Ford Mustang Convertible Review 2025

Few cars encapsulate a sense of their nationality in the way the Ford Mustang Convertible does. It's a super-sized sports car that's inappropriately brash and is wholly unapologetic for it. That it does its own thang is at the core of its attraction, being a soft-top which appeals far more to the heart than the head — find out what that means for you in our full Ford Mustang Convertible review.

Rationality is conspicuous by its absence for those on the cusp of buying a Ford Mustang Convertible. It's a sports car you yearn for, an unashamed manifestation of old school Americana tracing its roots back to the '64 original, a last bastion proudly celebrating the combustion-engined age, a four-wheeled anachronism that you simply 'get' or you don't.

For those whose hearts are now pounding, it's of little consequence of how good or otherwise the drop-top Mustang is. For them it's covetable because it's a car which needs no justification or application of logic — their smile is reason enough. What naysayers might consider to be the Ford's shortcomings, pony car loyalists will brand as character traits.

Not that you have have to choose it in soft-top guise, of course — it sells alongside its coupe-bodied Ford Mustang Fastback sibling, although it misses out on the tin-top's Dark Horse variant, with GT specification being the sole choice.

Regardless of whether or not the Ford Mustang Convertible is on your shortlist or not, it's important to take a moment to consider this car's place in motoring history. You see, not only is the choice of new soft-tops narrower than it's ever been, this will likely be the last open-roof car sold in the UK with an unassisted V8 engine.

That's right, this rumbling 5.0-litre produces the entirety of its 446PS grunt without the aid of turbochargers or superchargers, let alone any form of electrically powered hybrid assistance. The key mechanical decision buyers face is whether to go manual or automatic.

While the devout will hold their hands aloft to the heavens giving thanks as the rumbling bent-eight's exhaust note resonates through every fibre of their being, the non-believers instead suck copious amounts of air in through their teeth as they contemplate the fuel bills associated with an official best of 23.0mpg.

Given what the Ford is, it doesn't truly have any direct rivals. Instead, there are other roofless cars which are likely to keenly appeal to those who tend to make more prudent choices — and which, subjectively speaking, ride and handle with greater levels of finesse.

Once the default choice among four-seater soft-top customers, the BMW 4 Series Convertible remains a sophicated choice within this niche, but there's no denying it's showing its age against the latest interation of its old foe, the Mercedes CLE Cabriolet. 

What of the third pretender of the upmarket Germanic trio? Sadly, it's left the party — the Audi A5 Cabriolet is no more, with no replacement expected.

While adding the Porsche 718 Boxster into the mix seems absurd given it only has two seats, remember that the Mustang Convertible subscribes to the American car stereotype of providing very little interior space relative to the enormity of its bodywork. Yes, it has rear seats, but you'll struggle to find anyone who can sit comfortably within them.

One aspect of the Ford Mustang Convertible that won't have escaped the attention of even its most ardent fans is that it's no longer the performance car bargain it once was, with prices starting at a smidge below £62,000. While levels of standard equipment are generous, its plasticky fixtures and fittings feel out of step with its cost. Still, on an emotional level, that will matter little.

There's a temptation to assume that the Ford Mustang Convertible's appeal is more down to the bark of its V8 rather than its agility, yet to do so is incorrect. This is a sports car, albeit with several provisos.

Chief among those is that both the BMW and Mercedes alternatives offer a greater degree of ride and handline finesse than the Ford can hope to, while the Porsche will effortlessly run rings around it. Yet that doesn't equate to the Mustang Convertible being embarrassing outmoded.

Its size and considerable heft — the manual is the lightest at a bruising 1859kg — never escape your conscious thoughts, particularly along the windiest, most undulating B-roads you can easily find in all corners of the UK. Yet rather than detracting from the Ford's driving experience, you feel more involved as you heave the brute this way and that, balancing acceleration and braking as the route demands.

