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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ford Motor Company Photo
Your Halo Car is selling real well, it ranges in price from very affordable to outrageous. But it sells to a cross section of buyers from the youngest to the oldest and it is selling. So what do you do? Abandon the plan and start with a completely new design! According to the Wall Street Journal this is the direction Ford is taking the Mustang. Could this be 1974 all over again? For those that were too young to remember or those who are the at age of forgetfulness, Ford did a complete redesign of the, by then bloated 1973 Mustang. The first fuel crisis was in full swing and Ford execs decided to make the Pinto into the new Mustang II. It was a very painful 4 years and the car did not sell well.
This great looking car made its debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show last year. The thought is to attract the tuner class of younger customer and go head to head against the imports. All fine and good but just branding a car a Mustang does not make it so. I think they under estimate the draw to the younger set of the Mustang brand as it stands. The older customers are the ones that are buying the $40,000 plus Shelby and Roush special edition cars. It is the 20 somethings that are signing for the notes on the equally stylish $22,000 V6 powered cars. Although they do not posses the gravity bending horsepower of the Mustang Boutique cars, the 300 horsepower and relative light weight equate to fantastic performance and great fuel millage of 30 MPG on the highway. The younger set is willing to pay a slight penalty for the uniquely iconic Mustang look, it is just so right. It also has to be a rear drive car. All you have to do is to look at the Super Coupes from Toyota, Hyundai, and Subaru, they are making turbo powered smaller copies of the Mustang and in my opinion the Mustang as it is does not need to make any apologies, or be redesigned to look like the imports. If you agree send me a note and I will forward it to Ford.