Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is a sports car and performance car by Ford. The Ford Mustang inspired the term “pony car”, meaning a personal luxury car akin to a fast racehorse and show animal.

History

The Ford Mustang is the longest manufactured “muscle” car in the US. The Ford Mustang was first produced in 1964 and rolled out at the New York World’s Fair. The Ford Mustang then ran as the pace car in the 1964 Indianapolis 500 race.
Over 100,000 Ford Mustangs sold in the first year; over a million had sold within two years. The Ford Mustang won the Showman Stock national championship in 1975. The “Fox” platform for the Mustang came out in 1979 and remained in production until 1993.
The tenth generation of the Ford Mustang car ended production in 2014. There was a 50th edition version of the Ford Mustang built in 2014; only 1,964 of these cars were made. The eleventh generation started in 2015, though only 137 were made to honor the 1965 Shelby GT 350 car. From 2008 to 2014, sales hovered below the 100,000 mark. The 2016 Ford Mustang model will be a full production run. That is also the first model to be sold internationally.

Design

The Ford Mustang has been sold in convertible and fastback 2+2 forms. The 2010s Ford Mustangs have V6 and V8 engines available. In 2015, a 2.3 liter EcoBoost engine was added to the available engines for the vehicle. The EcoBoost engine produces 310 horsepower and 320 pound feet of torque.
The basic trim line does not have a specific name. That version comes with a 3.7 liter V6 300 horsepower engine. The GT trim level comes with more features. That trim line has a 420 horsepower 5 liter V8 engine up to the 2015 model year. The GT package also comes with keyless ignition, the MyFord infotainment system without extra charge and a blind spot warning system.
A six speed manual transmission is the standard, though an automatic transmission is available.

Performance

The Ford Mustang gets 17 miles per gallon in the city and 28 miles per gallon on the highway.
The 2015 version of the Ford Mustang earned a five star rating from the NHTSA for most crash tests.

Price

The 2015 Ford Mustang started at around $29,000 for the base model. With all the features, the price rises to around $40,000. The 2016 Ford Mustang new was around $50,000.

Rivals

The major rival to the Ford Mustang is the Chevy Camaro. The Ford Mustang has competed over the years with the Pontiac Firebird, Mercury Cougar, American Motors Javelin, Dodge Challenger, GM Corvair, Ford Capri, Toyota Celica, and a few others. Many of its rivals were cancelled after the 1973 oil crisis made them too expensive to drive. The Camaro and Firebird remained in production until 2002. The Camaro was reintroduced in 2010, and the Challenger was brought back in 2008.
Modern rivals for the Ford Mustang include the Mazda MX-5, Miata, and Volkswagen GTI.

Trivia

In 2008, a Mustang Bullitt was released. That is in part a homage to the Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt” that came out in 1968.
The Ford Mustang has been turned into a race car for many different teams. The Mustang Cobra R was a race ready 385 horsepower coupe. The Cobra also had an independent rear suspension. The Mustang was brought into the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2010.