Such roads highlight the drop-top Mustang's reduced body rigidity compared with the Fastback coupe alternative, but its overall body control is well-judged, following the topography of the land with minimal floatiness, remaining convincingly stable when changing direction quickly.

While heavier than other sporty cars tend to be, the Ford's steering doesn't feel tiringly so, resonding quicker to direction changes than the previous-generation Mustang, increasing its nimbleness. There's an appreciable degree of feedback about what the front end's up to via the wheel, even if Ford's European models communicate that with greater clarity.

Spending £1750 on the optional adaptive MagneRide dampers is money well-spent to enjoy maximising the sophistcation offered by the current Mustang Convertible. Linked to the different present driving modes — those being Normal, Sport, Slippery, Drag and Track — you can also personalise you preferences via the Custom settings.

Here you can choose to dial the suspension to its most compliant level, more ably dealing with the rough and broken asphalt surfaces so frequently encountered, while ensuring as much as you urgency as you wish can be extracted elsewhere. 

There's no trepidation experienced when you need to rein the Mustang Convertible's pace back in, even though you can feel its mass pushing forward. Pedal modulation is satisfyingly linear, while the ventilated discs — 390mm diamater up front, 355mm at the back — feel more than meaty enough to perform the role reliably and regularly.

Engine choices for the Ford Mustang Convertible are of the take it or leave it variety — there's one in other words.

In the truest tradition of sports cars, it's mounted up-front, beneath a bonnet large enough for property developers to seek planning permission to build upon, sending all of its considerable might exclusively to the rear wheels.

Its eight cylinders are arranged in a V-formation and with a 5.0-litre swept capacity it is now one of the largest combustion engines available to buy new. Such is the technological march seen in recent years by downsizing and electrification, it's also the last remaining V8 not augmented by turbochargers or assisted by a hybrid set-up.

Pure, unadulterated, large capacity, multi-cylinder burbling while you can still get it — sounding even better by lowering the Mustang Convertible's roof. Aside from the default pitch, there are also quieter and louder exhaust note settings, the former as a courtesy to your neighbours for pre-alarm call departures, the latter, well, just because.

Output-wise, the Ford musters 446PS of power and 540Nm of torque, propelling the 'Stang up to an electronically governed maximum of 155mph.

How quickly it accelerates depends on which of the transmission option you go for. The six-speed manual is the more involving with a satisfying shift action that's appropriately mechanical without becoming tiresomely so. By contrast, the 10-speed automatic is deliciously smooth, providing welcome ease in stop-start urban crawls with the bonus of manual override paddles on the back of the steering wheel.

It's the automatic which completes the 0-62mph benchmark the quicker of the pair, requiring 5.0 seconds flat compared with the manual's 5.4-second time. 

Those numbers aren't astonishingly fast, but you'll have a hoot harrying the Mustang Convertible along, even with a rabidly driven VW Golf R stalking your every move. You'll have the bigger smile on your face, even when they blat past straining their rev limiter.

Dry roads are the Ford's friend when it comes to converting the V8's power into tractable performance. In those conditions it does so with surety that inspires confidence in the driver. When there's the merest hint of moisture glistening on the ashpalt, it's a different story.

Although the Mustang Convertible has traction control waiting in the wings to electronically ease back on the power delivery until the rear wheels are successfully biting into the road, it permits a moment of wheelspin with accompanying tail-end squirrelling in damp conditions, which could prove a sufficient time lapse to miss the gap in roundabout traffic you were aiming to claim.

Such hilarity can be tempered by choosing the Slippery driving mode when it's wet, dialling back the throttle's responsiveness to serve-up more immediate grip and forward motion. Less dramatic, certainly, but an effective use of its available tools.

Most sports cars escape being subjected to the Euro NCAP crash-testing scheme, so that the Ford Mustang Convertible hasn't been sampled isn't of itself unusual.

