Mustang's Future

And mine!

I've said all along, the Mustang should be 8- or 9-tenths the size of the S197 in order to meet "sports car" specs, my view.

It will screw up the drag racing community though.

they could save some length by giving-up the charade of a back seat: just went out and measured my convert: about 33 inches between top well and front seats.......3 1/2 inches between back seat and front seat back. I seldom transport double amputees.

No back seat would be a deal killer for a lot of people. I hardly ever use mine but if I take people to lunch it's needed for that 15 minutes. Yes it's like packing sardines but it's only 15 minutes.

That vestigial back seat is perfect for small children and packages. Take it out, and I think you'd lose up to half of the potential European buyers. As much as I've always wanted the Mustang to become Ford's Corvette, it has always been and should continue to be a 4-seater.

Besides, "slightly smaller" doesn't imply cutting 33" from the length of the car. You can have a smaller dimension and still INcrease interior space.

Can't wait to see what Ford's thinking is for the 2014.

dwight (The all-new 1994 Mustang is the reason that I now own a pair of '93s. Perhaps the 2014 will have me buying a 2013 leftover.)

at least the convert back seat should fold down to form a luggage/parcel shelf since there's little room in the trunk.

I had an 88 and now a 99. The 99 has way more power but the 88 was way more "tossable" buzzing around places.

They would certainly lose a lot of the bread and butter sales of the V6s that are bought by/for teens and young adults. That was proven by the "EXP" or the Escort Experiment.

Ok, you're going to have to explain that better. Tossable???

Easy to make a quick turn, turned on a dime, esp in regard to lower street speeds as opposed to on a race track. The 88 would place it's nose anywhere you aimed it without any protest. The 99 has a lot more initial low speed understeer and feels like it really doesn't like being "tossed" into a turn onto an on-ramp (for example). The 88 felt like it lived for such things. The 88 also seemed to have a much faster initial steering ratio then the 99, on the 99 it feels like you have to saw at the wheel to make a sharp turn. My 69 Firebird puts them both to shame, it barely takes a flick of the wrist to aim it into a turn the steering is so fast.

TFrog is like that. The LX hatch just seems to know where I'm going to steer it before I do. Steering is very light and nimble. By comparison, CFrog is a pig. The GT convertible seems much heavier, drives more like a big car than a Mustang.

Same car, different trim. And (back on topic), the convertible's back seat is a joke. Kind of like the trunk...

dwight

Mustangs future (and by Mustang I am talking rear wheel drive two door "sporty" car) hinges entirely on it's profitability... I don't see this as being any kind of surprise.

Now.... whether someone with a different idea takes over the management of the product and changes the car into something less desireable in the general sense of the car - who knows what could happen... With the current level of corporate ability, I can see an Ecoboost powered all wheel drive Mustang (fwiw, the AWD offerings are all front wheel drive with some power sent to the back wheels kinda cars). Traditionalists would likely avoid this car in droves...

I nearly bought an 03 convertible back in 04. I thought they looked pretty good... I held off and we (at the Ford store I work at) got an 05 V6 convertible in. Two things... it made the 03 look fugly... and it's a grocery getter for my loving bride.. She don't need no steenking gas pig... And the V6 has enough snort to please most of us.

As for hauling extra folks around... I have a SuperCrew for that. Lotsa leg room and I can pull my travel trailer or haul my scooter (haul my scooter? muck fe... I can just ride it, I guess).

If you have a Mustang and the back seat is too small... might I suggest a Taurus or a Flex or an Edge? Don't try and change my Mustang.... It is everything I want or need it to be...

"NoOp" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@z11g2000yqz.googlegroups.com... Interesting news...

Here's a thought. I know it won't/wouldn't get past the purist, but imagine Ford doing to the Mustang like years ago ('68-'70) AMC did to the Javelin and AMX. Take the Mustang, hack out some inches from the center and remove the two rear seats. Call the resulting scaled down,

2-seat model, the Ford Motor Experimental, or FMX. (The traditional longer wheel base 4-seater would remain the Mustang.)

Patrick

Well.... instead of turning a Javelin into an AMX.... it could turn it into a Gremlin...

Or a Pacer.

Here's a thought. I know it won't/wouldn't get past the purist, but imagine Ford doing to the Mustang like years ago ('68-'70) AMC did to the Javelin and AMX. Take the Mustang, hack out some inches from the center and remove the two rear seats. Call the resulting scaled down,

2-seat model, the Ford Motor Experimental, or FMX. (The traditional longer wheel base 4-seater would remain the Mustang.)

Patrick

Was the AMX a good seller?

My money-making Mustang is the one with the Vega-like Kammback. Two-door station wagons are my kind of vehicles. I even offered my previous S197 V6 convertible as basis for a professional to build one on.

From my point of view, the only thing wrong with the 1971 Vega Kammback was its dearth of power. Nice little platform. Pumped up to

85 or 90% of the S197 size with 100% of the new 5.0 power? We have a winner, folks.

On Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:26:59 -0800, Frank ess rearranged some electrons to say:

Yes, I'm sure they'll sell a lot of those.

Ford has toyed with making mustang wagons a number of times.

Here's something I hadn't seen before:

Redoing old cars that were failures is crazy and 180 out, turn to the future and build M3s......That look like Mustangs of coarse! And affordable too.

I see.... :oP