I understand where Paul is coming from...
 

Just finished our vacation where we put over 1000 miles on a new Mustang convertible with the tiny ecoboost engine.

It was comfortable. It drove well, it had enough power and handling to make us both kinda sick after driving the Tail of the Dragon (5pm on a Wednesday, no traffic=hard driving). It cranked along the highway at 75 with the top down and the a/c blowing, and the interior ergonomics were pretty nice! Loaded with tech, and a Sport+ mode that actually felt significantly different than the Normal mode. The digital dash was full of important info and didn't look garish.

The only annoying part was 10 freaking gears, who needs 10 freaking gears!

All around, a nice car, and one that if someone put a gun to my head, i could easily consider driving every day.

So much of those traits are just almost any modern car, except the cheapest of the cheap econoboxes. We rented a Hyundai not long ago. It was a very pleasant experience.

The new Mustangs are cheap, and everywhere. So many modern cars are just decent transportation. I will stick to my 1980s cars.

Cindy's '16 Camry is great for around town grocery chores...we consider it the short hops car. Our transport of choice for shopping, trips to nearby towns, etc. Later today I'll be giving it some winter prep..wash, wax, fluids & tire pressure check, rain-X, etc.

Any time we're going on a longer haul we prefer the Mustang, the much better highway car. Love the power, (a modest 315) that makes it faster than most...perfect for tuning the speed down an onramp for blending into freeway traffic. I also prefer rear wheel drive over Front wheel. But that's just me.
Love the lack of spoilers, stripes, and emblems of the Bullitt...and always have liked dark green as a color. As I've posted here before, it's a compromise car...well balanced and able to do everything well but doing nothing in a spectacular manner.

One very fond Mustang memory I have is outpulling a Boxster S up the Salem Hills of I-5...the Bullitt lack of trim must have made it's driver think I was a V-6 'Stang...it was great fun watching his expression change from 'I got this' to 'WTF???' as I slowly torqued past him.

But then you need to check your ego at the door to drive either of these no status cars...after all, the Mustang is just a Ford, and the Camry is well, a Camry. Millions of both have been made.

That's part of the Mustang fun...they can be ordered in many trims, from high MPG ecoboost cruisers to OMG track cars made for road or 1/4 mile courses.

the funny thing about street engagements.

90% of the time, you are the only in the race. it is not an indication..

one time i was a kid. i had camaro with 200 blazing hp..to add, it had all this early 1970's smog stuff going on. believe me..i was the only one that thought it was fast.

i "raced" my older neighbor..i got past him and we pulled up to our homes..i bragged..he said, "oh, we were racing?" i bet he idled away from that stop sign.

lessoned learned..unless you are eyeballing each other, mad-dogging each other..reving, pointing towards the distant horizon....

i got upgraded to some Kia..in LA recently. that thing was a great car..very peppy.

I've had people challenge me to races. My MO is to rev my engine, then when the light turns green, put it in 2nd or 3rd gear and slowly roll off the line. No way am I getting the speeding ticket!

The eyeballing was definitely there...I let him have the jump. This was in May of '09... Never underestimate V-8 Torque.

One other challenge was a kid in a 4.6 GT...stoplight in town. He made a quite impressive burnout when the light turned green. I figure his mirrors must have been broken, because he didn't notice the city cop car two cars back.

I don't mess around in towns...generally don't mess around at all.

Like I said, I consider my '09 Bullitt model Mustang to be a well balanced driver. Nothing more, but nothing less either. At 28,000 trouble free miles, I'm thinking it'll probably last me for the rest of my driving life.

A Mustang would be on my short list if I didn't need four-wheel-drive to get up to my house in Winter.
I recently rented a Mustang convertible, and had to pop the hood to verify it wasn't a V-8.
Hard to believe the great performance from the "lowly" 6-cylinder version.

Does it handle better than a drunken shopping cart? SmileWavy

More gears is the way manufacturers are meeting fuel mileage goals from the feds.
They keep the engine in a narrow (economical) rpm range no matter the speed.

With a light throttle...with a heavy one? I've never driven a Mustang with the new 10 speed auto, but the 1/4 mile set seems to love the transmission...evidently, yields a lower ET than the 6 speed manual.

I am consistently amazed by the quality of modern 'econoboxes'. I recently drove a Kia Optima for a few days. Barely used any gas, but the turbo was plenty peppy in traffic. I like the Chevy Cruze as well.

Theoretically, a CVT should offer the best fuel efficiency and/or the greatest acceleration. The more gears you have, the closer you are to a CVT.

It's much harder to peel out and get into the median sideways and hit a pedestrian with a CVT.

It's not about the number of gears, it's about the COMPUTER.
I regularly found the car to be lugging when in "normal" mode. 45 mph constant speed, sitting in 10th gear lugging at 1000rpm. I mean, I could FEEL the car dragging. WTF? Why would Ford consider that acceptable?
Put the car into Sport+ mode, and it would do that same constant throttle 45mph in 7th gear, at 2300rpm, perfectly normal.

Also, when in "normal", you hammer the throttle to pass on the freeway and it sits and dawdles, thinking about it, sorta maybe, then downshifts 2 gears to 8, 3000rpm when trying to pass. Sport+? Almost instant response when you hit the loud pedal, and it goes from 7 to 4 to pass at 5000rpm, turbo whining. MUCH better.

I ran the entire Tail of the Dragon in 4th, and it was perfectly happy with the 18mph slow turns as well as the 50mph short bursts (er, I mean, 30mph bursts...). Never felt that I was missing anything on either end.

The only thing that would absolutely negate any chance of me buying a Mustang convertible was the absolutely abysmal visibility when they top was up.

Oh, and the ergonomics were heads and tails better than the econoboxes. Like I said, 1000 miles in 5 days. A car either clicks, or you end up miserable. This car clicked. Surprisingly, so did the 2016 Ford Focus hatch Titanium that we rented *last* year for our 1000ish mile tour. That car turned out to be a winner as well.

I'm spinning in my own grave, saying that two Ford cars turned out to be good!

Ford makes great cars. Just in time for them to quick making everything but the Mustang. It's sad because I'll grab a Fusion from the rental car lane over most other options.

Your knock on the transmission is the same with every modern automatic. They are tuned to maximize MPG to make the window sticker look better and meet CAFE requirements. The downside is that they constantly lug around town, about 3 gears higher than comfortable. It's nice when they have a sport mode to restore it to "normal" shifting.

My Mustang only came with 6 gears....and I have to shift them myself!

I have the hard top and the rear visibility is excellent by modern car standards (not as good as something from the 80's, but better than almost everything else on the road). The pedal spacing is also perfect. I'm tall (6'1") and many sporty cars don't fit me well (I'm looking at you Miata, Pontiac Solstice, and everything Lotus has ever made). The vertical seat adjustment helps get my head in the right place for gauge visibility and maximum visibility out windows.

My wife's Macan is only a 7 speed. In normal mode like she drives it, it too will be in 7th gear and 45 MPH. My wife just idles around and loves the 25 MPG. He old Infinity only got 17 under super easy driving.

The Macan does of course have the great PDK transmission and it will downshift quickly if you hit the gas. When I drive it I always hit the sport mode unless I am on the interstate. It is a fun car in sport mode.

No doubt all manufactures are trying to get the maximum MPG from the vehicle. "Normal" mode is for the bean counters. Sport mode is the way most enthusiasts drive it.