What makes it slightly odd is that the previous-generation Mustang was tested, only gaining a dismal two-star rating the first time around and latterly a mediocre three-star score.

While there are structural similarities between this generation of Mustang and its predecessor, suggesting how it might perform if tested is purely speculative. What can be said with confidence is that the Ford sports car has a wide range of safety related equipment fitted as standard.

That roster of driving aids includes adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot warning and a driver attention alert monitor.

Hauling a trailer with the Ford Mustang Convertible isn't an option as it hasn't been homologated for towing.

At 4810mm from bumper-to-bumper and 1980mm from side-to-side, the Ford Mustang Convertible is a big beast for a sports car, taking up almost as much road space as the final generation of Ford Mondeo.

Set aside expectations here and now that such swollen dimensions mean the drop-top Mustang is a lesson in capaciousness, because that it ain't.

Access to the front seats via the wide-opening doors is fine, even with the hood erected, although remember the seats are set low down so try to avoid any indignity of falling into them. They feature sufficient bolstering to hold you securely in place without feeling like your kidneys are being pummelled. 

Six-way electrical adjustment ensures it's relatively easy to attain a comfortable driving position, aided by the steering column's angle and distance from the driver having a wide range of movement. Forward visibility is fine, although rearwards it's compromised by curiously small door mirrors are a narrow letterbox-like slit of a rear window when the roof's up.

It's cosy up front, so there's little opportunity to stretch and relax, but despite the elevated centre console's best efforts, even taller people are unlikely to feel hemmed-in. The middle of the dashboard's horizontal plane is angled towards the driver for improved ease-of-use, but less care's been given to where your left arm goes if there are drinks in the cupholders.

Detritus storage elsewhere inside the Mustang Convertible is poor, especially when you consider in warmer times of year it may well be left park with the roof open, when you don't want your odds and ends on show. Usefully, the cubby beneath the front armrest locks when the car itself is, with space inside for a wallet, purse and keys.

Below the main dash and positioned ahead of the gear lever is a wireless smartphone charging pad, although bulkier phones with covers are prone to opening the 12-volt socket's cover when being retreived, while the door pockets are frustratingly small. Buying a Mustang's a fine excuse to de-clutter, it seems.

Clambering into the rear seats is especially challenging with the roof raised but remains awkward even if it's been retracted. Although the front seats tip forward to improve ingress and egress, you still need to remember to unpop the leather loop which holds the seatbelt in place.

How usable the back seats are depends on all manner of factors, but for the most part think upon the Mustang Convertible as a two seater with space behind as a makeshift extension of the boot or occasionally ferrying people arond for short journeys.

With the Ford's roof down and petite adults in the front seats, the heavily scalloped second row can accomodate a couple of reasonably tall adults in acceptable comfort. The taller those in the front are, the more restricted legroom becomes. Similarly, as soon as the roof's closed, taller occupants in the back will be forced to crick their necks. Or get out and wait for a bus.

There are child seat Isofix mountings in the back but we would strongly advise taking those with you to see how well they actually fit when you go for a test drive.

Due to the Mustang Convertible's roof needing to be stowed somewhere when opened, there's understandably less boot space on offer than with its Fastback coupe sibling — at 310 litres, that's a 71-litre reduction. 

Once the boot lid's popped open, the aperture itself is narrow and irrelgularly shaped, as is the boot space itself beyond. You can fold down the rear seatbacks, which are split 50/50, for a degree of extra flexibility, athough no capacity is quoted in this arrangement.

Open the BMW 4 Series Convertible's boot and you're worse off if the roof's down as the capacity's restricted to 300 litres, although that increases to 385 litres when it's raised. That upper limit is matched by the Mercedes CLE Cabriolet although it drops to 295 litres when the hood's peeled back. Like the Ford, no figure's quoted for when the seatbacks are folded forwards.

As its engine is located in the middle, the two-seater Porsche 718 Boxster has two boots, although their combined total is still smaller than the Ford's capacity — 150 litres in the nose and 122 litres more in the tail.

