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2011 Mustang V-6 posts impressive 31 Highway MPG – but all is not well

Very impressive final EPA numbers. Both the new V-6 engine and the Coyote 5 liter are (nearly) up-to-date engines (missing direct injection) and are exactly what the Mustang needed. And kudos to their engineering teams, who instead of doing “just enough to get by” showed instead what they and Ford are capable of doing given the proper focus and leadership.

only enough funds were allocated to bring out the new engines 6 model years after the chassis was delivered (2005). This is even worse than 1996, when the mod V-8 engines finally replaced the antiquated pushrod 4.9 liter V-8 of the new 1994 models. And it took until 1999 to get a small improvement in the V-6 engine as well as a serious (and successful) attempt to improve the chassis with the Cobra IRS. other vehicle lines continue to pay the basic bills for the development of the engines. The 5 liter is being paid for by the truck line, and the V-6 by several vehicle lines. The Ti-VCT heads are becoming standard across the board on the 3.5 liter engine, the 3.7 liter displacement was first seen in a Mazda, and the complete Ti-VCT 3.7 is slowly being delivered across the lineup, most recently in the Edge. 

We frankly don’t see these two engines as being a true indication of a “continuous improvement” philosophy at Ford. The S197 Mustang was originally engineered for a Duratec V-6, which became an early victim of the cost-cutting and back-pedalling (and lack of leadership in the Little Billy Ford “I think I can run a global corporation” years) that also killed the IRS and the real Cobra (not to be confused with the watered-down Shelby) as well as an update to and further usage of the DEW98 platform. And remember that the Coyote is nothing more than an architectural bump over the mod-motors – an engine that was first conceived in the very late eighties. Most other manufacturers would have taken their engines thru at least two improvement cycles since then, if not a complete architectural replacement. 

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