Posted on 10/05/2004 9:41:38 AM PDT by yankeedame
Can the Pony Ride Again?
Jerry Flint,
10.18.04, 12:00 AM ET
Remember 1965? We had Vietnam and watts, free love, Vatican II, the Beatles, Joan Baez. And we had the Mustang. Back then cars were really important, and the Ford 1965 Mustang, introduced at the New York World's Fair in April 1964, created a wave of car excitement in America never seen before or since. The Mustang and its evangelist, Lee Iacocca, were on the covers of Time and Newsweek the same week.
Mustang made Iacocca the most famous executive in America. Later he was president of Ford and then savior of Chrysler, but above all, he was the Mustang man.
Mustang had a personality. It wasn't "longer, lower, wider," the Detroit mantra back then. It had no tail fins. It was no Grand Prix racer, and it couldn't carry six bags of fertilizer for the new lawn.
Iacocca had discovered a great secret. We wanted our cars to be fun. They didn't have to be perfect. They just had to be fun, and the Mustang brought fun back to the American street.
Ford sold 542,000 through the end of 1965. Only the big pickups sell more today. Other pony cars came and went: Chevy's Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, the Plymouth Barracuda and American Motors' Javelin, but nothing--from Detroit or Japan or Germany--ever caught Mustang.
Eventually Ford mucked it up. There were fat Mustangs and even ugly Mustangs. Once Ford executives tried to kill the pony, and an honest-to-God citizens' revolt forced them to keep it.
Now here comes a new Mustang, available mid-October. I was told that on the first day design chief J Mays gathered his staff, someone suggested a research effort to find out what to build. And Mays said something like, "No studies. If we don't know what a Mustang is, we should be working someplace else."
The new Mustang looks like a Mustang. It's got two terrific new engines, a six-cylinder with 210 horsepower and a V-8 with 300, and they both go like stink. The interior is lots better than the old one.
Problems? Well, I think the interior and the dash should have used more color, and the instruments are really hard to see in bright sunlight.
But the real threat to Mustang's future success is the conflict between the buyers and the builders. The Mustang is a "girl's car." Most Mustangs had six cylinders, and many buyers have been women. Why? Because it was a good-looking car for not much money, and young women had good taste and not much money. But the boys who built it wanted it hot, with bigger V-8s and more speed. They called the car the Boss, the Cobra, the Mach 1. More weight and cost chased away the customers who bought the car.
Could it happen again? Absolutely. The designers can't wait to turn up the power.
At least Iacocca knew he needed a low price--$2,368 was the base. The new 2005 Mustang starts at $19,410 for the V-6 coupe at 210hp (the '65 had 101). The V-8, with 300hp, starts at $25,000, and you can run it up to $30,000 with extras. These are reasonable base prices, too, but Ford has to be careful it doesn't fill the dealers' lots with option-laden models that cost too much and turn off potential customers. (That's what Chrysler did initially with its Pacifica.)
So how many will Ford sell? Not as many as in 1965, but more than the 140,000 sold last year. They are built in a factory just outside Dearborn, Mich. that also makes Mazdas. So figure 150,000 Mustangs can be built on two shifts with no overtime. Ford could probably sell 200,000 if it can build them.
The beginning paragraph of that Time magazine cover story 40 years ago told of Iacocca rolling through suburban Detroit in an unmarked preproduction model. But people knew what it was. The driver of a Volkswagen gave it the V-for-victory sign. The driver of a Chevy Impala pulled up and mouthed through closed windows, "Is that it?" The white car approached a school bus, the windows flew up, and the children inside chanted "Mustang! Mustang! Mustang!"
Well, this isn't 1964, and we don't get that excited about cars anymore. But this new one is a Mustang for sure, and it might just be the car that makes driving fun again. One more thing: This pony isn't German or Japanese. It's pure Detroit.
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Jerry Flint, a former Forbes Senior Editor, has covered the automobile industry since 1958. Visit his homepage at www.forbes.com/flint.
Hmmm, my 91 mustang lx, had over 360K miles on it and except for having the transmission rebuilt twice, never put a penny in it. It had the original, starter, alternator, fuel pump when i decided to rebuilt it in 2003.
Great pics. 8-) I wouldn't mind having one. They're sure classy looking.
Ford should introduce the new model in a commercial that re-enacts the chase scenes from Bullit.
I've run into people who swear by FORDs and I've run into people who, like myself, have had nothing but heartache and trouble from FORDs.
I've run into people who would only back their trucks and not their sedans.
Heard one guy say, "Whoever is designing and building their trucks needs to boot out the guys designing their cars and build 'em like their trucks."
My experience with FORD?
A repair every week, repair costing 500 or less.
Every two weeks, repair costing 500 and up.
Potty mouth! Troll! ZOT®!
My metallic maroon '65 is still prettier!
LOL! That looks like you can to me. 8-)
My brother had a 65 289/4 speed metallic blue. He lost it in his divorce.
Confession time, my family is not big time Ford owners, But, I am.
PE; love your Ford and your W
Shudder is right! My sister-in-law had an '86 with that body "style", and the red-hot 2.3L 4 cylinder (can you say Pinto?). She ended up having to donate the car because she couldn't sell it.
This looks like a pale imitation of the original. It's time to try something new.
Ford needs to compete with cars that will have this motor as well as the cars that sport the Chrysler 'Hemi'. If Ford doesn't plan to put the new engine from the new GT-40 tribute car into the new Mustang, the person who makes the decisions at Ford has a hole in their head.
Ford's existing small block is tired. They need to do something to make it 428 cubic inches and bring the 'CobraJet' marque back from the grave.
Might have been. Dad was a salvage rebuilder, and IIRC we got the car as a stripper with no title (used the sheetmetal on another car that had been parked at a rock quarry during a tornado - it got gravel-blasted). Door tag showed a mfg date in '68, but it could well have been a '69. He got the T-Bird with no engine, and couldn't find another 312 to put in it, so he used what he had laying around.
And actually most cars produced today don't excite me. But this new Mustang looks pretty darn cool.
I know what you mean. It's a sleek looking car. My last two vehicles have been Ford Explorers, because I live out in the country now, but if I moved back to the city again, I wouldn't mind having one of these or the new Corvette. THAT's a fine looking car too.
I've never had a lot of luck with Fords either. Oddly enough, my wife drive a Mazda Tribute which, other than a PTO for the 4WD, has the same engine and tranny as a Taurus, and it's been flawless.
I'm a Mustang fanatic (hence, my Internet name). I've had 4 total over the years starting with my first car a '65. Also had a 1971 MachI, and a '78 King Cobra. Currently a sweet 2001 GT Mustang V-8. Oh yea I did have a 1964 1/2 model pedal car when they first came out at the tender age of 5 years old (wish I still had that one also).
Live on mighty Mustangs!
Remeber the Mustang II? I friend of mine had one of those pieces of junk, in Orange. I think it took 2-3 minutes to get up to 60 MPH.
Well the 'Vette pretty much goes without saying. :-) Those are always fine looking cars. And actually that Cadillac CTS is kinda cool looking too. A little angular, but something different out of Cadillac. But both are sadly out of my price range.
I was hopeful that the new GTO might be nice, but it just does nothing for me.
Hey... Now I think that I have seen your vehicle traveling north on Central Expressway recently. It might have been a couple of weeks ago. Do you live in the DFW area?
Hope it's made well and fast and tight. The remake of the thunderbird was a major flop. I think they stopped production. Poor losers who bought one of those.
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