Believe it or not, today April 17, 2013 marks the forty-ninth anniversary of the number one selling pony car of all time going on sale. The Mustang went on sale that day back in 1964 and the automobile world would never be the same.
The brainchild of Lee Iacocca, the Mustang was the first American car designed for the youth market. The baby boomers were coming of age, they had elected a young man as president and now they wanted something cool to drive that didn’t look like the car their dad had in the driveway. Ford cleverly marketed the car which was a break through in styling and other areas, blitzing the prime time television market in the days leading up to the car going on sale, causing a sort of hysteria. We’ve seen all manner of reports of people camped out and sleeping in cars at the dealership so that they could be the first to own this new kind of car.
With a low base price of just over $2300, and a slew of options, the Mustang was the first car that the baby boom generation could afford, and they could option it to make it their own. There was a six-cylinder for the secretary who just wanted a stylish car to commute in, and roaring V8 for her brother who wanted to tear things up on the street and the track.
Through the years the car has gone through it’s ups and downs. It never matched the first year’s sales records, in fact no car has ever matched that record of 417,000 single model sales in one year, some car companies don’t sell that many cars across their entire line in one year.
The car has evolved from a small sporty car that many young people could afford to buy, to a bigger, heavier, more powerful car, unfortunately with a heftier price tag. This ironically puts the car still mostly within reach of baby boomers, but few young people.
Rumor has it that the next Mustang will be smaller and lighter, though we doubt much more affordable. With the fiftieth anniversary coming up next year, and a redesigned model also on the horizon, we’re all wondering what Ford will do with the fabled pony car next. Happy Birthday Mustang.
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