Styling
The looks of the S650 are a curious one. For many, it's a more dramatic and exciting shape than the preceding S550. For a good proportion of the others, it's a bit too fussy and has lost some of its 'Mustang-ness' in pursuit of edgy modernity. We kind of fall in between these camps: it looks better with a spoiler fitted, as on the Dark Horse, although that wouldn't be such an easy addition on this Convertible. With its top down, this open-top 'Stang has a fine look and stance, mainly thanks to its very lovely dark-grey 19-inch alloys, and it's not too bad roof up either - but painting it Oxford White (the only no-cost colour available on the S650) is not the answer. It's not creamy enough, like the whites on the old 1960s Mustangs, instead being a bit too 'domestic appliance' in appearance. There are eight other colours for the Convertible model and literally every single one is a nicer option than Oxford.
Interior
Again, divisive. In terms of, arguably, material quality and, undeniably, the standard of the technology onboard, the S650 is a big leap forward from the S550. But if you are buying into the whole Mustang idea, surely you're a bit of a traditionalist? And therefore lament the complete obliteration of the double-cowl dashboard top, in order to fit that gigantic infotainment/instrument cluster array? Admittedly, we do like the ability to put older-Mustang graphics into the shiny new digital display in front of the driver, including a set of classic dials so carefully rendered that they have reflections of their red needles on the glossy-chrome rims, which is a superb flourish of attention-to-detail. But we're not massive technophiles, so for all its undoubted cutting-edge achievement, this new interior leaves us feeling a bit cold. Including that bizarre electronic handbrake that looks like a physical lever.
Practicality
Space in the front of the Mustang S650 is good, passenger room in the second row is... not so much. This seems exacerbated in the Convertible, which must stash its folding lid behind the rear bench, so the soft-top Ford is even less of a semi-usable 2+2 than the Coupe. A 310-litre boot with all seats in use is decent, though, albeit not spectacular. And while it's not such a problem in an automatic like this, where you put the gearlever into 'D' at the start of a journey and then forget about it, if Ford is still going to offer a H-gate 'box in a right-hand-drive car like this, can it
please hand the transmission tunnel so that coffee cups don't foul your left arm while you're changing gear? Yours sincerely, a mildly frustrated manual S550 owner.
Performance
The Coyote 5.0-litre V8 engine remains a jewel in this seventh-gen Mustang, and in the old motoring cliché to end
all motoring journalism clichés, if you can drop the top of the car to clear a path between the quad exhausts and your ears, then all the better to hear this powertrain's sumptuous machinations. Throttle response is crisp and immediate, and the GT Convertible still feels like a rapid car, despite weighing a chunky 1,876kg.
We're still not convinced by the ten-speed auto, though. It feels at least two, if not four cogs overendowed, and there are times leaving roundabouts onto dual carriageways at about 40-50 per cent throttle where its rapid-fire shifts through the middle set of its vast array of ratios, coupled to the revs only dropping what seems like 50-100rpm each time, can almost make it sound and feel like a (whisper it) CVT. Shudder.
It also doesn't help when approaching corners that you're never quite sure which one of the multitude of gears you want to be in, and then there's the economy issue. Maybe it's the near-1.9-tonne kerb weight, but with ten cogs to play with, we'd have expected the GT Convertible to have done a better job at sipping at its fuel than our own personal
S550 Coupe manual. A mental week in which we had to attend the launches of all of the
Jaecoo E5, the
DS No.4 and the
Genesis GV60 saw us clock up 1,041 miles and almost 22 hours at the Mustang's wheel. In that time, it never bettered 26.9mpg, which was seen on one long motorway run down to Kent, while its overall consumption at a high 49mph average speed was 24.2mpg. All those ratios, and still nowhere near matching the 30-34mpg our own Mach 1 manual regularly conjures up on motorways. Tsk.
Ride & Handling
Good news, here: while still occasionally shuddering over the worst of the British road network's lumps and bumps, this UK Mustang GT Convertible didn't feel anything like as flexible in the body as that yellow S650 we drove in France last year. Indeed, the ride and handling balance in this car is pretty sweet, even if it's a long, long way from the sharpest sports car you'll ever drive. Perhaps fittingly for a soft-top, it's much better to drive the 'Stang well within itself; cruising along in it, even on interesting roads, rather than trying to door-handle the thing at ten-tenths down a twisting lane full of technical challenges and excitement.
Value
At £66,120 as tested, is that such bad value for a four-seater (of sorts) convertible car with a stonking great V8 engine and a legendary image? Probably not, no, given there aren't any obvious rivals that sound anything like as good as the Ford or perform in a similar manner, for anything like a similar price. The problem is that your mind casts back to when the preceding
S550 arrived in the UK, and you could get into a V8 Coupe from just £32,995. OK, inflation and all, and we're talking about a manual fastback a decade ago versus an automatic cabriolet here - but that's less than half what this 2025 GT costs. And that just seems excessive to us, especially as underneath its skin, what you're getting with the S650 is basically a slightly sharpened S550; the same car we first saw ten years ago.
Verdict
As it ever has been since it first appeared in the 1960s, and certainly so in its most recent two forms, the Ford Mustang GT Convertible is a hugely charismatic big open-top with bucketfuls of appeal. For most people, that'll be enough to sign on the dotted line, and very happy they'll be with their purchase too. For us, though, despite the fact this cabriolet performed better in the UK than it did on our first acquaintance with it in France, it's hardly Ford's iconic Pony Car at its best. There are better S650s in the line-up than this, that's for sure - and we'll also keep our S550 Mach 1 manual, thanks. Seems progress isn't always so assured in the automotive world.
