My thoughts on the 2026 ST

[Mr_Gru]

After the first 1000 miles, some thoughts I have. I'm going from a 2022 ST to this one. Same power and great looks. I like the new interior better. But I did have to have the door keyless touch pad added on since I used that all the time on my '22. There is no phone charger and I got a bin from Amazon to put in the console. Instrument cluster map option is cool. I didn't resub the Blue cruise since it's only good for interstates. Learning the info center is a major down grade. The way things are set up I've spent about 10 times as much learning time than the '22. If anyone knows how to click through the saved channels please let me know. I liked just hitting the steering wheel button to go through my favorites. In the included pics is one example of the stupid way they did things. Just finding the HVAC adjustments in the hidden tab was a joy.




Love the massage seats and the fading high beam transition is cool. You can't pick a different digital assistant like it shows on page 470 of the manual. Only choice is Google so I disabled that. And there is no remote start feedback on the remote anymore. There was a green light to show your vehicle started. Now you just have to hope it did. And yes I have the Ford app to start it but that takes too long.

Anyway. Carry on.

 

[Mashdem]

I went from a 22 to 26 ST as well, over all it looks and feels great except a few things:

• No rear camera cleaning.. I don't understand why they wouldn't have added that considering the rear wiper fluid line is not too far..
• Already miss being able to open the sun roof
• The stock rims look terrible in my opinion
• I miss the physical buttons for climate control, I think it's gonna take me a while to get used to as well

Bluecruise is pretty cool for the few times I tried it, also, love the suspension, it does feel like an upgrade from the 22

 

[2020FordRaptor]

I went from a 22 to 26 ST as well, over all it looks and feels great except a few things:

• No rear camera cleaning.. I don't understand why they wouldn't have added that considering the rear wiper fluid line is not too far..
• Already miss being able to open the sun roof
• The stock rims look terrible in my opinion
• I miss the physical buttons for climate control, I think it's gonna take me a while to get used to as well

Bluecruise is pretty cool for the few times I tried it, also, love the suspension, it does feel like an upgrade from the 22

Suspension is exact same as the 22s.

 

[Cdubya]

I absolutely love my 2026 ST coming from the full-featured 2020 ST. A lot of those deleted features I really don't miss or can live without. I never used the active parking. I don't miss the camera sprays or the heated wiper rests. The foot-activated liftgate I miss but I've learned to live without. Same with the power telescoping steering wheel since I'm the driver 99.5% of the time.

My 2026 does not have the Sun&Sound pkg by choice. I never used the sunroof or even open the cover. The non-massaging seats are more comfortable than the massaging seats. And the loss of the 3" mid in the doors doesn't mean anything to me. The new interior materials, layout and infotainment are excellent. The old 10.1" fullscreen mod was a gamechanger but the new landscape screen is for the better. The wireless carplay has incredibly fast activation and it is rock solid, unlike Carplay dongles.

Unlike others, I think the 2025+ ST's look slightly better than the 2020-2024--but to each their own. I went with Eibach springs this time with PIU struts/shocks, instead of Steeda and have nothing but good things to say. Anecdotally, the brand new PIU shocks did feel firmer than the slightly broken in stock ST set with 100 miles--this is me just compressing and retracting the pistons by hand. For upgraders from 2020-2024, most know about the switch in TPMS frequencies so I had to get and install 433MHz sensors. So far, with 2026, there are none of the TSBs/recalls like there are with 2025.

TLDR: I am pretty happy with my 2026 ST... and I didn't even get in on the $6-10k off MSRP that people are reporting! That would be a no-brainer!