Fully electric hoods have long been a feature of soft-tops which makes the mechanism of the Mustang Convertible's hood feel like an unnecessary inconvenience. While the opening and closing movements are electrical, a manually operated twist handle is used to both release and re-attach it to the top of the windscreen. Come on, Ford, spend a few dollars more and ditch that relic.

Among car-enthusing types is a frequently trotted-out trope that American cars are universally cheap and nasty inside. While that's rarely accurate of vehicles hailing from the Land of the Free, the inconvenient truth for the Ford Mustang Convertible is that much of its interior fixtures and fittings do feel of a lower quality material than you will experience in any of those German alternatives.

If the Ford was extraordinary value for money, that would be understandable — acceptable, even — but that's not the case. 

Much of the interior panelling is moulded from hard, unyielding plastics that aren't especially pleasant to the touch, the faux carbon fibre appliques are equally offensive from tactile and visual perspectives and the genuine leather upholstery is confined to the central panels, with vinyl used for the outer portions.

Build quality overall seems fine, notwithstanding some of the unseemly holes between the folded hood and the bodywork through which parts of its mechanism can be observed, while the doors clunk shut with a curious sound that makes you wonder if they latched properly until you're used to that being how they are.

Convertibles typically have a greater degree of bodywork flexibility than their coupe equivalents, which is also true in the Mustang's example. As a result, when the roof is lowered you're aware of some trim pieces squeaking — but not rattling — as they rub against each other. Raise the hood again and the rigidity eradicates almost all of those noises.

Gone is the traditional double-cowled dashboard styling most commonly associated with the Ford Mustang Convertible, replaced with a much more generic dual-screen affair.

Immediately ahead of the driver is a 12.4-inch digital display which can be customised in terms of colours, driving mode themes or a selection of rendered replications of older Mustang's classic analogue dials. Kitsch, certainly, but not devoid of charm.

While the graphics themselves are sharp, the overall effect is clunky due to its position, set low down within its frame with a thick, black band of wasted screen real estate above. For the driver, at least, much of that's obscured by the upper portion of the steering wheel.

To its left and angled towards the driver for improved ergonomics, is a 13.2-inch multimedia touchscreen running Ford's familiar Sync system. While the hardware's fine, immediately responding to light touches, the menus take a time to learn.

Less successful is the frequency in which you have to use it, especially as the climate control settings and other commonly used function are operated via the interface, made trickier on the move by the compactness of the icons. 

In fact, there are very few physical buttons inside the Mustang Convertible, with the majority of the ones which are present being confined to the steering wheel. They work perfectly acceptably, but don't feel of any elevated quality and could easily have come from a Ford Puma.

Although Ford navigation system is integrated, most will prefer to use a third-party mapping app via the wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity.

Pleasingly fine is the 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio package, including a boot-mounted subwoofer. Even with the roof down at motorway speeds, sound reproduction isn't woefully spoiled by wind noise — in fact, such is the level of hush you can even have a phone conversation without the person at the other end assuming you've been whipped away in a hurricane.

Price hikes mean that the Ford Mustang Convertible is no longer the relatively tempting bargain its predecessor was, but in terms of value compared with other similar-ish alternatives, you still get a considerable amount of car — and a throbbing 5.0-litre engine — bang for your buck.

Solely available in GT specification, the least expensive Mustang Convertible fitted with a six-speed manual transmission costs £61,970, which represents a £3500 price premium over its Fastback coupe twin. If you would rather the car swap ratios itself, the 10-speed automatic gearbox adds £2000 to the deal at £63,970.

Expensive for a car wearing the Blue Oval? Absolutely, but you can fork-out more for its other products. Atop the slimmed-down electric Ford Mustang Mach-E range sits the AWD Premium at £65,415, while elsewhere you'll need an eye-widening £81,585 for the punchiest Ford E-Transit Custom with the sporty MS-RT makeover. £81k for an electric Ford van. 

