Ford Mustang is an American muscle coupe car that has been in production since 1964. The Mustang has received some modern upgrades over the course of time to make sure the car is well equipped to be driven daily when compared with its key rivals such as the Dodge Challenger or the Chevrolet Camaro. The current gen of Mustang offers a number of driving pleasure and driver-assist features to make it an easy to drive and safe vehicle according to the market standards. Even though it is considered a sports car, does the Ford Mustang have luxury driver features such as adaptive cruise control?
Ford has provided the option of adaptive cruise control and voice-activated touch screen navigation under an optional Safe and Smart package for Fastback and Convertible Mustangs. The Adaptive Cruise Control system is a very helpful driver assist feature that comes in handy on well-marked highways and motorways. The adaptive cruise control on the Mustang ensures that the vehicle will slow down when approaching vehicles from behind.
In addition to the Ford Mustang adaptive cruise control feature, it is offered with standard driver-assist features such as Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Lane-Keeping System, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), and a rear-view camera on all of its trims. Ford has retained the car's original charisma by keeping the same design aesthetics from the original Mustang. Continue reading as we discuss more of the Ford Mustang and its adaptive cruise control features.
Adaptive Cruise Control On The Ford Mustang - How It Works
The Ford Mustang's adaptive cruise control system takes two primary inputs from the driver to be activated. The first one is the desired cruise control speed, and the second one is the desired distance from a car in front of the traffic.
To enable an adaptive cruise control system, you have to go to settings on your driver's display by pressing the steering wheel's settings button and finding cruise control in the driver-assist option. From there, you have to select the adaptive cruise control instead of the normal cruise control system.
The cruise control speed can then be set by first turning on the cruise control system with the ON/OFF button and pressing the set button when you achieve your desired speed.
It can then further be adjusted +-5mph with the steering buttons. The buttons can set the desired distance from a car in front of the steering wheel. There are 4 set distances which you can toggle through. A bar is added each time on the driver's display when the distance is increased. It ranges from 1 bar as the closest safe distance from the car in front, up to 4 bars with increasing distance from the car in front.
More Features Of Adaptive Cruise Control
The adaptive cruise control will now keep the car to the desired speed. It will slow down on its own if it encounters a vehicle approaching in front of you. It is capable of slowing down up to a complete stop if the vehicle in front comes to a stop and will accelerate itself as the vehicle in front moves.
If you remain stationary for more than 3 seconds, the driver has to press on the gas pedal to let the car start going. After that, it will achieve the desire cruise speed itself if the traffic allows it to. You can also change the car's lane as it recognizes a car in front to maintain your speed and prevent the car from slowing down. Like normal cruise control, you can cancel the adaptive cruise control system on your Mustang by pressing the cancel button or hitting the brake pedal.
The adaptive cruise control does most of the work on highways. Once you learn how to configure the adaptive cruise control on your Mustang, you would never be using the normal cruise control again. The adaptive cruise control on highways can be paired with the lane-keeping system to keep you in the lane on highways. It has an option to either alert, assist, or do both in case the car starts to drift off from its set lane. The driver is still required to keep his hands on the steering wheel at all times.
Ford Mustang comes in 4 basic trims Fastback, Convertible, Mach 1, and Shelby Gt500. Only the fastback and the convertible trim models can be configured with an optional cruise control system by opting for the safe and smart package.
How Do You Know If Your Vehicle Has Adaptive Cruise Control?
First, you have to head over to settings on the driver's display through the steering button with a gear on it. From there, toggle over to the driver's assist option; you will find the option of cruise control in there.
Under cruise control, you should select the adaptive cruise control to confirm that your car has the system. Other than that, you can also judge it by looking for the buttons required to set the distance from the car in front of you for an adaptive cruise on your steering wheel. If your car has these buttons, your model should be equipped with adaptive cruise control.
What Is the Ford Mustang Safe And Smart Package?
The Ford Mustang safe and Smart Package suit of drive assisting technologies including:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Lane Keeping Assist
- Automatic High-Beem Headlights
- Rain-Sensing Windshield Wipers
- Pre-collision Assist with Automatic Braking
- Pedestrian Detection
- Voice-Activated Touchscreen Navigation System with SiriusXM® with Pinch-to-Zoom Capabilities, Traffic and Travel Link®
Adaptive cruise control can only be equipped on the Fastback or Convertible models by opting for the Safe and Smart package. The package comes at around $725 itself and also requires you to opt for the 101A equipment package, which costs an additional $2,200.
What Is the Difference Between Cruise Control And Adaptive Cruise Control?
Normal cruise control has a single input of the desired cruising speed and only helps the car maintain the set cruising speed without any accelerator input. It cannot itself slow the vehicle down if the car approaches a vehicle ahead. One has to manually slow down the car in order to adjust to the traffic ahead or change lanes.
Adaptive cruise control also takes another input of the allowed distance from a vehicle in front. It has the ability to slow the car down if it observes that a vehicle is approaching in front and accelerates back to the set speed if the car in front is a safe set distance ahead of your vehicle. It can slow down to 0 according to the vehicle ahead and accelerate back to the desired speed without any input to the gas or brake pedal from the driver.
Does Adaptive Cruise Control Use More Gas?
Adaptive cruise control does not use any extra gas when compared to a standard cruise control system. The only feature added with the adaptive cruise control system is its ability to slow down and accelerate back to the set speed according to the traffic ahead, without the drivers' input on the brake or accelerator pedal.
If anything, adaptive cruise control will help maintain efficient gas mileage because it inhibits stress on the motor by gradually slowing down rather than abrupt stops at high speeds.
In Closing
Adaptive cruise control is one of those features that you didn't know you liked or needed until you have it. Adaptive cruise control is an extremely helpful feature. Its ability to sense other vehicles distant at high speeds will leave consumers with a peace of mind that they are safer on highways and interstates. If you are a person who drives on busy highways often, then adaptive cruise control might be a good feature to have in your Ford Mustang or any vehicle for that matter.
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