I just finished reading a small article on the new Hyundai Genesis which is considered a new pony car they are about to release. The article was to small to bother posting the link and you can easily find better sources to find out more information.
My point I wanted to make is this. When the original Mustang was released it filled a void in the auto industry with an affordable performance vehicle creating a new bread of cars we call the Pony Cars. With this new Hyundai packing 306 hp from a 6 cylinder at a more affordable price I am betting that it will change the automotive scene once again. Perhaps it will encourage Ford to get back to basics of being a more affordable sports car. I think thats were many of us feel let down with the so called "fair market value" over pricing and the likes of the Shelby, a vehicle that no way is considered afFORDable. If Ford were smart make the Mustang what it was to us all best bang for the buck and then bring back the GT40 or a real Cobra to fight off the Corvette's, Vipers, and such. Whats your opinions?
The Hyundai pony car needs a V-8 to succeed, IMO. We have seen the concept of a sports car with a strong V-6 time and again from Toyota, Nissan etc. and it has failed. If the car has a large bang-for-the-buck quotient like the Mustang GT then it will sell. Hyundai has come leaps and bounds from its early days and is now one of the best made car brands sold. The new Genesis shows me they can read the market here in the USA and provide an excellent car for a very good price. Look for that car to sell like hot cakes.
First, you are talking about the Genesis coupe, not the sedan as other posters have linked to. The coupe was originally rumored to have a V8 but the packaging won't work so it will be a six. Here's a Car & Drive link:
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Mustangs must always have V8's. The Probe thing settled that. If they pull the V8 from the Mustang they will lose the market they now monopolize and they will not attract any rice boys.
A Hyundai does not need a V8. The rice boys actually disdain V8's. An actual conversation I had with a couner monkey at the local Kragens: He and another monkey and another customer were talking about some damn Honda build and I merely stated the obvious, that it costs a lot of money to get power out of small fours and the same performance is a lot cheaper with a V8. Monkey #1 says, yes but you can get more from a Honda. "It's called pressurized induction," says he. I guess this guy never considered that you can also throw a blower on a V8 and the more all-motor hp you start with the more blown hp you'll end up with. I did not share this insight. It's a lost cause. Point being, these guys -- who are the target market for this new Hyundai -- have this incurable blind spot, that somehow big cubes are a bad thing.
Another ricer story: I'm down at my neighborhood horse track and the ricers are running an autocross in the parking lot. A guy comes over, mainly to tell me I'm parked in a bad spot. But he also mentions about a Civic 2-door that's going by on the course, that it's got an Acura engine and it's owned by a Honda tech and it's got 280 hp at the wheels. Well that's pretty impressive from a 2-liter, and one pulling less than 3000 lbs. But still, 280 rwhp is hot stuff? Yawn. Probably cost more than a 450 rwhp small block.
This new Hyundai will not make much of a splash. The WRX and the EVO are at the same performance level and while they're in the $30,000 range they still are selling nowhere near the levels of the original Mustang. A Hyundai for $5000 less will do no better. Ford sold 1.2 million Mustangs in the first two years of production, when the US had about one-half the population it has today. I did this calculation once and found that one of seven (or maybe it was one in 11) new cars sold in '65-'66 was a Mustang.
I would not advise Ford or anyone to stop producing a product (the GT500) that is selling for $5000 over MSRP, in favor of a small volume GT40 or Shelby Cobra sportscar. I wonder if Ford made money on the GT? Gussied up Mustangs, however, are a guaranteed money-maker. If your customers are buying a performance variant of a mass-produced model, at prices of two to four times the price of the base V6 model, why would you want to deny them that opportunity?
Car buyers are such babies today that you can't make money with a low price, low weight de-contented sports coupe. Everything must have a bank vault feel, no rattles, crashing sounds, or ride harshness, and
65 dbA road noise at 75 mph. So you either settle for low price and low weight and with a mild motor that doesn't require big weight to deliver the bank vault feel, or if you want the high torque high hp you've get the big weight and the big price tag. I have a '65 Mustang fastback and believe me no one would accept such a POS today.
Actually, the original Mustang was not really intended to be a performance vehicle. A large percentage of the early models were 6 cyl. And the parts came largely from other models, like the Falcon and Ranchero as I recall. Sporty? Yes. Performance? No.
So, if someone owns and original 6 cyl Mustang, with a bench seat, do we say it's not a Mustang? Not a Pony car?
Yeah. I own a '68 Ranchero 500. But nothing was based on or taken from the Ranchero. The Ranchero was based on the Fairlane (except for those few short sad years it was based on the Falcon and rendered basically useless as a truck). Nothing was taken from it to use in any other vehicle. It was a hybrid Fairlane with a truck bed slapped on the back of the unibody. In fact, the Ranchero 500 used Fairlane 500 door panels cut down to fit the shorter door. Ford didn't even bother to change the script from Fairlane to Ranchero.
Scott W. '68 Ranchero 500, 302 '69 Mustang Sportsroof, 400W
Ford's "official" name was Falcon Ranchero which leads me to believe that they saw it as a version of the Falcon, as was the Futura. According to the BIG Book of Mustangs on my coffee table, the gauges and other parts of the early Mustangs were borrowed from the Falcon line. My 65 Fastback, for example, which is an early fastback, has the Falcon wide speedometer and idiot lights. And many of the parts in the Falcon parts catalogs (dearborn classics, mac's etc) are the same parts as used to restore my Mustang. This changed in1967 when the body was enlarged to make way for the BB engines, which resulted in a redesign of the dash, etc. Although I may be wrong, which would be a first (LOL), this is my understanding of it.
K. I know I'm picking nits here, but I'm basing my position on the fact that for most of it's life, the Ranchero was based on the Fairlane/Torino ('57-'59,'67-'76) and not the Falcon ('60-'65). And that the Ranchero was entirely based on another vehicle. Even becoming based on the boat of a Thunderbird from '77-79 1/2 when it met it's demise. Everything used in it was borrowed from a different line. The Ranchero wasn't it's own line for anything to be borrowed from. So I guess we agree on the basics, but from different perspectives. My only point was that the Ranchero really had nothing to be borrowed from, since there was nothing original (parts wise) to BE borrowed, other than the trunk bed. :)
I'm probably only be contentious because I own a Ranchero. Ranchero owners, at least the ones I've met, are very defensive about their cars. Kinda like the guys who drive Edsels. The redheaded stepkids of Ford. lol
Scott W. '68 Ranchero 500, 302 '69 Mustang Sportsroof, 400W
I see what you're getting at. Since the Mustang arrived after the Falcon version of the Ranchero hit the scene, Mustang borrowed from the Ranchero, which had borrowed for prior lines. Lots of people are defensive about their rides. Like, even though they are Mustangs, to me, Mustangs were replaced by growing bigger until they became Torinos, or morphing into the Mustang II, and later, until the arriveal of the 05 styling. But that's me.... a guy who once owned a Morris Minor. :0)
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