Ford Mustang v Toyota Supra 2019 Comparison

It’s a legend versus an icon. The question when it comes to the Ford Mustang GT and Toyota GR Supra GT is which is which?

All-American Pony versus Japanese Ninja. Detroit muscle versus Toyota City tuner terror. The Mustang is in its sixth generation, the Supra – after a 17-year hiatus – is back in its fifth… with help from BMW.

The end result in both cases are two-door coupes with powerful petrol engines, rear-wheel drive, sports suspension and bodies that eschew function for alluring form.

The GR Supra is the most anticipated new sports car of 2019, the Mustang is the biggest selling sports car in Australia.

Sure, there are substantial differences. The Mustang has a naturally-aspirated 339kW/550Nm 5.0-litre V8, a 10-speed auto, two vestigial rear seats, is 410mm longer, 62mm wider and 261kg heavier than the Supra and in its looks is clearly paying tribute to its earliest forebears.

The GR Supra is heavily influenced by the latest BMW Z4. They share basic architecture, their 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, an eight-speed auto and the same suspension system.

But Toyota has tuned the 250kW/500Nm in-line six and chassis its way and overlaid it all with the most outrageous folding, contoured body. Love it, hate it but you’ll never ignore it.

In the end these two meet up back where it counts; performance. They claim an identical 4.3sec 0-100km/h time and both love to tackle a winding road at speed.

The fundamental audience they share are people who enjoy sports driving and aren’t scared to be the centre of attention doing it.

The Mustang has a natural following in Australia for those amongst us who previously shopped for Ford Falcon XR8s and other locally-manufactured performance vehicles.

It helps explains why you’ll see a fair number of, ahem, mature gentlemen driving Mustangs.

The Supra? Well, the tuner boys who got stuck into A50s, A60s and so on might have aged a bit as well and some of them will be tempted by the A90.

But surely there will also be a bunch of people looking to trade up from their 86 coupes and more from outside the Toyota family simply attracted to a car that so brazenly shouts what it’s all about.

But if you’re only just getting fired up about the Supra now, prepare to cool your jets. There are only 300 coming to Australia in the first 12 months on-sale and they are pretty much accounted for.

The automatic version of the Mustang GT being tested here will set you back $65,990, the GR Supra GT is $84,900. Add on-road costs in both cases.

By the way GR stands for Gazoo Racing, the road and track performance tuning arm of Toyota. It does the same job as Ford Performance does for the blue oval – making good vehicles better and racing cars that are winner.

The up-front pricing advantage of the Ford is backed up by a pretty solid equipment list. On the safety front the Mustang includes eight airbags standard, autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and lane keeping assist.

It’s enough to have lifted the Mustang’s ANCAP rating from an appalling two to a sub-standard three stars in 2018.

There’s a 12.0-inch all-digital instrument cluster that allows three customisable layouts, an 8.0-inch touchscreen in the centre binnacle, sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connection, dual-zone climate control, B&O sound system, leather trim, heated and powered front seats and 19-inch alloys.

The Supra GT receives Toyota Safety Sense driver assistance features, which includes adaptive cruise control, pre-collision assistance with cyclist detection, lane-departure alert and auto high-beam.

Traffic sign recognition is also fitted, along with blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, a reversing camera, rear parking sensors, tyre pressure monitoring and seven airbags.

Brembo brakes, LED lights front and rear, heated and folding wing mirrors, 18-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and ignition, heated and eight-way adjustable leather-accented seats, a self-dimming mirror and inductive phone charging are also part of the GT package.

There is no Apple Carplay or Android Auto connection.

Both cars come with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. The Supra also has capped priced servicing that will set you back $380 per year for five years. The MY2020 Mustang – which is otherwise a pretty minor update – will soon launch with an offer set at $299 per year for four years/60,000km.

In the right circumstances, on the right road, on the right day, both of these cars will put a huge smile on your face.

The Supra is a fast-in-fast-out cornering machine with tremendous balance and body control, accurate steering and lots of grip from its soft Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres.

The sports seats are fabulously supportive and the right-side of the centre console is designed to double as a rest for the left knee during hard cornering. It’s a simple but effective idea that speaks volumes for the Supra’s intent.

The BMW drivetrain is superb. It gives willingly, evenly and strongly from 1500rpm until 7000rpm. There are no flat spots, no hitches, no gurgles or grunts.

It sounds ridiculous to say, but it’s almost too good. The same applies to the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission, which in Sport mode makes the paddle shifters almost superfluous. Almost… it’s still fun to operate the transmission manually just for the hell of it, even if it’s potentially the less efficient way of making progress.

The Mustang GT is a more a ‘slow in-fast out’ proposition. It is heavier and feels like its centre of gravity is well north of the Supra. So it’s a more of a process to enter, apex and exit a corner, especially tighter one. On Michelin Pilot Sport tyres it doesn’t feel as secure or progressive.

But oh that engine. Get that exhaust amped up in Sport mode and it kills the Supra for atmospherics. What a noise. It doesn’t kill it for acceleration of course, the extra weight sees to that.

And while it’s not outstanding, there’s no doubt the Ford is the choice amongst these two when it comes to livability. More cabin space, more seats, a bigger boot, easier to see out of and easier to get in and out of.

So we’ve touched on one of the Supra’s basic issues already, it’s just not practical. It’s easy to hit your head getting in and hard to see what’s coming from the left once inside.

The instruments immediately in-front of the driver are distinctly Toyota, but it’s all BMW once you get to the centre stack and console. The multimedia connection is hopelessly clunky. Google and Android connectivity can’t come soon enough.

The Supra is also tough to live with because the ride from its adaptive dampers is darned intrusive even in normal mode. I would only wind them up into sport on a racetrack. Ditto, going to sport for the steering, which is too heavy for the road. Thankfully, there is an individual mode to configure driveline, suspension and steering how you prefer it.

There are also huge levels of road noise booming through from the rear of the car, which is not separated in any way from the cockpit.

The Mustang is quieter, but not quiet. It rides more comfortably but is not comfortable. From previous experience we’d recommend opting for the Magneride adaptive shocks that widen the chassis capabilities.

The 10-speed automatic is great in full attack mode on a winding road. You won’t lack for enough engine braking into a corner! But it’s too hyper if you’re on a fast cruise. Switch back to Normal mode and it’s too relaxed for a fast drive.

Thankfully, the flappy paddles provide a third option. However, it is weird to pile into a 60km/h corner in fourth gear, V8 revving at 4000rpm.

Fuel consumption is another thing both these cars could do better. At least the Mustang’s 12.7L/100km claim is somewhere near accurate. There’s no hope of hitting the Supra’s 7.7L/100km figure unless you’re dawdling.

Wow, tough call this one. If you’re on a budget then the Mustang GT is the favourite.

If you can stretch a bit further on the dollars and ultimate sporting speed is the goal the Supra GT has the edge.

And that’s why it gets the nod in this comparo. Just. The driving highs it delivers are higher than the Mustang. No argument the lows are lower too. Which is why this is such a tough call to make.

A lot tougher than answering the question posed early. The Mustang is the icon, the Supra hasn’t reached that exalted status… yet.

How much does the 2019 Ford Mustang GT Fastback cost?
Price: $65,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 5.0-litre eight-cylinder petrol
Output: 339kW/550Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel: 12.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 290g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Three-star ANCAP (2018)

How much does the 2019 Toyota Supra GT cost?
Price: $84,900 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 250kW/500Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 177g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A