I was on vacation in Florida in 2003 and during that time I had the opportunity to rent the 2002 Ford Mustang Convertible. I drove it for more than a week, so I think that I was able to see the good and the bad sides of driving this particular car.  
 
Engine and transmission.  
 
The Mustang that I drove had 3.8 liter V-6 in it mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission. The engine was adequately powerful and didnt need to downshift a single time, no matter what the road was. It was a silky smooth engine too, with deep, low, satisfying engine note; as a matter of fact I mistaken it for V-8 at first, but then out of curiosity I opened the hood, and saw that it was a V-6. The engine sounded just like V-8. The transmission that the engine is mated to is very smooth also, with barely noticeable shifts. Even the kickdown was smooth. And thats where good stuff ends.  
 
Handling  
 
The car handled like a van. Slightest turn and the car was rocking and rolling all over the place. While the car has very good ride in the straight line, doing a very good job isolating driver from the road bumps, if you need to make a turn (and I am talking about just a slight turn, not something extreme), you better have your seatbelt fastened, or you have a good chance of landing somewhere outside of the car. Granted it is a convertible, so it is not as stiff as a coupe, but still, it is considered a sports car afterall, so it should at least drive like one.  
 
Design and Ergonomics  
 
The car looks good from the outside. It has nice curves but without boy racer look, so it appeals to both older and younger drivers. The visibility from the drivers seat is very good. The front seats are cramped for such a large car. It is as long as many sedans, and wider than most of them, but it is pretty cramped in the front, and I am not even mentioning the backseat which is suitable mostly for children. I am 6 feet tall and weigh 200 pounds, which is pretty average. Whoever was in charge of ergonomics shouldve been fired or limited to designing floormats for Yugos. The door release lever is below drivers knee, in the most awkward spot, right where you would never expect to find it. It took me a while to find it the first time when I was trying to get out of the car at night. None of the window switches are lit at night, same goes to power locks. There is no trunk release lever inside the car, so you need to get out of the car, and either use the key or button on remote control. On the fifth day of driving the car, I finally found the controls for moving the driver seat, they were located in the front of the seat (power seat in this case), and not on the left or right edge of the front side of the seat, but right behind drivers legs. When you try to open or close the top, you have to use the two levers, one on each side of the windshield, which might be troublesome for a single person. In Ford Thunderbird, they finally replaced them with single central lever, which is foolproof and easy to use. The heating/cooling controls were designed in the dumbest way possible. For example: if you use air conditioning, you can not direct the airflow to the desired spot, because there is no separate button for A/C. Rather there is separate position for A/C on the same knob that is used to direct the airflow, so if the knob is in A/C position, it cannot be in defog position. I could not use the A/C for longer than 40 minutes, since I was wearing flip flops (Florida) and was risking of freezing my toes off.  
To be fair, Ford took care of most of these stupidities in their Ford Thunderbird convertible, but it also costs twice as much as the Mustang I drove.  
 
In the end, I would not recommend this car to anybody, as after short period of time, the feeling of rip-off will set in, as you start thinking about how much money Ford saved by giving the Mustang interior design job to a group of 5 Detroit bums.  
 
