Test Driving the First Mustang
Automotive History
•
3m 2s
It's an old auto industry cliche -- "you can't sell a young man an old man's car, but you can sell an old man a young man's car." It's also true. The sporty Mustang was a young man's -- and woman's -- car. The under-30 crowd loved it. But older people also bought them, often as a second car. The Mustang hit a sweet spot in the market, appealing to a wide range of buyers.
Within a year of the initial release, 418,812 Mustangs were sold. By the end of the model year, in the fall of 1965, almost 681,000 cars found their way into owners’ garages.
It was an unprecedented smash, and only the beginning of a five-decade run that shows no sign of stopping. What was the secret of the Mustang’s success? It was the right car at the right time. Lee Iacocca’s instincts on the baby boomers were dead on. Young people wanted a car that looked sporty, had a modest price, and could be accessorized to their individual tastes. General Motors, Chrysler and AMC had nothing to match it, giving Ford a lock on an untapped market.
Up Next in Automotive History
-
1918 Cadillac Type-57 World War 1 Sur...
Trekking through the battlefront’s rough terrain and even sustaining a bullet hole traced to the Second Battle of the Marne, the service record of the 1918 Cadillac Type 57 is a testament to Cadillac's lasting legacy and involvement in U.S. military wartime efforts. Learn about the history of thi...
-
Motorized Meals: Cooking with Car Eng...
Cars and food have always gone hand in hand, but instead of just eating on the road, what if you cooked there, too? Culinary-inclined drivers of the past concocted ways to cook using heat from an automobile’s engine. Our very own Curator of Transportation Matt Anderson and Chef Eric Schilbe test ...
-
1964 Lincoln Continental Limo Used by...
