The sheer joy of driving a ‘Stang

published 5 February 2016

For decades we have had to admire the Ford Mustang's "brawn" from afar, says Ben Miller in Car. Now, the muscle car has finally made it to our shores. And what a car it is. Make sure you go for the five-litre V8 engine it'd be rude not to and enjoy its "timeless, filthy eight-cylinder soundtrack". Then put the hammer down and enjoy a drive. It's a hefty machine, so never feels savagely quick, but it's still rapid enough to "hose whole lines of slow-moving traffic and leave junctions with a wholly appropriate hullabaloo".

Of course, for the price you could go for something like a BMW 2-series. It'd probably be smoother, quicker and make more sense. But the Stang is a "hugely charismatic, deeply pleasing performance car with an uncomplicated likeability that eclipses almost everything at its price point". A Beemer won't "elevate every journey, however mundane, into something to be cherished for the undiluted joyof spending time with it".

It is hard not to love the Mustang, agrees John Howell in What Car? It's great fun to drive, well priced and comes with plenty of standard equipment. So, if an Audi TT or a BMW 2 Series seem a little too straight-laced and ubiquitous, this V8 muscle car is definitely worth a look. The performance and handling will be eye-opening for European drivers, says Dean Gibson in AutoExpress. And that price tag will help you overlook its high running costs. In fact, it's something of a bargain given that it "oozes character and charm from every pore".