The 2005 Ford Mustang: Beauty or Beast?

Written by: Sapphire Faerie

With a new year, comes new vehicles. And not too long ago, I opened up my browser. My homepage is Yahoo, and the first thing I noticed when it loaded was an ad for the 2005 Ford Mustang. I couldn't see much of it from the ad, so I clicked and was whisked away to a page full of pictures.

I didn't like what I saw.

My parents have owned Mustangs my entire life. The current one is a 1995. Before that we had a 1991, a 1989, and a 1984. So I've always kept an eye on Mustangs. While the mid to late 90s put out my favourite models, they've seemed to be decreased in beauty since then, and the 2005 model is the final blow.

I do like some things about it though. Looking at a side profile of the vehicle, I do like the two thirds of the rear. I like the curves of it, particularly around the side door. It's elongated more in the rear than previous models. The tail lights are larger than what I typically like, but I like them for some reason.

It's the front end of the car that bothers me. The back end is curvy, but the front end... is chunky, for lack of a better word. It's very cubic, and in my opinion, it looks awful. At a glance it looks as though Ford is trying to slightly mimick their mid-50s Mustang models with the front end of the 2005. But it could have been done so much better. The headlights are round and inset, and it just looks odd. The entire hood is squared off, and if you look at the Mustang from the side, the hood is raised up a couple of inches from where it should naturally be.

As for the interior, I don't like much about it at all. It's looking more and more like a European sports car, which isn't necessarily bad, but I'm just not used to it. The dashboard mostly looks good, it's very sleek, but I don't like the steering wheel. The seats are another thing... while rear bucket seats are common in sports cars, they just don't belong in a Mustang. Again, the design of the interior seems to be attempting to mimick the Mustangs of the 50s. I just don't like it.

So. Beauty or beast? I'm afraid I'm going to have to vote 'beast'. Hopefully future models will be better. For now I'll be busy sending angry letters to Ford. You can learn more about the 2005 Ford Mustang at: www.fordvehicles.com/cars/mustang/