8 ways the Ford Mustang in India differs from the US version
We take a look at eight differences between the Indian spec and American spec Ford Mustang. Ever since the Mustang was first introduced in America in
By Rahul Kapoor
Ever since the Mustang was first introduced in America in 1964, the pony car was only available with a left-hand-drive. When the sixth generation of the Mustang was revealed in 2015, Ford finally decided to make a right hand drive version of the car, allowing them to cater to a wider global market.
Then finally the Mustang came to India this year with its right-hand-drive and we all rejoiced that we can at last drive an American automotive and Hollywood icon on Indian roads. But how American is the Mustang we get in India? Since we Indians get the European spec Mustang GT Fastback, we point out some subtle differences between both versions of the car.
- Engine Output
The US Spec Mustang GT and the European Spec car both get the same 5.0-litre Coyote naturally aspirated V8. But the American market gets 434hp and 542Nm of torque while the one sold in India only develops 395hp and 515Nm of torque.
There are two reasons for the lack of power produced by the India spec Mustang. The first being that the fuel octane and quality is not ideal for the 5.0-litre engine which is compliant to American and European emission norms. Secondly, to accommodate the right-hand-drive steering coloumn, the exhaust manifold of the engine had to be modified by adding more bends on the pipe and shrinking the diameter. Thus affecting the power output of the engine significantly.
- Manual Gearbox
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Ford offers the Mustang GT with a 6-speed manual and a 6-speed SelectShift automatic gearbox options with an optional final smaller final drive gear ratio. However the Mustang sold in India only gets the 6-speed automatic gearbox with the standard 3.31:1 final drive ratio.
- Daytime Running Lights integrated headlamps
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The standard Mustang has a single barrel head lamp mounted on the outer side of the housing. The inner side of both the headlamps have a tri-column day time running lights. The the Mustang that is sold in India does not features these DRLs and the tri-coloumn pieces in the head lamp housing have been replaced by mirrors. However, the DRLs in these version of the Mustang are integrated with the front fog lamps instead.
- Hood Vents
As the Indian market is treated with the European spec car, the air-vents on the US spec are absent on the bonnet. The reason for the hood air-vents being removed from the car is the pedestrian safety laws that are prevalent in Europe, so to meet the norms, the bonnet had to be smoothed out, and an uprated radiator was employed for cooling the engine.
- Red coloured tail lamps
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The pure American Mustang has always had red three-bar tail lamps since the very first one had been launched over 50 years ago. But the Mustang we get here in India have clear lights instead which Ford have been forced to do, to homologate the car for Europe to comply with EU norms.
- Outside Rear View Mirrors
Again due to European legislations, (You’ll be reading that a few times over here) the wing mirrors on the Mustang are actually larger in size compared to the Mustang sold in the US market. Usually the size in Europe is determined based upon the size of the vehicle and amount of visibility provided by the mirrors.
- Recaro Bucket Seats
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To cut down on homologation costs, Ford has had to do away with the Recaro Racing style bucket seats which they offer in the Mustang in America from the international spec car. to homologate new seats in every market would cost a fortune, which is why, just like in Europe, Ford bring the Mustang with standard seats which already comply with regulations mostly around the world.
- Price
A customer in America can walk into their local Ford dealership and just drop $33,000 and take home their very own Mustang. This is because the car is made locally and does not have any import tax that gets slapped on its price in the US market.
India is a country with very strict import laws and high import taxes. Which is why, the Mustang GT Fastback is sold for an ex-showroom price of Rs. 65 lakh, while in America, the car approximately costs around Rs. 22 lakh. This results in Indian customers having to pay nearly three times the price for shipping and import tax in India.
