seatback are tilted inward the same amount. This is true of both rear seats. Weird. This was probably done for rollover protection would be my guess.
Most interesting feature most people probably wouldn’t notice
On the last day we had the car, I opened the glovebox to see if the owner’s manual was present so I could see what year the car was (and so I could see if it had line lock so I could convince my mom to do a meaty burnout. Not my tires). The manual was not present, however, I noted that there was a second compartment in the glovebox.
Fiddle with that yellow tab and the second compartment pops open. Sadly, still no manual.
Oh, there were also cool little puddle lights with a horsey on them, and when you opened the doors with the top up, the window rolled down about a quarter inch, then rolled back up after closing to equalize cabin pressure. I appreciate this.
Overall Impressions
Me like, red car go zoom make cool noises. Score:
★★★★☆
Alright, that’s all I have to say. I was going to write more but I got bored.