2021 Ford Mustang Mach 1: ultimate 'missing features' specification botch
Ford Australia can’t even get the basic specs on a limited edition Mustang right. Pretty embarrassing, considering that’s their job…
Look, I can get you a discount even on a Mustang, if you really want to do that to yourself…
After all, Ford recently announced a new, limited edition of the Mustang Mach 1. So, I can almost understand why you might want one. It’s got the looks, the sound and the drama of a rampaging wild horse - except in Australia, it’s been castrated. Metaphorically.
Mustang Mach 1 seems to me like a tsunami of product planning and marketing failures by the corporate welfare addicts at Ford Australia (no reference to individuals is made - you can find out more about Ford’s welfare addiction here >>).
Ford Australia initially promised (on the website and in a run of ill-conceived brochures) that the limited edition Mach 1 would feature inclusions like a Torsen limited slip differential, radar cruise control, and rear parking sensors.
The only problem is: It won’t. Oops a daisy.
The ACCC says there’s a legislated consumer guarantee of ‘acceptable quality’ which ensures products - including cars:
If they don’t, you are entitled to a remedy, including (according to the great regulatory gummy bear) repair, replacement, or refund, and in some cases compensation for damages or loss (such as a reduction in value). We’re getting to what I view as Ford Australia’s half-baked offer in a sec.
These omissions in the Mach 1 are significant. This is a car costing about $90,000 by the time you get it on the road. Customers are of course fuming - and you would be, too, I’d suggest. They’ve been handed the Wonderbra of Mach 1 Mustangs. You simply undo the clasp and wonder where all the ponies actually went. ‘I ordered full-sized, and you’ve sent me ‘Shetland’...
See, the regular Mustang gets rear sensors and adaptive cruise, which seems like a slap in the chops. Additionally, Mach 1 owners find themselves stuck with the crappy standard LSD in lower priced Mustangs. I would have wanted that superior Torsen diff. I hardly think I’m a voice in the wilderness on this...
Mach 1, of which just 700 are on the way here to Australia, and deliveries have already commenced - also misses out on fog lamps. So that’s a nice touch.
In America, perversely, you can have a red or yellow proper Mach 1. Not here. Ditto rear cross traffic alert and blind spot monitoring. Crickets on that, also.
And of course, in the US there’s a handling package with unique 19-inch alloys, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, adjustable strut mounts, front splitter and special rear spoiler, which you also cannot have here.
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The problems with buying a Mach 1 Mustang
We do get the same 5.0-litre Coyote atmo V8 as America - but in a unique state of Australian tune, pumping out 13kW and 14Nm less than that available to our managing partners in the Coalition of the Willing, up north.
A Ford Australia spin doctor said:
Obviously that’s ‘ultimate’ - in the context of being subject to the lack of adaptive cruise, which (let’s not forget) is standard in a $35,000 Kia Cerato GT (ditto the parking sensors).
And ‘ultimate’ subject to not making as much power as in America, and not having the ultimate handling package, or the best diff, or fog lamps, or those advanced safety features. Or the same colour palette. But aside from that, yeah. Absolutely. The ultimate.
There is, of course, an explanation for some of this:
That’s self-evidently rubbish - it’s not necessarily a lie; it’s just bullshit. For more on the distinction there, Google Professor Harry G Frankfurt.
It’s bullshit because Ford is a company with 190,000 employees, making 5.5 million vehicles a year and raking in $156 million (US dollars) in revenue. And it does business everywhere on earth (except of course Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Japan).
An organisation with these resources could of course make a non-poverty Mach 1. They’re just taking the decision not to bother. In perspective, that’s exactly how ‘special’ you are to Ford as a Mach 1 customer in Australia.
In a rather half-arsed effort to wipe the egg off its face here, Ford Australia is going to offer Mach 1 customers three free services and a track day. You’ll probably have to sign something waiving your consumer rights. That’s a guess.
Mach 1 customers might even be lucky enough to void their warranty on Ford Australia’s sanctioned track day ‘experience’…
I think this is just a PR masterstroke. ‘Genius’ is not too strong a word. This is so impossibly perfect, as customer incentives go, that I say to Andrew Birkic, President and CEO of Ford Australia, please accept my services as trackside commentator at your pathetic Mach 1 Sydney track day...
An event where those de-tuned, and otherwise ‘ultimate’ Mustangs can demonstrate exactly what they’re made of. Over and over. This is probably the most noteworthy Mustang limited-edition release of recent years. Just not that collectible, I suppose. Probably not a resale value superstar.
Please accept my apology if you bought one. Nobody deserves that. I’m sure your mates aren’t giving you endless shit about it at all. Do otherwise enjoy your fine Mustang Mach 1. The world’s first truly ‘low fat’ Mustang.
Is it wise to buy a big Ford Everest 4WD for heavy towing? There’s plenty to like about Ford’s chunky Ranger-based 7-seat off-road wagon. But what are the risks dropping up to $70K on this V6-engined brute?