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.
I hear you there. I bought a Dodge Ram 4x4 for my winter driving needs for that reason exactly.
Another one of those cars I should NEVER have sold.
Did see a new Holden Monaro/GTO a few weeks ago. A travesty...overpriced and ZERO appeal.
I quit counting how many times I got stopped driving that old T-Bird (16-17 year old kid driving around in a classic Thunderbird with dealer plates, go figure).
You'd think GM would've spent a little more time and attention on the new GTO. A two-seater, lower priced version of a Corvette, perhaps.
Someone I know shoehorned a 429 out of a T-Bird into a '68. I never saw it run but I can imagine the work that must have been involved. Should have gone like a rocket too. I drove a '69 T-Bird with that motor and it went like stink.
That's alright. I don't mind hearing people say that they like their Mustangs. It's job security for me!
Used to drive around in a friend's chopped Hudson Hornet...Big old bomb in flat black. Nicknamed it "The Cop Magnet". He Really wanted it known as "The Tank" but it just didn't stick. Only "bad" girls would ride in that thing.
Sure do.
I think they should have done more with the hood. It seems real plain.
I cannot wait for this vehicle to arrive in showrooms. 300 hp for 25K and the ability to soup it up with readily available aftermarket parts. This will be my mid-life crisis car. There are awesome pics at www.stangnet.com
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1999 Ford MUSTANG (See Photo)
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
JP
You mean you will take the car over 10 Mustangs and day???
if you can afford such a car sure.
but most of us probably cant afford a Ferrari probably can afford a Mustang.
That was one of the biggest selling points of the pony car in the first place. It was and still is the common mans chance to drive a performance machine and not break the bank.
now if you were talking a new WRX vs the Mustang I might agree those things are a hell of a bang for the buck.
That baby is sweet!
Well, I can't afford a Ferrari just yet, but that's one of my goals :o) And while I can afford a Ford, I've only had bad experiences with their product in the past, thus I currently favor my Toyota 4Runner.
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