EcoBoost Mustang: How Much Will You Spend On Maintenance?

Ford's iconic Mustang muscle car has enjoyed over six decades in production now, while competing nameplates such as the Camaro have fallen to the wayside, or turned to electrification like Dodge, in order to stay relevant. While the Mustang's recipe has remained relatively unchanged throughout the years, Ford did introduce a significant change back in 2015, when the base Mustang's hood was filled with a turbocharged inline-four, dubbed the EcoBoost. This wasn't the first time a four-cylinder engine graced the Mustang's engine bay, but returning to smaller powerplants was still a daring move for Ford. Ultimately though, after 10 years in production, we can now say the EcoBoost Mustang turned out to be a success.

While some old-school muscle car fans are still asking if four cylinders are enough for the Mustang to maintain its muscle car status, a lack of cylinders isn't the only reason why buyers might be skeptica. Ford's naturally aspirated V8 engines tend to have pretty solid reliability reputations, but highly strung turbocharged engines are a different breed altogether. EcoBoost engines in particular have caught their fair share of bad headlines since the EcoBoost Mustang debuted. It's only right that prospective buyers might be wary of sky-high maintenance bills then, but, so long as they buy wisely, there really is no need to steer clear of the four-cylinder Mustang. As it happens, the maintenance bills are quite easy to swallow, with Edmunds suggesting a budget of $3,792 in maintenance over the first five years of 2024 Mustang ownership, which is similar to RepairPal's $709 annual maintenance estimate.

Ford Mustangs equipped with the 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine have been known to fail, particularly if they've been modified, or driven hard. Most owners tend to be quite religious with their servicing in order to keep the boosted engine in rude health, opting for oil changes every 5,000 miles as a rule. Using high-quality synthetic oils is also highly recommended by many owners. This is pretty straightforward for a performance vehicle, and will work out cheaper than servicing the Mustang GT too, thanks to a notably smaller oil capacity — 5.7 quarts to the GT's 10. More money could be saved by doing oil changes yourself at home, too, if you feel confident in doing so.

Maintenance is more than just oil changes, though, as a strict service schedule also includes air, fuel, and cabin filters, transmission fluid changes, spark plug replacements, and brake components being swapped out, at higher but still regular intervals. To give a good idea of what long-term maintenance may set you back in comparison to that of a V8 model, Edmunds suggests that a GT Premium model from the same year will cost an additional $160 over the five years.