Back in the soft-top Mustang's ballpark, the cheapest BMW 4 Series Convertible is £52,780, albeit with a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine — the 3.0-litre, six-cylinder in the 440i shoots the price up to £68,815.

It's a similar story at Mercedes with the entry-level, 2.0-litre CLE Cabriolet weighing in at £54,495. For Mustang GT-like power you need the Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 version, with the least expensive of those stickered at £79,660.

And Porsche's soon to be off-sale 718 Boxster? Act quickly and you'll nab the basic version for £55,800.

While the Ford Mustang Convertible is comparatively good value to buy, brimming its 61-litre fuel tank is an act you may easily find yourself doing more often than than you anticipated.

Fuel economy is something of a misnomer in this Ford's case — fuel thirst is far more accurate a description. Manual versions are slightly lesson gluttonous when it comes to their appetite for unleaded, evidenced by the official WLTP Combined cycle figure of 23.0mpg versus the automatic alternative's 22.8mpg.

Large capacity, naturally aspirated engines are usually far less greedy when they can sit in a high gear for long periods at a steady speed, such as motorway driving. And yes, that rather defeats the point of buying a sports car and spending time plying multi-carriageway roads.

In those conditions, Ford claims the Mustang Convertible can deliver 26.9mpg in manual form and 25.7mpg for the automatic — significant improvements if you can restrain your right foot's compulsion to press on.

All Mustang Convertibles are priced way in excess of the £40,000 threshold for the Expensive Car Premium, which means that between years two and six of its first registration you will be handing over £425 on top of its £195 annual VED Car Tax fee.

If you're seriously contemplating running a Mustang Convertible as a company car then you either own the company itself or you get a kick of financially ruinous ventures. On top of the fuel bills, those low fuel economy figures mean high CO2 outputs, firing the Ford into the priciest 37% Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) taxation banding.

Although it's a Ford, servcing bills for the Mustang Convertible won't be at mainstream prices — that's a big engine you've got up front and while it's got a deserved reputation for being bulletproof, that assumes it's properly looked after. Don't be tempted to run it on the cheap or skip scheduled maintenance, as you'll pay for it in the long term.

That also goes for consumable such as tyres — the soft-top Mustang's wheels are 19 inches in diameter, with broad rubber to control its power. Its rear tyres are wider than the fronts so you can't swap them over to even-out the wear rates.

Ideally, replace them with new versions of the tyres Ford fits as original equipment and steer clear of budget brand alternatives unless you plan on careering backwards into the scenery on first encounter with a damp road.

Plump for a Ford Mustang Convertible and one aspect you won't have to mull over is which trim level to go for — it's only available in GT specification.

Standard equipment for the Ford Mustang GT Convertible includes:

• 19-inch alloy wheels in Carbonised Grey
• Brembo brakes
• Black, louvred bonnet scoop
• Active Valve Exhaust with quad, chrome-finished tailpipes
• Automatic LED headlights with automatic main beam
• LED three-bar tail lights with sequential indicators
• Keyless entry and starting
• Semi-electrically operated canvas roof
• Electrically adjustable, folding and heated door mirrors incorporating Mustang logo downlights
• Automatic windscreen wipers
• Rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera
• 12.4-inch customisable driver's display screen
• 13.2-inch multimedia touchscreen
• DAB digital radio
• Premium 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system with boot-mounted subwoofer
• Integral navigation system
• Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity
• Wireless smartphone charging pad
• Electrically adjustable, heated and ventilated front Sports seats
• Leather centre sections with vinyl bolsters seat upholstery in Black
• Heated, leather-wrapped, flat-bottomed steering wheel
• Dual-zone automatic climate control
• Auto-dimming interior rear-view mirror
• Illuminated door sill scuff plates with Mustang logo
• Adaptive cruise control
• Mustang-specific driving modes