2012 Econo-'Stang

So as many of you know I recently had occasion to go to California, rent a sport(y) car, and tackle the Pacific Coast Highway. I ended up with an automatic, 6-cylander 2012 convertible Mustang which turned out to be pretty fun. Here's my account of the trip and lay-review of the Mustang. So yeah, if you don't like geeking out about cars, well, this post might not be for you.

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The idea was a good one: rent a sports car to drive up California's Pacific Coast Highway to enjoy the weather and a few curves that wont get you in (too much) trouble with the lady. It largely worked out well, too. The weather was indeed perfect - mid to high 60's - and I got a good deal on the 'sports car class' rental from Alamo.

That Car?

I was fretting a tad more than was warranted about what car they'd give me. Alamo couldn't say for sure what they'd have when I arrived, and I was afraid of them trying to stick me with a convertible Sebring (how that 'car' is in the same class as a Mustang, I'm really not sure) I'd probably have given them my fiercest glower and walked out. Luckily this wasn't necessary as I was pleasantly surprised by being handed the keys to a brandy-new Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. Thing had rubber-band tires and a growl to make a grown man giddy. It was a pretty sweet car, and the perfect thing for a California cruise through the twisties of Big Sur. That is, except for the fact that as soon as we left, a piercingly loud warning buzzer informed us that the top wasn't properly closed. After fiddling with it for a while, I was reluctant to admit that we had to trade it in.

So we ended up with a black 2012, V6 convertible Mustang. Not terrible, and certainly far better than that evil Sebring, quietly eyeing me from the parking lot... So off we went to see what this recently retooled, modern Mustang could do.

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The Road.

When I first encountered the Pacific Coast Highway it was well passed sun-down (hey, there was a lot to do in SoCal!). In retrospect, this was both a good and bad thing. Good because I could push the car and test it's limits on the curviest road I've ever seen, and very bad because I couldn't see how very, very dangerous and close to launching myself into the air, 300 feet above the very dark, silent and brooding Pacific ocean. The next morning, I was able to actually see the danger, and my speed was thus reduced accordingly. For a little while, anyway. 'Safe Danger' was the name of the game - knowing your own abilities, and driving to them takes quite a bit of restraint, and that's exactly what I forced myself to do. Blind corners, of which there were very many, saw serious slow downs. I never used the left lane for cornering. Oncoming traffic was deserving of a little slowing down, particularly if the driver's demographic warranted it (if I had a dollar for every Porche-driving snow-head I encountered just meandering along for a Sunday drive, I'd be able to buy one myself along with the appropriately youthful, skirt-wearing cup-holder).

I'm not sure what civil engineer designed that road, but I'd seriously like to shake their hand, if not kiss their feet. Nearly every turn is appropriately banked for it's sharpness, and this is no small feat of road design. I've been lucky enough to spend a little time on some tracks out east, and honestly, this was every bit as good, save for all the other pesky traffic and 300 foot cliffs. Despite the danger, night time was great for this - nearly no one else out there, and if they were, you could nearly always see their headlights literally miles away. Heck, most of them were out there doing the same thing I was: speeding with impunity.

Now, you take this modern marvel of roadway mastery and put it in the hands of a speed-hating, safety-Nazi, and it'll only be a matter of time before they find a way to mess it up. Well, that's just what happened: about two or three inches to either side of the double-yellow line are nifty little, eye-catching, safety reflectors that stick up about a half an inch! The damned things are like little stones just begging for an opportunity to make your car lose traction and meet the guardrail or mountainside. They simply don't let you use the whole track... er, road, and it's obnoxious. Embedded every two feet, you can't avoid them if you come close to the double yellow line. So yeah; not a fan. We have the technology to make them flush with the road and safe, but no. We take a beautiful, smooth stretch of road, otherwise impeccably designed for spirited driving, and install a string of warts that amplify danger even for the Sunday-driving snow-head.

The 2012 Econo-'Stang

As you can imagine, such a road is quite demanding of a car. But unfortunately, my Mustang's 300 ponies of fury were kept well in check by the uncooperative 4-speed slush-pump, designed to ace the EPA's fuel-efficiency tests. They say it should get about 30mpg, what with it's high efficiency tires and geared-up rear end. I did get a solid 25 MPG through the trip - but it was costly. Not of the wallet so much, but in diminishing some of the awesomeness that could have been were it not so econo-ized. Perhaps I'm used to the torque immediately available in my heavily upgraded Diesel Jetta (over 300 ft-lbs of torque right at your toe-tips! That'll push you into your seat), but you seriously had to get your permission slip in ahead if time if you wanted to crank up the speed. Once all your paperwork checked out, however, and the engine is allowed out to play, it proved a pretty spirited, and almost always had revs to spare.

The Handling.

In short: It was a predictable boat that traveled straight pretty quickly. I understand it was a rental, so it's 'luxuried out' for people who want to be insulated from the experience of driving, but still. I'd really like to test out the sport package. I fully suspect that the Eclipse would have been a tad more aggressive and nimble. The Mustang's tire sidewalls were tall and cushy, or maybe it just needed a better rear swaybar, I'm not sure. But it was more interested in absorbing any information the road was trying to give, and very slow about informing the road of course corrections. To the credit of the tires, they were actually pretty sticky once the tire wall reached it's maximum flex. But I hate the inaccuracy.

Predictably, it was really front-heavy, and wanted little to do with oversteer, though with the help of some curves and inclines, it did finally give me a little tail spin. I'd be interested in taking it to an autocross to really test it's traction breaking points.

I did chance upon a neat little feature I refer to as 'downhill' mode, the button for which is deftly hidden just below the transmission-lever's release button. When activated, a small amber icon illuminates on the dashboard telling you it's ready to use engine breaking to help you slow down during descents. It was a noticeable change and did actually help. One of my chief complaints about automatics is that they coast entirely too easily when you completely let off the accelerator - the slight drag a manual produces affords quite a bit of control, dramatically reducing the need to apply the brakes during highway maneuvers. Truthfully, if you use your brakes on the highway it's because of bumper to bumper traffic, or you did something wrong. I consider it a veritable, yet little-known, automotive sin for a commuter.

But the big plus to the down-hill mode was that it helped keep the transmission in a lower gear, thereby making the formidable power of the V6 much more accessible. It was too 'smart' to keep it in the lower gears for long after braking would stop, however, so it didn't help much on normal roads.

Overall the Mustang was quite a fun car to drive and I fully recognize that it's rather unfair of me to hold it to the standard of a car with a sports package - but hey, maybe I'll take a look. Aside from a new-found appreciation for convertibles (I've traditionally been luke-warm on them because of the extra weight and potential for failure), I must say that the Mustang I drove did not live up to the famous name it bears. I thus dub it The "Econo 'Stang."