Strengths The mustang 2109 cannot be beat when it comes to dump height or lift capacity. And I find that the visibility is excellent when compared to most other machines on the market. I appreciated Mustang's efforts to try to do something well, but they have fallen short of the target. One of the best features of the machine is the exceptional Cummins engine.

Weaknesses The machine has several weaknesses: The air conditioning and heating system are weak at best. During winter months and cooler days no heat was available in the cab. The air conditioner unit produced minimal cold air and the air intake filter was difficult to access to clean regularly. The cooling/heating element took 2hrs to access in order to clean. Second, the wiring/electrical systems seems weak with little effort placed into protecting and securing wires; I still have a short somewhere that cannot be located. Third, I have a ghost hydraulic leak...there is a leak somewhere in the machine most of the time. Fourth, the quick-attach motor/wiring are exposed and subject to damage. For every 5 hours of run time, I am sure that I am spending 1 hour trying to diagnose repair. 700hrs on the machine.

Overall Mustang, it seems, has put all their effort into only having two superlatives: highest lift height and largest lift capacity. I feel that they have failed on making their machine good anywhere else. Design and functionality appears to have stopped somewhere in the mid-nineties. I feel that Mustang's best machines are built by Takeuchi.

Strengths Our 2008 Mustang was bought new for approx $57,000. From the day it was delivered we have had serious problems with this machine. Now, 11 months and only 200 hrs later it's in the shop again for warranty repairs.

Weaknesses The factory quality control is very poor if they have any at all. They failed to mount the cab onto the machine correctly. Now a dealer in Ohio is cutting off the cab mounting hardware and trying to fabricate the cab straight on the machine. This is requiring a lot of cutting, welding and moving of the hoses, exhaust and wiring. The mechanic said that it must have been a friday evening machine from the factory. He said that the cab was mounted to far forward and off to the left side of the machine. Mustang also has a factory design flaw in their cab lifting system. This causes the lift pump to lose pressure and constantly require priming. This is a serious liability issue in that someone can be crushed by the falling cab. The machine lacks power and torque. It's suppose to be 100 HP but our 30 hp tractors have more power. The dealer that we purchased it from has not been available or helpful and gets upset when he's contacted. It's believed that he rund his dealership from his home, has no mechanic etc. GEHL who owns Mustang finally stepped in after we called and wrote letters for several months and now the machine is at a GEHL Dealers where they are trying to correct all of the factory flaws. Buying this machine was a big mistake, it has cost us many hours of downtime and wasted time trying to get someone at Mustang to help remedy this situation. I can say that we'll not make the same mistake twice. We understand that anything man made can have defects, but what we can't understand is how so many big and obvious problems can pass through the quality control at Mustang, and also how it could be so difficult to get anyone at mustang to correct these problems. If this machine is just a Lemon which the dealer and we agree that is is, then Mustang should take it back and refund our costs. If it's a ongoing manufacturing problem inherent to Mustang and their workmanship and design, then they should have their insurance company reemburse us the costs of the machine and for all of the down time cost.

Overall

Strengths Huge machine, nice cab, controls, powerful.

Weaknesses Lots of factory defects and inspections clearly not made. Loose connections, bolts missing, AC hoses contacting exhaust, wiring harnesses not secured and dangling, machine 2 months old and finally starting issues resolved [now has 26 hours on it], factory support and feedback sorely lacking, wheel lugs falling off, hood not fiting and side panels bent to line up and on and on!

Overall Large machine but minimal quality control when built!