The 2024 Dark Horse Mustang – A Swing and a Missed Opportunity for Ford – An Owner’s Perspective

As some of you know, I am an avid muscle car fan. My first love has always been Mustangs, having owned 36 of them so far in my life. However, I have owned multiples of all of the competing models also, including Challengers, Chargers, Camaros, and Corvettes. I tell you this only to make the case that I have credibility when it comes to comparing the new 2024 S650 Dark Horse Mustang I recently purchased and have since sold.

First, it’s imperative that I thank Ford Motor Company for continuing to invest in the Mustang platform and to produce these vehicles. Unlike their domestic competition who has given up on the segment (at least for now), Ford Performance has continued to give us new products to look forward to and to try out. I and many other auto enthusiasts are very grateful for that effort and dedication. Cars, much like with new smartphones, are somewhat falling victim to consumer disappointment due to a lack of new innovations. I get a new iPhone every year, but in reality, the new features really are not usually that special anymore. The pace of innovation has seemed to slow or our expectations have grown. We have become spoiled and expect radical changes, which at some point becomes harder and harder to achieve.

While I had a 2024 Dark Horse on order, an opportunity came up to purchase one of these that was not sold at the end of September. No markup. Though it wasn’t exactly what I had ordered, it had the important handling package and the Tremec 6 speed manual options. I jumped on the opportunity, as I will never pass up the chance to be an early adopter of a new car, especially a new Mustang. Ford has done a great job marketing the Dark Horse and promoting its sharp handling and new gen IV Coyote V8 powerplant that makes 500 horsepower.

When it comes to driving the Dark Horse, the short and less wordy review is that I am not sure many people could tell it was much different from driving a last generation Mach 1 if you were not told it was a new model. It does have a better steering rack that improves steering feel, but the car itself drives very much like the S550 performance derivates that came before it (particularly the Mach 1 with the same Tremec transmission and with handling package upgrades). The Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo tires on the handling package Dark Horses are stickier than the Michelin Cup 2’s that came on my Mach 1 handling package car, which aids in the strong handling numbers the Dark Horse is putting down in professional car reviews. I will say they still tramline, but not as bad as the Cup 2’s. I guess you should expect that when you put huge 315/305 sized slicks on a car. I predict like with the Mach 1, there will be a lot of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires being sold in the near future to replace these Trofeos on the Dark Horse handling package cars. And it will happen with low miles on the clock.

I have trouble calling the S650 an all new car. Like others have said, I see it mostly as a facelift with a slightly revised engine and new interior. The dual engine intakes are cool and the throttle response of the car is slightly better than the Mach 1 in my opinion, but when you are talking 480 or 500hp, honestly, it is hard to tell a huge difference in normal street driving. The Tremec manual used in the now discontinued GT350 and the Mach 1 is a welcome addition to the Dark Horse. As has been said many times, this transmission should be in all manual Mustangs leaving Detroit. There is no comparison to the MT-82, despite numerous revisions over the years.

Where I would say the “all new” can be claimed though is certainly in the interior. The new dash and layout is something I feel needed to be revised. How it was done is controversial and it’s dual “iPad like” screens are getting a lot of negative press. I actually don’t think they are bad and love the added customization they bring and the modern, digital look. I am a techie though. My only issue with the screens is the long delay after startup for the system to boot up enough to allow you to change some of the customizable engine and exhaust parameters. It takes way too long. Thankfully, they didn’t take away the radio volume button, but the climate system is all digital now. Ford probably should have learned something from VW on not doing that, as it hasn’t been well received, but it works well enough (at least until it fails). And thanks, Ford, for not including a paper owner’s manual. A lot of your getting older loyalists, like myself, still like to read the manuals in actual print. The app or on board touch screen just isn’t the same. Good toilet reading is becoming harder to come by these days.

Ford has been having quality issues with the new S650 Mustangs from the get go. The automotive media this past summer was full of images of Ford storing hundreds of Mustangs throughout the Detroit area as they held their release due to supposed quality issues. Some of the paint flaws I have seen online are pretty embarrassing and while my car was OK there, it wasn’t up to the quality standards of other cars in this price range. My copy also suffered from an annoying mechanical issue. The check engine light came on as I drove it home from the dealer and it was making a terrible sound continuously from the active exhaust muffler valves. It turns out one of my exhaust actuators had failed (or wasn’t installed correctly) and of course, it was on national back order and not available for the first month I had the car. This kept me from driving with sport or track exhaust mode for several weeks, but while a first world problem, it is a big part of the driving pleasure in hearing that 5.0 V8. I have come to expect bugs as an early adopter of vehicles, but what really irked me about this issue was that I reached out to a few Ford corporate managers (not the local dealer - they did what they could) and none of them bothered to respond to my request for assistance or to even acknowledge my note. I guess they are too busy to respond to loyal and repeat customers. Come on, my friends, we need to do better there. It really put a damper on my confidence in the car having the issue right off the bat, but the lack of communication on an ETA for the fix and no response from people at Ford I trust to care was enough for me to lose some faith in the brand itself.

As many of you know, my career has been spent tracking vehicle values, so while I planned to keep the car for a while, I pay close attention to the desirability of a new model to make sure I am not going to get stuck with a car that depreciates faster than expected, especially when you have to pay full MSRP (or more in some cases) for one. Ford has put out limited allocations of the Dark Horse so far, which is a positive for possible resale value retention in the future, but they don’t seem to be selling quite as quickly nationwide as one would think. Since buying mine, I have seen several offered at MSRP and one even at a slight discount. Obviously, this time of year and with negative market forces at play, this is not high season for muscle cars, but I suspect from reading and watching lots of reviews about these cars, the cat is out of the bag about it maybe not living up to all the marketing hype and nagging quality issues. All these factors combined led me to sell mine quickly while the market was still figuring out what the car is all about.

I think at the end of the day, the biggest change to this car may be the increased price compared to what you would have paid for a last generation Mach 1. Yes, it looks different and has a more high-tech interior with a revised engine, but performance wise, it is largely the same to drive for the average enthusiast. My copy was equipped similar to my 2022 Mach 1 Premium Handling Package car that cost under $65k (and probably is a $53k used car today with low miles), but the Dark Horse sticker was close to $72k. The question you have to decide is if this is really a $70k Mustang or is your money better spent elsewhere (maybe a smartly equipped 24 GT) or should you wait to see if Ford has to discount these next year? In a market where supply is starting again to outpace demand and the desire for impractical cars is waning a bit, there’s reason to pause. There’s definitely a marked change from the COVID years in terms of both supply and demand for these types of vehicles.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still something to be said about the roar of a Mustang and the thrill of shifting your own gears driving that sound and feel. We are fortunate to live in the times we do in terms of horsepower, handling, and technology. As I mentioned at the beginning, Ford should be applauded for continuing to stay somewhat true to its muscle car roots with the Mustang. There’s a good chance we will look back in ten years and miss some of these gas-powered muscle cars, but who knows for sure at this point with EV adoption coming slower than expected. If you are looking for a reason to upgrade your current stang, I am not sure the Dark Horse is it. One can say the S650 Mustang compared to the previous generation S550 is a lot like the difference between an iPhone 14 and iPhone 15. I do think Ford could have done more here though to wow us, but maybe beggars can't be choosey, as they say. As Ford’s marketing claims, the Dark Horse is the Mustang no one saw coming, but I am not sure it will be a horse anyone will care going either when they stop producing them in a couple years. As always though, consumers, not want to be automotive journalist or you-tubers, will decide that with their wallets.