2024 Ford Mustang Reliability Report

Water gets into the cabin. Owners describe flooded front and rear floors after heavy rain and a convertible rear window that shakes and lets water in because it was installed poorly. Fit and finish is another theme: doors, bumpers, and fenders that do not line up, a trunk lid with gaps wide enough to hurt sealing, and a hood that vibrates at high speed. One owner finds rust on the wheel well liner and underbody by about 350 miles, with gravel trapped in square holes in the liner.

Two failure patterns stand out. On the 2.3 EcoBoost, a misfire and check engine light come with a sudden loss of power and shaking, and the engine needs replacement before 6,000 miles. One teardown found a broken spark plug piece in cylinder 4, and the long block and turbo were replaced under warranty. GT owners report a dead throttle: the gas pedal stops responding and the car coasts nearly to a stop in traffic. Dealers often find nothing wrong, which leaves a real risk of being rear-ended.

The car loses drive power at highway speed. Reports describe a "Drive Mode Disabled" and "Service Engine Soon" message around 65 mph, with no acceleration or gear changes until the car is shut off and restarted. Dealers often cannot reproduce the fault. Other complaints describe the transmission slamming back into gear and then slipping. On manual cars, the silver trim piece with the shift pattern comes loose or falls off the shift knob, and one owner needed two knob replacements in 9 months.

Braking problems vary widely. Automatic emergency braking slams the car to a stop when the driver is already slowing, nearly causing a rear-end crash. Other reports describe a loose, squeaky pedal that sometimes sinks to the floor and stays there, and brakes that fail to stop the car while backing up. One car left the factory with a 6-piston Brembo caliper on one front wheel and a 4-piston caliper on the other, so it pulls right when braking. Dealers often cannot find a cause.

Tail lights develop stress cracks with no sign of impact, and other owners report moisture getting inside the housing. Dealers have blamed the owner and refused to cover the damage. The other complaint is a recall delay: the repair part for campaign 25V546000 is not available, and the owner reports no actual failure yet. The worry in both reports is losing brake or turn signals to the car behind.

Glass fails without impact. A GT's rear window shatters at about 55 mph and pulls away from the body seam, with no debris or earlier cracks. Rearview mirrors also snap off the windshield and crack it, in one case at 5k miles. Dealers have refused warranty coverage, calling it excessive force, and owners quote $1000 for a new windshield. Several report that other owners have the same mirror problem.

A sudden pull to the right makes the wheel feel like it is locking up for a second. The owner says a steering recall exists but has not been applied to their car. The other complaint here is really an electrical problem: screens on two cars black out at random, leaving no gauges or controls, and the owner says dealer repairs have not worked.